Friday, May 25, 2012

Friday's Favorite Flea Market Find!


Happy Friday!!  I have such a hard time picking out my favorite things from flea markets.  I do LOVE everything!  Today I decided to go with these cute little bottles I found at the Kane County Flea Market.


There is a vendor at the Kane County Flea Market that sells bottles.  Just bottles!  Hundreds and hundreds of bottles! He knows the history of almost every bottle.  I love that!  The blue bottle on the left is a Mrs. Stewart's Bluing Bottle. This one is so cool! Mrs's Stewarts was added to laundry to make the white clothes whiter. I read the history of Mrs's Stewart and it is actually really interesting. Really!  This bottle was from the early 1900's and was hand blown. 

Here just a small amount of history I found on Mrs's Stewarts web page.......

The History of the Bluing Process


Before the automatic washer arrived, the process for bluing white fabric in the home consisted of soaking or washing the clothing in hot soapy water, usually in a large kettle over a stove or in a wash tub, then rinsing the clothing thoroughly in another kettle-often two times. Finally, a "bluing" kettle was prepared in which the clothing was simply dipped in briefly and removed, then hung to dry.
Today, bluing can be used in the wash cycle or the final rinse cycle to restore fabric to the "whitest white"!






The clear glass bottles are milk bottles.  Golden Guernsey.  The vendor said they were found in the basement of an old school in Chicago.  How neat that little kids years and years ago drank milk from these!!





I love these little bottles.  They look abit Anthropologie-ish to me!  I paid $3.00 for the milk bottles and $5.00 for the blue bottle.  Not bad for some beautiful history!  :)

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