Eagle Eyes

My favorite antique store had their open house last week. It was the same night as the candlelit tour at the Old Courthouse, so I planned my costuming in order to be able to slip through the aisles without knocking over expensive antiques. That meant no hoop, but 4 petticoats and an 1850s-style dress.

Many of the lovelies were out of my reach: a set of five purple transferware handleless cups and matching saucers, a candlewicked wing chair and matching ottoman, a folding screen, coin silver spoons.

I picked up a set of size 12 wire sock blockers, making them the third set in my collection. Then, after squeezing my petticoated self up the spiral staircase and into the loft, I spotted it: something I did not need but must have, simply because it was incredibly cheap and mislabelled "vintage."

The dress is a mid-nineteenth-century child's dress. There's no way of telling if it's for a boy or a girl. It's entirely hand sewn with a growth tuck and a wide hem. The tiny white braid at the sleeves is handmade. Piping, cut on the bias over perle cotton and about as tiny as you'll ever see, is on both sides of the waistband, at the neckline, and around the armscyes.

It rests on a berlin-work luggage rack I bought there last year. What I love about Quintessential is that there is always something magical there that I can manage to afford. They sold a gorgeous workbench for close to 3K, but also had CDVs, bits of lace, and other ephemera for a dollar.