Pin and Brooch Collection

Everyone I know collects something, be it snow globes, chicken decor, recipes, or in some cases, obvious stuff, like coins and stamps. I used to collect bulldog figurines, since I owned bulldogs for awhile, and had extra money to spend on such things. Now, I am a garage sale lady who loves to root around in the cigar boxes of costume jewelry that people set out on the card table. When I find beads and such, I will often repurpose them for other things, like zipper pulls, pendants, bracelets, etc. But my favorite finds are always the brooches and pins I run across.

Here's an album featuring some of my treasures. Since I have not had any time to look up if they're valuable or not, how old they are, etc., I thought I'd post them here in case someone else knows. And I'll Pinterest them to see if anyone else has a clue.

 

Thinking this bulldog pin, with dangly heart charm, is Bakelite.

 

This lizard is cool, and may or may not be very old.

 

This rhinestone encrusted dolphin is very large. Thinking it was from a time when women wore their brooches on their shoulder-padded shoulders.

 

"Meep-meep." Roadrunner. (Had this on a wide-brimmed hat on a bird watch one time, and a fellow bird watcher remarked, "my grandma had a pin just like that in the 60s!")

 

(Bought this booby pin from a nice older lady at a market in Ecuador. Newish.)

 

This reindeer pin is my "go-to" decoration for Christmas season. Religion aside, who doesn't love a caribou?

 

Plastic "happy daisy." 70's? I think my mom's Avon lady wore one like this (with shiny pink lips and a pageboy).

 

This is a gigantic brooch that I never wear. Maybe if I had a military-type trench/duster on. Sort of "in your face."

 

Nice old 60s brooch from a wonderful (now deceased, RIP) lady I once knew. (Get comments on this one all the time. ??? People love it. Looks nice on a denim jacket.)

 

Yeah, a bulldog pin from my bulldog collecting past. Weird that only the head is enameled.

 

Oops. Another bulldog item. Nice pin. Wish I knew how old. Stamped metal.

 

One of my favorites, purchased in 1982, but was told it was "old". A brass (?) guitar with actual strings.

 

 

Just got this stamped tin piece (made in Japan) from the gift shop at Manzanar NHS in California, the site of a former Japanese internment camp in California (WWII). Not sure I have ever seen a bird that looks like this in North America, but colorful!

 

Assuming this tack pin (silver) depicts a pictograph from Utah, Arizona, etc. Newsih? From a gift shop at National Parks?

 

"Day of the Dead" pin. So cool. You open a cabinet with a mirror on it (looks like a bathroom medicine cabinet) to find a bride and groom skeleton pair inside.

 

One of my oldest pins. I know because the pin mechanism on the back is very crude and doesn't stay shut. A bellhop carrying two rhinestone suitcases. (I don't dare wear this out, lest I lose it.)

 

Crab pin I remember buying at the Jersey Shore (not Maryland?) in the early 80s. Claws are articulated, and swing back and forth.

 

No brainer. Bought in Paris in 1992. Toursity thing.