Monthly flea market time!
I was so excited to realize last week that it was flea market time again. After spending 3 weeks in a row mostly at home during the weekend, we could use a little fun on a Sunday. I have to admit that I usually say that we will find something but I never really knew it you know that feeling where you can just feel something's brewing? This time I had that feeling again, after quite some fun trips to several flea markets (nearby as well as further from home), I knew this one was going to be a more successful stroll on the market.
Wish-list
As always, I have a few things on my wish-list when we go, but with the size of this flea market, I have more chance of finding something on my old wish-list (read: things I've already forgotten about lol) than finding something that I actually want or need right now. Still, it's good to have a little reminder and say these things out loud in case one of us pays a little more attention and the other doesn't even register the item that one of us desires.
What was on my wish list this time was a nice old frame for my freshly painted canvas of 40x30 cm as I feel proud of what I created and I want to pimp it with one of these nicely detailed old frames you often find on flea markets. The colour doesn't matter as I will most-likely paint it anyway, it just has to be the right one. Of course there's always some secret gem hunting for silver going on, but that's probably needless to mention here.
Silver coins
I didn't feel like going through the buckets of coins this time, neither did I feel like going through the folders with circulated coins or those that were hidden away behind glass because I feel like they will ask a price that I can beat online anyway, so I will only go there if I see one I've been wanting and know the ins and outs. It's just too risky for me otherwise to buy it from them. Whenever it's not too crowded, we take a quick look in the coin buckets to see if I like something for a very small amount of money, because I think it's smart to at least have a little chat every time to build a tiny relationship every month, it may help me in the future when they sell something I want to buy at that time.
Cufflinks!
This Sunday my eye fell on a glass box with cufflinks. My boyfriend has another silver pair which we also found on a flea market back in Budapest, but this set seemed one of the first that caught my eye on the flea markets in Spain. Why? Because I had the feeling they were silver and I had the feeling these were gemstones. The colour was right too because they match one of his best blouses very well. I told him to check the box.
Several boxes
The cufflinks I meant were in a cheap cardboard box, none of the sets he was selling (including some Boss ones) were in the original box, as often is the case I guess on flea markets. But my boyfriend knew instantly which ones he needed to check and so he did.
Although some people might go for the Boss ones, neither of us fancied them and with these silver purchases such as cufflinks, we have an agreement that it's fine to buy them if he likes to use them himself anyway. It's just a nice bonus if they are actually worth more when we want to sell them. I think they are a nice item to collect because they take in so little space and it really looks smoking hot when he's wearing the right blouse with matching cufflinks.
Asking price
The guy wanted 20 euros for them and instantly said "they're silver and Pedro Duran" which at that point was an unknown brand to us. My boyfriend tried to get a few euros discount but the guy was not desperate so it didn't work this time. We had to try, it's a flea market after all.
But instead of getting the ugly red cardboard box with it, my boyfriend asked if he could have the metal box that was there too, so the guy removed that Boss set from it and gave it to him. It's still just another brand but it looks nice to store them this way so everyone was happy.
Now let's search for them online
I actually really enjoy it when we bought something possibly valuable and have to research it to find out if we're on to something or took home something worthless. We've done it hundreds of times back in Holland when we were dreaming to make a buck and get our lives back in order. It surely made these months having nothing a lot more fun and I think secretly this is where both our passion for flea market hunting grew to bigger hights.
It's fun to see that both of us usually spot the things that are off, aka spoil the fun of hitting the jackpot, quite soon nowadays where we were filled with some more hopium back in those early hunting days. Desperate we were, and then you definitely act different. Like with crypto, we both learned to not get carried away too much and check things, think logically and pay attention to detail.
Usually we're in agreement
When there's something we think is worth taking home, such as these cufflinks. We set a rule about other items such as Chinese or Japanese art (think vases, plates etc) that if we don't want to have it for display in our own home, we will not buy it. We used to do that, but that's a new rule, either we are willing to take our loss as we still enjoy the item we bought even though it's not a flipping item worth more than we bought it for, or we don't even consider buying it in the first place. This seems to work well.
Pedro Duran
I quickly discovered that Pedro Duran is a Spanish brand that exists for more than 130 years and I was shocked to find out some of the prices for example for silver picture frames. It was also clear that they are easily recognized by the signature of the artist and even though the picture is not clear, I've done the checks and it's a real Pedro Duran set of cufflinks!
Very cool considering the price they go for retail:
Yes, these are the same but sadly our light is lacking to get them in the picture as nice as they really look.
1886On July 22, Pedro Durán Morales married Aurora Rey Otero, a date that was considered to be the foundation of his silversmith workshop. It began its activity at Calle Alfonso XXII nº 76.1899Pedro Durán received the title of Supplier of the Royal House. He moved his silversmith workshops to Calle Santa Isabel nº 28.1905He entered the 20th century as Secretary of the Union of Silversmith Manufacturers of Spain, appointed at the first meeting.1944The 3rd generation of Durán joined the factory.
Carlos Durán joins the factory; years later, his brothers Manuel, Roberto and Santiago joined.1969The Durán brothers created the company "Durán Subastas de Arte", the oldest in Spain.1983The first Durán of the 4th generation joined the company.1998The large three-storey store in Madrid's Calle de Goya nº 30 was inaugurated for the sale of jewellery. Swiss watches, silverware and luxury goods.
In 2000 Pedro Durán launches his silver jewellery collection.2010The Durán Exquse brand is born. Designing silver jewellery with a marked Mediterranean jewellery style in sterling silver combined with the best natural stones.
The big question
Which stone is it they used for these cufflinks? I wanted to assume it's an amethyst but that's solely based on the colour. I could not verify this somewhere yet and I consider just sending an e-mail to Pedro Duran's website to ask so I have a certain answer.
Either way, I'm very pleased with this find and I can't wait to bump into more Pedro Duran items as it's likely we will find more considering it's a famous Spanish brand.
I'm curious do you collect silver items such as cufflinks when you find a nice pair? Or are you sticking to silver coins mostly?
All pictures of the cufflinks above are my own unless stated otherwise, see sources.