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| Mystery Grab Bag A |
A couple of months ago at one of the semi-annual flea markets I enjoy poking through, I came across several of these vintage Christmas Gift Bags. They appear to be bags that were given to employees or clients of the
Ferro Corporation in Cleveland, Ohio. The graphics on the bags and items found within suggest that they date to the mid to late 1960's. Each has completely different items so I decided to list them on Etsy as "Mystery Bags." I have not detailed the contents on Etsy in case the buyer wishes to be surprised, but, am detailing the contents in three blog posts so that buyers can see what they are getting if they do NOT like to be surprised. You dig?
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| Mystery Bag A - total contents |
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This first bag of course has great groovy graphics on the front and about 11 items inside. As with all of the bags, they each contain a few printed pieces, some practical items, some toys and some gags. Since they all spread out fairly evenly, I have left the contents of each as close to original as I could find! Click any of the contents photos shown, then, click again to zoom in large in your browser to see all details.
This first bag includes a giant inflatable "Apollo Rocket" that can be blown up with a stopper like a beach balloon. It is soft plastic and has never been used. There is also this odd incense set called "Campfire Memories." It includes a funky faux woodgrain box and sticks to burn with "Natural aroma of an evergreen campfire." I guess it would be cool to burn around the Christmas holidays. The glazed pottery burner has nifty graphics and a nice pinecone design.
Paper goods include a couple of envelopes of comical printed cocktail napkins, an envelope of printed puns and platitudes popular at the time labeled "The Foibles of Nature No. 3."; another envelope of cards labeled "Can you "guess" these riddles" which I have left unopened, and in a last envelope marked "It's Cool" with a funny gag fake cigarette unopened in the package. The package is the style that is currently reproduced and sold at places like Ricky's NYC, OOP! or Urban Outfitters.
Lastly we have some cute vintage toys. The train winds up with a key. It is actually in the original box wrapped in tissue unused. The back side pops up when wound to reveal the engineer. Very cute! The stocking is mostly full and includes a game of jacks, a balloon, a baseball hollograph card and a marble that I think broke in half, but it is at the bottom so I will leave it. Finally there is an unopened "revolving whistle" that is a painted wood whistle with little carved animals. It is still sealed in the box so I will leave it to the buyer. Likely made in Japan.
The bag itself is printed natural cotton with a drawstring top and measures 12" tall by 9" wide. A really fun find for the vintage toy or gag gift collector! Or even if you are fan of Mad Men or advertising items. Just realized there is a shoe-shine cloth in there too.... Click the top or bottom image to go to the listing.
