I finally opened my vintage shop at www.etsy.com/shops/ktsattic on Feb 17, 2012. It was a slow start but now up to 145 items. I shop the flea market on Wed, estate sales on Thursday and yard sales on Fri and Sat. The rest of the week I spend lots of time cleaning or repairing, taking pictures of items, researching history and pricing, listing the item which is v time consuming, answering emails, packing, shipping and trips to the Post Office. I have found my niche. So, I wanted to tell you about a special item I just sold.
About 6 weeks ago I was cruising the Frontenac (Space Coast) Flea Market on a Wednesday as usual. Ive met lots of people there and look forward to the social aspects and networking. I dont remember the exact shop i was at, but i spotted this silver egg shaped thing that appeared to be a salt shaker. The vendor wanted $3. I was really attracted to it for some reason but who is going to want a salt shaker with no mate? Then i noticed some strange markings and offered her $2 which she accepted. I thought it looked interesting and if nothing else I could list it for $5 as a salt shaker. 
I took pictures of the markings and magnified them. Went on the internet and discovered that JHH was John H Hilcox, British silversmith. The hallmarking of British
silver is based on a combination of marks that makes possible the
identification of the origin and the age of each piece. The first is the town mark of the Assay Office that verified the
piece. The lion certifies the silver quality and the last letter mark identifies the year.
This egg was a desk top pomander used like an air freshener, crafted in Birmingham England in the year 1891. I researched similar items on ebay, put it up for sale in my etsy shop for $195 and it sold a couple weeks later. The story gets better here. The buyer owns a resort in the south of France and is married to J H Hilcox's great granddaughter. He bought it for her as a birthday present. The powers of the universe aligned.
