I love cheesecake art!

Zander decided to sit this article out. Since I’m a straight woman, some may find it a bit odd that I embrace cheesecake art in all its kitschy glory, but I do. When buying stock for Unusual Offerings, Zander knows it’s a toss-up as to whether these naughty treasures from yesteryear will wind up sitting on long tables at Elephant’s Trunk Flea Market or decorating our home in unexpected places.

We sell at flea markets, because we enjoy meeting the people who buy what we find. I’ve rarely felt such acute pangs of regret as when we sold both of our Frenchys! They only made it to one event before selling: the first to a hipster who found it a bit difficult to explain why he loved it but took minutes deciding which of the two he liked better, and the second to a gal who laughed and bought it for her architect friend.

A New Concept in Curves … Frenchy

Draftsmen, Engineers, Writers of specs,

Artists, Designers, Architects,

Men of distinction, Printers too

All draw on Frenchy to make their curves true.

Whether the angle’s acute,

Or the slope is so great

That you need a directional change

You will find if you want

On the back or the front

Of Frenchy’s beautiful frame.

(Did you notice that this tool is meant for Men of distinction?)

Finding multiple copies of a single piece of ephemera rarely happens. It’s even more unusual to find posters on uncoated paper on which the colors haven’t faded with time. We lucked out on both counts with these delightful WET PAINT signs. Keystone Gal only made it to a couple Sundays before selling out. I wish I’d saved one!

Our leggy dolls in the Meyercord decals are trapped forever in its 10-cent packaging, pressed behind glass. They remind me of a working man’s Betty Grable: flirting and frozen in time, waiting to be applied to a toolbox.

I’m not sure how my father-in-law would have felt to find his nude bubble girl protecting my hair ornaments instead of his nuts and bolts. I doubt she minds either way. She sparks joy every time I reach for a clip.

#CheesecakeArt