Silver Sunday - Squirrels and Shells

Don't you love this little silverplate squirrel?  He's just about to chomp down on a nice acorn.

This is the beautiful vintage silverplate serving dish he's attached to.  I got it at an estate sale and it's nice and tarnished from sitting in the shed.  I actually prefer shiny silverplate but apparently most people like the PATINA.

Here's a double shell serving dish with an ornate handle.

Even though I don't smoke, when I saw this clamshell ashtray with a glass insert (with the Made In England tag still affixed) I had to have it. 

I've been bad about posting but I've been working on some legal mumbo-jumbo for Mom's estate and hopefully will have that finished and ready for signatures soon.  I'm trying to do as much as I can since my hourly rate ($0) is a bit lower than our estate attorney's, even though he discounted it.  Good thing I was a legal secretary once upon a time.  And BTW--even though I refer to it as "Mom's estate" that's seriously stretching the definition of estate.  We're not talking castles and servants here.  The term "estate sale" really doesn't mean anything more than "we're selling everything Granny/Mom/Aunt Gertrude ever owned" since I've been to estate sales in doublewide trailers, condos with carpets stained from the former owner's alcohol abuse, and homes with broken windows and no electricity. 

Actually, going to estate sales kind of gives me the creeps, and it REALLY doesn't help when family members are there.  The aforementioned doublewide trailer estate sale was the worst--the wife had just died and the husband refused to leave the trailer, so the other family members went ahead with the sale with him sitting morosely in the kitchen.  I had to leave--it was just too sad.