Bakelite & Fakelite

Today I went to the Brooklyn flea market, which proved to be mostly disgustingly overpriced. However, the whole trip was worth it for two reasons: in the winter, the flea market takes place inside a beautiful old savings bank, and the vendors are inside all of the tellers windows and even the original vault! I wish I had brought my camera, but I've just never been the sort of person to take snapshots...perhaps I should change that - for blogging's sake. The second reason is that I got the most AMAZING deal. Long story short, I picked up a beautifully carved purple bakelite bangle, which was priced $25!! Now, if you know anything about bakelite, it's that colors like blue and purple - which faded to brown and green over the years - are both hard to find and very pricey. I rubbed the bangle to smell it an sure enough it emitted the deliciously gross smell of real bakelite. When the vendor saw me doing this, she immediately said "Oh, that's french bakelite, it won't smell" ...which was very strange, because the only french bakelite that doesn't smell is fake french bakelite...so did this woman think she was selling me fake bakelite? And how did she not know that it smelt? Perhaps she thought it was fake and that is why it was priced so low, but she did not want to tell me that? The whole thing was very very strange, but in the end I walked away with a beautiful purple bakelite bangle for about a quarter of what it should cost. Victory!! And  just to make any other bakelite lovers jealous, here is a photo of my new love:

Also, I came upon a wonderful website with everything you need to know about testing bakelite and the warning signs of "fakelite" - which is being produced and sold at shocking rates! I thought this might be useful for anyone new to the wonderful world of bakelite: www.fakelite.com

Always,
Ruby B.