Old Portland Hardware

“WOW!!” treasure of the week!
We recently acquired this amazing c.1885 mosaic, arabesque style, stained glass window by the Henry Belcher Studio out of New York.
Mixed into the mosaic design in glittering assortment of stained glass “jewels”. Some of the jewels are made of what is called uranium glass. When hit with a black light they fluoresce with a fantastic green glow! (See last image/clip)

Belcher pioneered a process of stained glass mosaics that, instead of lead, was held together with an amalgam akin to the material used by dentists to fill cavities in teeth.
Unfortunately, the amount of mercury etc. required to fill a cavity in a tooth and what was needed to bind the glass in a sizable window was VERY different!
Belcher’s success and innovation came crashing down when many of his employees started becoming very sick, and some even dying, due the extensive exposure to large amounts of mercury and the process of mixing it with other metals.
Finding surviving windows by the Belcher Studio fairly rare. Exposure to the windows is no longer dangerous as long as the amalgam binding material isn’t sanded and inhaled.

Antique tool lovers, love a good antique “turnip” plumb bob!!
This brass plumb bob with steel tip is huge!! It weighs in at a hefty 4 1/2 pounds!
Hang straight and fly right 😃

This is the look of an antique gramophone horn living its new best life!

We don’t buy a lot of antique toys at Old Portland hardware. Mostly because it just isn’t our area of expertise. BUT…sometimes, we gotta make an exception!😃
We never seen a toy train like this c.1930 two piece Keystone engine and “Pullman” car!
The first thing …it’s really big! The two pieces hooked together are over 4 feet long.
The engine and Pullman car were both designed to be sat on and steered around by a little kid.
The roof of the Pullman car is hinged to open so favorite toys 🧸 can be taken for a ride.
Two notable things we found differentiating this model from most we are finding online is 1) both pieces have double sets of wheels and 2) all the wheels have cool looking wheels guards.
All around it’s just a really great piece that made the whole crew smile

A lot going on over the last month! Here's just a few of the new arrivals to hit the floor. Lots of great antiques to explore!

A huge welcome to Old Portland Hardware's newest team member, Bo!
Bo is handy, sharp, curious, and a quick learner!
We are very happy to have them on our motley crew.
Let the adventures in old stuff begin!!

It's not always the beautiful show stopper heavy hitters that capture our attention in the antique world.
Sometimes its just a stray box of old masonry expansion bolts waiting to see the light of day.

Gonna file this one under, “My eyes were bigger than my stomach!!”😬
What was I thinking?!?!
These cool vintage marine signs came from a couple of old businesses on Tomahawk Island on the Columbia river.
Each of the signs are 4ft X ft.
The Tomahawk sign is painted on 1/2 inch plywood and the Charlot Marine sign I s painted on aluminum.
Cool signs, but but DEFINITELY bigger than the sellers described 🤷

How do we entertain ourselves on a slow Thursday afternoon?
We make up ridiculous captions for a 1921 ad that has a beautiful lady staring into a glowing furnace.
Let’s see what some of you come up with!😃

Today’s lightning buy was everything we hope for when going out on a buy! Great treasures from great people is always the best!
This is one of the best antique lighting shade collections we’ve EVER got into! Even the drive to Seattle in torrential rain was worth it😃