My mom got me my first printer's box when I was little. I used to love looking through her larger one and playing with all the little treasures she had collected for it. When my collection outgrew it's home, my husband and I got a larger box at an antique store to house both of our tiny acquisitions.
Some of the stuff in there I've had since I was really young and can't even remember the original provenance. A lot of it is just little knick-knacks (like those ceramic animals that used to come in the tea boxes), or bits of natural history from our frequent beach-combing trips.
Having a printer's box is fun because you're always on the look-out for little treasures with which to fill it! I'm thinking that soon we are going to need to get another box because this one is getting pretty full. Whenever I see printer's boxes at antique shops I'm always struck by all the interesting shapes and sizes. How cool would it be to have several grouped on a wall together?? For now though, this is ours:
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| This bookshelf is badly in need of a dusting! It displays some of my favorite pieces of collected art from local artists, as well as some of my creamers. I try to keep a lot of stuff on it to deter the cats from jumping up there. They've just gotten better at walking over everything. |
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| Tiny toby jugs! I'm not sure why we started collecting these, I guess we just thought they were funny and kind of cute. Most of them come from Occupied Japan and are painted on porcelain. |
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| On the left: a silver spoon from my grandmother she had since she was a girl in the Netherlands. Below that we have Gnorman, a porcelain gnome from a Salt & Ginger on Etsy. Next to him is a little brass cat and 4 porcelain swans. The little cottage comes from The Little Red Door on Etsy. I've had that little dog forever and can't remember where he first came from. The little jug next to him was in a dollar bin at a thrift store. I think the Dutch shoe was a souvenir from the Netherlands. On the right (and not to scale), is a little collection of shells and sea glass from our beach hunts. The grandfather clock is actually a pencil sharpener that I've had for as long as I can remember. |
Do you have a printer's box? Or if you have lots of tiny collections, how do you display them? Any cool ideas? Leave a comment letting me know if you do!
