flea market

Yesterday I visited a flea market nearby that I have been longing to visit for a long time. The market is organised every couple of months in a former bread baking factory in a town called Rijswijk. Now, I always had the idea this market would be filled with unique finds and vintage treasures that I am looking for. I woke up early yesterday morning to be there on time and my heart was racing from excitement. I actually returned about 2 hrs later having bought nothing. The market was so disappointing. Later I saw it was being advertised as the biggest bargain market ever. That should have warned me. But, no, I had this romantic image. It was full of stalls with businesspeople mostly selling cheap clothes and shoes. And people pushing each other out of the way to find the cheapest deals. Certainly not the most charming kind of people. Some of the stalls had indeed vintage glassware, china etc but not very interesting - not what I was looking for: utility china. And these semi-professional sellers knew exactly what there were selling. For example, they asked an absurd price for a Royal Albert Lady Hamilton cup and saucer. No surprise finds there. So, the positive thing for me was that at least I got this market out of my system and I cherish my trips to the local thrift shops and virtual trips to Ebay even more!
When I returned home I was so happy to be back in my own neighbourhood with its lovely little shops.
Part of my afternoon was spent on cleaning and photographing my earlier finds and my collection until now. I have joined the Flickr-group "Utility China" and posted some of my pictures there. More will follow! I also found the lovely website Kathryn's Curious Life by a fellow utility china collector/vintage hunter in the UK. Love to read about her finds and see the pictures! It has inspired me to share more of my finds as well. Since I have a week off, I hope to be able to spend some time visiting my local thrift shops! For now, I will share some more pics of my collection, which consists mostly of Greydawn because that's what I started collecting because I love that so much!

five o-so-cute little egg cups

sunday morning coffee & breakfast