Kitsch and Vintage Propping.

A few small items can make a huge difference in an interior.
Left to right, we have:

a box of turn of the 20th century glass plate negatives, an early 1960's Florida transistor radio, a pre-war copy of Macbeth with a souvenir Eiffel Tower (purchased 2 years ago!) a vintage silver plate trophy cup, an original 1960's plastic Smiths kitchen clock, an early edition of Oscar Wilde's Fairy Tales, a photocopied picture of the pope from a theatre set, a prop Mayan sacrificial knife (also made for a play!) a 1947 nickel silver football trophy cup, a 1980's Royal Navy Zippo lighter and a collection of original 18th and 19th century novels and poetry. No item cost more than £50.00. Many were found or given, the cheapest was probably the Zippo lighter (£1.00 at Jubilee market http://www.jubileemarket.co.uk/) and the most expensive, clearly, the original illustrated Oscar Wilde Fairy Tales.

I personally like to mix original vintage items with home made ones. Both support each other and help shift the focus from one item to the next.

Left to right:
Keane's Ethnology (Cambridge University Press), Smith's Galic Antiquities (an 18th century translation of the poems of Ossian), Sorcellerie dans les pays de mission (Belgian treaty on Witchcraft from 1938). On top is a Victorian silver sugar bowl (Peter Reimer Hinnerup, Copenhagen, 1841) with a sprig of Scottish heather. Behind is a theatre set repro of Erasmus Darwin's portrait by Joseph Wright of Derby. To the left, a fake Egyptian mummy's head made using the principle described here http://kaisercalavera.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/ebay-skull-painted.html

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