$5 Well Spent

I stopped at a favourite antique store on my way home from the cottage the other day and picked up a few special pieces:

a spiral-bound 1959 chemistry book:

with handwritten pencil notes on the pages:

this lovely, shabby and/or rather distressed looking cigar box:

which had a few goodies inside - an old, dried out, decaying stamp pad with a beautiful red and black tin cover that I will cut up and make into something else, some sewing supplies in an Allenbury's pastilles tin (including some very cool silver spiral buttons), some kind of measuring implement that looks like teaspoons but isn't, and a little plastic matchbox-style container holding a couple of sewing machine needles.

and this fabulous Peek Frean's biscuit tin with a gorgeous peacock on the lid:

and seahorses dancing around the sides.

Hmm, just Googled that cookie tin and found someone has it listed for 20 pounds (which is more than $40 in our currency)! Of course, theirs looks like it's in much better shape than mine (but mine might just need a good cleaning) and has a bird motif on the sides.  Perhaps mine is not quite as vintage as theirs?  [While we're on the subject, you might enjoy this 2007 article about a cookie tin collection.]

I paid $5.00 for the lot so even if the cookie tin isn't a rare vintage find, it's money well spent, if you ask me!