An older barrister bookcase in good condition. I prefer these to most other types of bookcases.

Vintage metal signs sell for unusually high prices. Add 25% if it’s from Europe.

Styles from the late 18th to 19th century are easy to find here. Not quite what I’m looking for though.

A great looking lamp, though the shade needs to be replaced (and likely the wiring). I might return for this later.

Leather wingback chairs are uncommon, and are often bought up quickly.

There is an antique farm table in just about every other vendor stall. They make for great restoration projects if you have the place to put one.

Linens and such. There are a few vendors selling items like this, along with specialty lighting and hardware fixtures.

A great midcentury marble top table for an excellent price.

Bertoia wire chairs are also easy to find. I think people tire of them quickly and unload entire sets at once.

An art deco style cane that caught my eye. One of the many trinkets available.

Spotted a small set of stereographs.

A charming school house style bookcase/locker. More suitable for a house over an apartment though.

Redwing crockery? There was a very large set of these.

The seller wanted $600 for a pair of these military wool blankets. I laughed.

Stone lions.

I’m going to steal this framed chalkboard idea.

This was once used to haul ice around after it was cut into huge blocks. It would make a good centerpiece over a mantle or long table.

This metal game table hidden under an antique spool cabinet has some potential if restored.

Idea for some reupholster projects.

Trunks of all types are common, including this military footlocker.

Taxidermy specimens dot the stalls, though quality can range from great to horrible.

One such horrible specimen. The poor thing should have been thrown in the incinerator long ago.

A cabinet system in a style that I’m looking for.

An overpriced school science table, complete with scratched out graffiti from bored students. It brings back memories.

Army field cabinets, reasonably priced.

Industrial style pieces command high prices, and are few in between. This style is popular with the designers and dealers right now.

More furniture shopping to be continued…

The giant popsicle will make you smile every time and is one of the few nice things to see in Belltown. Some background reading on the sculpture (it showed up early this summer, and at first nobody knew who made it until recently).

Look for it at the intersection of 4th and Blanchard.

I stopped by last week to check it out and I was impressed by the quality of what it sells as well as the background story behind each piece (the employees are very knowledgeable, and I’m sure it helps to be a sports nerd here). Despite an unassuming storefront and a location that would be easy to miss unless you walked right by it, a small but steady stream of customers were coming in and out during my visit, including many fathers out with their sons.

Some shots from the store – a selection of its famous wool flannel baseball jerseys:

A ground crew jacket.

Shirts and other jackets.

The lacing design on this hockey jersey is one my favorite details (they could also be found on some older football and rugby jerseys).

A cap for the Bustin’ Babes.

An early pillbox style cap for the Mudville Nine.

Besides the company’s own store and website, Ebbets Field made caps are now sold at a number of places: J.Crew, Imogene + Willie, Superdenim, and Inventory.

Sidenote: Baseball history enthusiasts might also like the well written Flannel of the Month blog, by Jerry Cohen (founder of Ebbets Field Flannels).

Neckwear accessories.

In the back there is now a sales section full of marked down pieces from RRL and other past season leftovers (in particular, a great Nom de Guerre shetland vest in a size large).

Baby chickens.

Miscellaneous goodies.

Pike Place Market… still under construction for earthquake-proofing the buildings.

Rhubarb for a strawberry compote – around this time of the year I always keep some prepared for use with breakfast and desserts. It’s still a bit early in the season for the local producers to start harvesting it, so any rhubarb you find now is likely from South America.

Prosciutto and wines at DeLaurenti.

A stop into Fran’s for some caramels and Easter chocolates.

‘

Julenek at Blackbird.

The Field House. I need to go back for a few of the stellen ornaments.

My favorite holiday display of the season is from a store projecting old Christmas movies onto some empty space they had.

Made by a local food truck crew, bacon jam is a delicious concoction of meat and is also a great conversation starter. What is it, exactly?

we take a big bunch of really really good bacon, and render it down…add a bunch of spices..onions, etc..and let it simmer for about 6 hours…give it a quick puree, blast chill it…and you have bacon jam…

New jars are now labeled as “bacon spread” – it turns out that in order for these guys to sell it in stores, they cannot use the word “jam” to describe it (by law and in the eyes of the FDA, jam is very specific). Read more about bacon jam in T-Magazine.

“The 1950 P-I caption read: Stan Sayres’ Slo Mo Shun IV was put in to water Monday after a thorough going-over. In this photo, Anchor Jensen sits at the controls while Sayres looks on during motor tuneups at Jensen plant, Portage Bay.”

“Seafair Pirates burn two of King Neptune’s boats, a 136 former Navy ship and a 100-foot fishing tug to mark the end of the 1953 festival.”

“Sailors aboard the USS New Jersey at Pier 66, Seafair 1989.”

Related post: The Hydroplane Boats of Seafair

After about spending an hour in the store trying on and comparing panamas, I picked out one – a Stetson. (next post)

Panama hats in the front display window.

Straw cowboy hats. All of the walls are covered in wooden display cases that are as old as the store itself.

More panamas in the middle. They have a good assortment here in all price ranges (from $50 up to $450 or so for the finer ones).

There are so many hats in here that it can be difficult to move around in the store if there are too many people.

Stetson should really consider bringing back some of their old advertisements and posters for marketing.

Never steal a Stetson.

The staff is always very friendly and helpful – stop by if you ever happen to be in the area.

Byrnie Utz Hats
310 Union St
Seattle WA 98101
(206)623-0233

(picture taken early this morning)

Address: 1521 10th Avenue, between Pike and Pine. Everyday Music is right next door.

The new spot was once the location of the original Ford truck service center for Seattle.

An older helmet bag.

Some random European ones.

An old fashioned ALICE pack and frame, the type that everyone loves to hate after they’ve had to carry one fully loaded.

An ammo/protective vest.

Forgot what this first one was.

This one was made from some cheap fake leather.

Some ammo cases from different military groups.

Rucksacks. The second one is rubberized.

A map case. I believe this or something similar was the basis for Billykirk’s shoulder satchel.

A view of the rinks inside the Granite Curling Club in Seattle, the only dedicated curling club on the entire west coast.

Reading up on it later, it turns out that the game originated in medieval Scotland (and here I thought that the Canadians came up with it). From wikipedia again:

Curling is thought to have been invented in late medieval Scotland, with the first written reference to a contest using stones on ice coming from the records of Paisley Abbey, Renfrewshire, in February 1541. Two paintings (both dated 1565) by Pieter Bruegel the Elder depict Dutch peasants curling—Scotland and the Low Countries had strong trading and cultural links during this period, which is also evident in the history of golf.

Evidence that curling existed in Scotland in the early 16th century includes a curling stone inscribed with the date 1511 (uncovered along with another bearing the date 1551) when an old pond was drained at Dunblane, Scotland. Kilsyth Curling Club claims to be the first club in the world, having been formally constituted in 1716; it is still in existence today. Kilsyth also claims the oldest purpose-built curling pond in the world at Colzium, in the form of a low dam creating a shallow pool some 100 × 250 metres in size, though this is now very seldom in condition for curling because of warmer winters.

“A curling match at Eglinton Castle, Ayrshire, Scotland in 1860. The Curling House is located to the left of the picture.”

Illustrations from History of Curling, written in 1890.

Men playing on a rink in St. Moritz, Switzerland. 1947. From LIFE.

Players in Detroit, 1949. It’s too bad that the Olympic players of today do not dress up like this for their own matches.

While it’s fun to hate on the sport, you should definitely try it out if you ever get the opportunity (how often do you get to play medieval sports anyways?). If you’re in the Seattle area, the Granite Curling Club has ongoing open leagues and classes that are available.

More info:
Granite Curling Club
1440 North 128th Street
Seattle, WA 98133-7621
(206) 362-2446

In 1977 SAM presented Seattle’s first American film noir series. This spring, in our town’s premiere British film noir voyage, we visit the “Empire of Night,” where thrilling tales of love and betrayal, greed and obsession swirl in the midnight fog.

And at the Seattle Asian Art Museum, there will be a showing of some very important pieces of woodblock prints from Japan. More info.

This exhibition brings together prints from the most renowned ukiyo-e artists of the 18th and 19th centuries—including Harunobu, Utamaro, Eishi and Hiroshige—along with Hokusai’s most beloved prints, Great Wave off Kanagawa and Red Fuji. These Japanese woodblock prints demonstrate an evocative play between delicate ink lines and rich blocks of color in portraits of beautiful women and kabuki actors, jewel-like landscapes of famous places, and more. Drawn from the Mary and Allan Kollar Collection, a promised gift to the Seattle Art Museum on the occasion of its 75th Anniversary, this installation introduces the region to a remarkable collection of prints, all taken from early impressions and in excellent condition.

Taken in 1979, it supposedly shows the first espresso cart in the U.S.

Photo by Joshua Trujillo for the Seattle PI.

University of Washington, 1921. Images from the UW digital collections.

A warp dresser was the job of someone who’s duties were to prepare and manage the worsted threads for weaving.

It was the kind of plane that seemed to fit the swinging go-go days with martini-swigging travelers lingering around a bar.

First-class passengers dressed in their Sunday best made their way up a spiral staircase to get to the “flying penthouse,” harking memories of private rail cars.

It seemed the epitome of plushness when it made its first commercial flight 40 years ago today. A Times reporter described the cabin as a “luxurious auditorium some genie had wafted aloft.”

Boeing Co.’s 747 was not only the biggest plane that anyone had ever seen before — it was nearly three times larger than the largest jet flying at the time — it transformed travel in a way that few have.

Continue reading more.

Pictures like these just seem like staged press photos nowadays, but during the golden age of commercial flying people really did get dressed up.

And here’s another photo of the 747 being rolled out a hangar in Everett, WA.

More info on SAM’s website.

Sailor pins literary hopes on sexy women of maritime

A few years back, Kim Carver was working on commercial ships and looking for a way to finance the publication of her fledgling maritime magazine.

Though she worked in the traditionally male-dominated maritime industry, the Northwest native realized she was routinely crewing alongside women who were not just strong and accomplished, but downright sexy.

Taking a cue from the countless steamy calendars of firefighters, cheerleaders and other objects of desire, Carver rounded up some of her female friends working in the maritime industry around Seattle and photographed them in various stages of undress, on ships and in other locations.

And soon, the Sexy Women of Maritime Calendar was born.

That beautiful watch? It’s best left ashore

The next day, when I was able to keep it down, I ate breakfast with extra toast and coffee. Joe sat across from me, slowly sipping from his cup, his grey eyes boring holes into me, “Mate,” he said, “expensive jewelry is best kept in a drawer or on a cup hook. It doesn’t belong on a working vessel.” I slowly nodded my head – a lesson finally learned.

Today when I come aboard I remove the one good watch I own (a gift from my beautiful wife) and reach into the mahogany box. In there are three or four old, slightly beat-up Timex watches; none of them cost me more than $16.00. As long as the battery is good they keep excellent time (actually much better than I remember the Rolex ever did) and if lost due to my fumbling, there’s another close at hand.