A Scandinavian Sojourn

For a variety of favourable logistical reasons, we found ourselves on a flight to Gothenburg the other week, heading for a week of treasure-hunting.

The best time for hunting of course is summer, with the long days and plenty of barn sales (or 'loppis', as the Swedes refer to them) open for business.

From our base near Stenungsund, on the beautiful Bohuslän coast of Sweden, and despite it being the wrong end of summer (i.e. autumn!), we managed to plot a packed agenda of treasure-hunting. We revisited some of our favourite haunts, and found some fantastic new ones.

A rather picturesque lunch stop

The beautiful Bohuslän countryside

An industrial storeroom in Munkedal

The treasure that got away - not one for us!

A Swedish still-life study

Roaming the countryside definitely provided good hunting ground for treasure, but inspiration in the form of colours, design and graphics, also came in from a bit of sightseeing - both in Gothenburg and indeed the local supermarket...

Haga district, Gothenburg

He's SUCH a delightful object! (and sadly NOT for sale)

A bit of 'shabby chic', Gothenburg-style

'Fika' (coffee break) joint in Haga district, Gothenburg

Beautiful architecture in Gothenburg

Celebrating Scandi-cake style

One of many hundreds of 'pick 'n mix' offerings at the local supermarket

Those Swedes love their sweets

Vintage-style graphics

Some beautiful graphics on crispbread packaging

Within the space of five days, we accumulated chandeliers, desks, industrial side tables, rustic dining chairs, filing cabinets, vintage globes, dress mannequins, wooden children's toys, industrial anglepoise desklamps and a variety of vintage hooks and hat-racks.

Frenzied packing and organizing ensued - some of the items are already at LASSCO Ropewalk for sale (a vintage Scandinavian globe, a retro Danish chair), others are being prepared for sale at our Cornish workshop, and some of the larger items will be making their appearance on the shop floor next year.

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Globes, globes, globes (and a rather beautiful tambour-front cabinet)

At our logistics, um, depot/HQ

A giant abacus

A child's rocking horse

Deck the Halls... with Delightful Objects

The search for the perfect Christmas gift is on, and so we've got a Bumper Blog of goodies to tempt you.

find out more about these delightful objects

This old hotel laundry basket makes a great place to stash your Christmas goodies. After Christmas, give it a new lease of life as a splendid log basket or blanket box for the end of the bed.

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Desktop adornment is a great way to amuse and distract the desk-bound worker in your life. We've had quite a few of these mini tin-plate globes in stock in the past, and have got a good selection of mini-globes and larger, more impressive specimens in stock now.

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Christmas is, of course, for the children. As everyone knows, the kids are usually just as happy with the boxes the gifts arrive in, so let them amuse themselves with those whilst you admire these rather lovely, traditionally-made wooden toys.

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We have plenty more Delightful Objects for sale - happy foraging!

P.S. Our festive banner at the top of this blog is taken from a stash of vintage wrapping paper that we saved from a dedicated recycler! We'll be featuring a few more in our next blog - watch out for Santa delivering presents in his helicopter, his vintage car, and of course the traditional rocket/spaceship...

Loppis loving

As promised, some beauties from our recent hunting adventures in the west coast of Sweden.

In a previous visit, we came back with some of these handy wall racks.

They proved very popular with the punters, and so we came back with a few more of various sizes. Styled on the old fashioned luggage racks, they offer great versatility for storage in the home.

Following on from our last blog, we have some more funky lighting to add to the collection. This chunky, moulded-glass ceiling light reminded us of an electrical insulator, (we do love that 'Metropolis' look!). When lit, the radiating glass 'fins' produce some beautiful lighting effects.

Not content with our lovely steel desk lamps, as seen on our last blog, we've managed to dig out some more lighting in the shape of this funky 1950's Philips bakelite and steel lamp. We are currently having it rewired with a black braided silk flex.


And for lighting that's also educational, how about this Scandinavian desk globe? It's like Google Maps without relying on having an internet connection! Oh yes. Set on an aluminium and oak base, we think it's a particularly lovely one. Currently being rewired, it'll be available for sale very, very soon.

We still have a Swedish-based stash of items at the Ödsmål branch of Scandinavian Storage Solutions. Watch this space!!

Hej då!

P. S. Next time we'll take the car...

Maps Matter

Let us take you on a journey, to a time when Sat Nav was a mere twinkle in the travelling salesman’s eye...

Look! Proper Maps!

We’ve just had a stack of these beautiful litho-printed late 19th century maps mounted, framed and ready for sale to the discerning punter!

Europe, North and South America, Africa, India, Australia, Asia - we’re bound to have one to suit that awkward spot in the living room, or one that would be perfect for that wedding present you must get around to thinking about…

Contact us to see if we’ve got your part of the world available.

Or maybe you’re thinking bigger, more, dare I say, global…

It took a while for the Western World to work out that the Earth was spherical, but blimey when they finally got there they produced some pretty lovely ways of showing people.

We’ve got a great range of globes dating from the 1930s-1960s available, including this rather splendid 1960s American one.

These maps and globes are fascinating artefacts of their time, each one a little slice of history, showing political borders and placenames as they once were. A fascinating perusal, friends…

For more Geographical Gems, take a look at our Facebook album 'Maps Galore' http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=15510&id=112268162134592&l=6b1af2c1c3