Monday 28 February 2011

Portobello Road and Bead Soup!

Loads of things have happened since my last post! We did indeed visit Portobello Road on Saturday and it was fabulous. For those who may not know, Portobello Road is the world's largest antique market and it is open every Saturday. Every kind of antique can be found at the market but most interestingly for me, there is every style of jewellery you could ever wish to see - all era's from antique to vintage costume and all designers from Chanel to Schiaparelli. It's fantastic to see it all in real life instead of pictures in books and on the Internet.

I bought some figural brooches by BJL. Very little is known about this maker other than the pieces are believed to be from the 1920's to 30's, made in London and feature enamel and marcasite. Identification is through the stamp, BJL, found on the back of the item.

I have seen brooches come up on EBay and other specialist sites but very rarely. The most common are the Merman and the Archer who would appear to be from a mythical or horoscope themed collection. I was so pleased to find the following brooches in excellent condition.




















A great start to my collection!

I spent the rest of the weekend hopping from blog to fabulous blog checking out the beautiful items made from bead soup! Out of the 210 bloggers who took part, I still have about 100 blogs to go but so far the quality and variety of jewellery has been astounding! I was so disappointed to miss this bead soup party but I am ready for the next one in August! Lori Anderson of Pretty Things is the brains and the organisation behind this amazing event, she truly is a superwoman! To read more about the bead soup party, see her blog post here.

In the meantime, i'm going to carry on hopping....
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6 comments:

  1. Libby Leuchtman28 February 2011 at 18:22

    Wow I would love to have something like that near me. Love the brooches you picked up.

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  2. Jenni1 March 2011 at 01:39

    Deb, very interesting. I am on my way to London, leave on Friday via Italy and will get to London in about 3 weeks.We have deliberately made sure we are there on a weekend so I can go to Portobello road!!I can't wait.Those brooches are very quaint, are they all from one supplier?
    Anything else bead wise I should not miss?! regards, Jenni

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  3. Judy1 March 2011 at 08:53

    I have been to Portobello road and is was just wonderful! Antiquing in London was a dream come true,there are so many great little markets.

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  4. Green Shoot Jewellery Designs1 March 2011 at 10:51

    Hi Jenni, yes the brooches are all from Kay's Beads, Chelsea Galleries, 73 Portobello Road. Kay had a really good selection of costume jewellery. Make sure you visit the antique jewellery shops next to the Sun in Splendour pub which is at the Notting Hill end, 7 Portobello Road. There is a gallery next to it and then Hirst Antiques which has the hugest range of vintage costume jewellery ever! Have a great time!

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  5. Cory1 March 2011 at 13:10

    Hello Deb... thank you for stopping by and leaving me such a nice comment...hope to see your work at the next Soup Party.

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  6. Brenda Salzano2 March 2011 at 15:53

    Wow! Never heard of Potobello before, but I sure hope I can go some day!!!
    Thanks for stopping by my blog!

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