Here’s a fun one. Over the years, we’ve accumulated thousands of pieces of silver jewelry—literally thousands (REAL silver—not silverplate or silvertone but sterling silver). As many of you know, we love acquiring high-end arts & crafts silver: Georg Jensen, William Spratling, Margot de Taxco, Ballesteros, David Andersen, plus a variety of Finnish, Russian, and antique Native American silver artisans. That kind of silver? We’ve got clients lining up for it.
But in the process, we’ve also amassed a mountain of “middlin’” silver—as my grandfather called the kinda-sorta-good stuff. Not quite scrap, not quite top-shelf. Too interesting to melt, too inexpensive to justify polishing, photographing, listing, invoicing and shipping. Even doubling our money wouldn’t cover the labor. So it just … sat, piled high in a dusty corner of the vault. Beautiful little artisan pieces and funky old Taxco creations, some turquoise stuff too; all cool, but all unloved and tarnishing in silence.
Enter the Downtown St. Pete Sunrise Sale. Normally we skip it—our inventory’s usually too pricy, and let’s be honest, I’m not much of a 6:43 a.m. guy. But Katrina had an idea: let’s drag out the silver stash, give it a little love, and offer it to the community at a deep, deep discount. We’ll polish half, leave the rest raw and rugged, and set up bins: $5, $10, $20, $30, $50, and $100. Pretty much a buck or two a gram and donate 10% of the proceeds to Innovare (which provides housing for working people in transition) and to Rotary (which brought us so many wonderful exchange students over the years).
Out of 45 employees, nine swore they’d show up at 6:43 a.m. So we’re counting on at least six. Coffee and donuts will be hot! Our coffee is legendary (trust us), and the sale will continue all week—though the choicest goodies will be gone by sunrise. Come early, dig deep, and score some silver treasures that finally deserve their moment to shine. Yes, silver charms and small vintage solid silver rings for five bucks. And some very cool, heavier pieces for $30 to $100.
The sale will start at 6:43 a.m. on Wednesday, July 17. Be there. It’s gonna be a hoot. (I’ll be there too. Complete with bed-head and my Winnie the Pooh jammies!)
