Finding Tiny Trinkets & Silver Plated Ducks
You might think I’m about to share a recipe for these peach cupcakes, but I’m not. I want to talk about the tiny duck nestled in the creamy frosting. How much can you say about a silver plated, birthday cake candle holder duck? I’m not sure, but we’ll find out. It’s not so much about the silver plate, the fact that it’s Reed and Barton or that’s that it’s vintage. It’s about the fact that this is a duck. I absolutely adore ducks. They’re so full of personality, they waddle like toddlers, the way they fly is so wonky and the shape of their bills is undeniably perfect. How can anything fly so haphazardly and survive? They can and they do, it’s impressive. They are intense little creatures without a pretty song, and if you irritate them, you will never hear the end of it. So clearly, I really like ducks. There are so many duck varieties in the world, but Mallard ducks, they are at the top of my list.
Last year at an estate sale that was mostly filled with junk, I spied this ducky on the jewelry table. This particular estate sale firm, overprices every ware that passes through their hands. They spare nothing: an open box of expired butter crackers $2, a used bottle of Curel lotion with packaging from the 90s was $1, rusted, dented cans of navy beans 2 for $1 and a base model washing machine from the 80s $500. Every now and again, I would find a small treasure that had missed their over zealous pricing guns, which meant it was only $1. It was the only rule about their sales that I liked…I won’t go into the myriad of rules that applied to their sales, but let’s just say, you needed a booklet of their rules and a study session before attending.
As I perused the wares that cost more than retail, I hopped over to the jewelry table. When it comes to jewelry tables, if they’re in a home without fine jewelry, the estate sale agents often think the items are too small to bother researching and in reality they are. Costume jewelry takes a lot of time to learn, a good majority of it is truly not worth much and there’s often not much info to go on. Jewelry tables at estate sales, are also the place where teeny tiny random items go to be found again. The jewelry table at this sale was sad, most of what was there should have been tossed, but I looked anyway. I picked up random things, hoping I wouldn’t find a tooth…sometimes there are teeth at these tables, because I guess people keep pulled teeth and then stash them in their jewelry boxes? Yech! I was almost done, ready to walk away, and I saw this duck obviously destined for a cake. I picked it up, it was heavier than expected, it had so many details, the feathers etched so perfectly. There were no markings, but it was clear it wasn’t an average little trinket. My adrenaline pumped just a little, I was excited. I didn’t want the agent running the table to notice that I knew I had something nice. I pushed the excitement down and very flatly asked: “how much?”. I knew good and well that it was $1 because it wasn’t marked, but I didn’t want them to magically reprice it.
I brought the tiny duck home and found out that it had come in a set of 5 other animals and made by Reed and Barton. Though I didn’t get a whole set, I had found my favorite animal in the set. Now, when there’s a birthday, this miniature duck figurine waddles over to nestle into the cake. She may be inanimate, but she always encourages party goers to have more than one cupcake or more than one slice of cake. There is never any leftovers. I suppose she accomplishes her goal, even a cake that isn’t pretty or exceptional is the victim of seconds. So in the end, I guess it’s not even just about the tiny duck candle holder, but the adventure in finding it and a life well lived because the tiny duck makes life just a little more beautiful.
