ON THE ROAD AGAIN - A RAINY, WINDY……PRE-SPRING DAY ANTIQUE HUNTING
WHAT CAN ONE FIND OUT THERE? SOME PRETTY NEAT STUFF!
WHEN SOMEONE ASKS ABOUT MY PROFESSION, I VERY SELDOM EVER TELL THEM…..AT LEAST ON THE FIRST GO-ROUND, THAT I'M AN ANTIQUE DEALER……EVEN IF I'VE GOT MY ARMS FULL OF OLD STUFF. IF I TELL THEM I'M A WRITER, OR HISTORIAN, THEY'LL LOOK AT ME FUNNY, AS IF TO JUDGE WHETHER OR NOT I'M LIEING, AND THEN DECIDE TO PURSUE ANOTHER LINE OF QUESTIONING. IF I TOLD THEM I WAS AN ARCHIVIST / RESEARCHER, I'D GET THE SAME BLANK STARE, AS IF I'D TOLD THEM I WAS AN ALCHEMIST. IF THEY HAVE ANY QUESTION, IT WILL BE, "SO WHAT HAVE YOU RESEARCHED?" "ALIEN LIFE FORMS," I'D HASTILY RESPOND, WATCHING THEM BACK AWAY SLOWLY…..AS IF I MIGHT DECIDE TO STUDY THEM AS WELL.
IF I SAY I'M AN HISTORIAN, THEY DON'T KNOW WHAT TO MUSTER IN RESPONSE. IF THEY COULD THINK OF ANYTHING FAST, IT WOULD LIKELY BE, "OH THAT'S TOO BAD……HOW LONG HAVE YOU HAD THAT AFFLICTION." IF I WAS TO TELL THEM I WAS AN ANTIQUE DEALER, THAT'S THE CUE FOR WHIPPING OUT THE APPRAISAL LIST, THAT'S BEEN FOLDED-UP IN A POCKET OR PURSE SINCE THE LAST ANTIQUE ROADSHOW EVENT. FOR SOME REASON, PROBABLY BECAUSE OF THE ROAD SHOW POPULARITY, THEY THINK WE'RE ALL APPRAISERS UNDER THESE FINE FROCKS. TODAY WE RAN INTO A COUPLE OF FOLKS WE BECAME ACQUAINTED BY HAPPENSTANCE, AND SUZANNE HAD ALREADY LEAKED IT OUT THAT WE ARE ANTIQUE HUNTERS. A HALF AN HOUR LATER, AFTER DISCUSSING ALL THE PROS AND CONS OF COLLECTING WADE POTTERY AND FENTON GLASS, WE PULLED OURSELVES AWAY FROM THE HAPPY GANG, SO THAT WE COULD FIND A PIECE OR TWO BEFORE THE PICKINGS BECAME VERY THIN. IF SUZANNE HAD SAID WE ARE A COUPLE OF WRITER / RESEARCHERS, PLOTTING OUT OUR NEXT MOVIE SCRIPT, I GUARANTEE YOU THEY'D HAVE LOOKED AT US, AS IF WE WERE NUTTERS, AND WENT SPEEDILY ABOUT THEIR BUSINESS. WHILE I AM, OF COURSE, A SOCIABLE COLLECTOR, WE ARE ALSO BUSINESS FOLKS WHO OCCASIONALLY HAVE TO MAKE MONEY IN OUR PROFESSION…..NOT SIMPLY TALKING, OR IN THIS CASE, WRITING ABOUT IT. KEEP IN MIND, IN OUR REGION, WE ARE CRAWLING WITH COLLECTORS AND DEALERS, NOT TO MENTION A LOT OF KNEW DECORATOR-TYPES, ALL OF THEM QUITE CAPABLE OF BEATING ME OUT OF A NICE LANDSCAPE PAINTING, OR A BRONZE SCULPTURE……POSSIBLY A NUDE OR SEMI NUDE. IT'S LIKE ANTIQUE RUGBY OUT THERE. ONLINE AUCTIONS, AS I'VE NOTED PREVIOUSLY, HAVE CREATED A NEW RECKONING OF AN OLD PROFESSION, YET THE VOLUME OF FINDS IS MUCH LESS THAN I'VE SEEN OVER THE PAST TWENTY YEARS. SO IT GETS MORE SERIOUS, TRACKING DONE THE BIG FINDS.
One lady I know, who is a charming person and a long time friend, has a habit of sticking something she's found (while we're in the same store), beneath the tip of my big nose, so that my first sense of the subject article, is its scent. "What do you think of this Ted," she asks, but is really demanding a reaction of approval or not. I hate being put on the spot but it kind of comes with the territory. On occasion, she will do this, and it will be an antique piece I really want……and can't hide my jealousy that she found it first. So how do I handle this kind of conflict of interest. Very, very carefully. She had a guitar in her hand once, and it was a little gem. Once again, she felt it necessary to ask my opinion. Both my guitar-collecting boys were elsewhere in the store, at the time, and here was this nice little "Stella" acoustic, being waved two inches from my beak. "What about this one Ted…..is it a keeper?" Gads. The horns of a dilemma. Do I tell her it's garbage and severely over-priced…..which was a stretch considering it had a ten dollar price tag. So I felt it most important, to get myself out of this sticky wicket, by calling to Andrew to have a look at the guitar. Andrew explained what was wrong with it, showed her the "high action" of the strings on the fret-board, and the warped neck that would have to be repaired, in order to play it successfully. She looked at it, looked at Andrew, and said, "You will have a better use for this than I have," handed it to him, and walked away. I've had mates want to saddle up for a wee chat, while they're holding a painting or a sculpture I want, and I find it very difficult to have a nice conversation, when I feel compelled to wrestle it out of their hands. I hate myself for feeling this way, but if you collect yourself, you'll appreciate how vigorous the competition can get, when a desired piece comes between colleagues. A trade possibly? Maybe. It's when they ask me "so you know all about art……how much is this worth?" They don't really even want the painting, but they know I'm in the building, and they've got a few extra bucks to invest. I have seen these folks put art pieces back, and sometimes that might have been the result of my lackluster response and the non-appraisal. I will wait until they are gone, and jump all over it like two separated lovers. I won't have given an appraisal period, and that's what usually convinces them to put the paintings back. If they saw the green eyed monster, I'm pretty sure they'd complete the sales transaction. I'm not being dishonest, just not telling all I know. If they want to be art collectors, they'll put in the number of hours Suzanne and I have, to be more astute buyers.
As restrained and polite as I can be, out on the hustings, it is so competitive between dealers and collectors, and home decorators, that there is little time to dilly-dally with conversation. Usually, the only time it happens, is when a colleague has just combed the store, and what he, or she has in their grasp, is a bragging right, that they flex here and there, such that I get a good view of what I can't have. I'm a rigorous collector / dealer, and it's hard to tone down the competitive urges, especially when it comes to those areas I'm most attached….such as art, books and primitive pine furnishings. We're all pretty much the same, and Suzanne is right, when she points out, "Ted, you do the same thing when you meet other dealers." "I don't shove things in their faces," I retort, with injured pride, that I would ever be a showoff. "Are you kidding," she asks, hands on hips, stern-faced. "You did it last weekend, when you found that nice painting and then stood talking to that antique dealer you know from the city……making sure he had about a hundred different opportunities to see what was in your hand. You were loving every moment of it." "Yes but if I'd set that sucker down, for a second, he would have had it under his arm, over to the cash register, and into his vehicle, before I could have said…..'hey, that's mine'," I retaliated. "You do the same thing with quilts and Hudson's Bay blankets," I suggested, of her own bragging-rights, when she runs into one of her collecting mates. "Aren't they darling," she says, when her friends start fondling the arm-load of vintage quilts and blankets. "You are just as much into 'show and tell' as I am?" We both just stood there, staring at each other, wondering why we felt it necessary to berate ourselves for doing what comes quite naturally in the profession. I reminded her that what keeps us competitive is when we are faced with a situation, finding out that one of our professional colleagues out-played us, and the resulting jealousy makes us a little more mindful and aggressive the next outing.
Here's the contradiction that may already seem glaring to some of the readers of this blog. As I have written recently in "Curious; The Tourist Guide," about the "fun" of antiquing out there, and the joy of the motor-trip through this beautiful province, truthfully, it's all much more delightful when I get to the pine flat-to-the-wall before you……or the four or five art panels leaning against the split rail fence at an estate sale. As much as I love the trip, and take it much slower than when I was starting out as a kid trying to make a name for myself in the industry, Suzanne and I are trained to find stuff…..whether we do it on an amble, reading poetry verses to each other, or running and leaping through a flea market to outdo each other…….competition raging even between us. It doesn't mean we're not relaxed about the adventure, just that we're a little more viscous than I might have presented earlier in this series of blogs. It's true, we do listen to Mozart as we approach these sale venues. Mozart was a wildly competitive guy. It's our motivational music. The point is, the enjoyment of antique hunting is making it profitable. We're running a business. Of course we enjoy the trip and the picnics and all the stops along the way (except for automotive repairs). But we've been doing this for so long now, we've just got to feel we were victorious at least in part. Certainly we enjoy each other's company, but through much more competitive periods than this, we've hung together…..so even though we might look like entrants into the Great Race, we're pretty used to the weekly antique scrums at local markets and yards sales, where one of us, is going to come out a winner, the others, well, wieners. You can't take the competition out of the antique hunt. It's like denying that the Tomb Raiders were getting a rush……when we know precisely what that rush was……getting to the goodies before the competition. We're not tomb raiders, but we kind of work like that, when it comes to training for the very next antique sale.
Every now and again, a non-collector, who knows us from some community function, will ask "Are there any good finds left out there Ted?" I answer the same each time. "No, I think they've all been found by now." Then we talk about something else. Honestly, folks, there are thousands upon thousands of good finds out there, waiting to be discovered. Antique and collectible pieces that are worth many times the asking price. It is now, and has always been worth the effort, to seek them out. Today, for example, was a rainy, misty, dull morning, but the motor trip (in our new van) was just as invigorating as it always is in the antique profession. We were able to find a nice old garage piece, (we know it has a proper name), on wheels, used by a mechanic to slide back and forth under vehicles…..what a nice patina beneath the layers of grease. Andrew is restoring it, to be used for one of his music studio amplifiers, so he can move it easily when needed. It was ten bucks. We found a neat 1980's push-button wall phone, that will go with their 1980's vintage vinyl (in their shop);a wonderful book on Canada's Historic Theatre buildings (Andrew and Robert also work at the beautifully appointed Gravenhurst Opera house), and lucky Suzanne, found an amazing little folio, in one of the second hand shops, dated 1918…..significant because it features a town in France, that was totally destroyed by the German invasion, which began in 1914, showing the before and after photographs of the historic buildings, and the aftermath of being destroyed by the occupiers.
The book was issued in about 1918, after the Government of France presented this razed community the legendary "Legion of Honour" citation. The booklet's opening reads as follows: "LENS, before the war, (prior to 1914), was a town counting 50,000 inhabitants (the most important coalery centre in France). About 4 million tons of coal were extracted every year from the sixteen pits belonging to the Lens' Coalery Company. After three years of life under the German's thrust, quite near the front, the inhabitants have known exile after having obliged to give up their homes. The TORTURED TOWN is no more, but an immense heap of rubbish. In spite of it all, love for the native land has brought back to this day, three thousand inhabitants, who are living in the caves or else in shelters which they built themselves. The Government of the Republic has just rewarded the city for its noble attitude before the enemy by dignifying it with the Legion of Honour."
The Citation reads, "Heroic city, which can be quoted as a paragon of heroism and patriotic faith. Fallen under the German's power, since the first hours of 1914's invasion; has been during four years alternatively the witness of the stake of a merciless fight. Organized by the enemy in a formidable retreat of defense; partly freed by an allied offensive; mutilated and crushed during incessant fights, has never doubted of the country's fate (War Cross)." You can see the image of the cross on the reprinted front cover. The photographs in the folio show the devastation the city faced, giving the view the opportunity to see the magnificent architecture before the bombs, and sadly, following them. It is a remarkable little book, inspired by the victory over the Germans in the First World War. Here it was, stuck into a pile of brochures and handbooks, on the unassuming book shelf. It pays to never leave a stone….or book unturned. I have included a number of images of the book, and the before and after photographs, of this French community of "LENS."
We have more outings planned this week, and many more scrums with the local dealerr-kind. We're feeling fit. And, well, it's a vacation week, and we're going to enjoy our travels throughout our beautiful district of Muskoka. Come and have a gander.
Thanks for joining today's antiquing blog. Please visit again.
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