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Right, here in the UK at Nottingham the registers are open, and there’s a couple of self-service ones with a supervisor, who’s just keeping an eye on the customers scanning. The one at Coventry is so weirdly set up that I’ve no real idea of the layout- it’s an IKEA upended into a tower block with escalators and lifts. I suppose the semi-hidden shortcuts involve rope ladders!
Careful now! Down with that sort of thing! Could be some sort of bender; looking at the waffle pattern again it seems a bit “blunt” as if it’s used for gripping something rather than impressing a pattern. Also the long handles would give some leverage.
thesilentowl, have you tried walking into the Ikea store through the exit and past the cash registers in the wrong direction? In some stores it’s a short cut to the reduced items (display models, damaged goods etc).
One thing about Ikea, the room settings here in the UK are furnished with piles of new books in Swedish. Presumably the Swedish stores have books in Hungarian.
Maybe ask ’em at Coventry Transport Museum. I’d say Birmingham, but since the science museum there closed and got repurposed as an “exploratorium” or something I dunno. Watsonian are also a possibility to ask. Another is that it’s some kind of decorative badge- I used to go to the brass market in the Bull Ring and that’s the sort of thing that’ld turn up there, but it seems a bit unusual to initialise Birmingham as “B H”.
Sorry, I did add a link, but it hasn’t appeared in the post.
This waffle crimp
My thinking is that it’s designed to hold something flat and relatively light in a source of heat, e.g. a sheet of glass. But… I’ve no idea what “16th century waffle texture” is doing on a sheet of glass! Maybe it’s a early prototype of frosted glass.
You mean I, as a seller in the UK selling to the US have to pay a US tax? Well, no taxation without representation. I’ll be over to vote in 2020.
Re totommyto’s remark on having parcels opened and repackaged, does this happen? The way I pack things, from scavenged materials and hot glue, there’s no way once re-opened that the packing can be re-used. I get feedback on “a well-packaged item” etc., so the customers seem happy (some of the cardbox boxes are from medical suppliers- I take care to remove the labels; don’t want the customers to have to explain to their significant others that they didn’t order a gross of assorted prophylatics).
There’s an extra expense in the UK where the Post Office tacks on a charge of £8 if the customs fees aren’t paid upfront before collection (i.e. you have to pay the extra when you go to collect the parcel). Customs duty is also paid on the postage. Presumably GSP avoids UK buyers being taxed the £8.
I’m not sure what the situation is regarding “printed paper” and GSP. My view is that if it’s paper it’s printed paper. I’ve had discussions with postmasters whether photographs are that, and thus duty free.
Cheapest coffee in Leicester is 40 pence (about 50c), but it’s out of a machine, in the foyer of a crematorium. Nice selection of handmade urns on sale as well.
Split bamboo on a black lacquer base? I did find a short video from MOMA on Japanese bamboo art which showed boxes with the same kind of woven material. Not sure about the sushi bit- they don’t look like they could easily be cleaned of bits of raw fish.
I did search “Nippon craft”- one of the primary results led me to search “needle felting dog head”. Umm…
Yes, according to Collector’s Weekly.The Wikipedia article doesn’t say, but it appears not to have been updated since 2008!
Had a look at some listings of Fulper, as they’re unknown in the UK. They seem to occupy a similar position in the market as Ruskin- basically vases decorated simply with striking glazes. Ruskin tends to be marked; the pieces seem to be either high-priced or (cough) undesirable- the last piece I saw come up at live auction was a bowl in blue and orange matt glaze which failed to make its reserve of £80.
Other undesirables in the UK market include Wedgwood jasper ware, Torquay motto ware, Mason ironstone, most Poole and Denby and those blooming Royal Crown Derby paperweights. I see examples of Flow Blue occasionally (which I gather was a big thing in the US a few years back). It’s where the printed blue transfer is intentionally made fuzzy. Almost as horrible as anything clobbered with black glaze.
If someone could tell me an item that would sell all the time, was easy to source, and could guarantee me a $5 profit on each sale….I’d be there in a heartbeat.
Okay, now I know there isn’t! I can stop looking.
I’ve only got limited knowledge of Chinese antiques myself- you might want to ramp the price up to something like 700 USD, say it’s got a Qianlong Emperor seal script mark and see what happens. Maybe nothing! The carving appears excellent.
I went down a metaphorical rabbit hole trying to sell a Chinese cloisonné cup. The cup was in bronze rather than brass, and a one-piece casting rather than built up from sheet, but the background colour was black instead of the usual blue or yellow. Sold it as a 19th century piece, but I think the unusual colour made it a bit questionable in buyer’s eyes, hence it went at a lower price than I was hoping to fetch. Never did find out when black cloisonné was in style, but I did find out that Ming cloisonné sells at a discount at auction on eBay UK compared with the same at brick-and-mortar auctions. Ming’s got bubbles in the glass, and the wires are different than Qing.
