vintage magazine racks

I have inadvertently amassed a small collection of vintage magazine racks. 

And that’s how I’ll begin this post.

Yesterday after dropping my two high schoolers off for the first day of the new school year (yay!), I stopped in at the three thrift stores within three miles of our place. As usual, I found zippo at The Humane Society shop. There was nothing for me at GW either. But at the shop run by mostly elderly volunteers and for the benefit of the local hospital system, I bought a magazine rack thingie for $2.

I hesitate to call it a magazine rack, although I’ve found a similar one on Etsy labeled as such, because I think it's quite a dangerous thing to place on your floor. (Talk about a tripping hazard.)

Perhaps it’s some kind of desk organizer—like an outgoing-mail basket? 

 

Anyhow, I brought it home to join the other magazine racks I’ve found over the past couple of years. It's difficult for me to pass these up in thrift stores, because they’re so stinkin' practical. Magazine racks hold stuff in my house that needs holding.

I don’t know much about what I have, but allow me to share some photos (taken out on the deck) of what I’ve collected.

This is the first mid-century magazine rack I purchased, and I paid $4 for it at the hospital shop. Black metal is my (current) favorite material for racks. This one now sits in our guest bathroom, and it speaks “The Jetsons” to me. (His boy, Elroy!)

Credit and thanks to Ultraswank.net.

I'm of the generation that watched The Jetsons every Saturday morning—back when Saturday mornings were perfect for watching cartoons.

Forgive me, but I didn’t feel like lugging this one out to the deck for a photo. On the bottom, it’s stamped “Authentic Furniture Products” out of  El Segundo, California, and it sits on the cutest little legs. It looks like maple to me, and I’m thinking it’s late 1950s? 

Like the previous one, this one also appears to be maple. And the design is obviously similar, but its legs aren't as cute. I'm not using it now; the poor thing is sitting in the garage empty.

This one sits near where we keep our musical instruments. I love the minimalism here—so mid-century. I also like the black metal (of course) and its sweet and practical flat feet.

More black metal. This one is a little damaged; at some point the top handle was bent. It sits upstairs, and it holds catalogs and a few old Catholic monthly missalettes I've kept for the music over the years. 

This one isn't my favorite right now, but I liked it when I got it, and it is the strongest one I have (chrome strong). I've seen a couple of others in thrift stores, but I haven't bought them. (Lordy, how many do I need?) Just recently, I saw the same one on Ebay with a starting bid of $50. Maybe I should invest in another? But right now this one is in the garage with the maple one.

And that's it for vintage magazine racks.