Old Trunks, New Leather. All from Maine.
November 30, 2006
Last day of November, felt like hammering out some drivel on the keyboard, so here we go. Greetings to all of you who at one time or another made the questionable decision of signing up for the Brettuns Village Trunk Shop e-mail newsletter. Have some news to pass along, so sit back and sift through this mess, if you will.
Business is brisk, but the weather is warm, and some of us upcountry are starting to think this global warming may not be so bad after all. Here it is, November 30, should be some snow around in the shady areas, and the ground should be frozen, but instead we're thinking about maybe one more pass out there with the lawn tractor. Swatted a mosquito outside today, which is something I don't like to do this late in the season, but we do what we must I guess. If this trend keeps up I'm thinking the local farmers will switch from growing feed corn to sugar cane, and maybe it's time we went ahead and tried some pecan trees just for the holy hair-raising thrill of it. The warm weather is supposed to come to an end tonight, and the noisemaker (TV) is full of stories about horrific weather west of us, so a change is in the wind it seems. I have to say that I think we've only seen about a dozen snow flakes this Fall - in total - so it's about time.
Been getting our newsletters for a while? Have we gotten you interested in Maine yet? Did you subscribe to Downeast Magazine yet? If so, you saw an article about our business in the December issue, just in time for Christmas, and if you look at that picture of our shop, and I mean really look with a good bright light in the room because don't forget that if you read in dim light it'll ruin your eyes just like your grandmother always said, you'll see Jenny, better known to the world as That Dog, in the picture. A tooth, her rabies tag, a bit of her tongue - that's about all that shows up, but there she is, and now there's no living with her. Spends the day dreaming up outrageous demands, mostly special foods that she wants in her 'dressing room' but she can flat out forget it. Dog food for dogs, people food for people.
Aside from the Downeast news, which was really just bragging (you already knew that), here's some news from the Antique Trunk side of the empire. We have some new styles of trunk handles on the site that might be worth a look. Thanks to some suggestions and inquiries from a couple of our favorite customers (TJ Bynum and Mike Gallagher), we've expanded the line-up to include new handle shapes/sizes and a new leather color - dark brown - which looks great. We've also added some new sizes of escutcheon pins (brass nails) in case your escutcheon is running around loose in the house and needs to be pinned down (rimshot - I'm here all week). Here's a link to our Parts Department:
http://www.brettunsvillage.com/trunks/howto/parts/
While you're there, might be worth a look at our list of available trunk keys, which continues to expand every week. Hard to find, but we find them. Hard to figure out, but we figure them out. Don't spend another minute wondering about the family inheritance inside Cousin Emil's old Belber wardrobe - get one of our keys and open it up to find the old sock and musty pajamas he left to you.
Plenty of trunks still for sale, though they've been dropping like flies, or maybe I should say mosquitoes, lately, and still plenty of time to ship for Christmas. We're here to help.
Over on the Leather Craft quadrant we've got some new hardware in stock - extremely heavy pallets of hardware that were dropped in the street with some disgust by a particularly notable Massachusetts truck driver (he didn't like the joke about our forklift one bit), but all's well that ends well, and now we've got a lot of welded steel rings and swivel snaps in stock. Swivel snaps - you know - snap hooks. Not registering, is it? The thing at the end of the dog leash. Now you've got it. Two sizes - for 1/2" or 1" straps, and available by the piece or in quantity. Check them out on the Parts page, which, last time anybody saw it, was hiding out right about here:
http://www.brettunsvillage.com/leather/parts/parts.html
The Clearance page was updated this week as well, some nice new stuff on there. Jump on it if you feel the need to jump.
That's about it for now. If you need anything just e-mail or call. If you get the machine leave a message, because it probably means I'm out planting coconuts or bananas in the garden. If you want me to sign your copy of Downeast just scribble on the article - that's what my signature looks like anyway and you'll save the postage.
Thanks-
Churchill
BrettunsVillage.Com/Antiquekeys.Net
Auburn, Maine
http://www.brettunsvillage.com