"...oh look, it's Fratelli Toso..."

 

Linda and I stopped by our favorite Goodwill in Portland today, and we were not disappointed. The first thing we picked up was a beautiful twisted ribbon paperweight. The polished bottom seemed to say it was high quality, but the price - $19.99 - was a little stiff for Goodwill. 

Whenever we're out thrifting and have a decent internet connection, we use Google Lens to search for information on objects. It's part of the Google phone app, and it's a little camera icon in the search bar, which opens up the camera and lets you to search for whatever the camera is facing. When we pointed it at the lovely glass paperweight, here's what came up.

Murano Fratelli Toso, first comparable on eBay almost an exact match for $125. Needless to say the paperweight came home with us. We found some other fun things: a pair of Starbucks holiday demitasse cups, Tonala owl salt & pepper shakers, and an Italian pottery tile with hand-painted lemon motif. Many of the things we find are available for sale in our Etsy shop. 

People always ask about our shop, so here's the info. Vintage Vault PDX: we are a small business located in Portland, Oregon, with over 500 sales since opening shop in January 2021. We used to have space at a local antiques mall in Portland, but there wasn't enough foot traffic to make it viable. As soon as we turned to a global audience, our business turned the corner. The vault is open! To visit our shop, click here. To go directly to the Fratelli Toso paperweight, click here.