Your CartBONJOUR! Mr. FrenchGardenHouse and I are having a busy spring! We’ve been traveling, flitting from antique show to flea markets across the countryside, filling crates and boxes and cars with beautiful antiques.
With new shipments arriving on the daily, we’ve found French enamelware, antique gardening decorative objects, floral paintings, French Country accents, antique porcelain and silver, and some intriguing surprises. Everything to make your spring home exciting!
We found some exciting new sources, and have more trips planned for May far and wide.
On any buying trip, I take all of you with me.  I know you want to find decorative accents to fill your home with your personality, antiques with quality. Maybe a little quirky and out of the ordinary, personal and worldly mementoes of who you are. Well traveled. Well-read. I know you love gardening, cooking {many of you anyway!}, and wine. That you have a curiosity about the world, and that you’re focused on building your nest but that you would love exotic travel.
I hope you shop at FrenchGardenHouse like a French woman {or a French man – we do have plenty of gentlemen antique fans of FGH!} – Â with an open-minded sense of discovery, and the thrill of a thrilling find. Â
I hope our discoveries will capture your attention, so that you’ll explore every corner of your home and let your imagination GO!
It’s why we’re always looking for something fresh, “new” and right. Antiques with stories to tell and plenty of personality. So that YOU can add it to your home, and start adding  your own story.
In April, we’re taking a breather – meaning we’re unpacking our treasures and adding them to the shop on the daily. Oh, and hoping to enjoy our garden at home, sitting around our fire table with a glass of French wine, that kind of thing! But then we’re back on the road. Looking for your favorites…because I love when you let me know what it is that you really want!
Today I’m sharing some of those client favorites with all of you…the things I get the most requests for again and again.
ENAMELWARE. You’ve added great antique French enamelware to my shopping list via email, texts, and on my Instagram. Always! This rare and very difficult collection I was able to find was made by the renowned Japy Frères in France, it will surely be appreciated by fans of enamelware. This is such an alluring blue color, the decorative stripes are in navy and French bleu. From a collector, this has always been displayed and was almost never used.
These are just a few of the latest enamelware we’ve gathered for you to create a home you love, a home that reflects the ever evolving beauty of YOU. More exceptional French enamelware to come!
{Ps. See those blue and white Willow cafe au lait bols? Found at an antiques fair, Japanese style for French coffee! Love those!}
GARDENING ANTIQUES. {Coming!} Springtime is garden time, and you love adding French gardening accents to your outdoor haven.
This is technically a basket {obviously!} but also for the garden. Beautiful Antique Splintwork Gathering Basket in a wonderfully useable large size.
Weathered patina, this farm basket was used for decades to gather lavender in the garden, it was painted grey.
It has wonderful country display appeal and would look amazing anywhere in your French home, a beauty to add to your collection of baskets. Use it outdoors in your potager, or to display folded antique linen towels or your gardening books.
BASKETS. One of the many things you and the designers that source antiques through FrenchGardenHouse are always asking for are unusual baskets.
These are special baskets, ones that aren’t often found anymore in France. Decorative and useful baskets like this were taken by ladies on the train, hence the name “platform basket”, to hold their luncheon and a few other necessities for a trip on the train. {Their suitcase would have been loaded on the train by the porter.} This very small one most likely belonged to a very young lady.
Another favorite, this decorative Wicker Picnic Basket, taken to the country side with bottle of wine, fresh vegetables, a baguette and that delicious French cheese long ago. Perfect for storage. Â Comes with the original wide leather strap with buckle, with aging and plenty of patina. Inside – a surprising interior!
ARCHITECTURAL ACCENTS. Along with the baskets, one of the most asked for antiques you want for your homes is architectural decor. Â I love these, they are so graphic!
Out of the ordinary, this set of three wooden fragments are 19th century examples of what gesso ornamentation will look like on a piece of fine furniture. From an old furniture maker of luxury French furniture, this allowed the craftsmen to see what a particular mold for gesso would produce.
KITCHEN ACCESSORIES. Most of you love to cook {or the ones that do not, love decorating your French cuisine and order take out with great élan!} Be ready to find lots more kitchen antiques over the next few weeks, we’ve unloaded so many pieces that Mr. FrenchGardenHouse wondered where we would put it all! {like all women, I said “no problem! We’ll find a place!” And so we did. 🙂 }
Wonderful and decorative 19th century French Balance Scale, used to weigh ingredients for recipes such as dough so that each loaf or baguette would be relatively uniform in size. This scale has green and gold painted detailing, it is a 5 kilo scale made of heavy cast iron. Originally used in the south of France, with great patina. Complete with the two original brass weighing trays or plateaus.
And then there is this one. Antique Cast Iron Candy Shop Scale, absolutely fabulous to find with the original marble plateaus. This scale was repainted at one time back to the original apricot pink color, the underside shows the paint had faded over time. Scales like this were used to weigh out chocolate bonbons, or other sweet treats in a small boutique candy shop. {needs no other explanation, nest pas?}
ANTIQUE PAINTINGS. Â Especially from the 19th century, and floral still lives.
This exquisite antique floral still life oil painting, of gorgeous roses, this is the kind of painting we are all always on the hunt for! This original Oil Painting dates to the turn of the last century, late 1800’s, early 1900’s, and features a glorious arrangement of soft romantic roses in cream, white, pink, lavender and softest yellow. This will delight a rose enthusiast, gardener and art lover for many years. Well painted, remniscent of the exemplary floral painters of the day, Paul de Longpre and Catherine Klein.
Another 19th century stunner, this still life oil painting features a beautiful Pansies bouquet. The perfect painting to add romance and beauty to any room in your home. If you adore the language of flowers and garden, this will make your heart sing, and delight you each time you see it.
There is so much goodness coming to FrenchGardenHouse, I can hardly wait to show you everything! Â I’m adding everything as quick as I can, while still sleeping and eating every day. {I know you are as anxious as I am!}
Shop like a French woman. It’s okay if everyone thinks you picked up these antiques at a French market. I won’t tell.
Don’t forget to enter to win :
À Bientôt!
Well traveled antiques, indeed, Lidy! Always discerning taste, always great finds! Thank you for sharing the highlights!
Thank you Rita! As a fellow lover of antiques, we love seeing each others best “finds” don’t we?
It’s always a treat to read your blog and get inspiration. Thanks for showing us your treasures.
Beverly
Thank you Beverly, I’m wishing you a beautiful week!
Love the paintings. They not only added love on a cold winter night, but also add color and life to cut flowers brought in from out doors in the spring and summer.
I love them, too, Gloria! We have had gorgeous paintings that weren’t all too expensive, and also some exceptional ones that are signed that were invest quality {and higher cost because of that} but all of them make a beautiful addition to anyone’s interior, don’t they?
I think I need that Japy enamelware!…be still my heart Lidy!!!!….Such fabulous finds!!!! Happy Trails!
Thank you Shirley! Wish you could join me on the trail!
Lovely finds… paintings and enamelware are my favorite
Thank you so much, Edy, I’m so glad you love them too!
Is it wrong to covet one of each? If it is, I’ll be spending an eternity (at least)in Purgatory.
Lidy, you have found such beautiful items! I am swooning over the cafe au lait bowls! Enjoy your day!!!
Thank you Shannon, as a fellow blue & white lover, I can see why those appeal to you.
Lidy, wonderful treasures! I love them all ~ such inspiration! Always so enjoy seeing your latest finds.
Happy hunting and a happy spring!
Thank you Sandra! It’s actually starting to be spring here {well, yesterday it was summer} – I hope you have a happy spring, too.
Hi Lidy,
Love the Well Traveled Antiques. I have a passion for Wicker Picnic Baskets. On a warm summer day, I love filling my picnic basket with a small loaf of French Baguette Bread and some cheese, a small bottle of wine, and a little antipasto. I get into my little Volkswagon convertible with my beach chair and blanket packed in my trunk, grabbing one of my favorite novels, and head down to the lake, to sit at the beach. Such solitude, just me, the warm sun, my basket of goodies, my book, all of my favorite things. One of my picnic baskets has a little table right under the lid.
I cherish those moments which I don’t get very often in my busy everyday life. Occasionally my husband will join me, but I really like that to be my Alone Time.
I enjoyed learning about the “Platform Baskets” featured in your blog, I had never heard of them before. The rose painting looks lovely surrounded by the hand mirror, tea cup, saucer, and vase with the roses. I have a small floral oil painting that I am going to put on a easel stand, on top of a lace covered radiator, and use a tea cup and a small vase and antique hand mirror, I will display it in one of the bedrooms. I always get such inspiration from your beautiful vignettes that you show on your blogs. Thank You for sharing your great finds with us. Have a Great Day.
Thank you so much, Janice. I hope that you enjoy your floral painting even more after giving it a “new” surroundings!
Happy Tuesday!
ps. LOVE that you have your VW convertible…we used to have one long ago and what great fun it was on sunny days!
Hi Lidy, loved seeing your latest stash. Also enjoyed seeing you in the latest Cottage Journal, French Home. Hugs Pat at Bringing French Country Home
Hi Pat! Thank you! Oh…I haven’t seen that issue yet, hoping I get mine soon!
Such beautiful finds!! Now I need to set aside time to follow the links! I resisted while reading this blog post, as I knew what needed to get done, would not happen. 😉
Wow its so fun to see what treasures you’ve uncovered. Can’t wait for the next posting. I learn so much from your descriptions. You’re my true online magazine. Love you
First visit to your website! via Home is where the boat is. Love it! thank you
Thank you so much, Theresa, and welcome! Hope you are having a happy Friday, new friend!