"It's Been Two Years" - Part Four - "The Store... Is Then... WHAT?"

"It's Been Two Years"

Part Four

"The Store... Is Then... WHAT?"

            What is the point

            Of doing this?

            If I am willing to spend over two years financially backing and silent partnering a fellow antiques picker to ‘clean out’ a woman’s seven room basement ‘apartment’ complex that she has filled with... not only antiques but an abundance of ‘good quality’ ‘other things’... why do this; what do I get and... what do I want?

            The simple... and crude... base of this... is economic... one would wish.  For Seacus it certainly is.  Truck load after truck load of ‘clean out’ is... ‘worth money’ “barrel head”.  He is delighted.

            I have a more moderate view.  “Yes, yes... antiques”.  And that IS what they are from that basement warren; “antiques”.  No question about it she’s got some and... out they come and... “GOOD BYE” they are... sold.  It’s magic?

            No.

            It is dull?

            Yes.

            There are plenty... of plenty... OF PLENTY ‘antiques’ ‘out there’ (available in all formats twenty four – seven).  Very, very... VERY little is precious.  MOSTLY MOST ALL ‘antiques’ tangent off toward... ‘used merchandise’ from their sphere of ‘being antique’.  Yes that is it; no shortage of supply, no being thrown out at the dump, no exclusive admittance only, no fawning over, no... iota of iota about the iota of “THAT IS AN ANTIQUE”.  This carries promptly to “THOSE ARE MY ANTIQUES”.  And stall there.  And then go back through the system to ...do it all over again until it is, again, in the divine setting of... “MY ANTIQUES”.  How many, for example, early New England ‘pierced tin barn lanterns’ are there?

            I have found as many as four scattered in one barn of one single estate.  Extended to include the ‘to this day’ last FORTY years of ‘quality’ ‘new’ or ‘reproduction’ pierced tin barn lanterns and INCLUDING the EXCLUSION of BAD quality ‘new’ ‘pierced tin barn lanterns’ (the plethora of ‘south of the border’ ‘third world’ ‘made’ ‘pierced tin barn lanterns’)... not only is there ‘no shortage’, a ‘you can get one’ marketplace and... a “IT IS ANTIQUE” divined status... but: 

            “No one knows” that I have ‘lighted them’ for decades; put an old candle nub in them and ‘go around’ with ‘it’ as a... flashlight.  They are abundant because they worked well; gave good dependable light.  And would not ‘blow out’ in the barnyard breezes and... would not... set the barn on fire even if the tipped over (an original safety lantern).  They ‘give off’ a calliope of slatted candlelight that is charming and has a modest environmental footprint meaning that the lantern and its light are ‘pleasant’ to ‘use’.  But no one I talk to ever brings them up as a ‘this context’.  MOST context are commercial statements or, in second place, a decorative statement:  “I BOUGHT” an antique pierced tin lantern and “I HUNG IT UP” “OVER THERE” “SEE?” “WHAT DO YOU THINK?”.

            End of it; the wholeness of the package.

            “I’m out”.  I just never say anything to anyone about ‘pierce tin barn lanterns’ any more.  I am constantly finding them.  And ‘buying and selling them’.  I just don’t ‘say’ ‘anything to anyone’.

            I don’t find them dull.

            I do find their usual (when I encounter them) ‘wholeness of the package’... dull.

            So what do I want?

            As tangent from “I am a dealer so buy and sell” “THEM” and to include the “I KNOW ALL ABOUT WHAT THESE ARE” to further include that I have “FOUND MANY IN THEIR ORIGINAL undisturbed SETTINGS”... it is only, these days, the near archeological discovery by a lone “I” that... ‘drives me’ ‘about them’.  For example, while creeping an old farm’s back porch; that is... I was crawling under the porch floor, rummaging for debris in the dark in this ‘underneath’, I found... way towards the far end front... an old and very real ‘pieced tin barn lantern’ lying on its side in the wet darkness.  Rusted away on its bottom third, covered with rust elsewhere and ‘still having’ its candle door and holder and that both of these ‘still worked”... I was... lying there wistfully lost in wonder of this ‘this is WONDERFUL’ under that porch.  I stayed ‘with this’ until... I... well... ‘came to’ meaning that my dream state of appreciation faded into ‘should get out of here... ‘with this’ (the lantern).  That rusted relic lantern continued my... ‘love at first sight’, ‘love it’, ‘having it around love’ and the ‘huh; that was just a GREAT one’ love of it being about... for quite a while.

            Then I sold it.  After puffing (sales pitching) it as a ‘how great one’... ‘this one’... ‘is’.

            That cycle... written down above... IS... the answer to the opening question:

            “What is the point

            Of doing this?

            I am unwilling to ‘explore this’ question further (deeper).  That’s not the way of the ‘love it’...; not the way a ‘this’ ‘is’ or ‘works’.  It is the other way:  IT FLEETS.  And:  It does bring us back to the Captain Snow estate, Helen’s basement and, of course... Cadence living IN the Captain Snow mansion... titled Defiance... with that mansion being a ‘it’s FULL of ANTIQUES’.

            “How dull?”

            Now... back at the start of these... fomentations... treating the Captain Snow mansion and estate contents... it was James Hutton who was ‘first through the door’ ‘into Helen’s cellar’ and... after planning to ‘sell’ his plunder to the ‘his current customer of choice’; the then newly ‘opened’ The Gallery antiques shop ( Posts “Hutton Loots Cransmore [1 and 2] continuing to “Tote Bag Courtesans” [1 and 2]) he ended up selling almost all of ‘his load’ to... me.  ALMOST all... in that he kept for himself a ...broken Japanese  red, blue and gold floral decorated porcelain bowl... for the specific reason that “THIS BOWL”... came from the Captain Snow estate and was brought to the estate by old Captain Snow himself on his boat... in the 1840’s-1850’s so... to James.... AND ME... that bowl was understood to be ‘a great one’ even though it was only an old broken bowl that ‘no one wants’. HE... would not sell that bowl.  Did I “want” that bowl?

            YES.

            He went away and the bowl went with him.

            THEN... I heard that he ‘had it out’ ‘for sale (?)’ ‘on the counter’ beside his ‘watching the store’ perch at The Gallery where he was (that first summer)... and still is... ‘summering’ (has a summer season antiques picker’s roust ‘watching shop’).  He is a very poor employee of ‘watching shop’; the doing actual antiques business FOR the STORE.  He does his OWN business and... otherwise ogles the “tote bag trollops”: who ‘come into the store’, ‘walk around’, “buy nothing” and ‘leave’.  The trollops and all others... NEVER query, handle or even touch Hutton’s old broken bowl from the ‘Captain Snow mansion’ sitting on the front counter.  He does not notice or care about that for ‘that is normal’ ‘for this’ (broken bowl).

            But there it sat, on the counter... ‘for sale’.  It wasn’t really for sale.  It was a, sort of, trap.  IF...someone actually picked the bowl up, examined it and... well... fussed with it in anyway... these actions suggest to Hutton’s knowing eye that this THEY might actually know what the bowl ‘is’ (sans the Captain Snow history) and... therefore, might actually know ‘a real antique’ so... therefore... ‘might have prospects’ (might actually buy good antiques from old New England estates from... James Hutton).  Carefully, then... Hutton’s attention was... perked.  VERY, VERY, VERY few... if “ANY” ever... touched the bowl.  Including the owners of The Gallery.  For this last... they never even saw the bowl except in a ‘passing’ because Hutton ALWAYS “put the bowl away when I leave”

            Hutton, as part of the shop-sitting, IS ‘allowed’ to ‘have a few things’ ‘for sale’ WITH a ‘mindful’ to NOT conflict with ‘the owners’... “STUFF”.  What that actually means is that IF one is a ‘real’ ‘antiques dealer’ one comes to The Gallery when Hutton ‘is there’ and the THEY (“owners”) are NOT there and... go to Hutton’s car parked outside and VISIT HIS ANTIQUES SHOP (in his car) and BUY antiques from HIM... THERE... with no one being  a wiser or ...thinking anything unusual ‘about doing this’.

            WHY?  Because the ‘stock’ of ‘antiques’ ‘for sale’ in shops like The Gallery...

            “SUCK” meaning they are, even though they ARE antiques... DULL, STANDARD, ‘off the rack’, ‘paid too much’ ‘over priced’ “PLENTY of ANTIQUES” grade...  that “NO ONE WANTS”... except strolling “IDIOTS” “IN THE SUMMER” (July 2^nd to the morning of Labor Day).

            Hutton understands this.

            I understand this.

            Everyone who has anything to do with ‘real antiques’... understands this.

            AND HOW THIS UNDERSTANDING WORKS.

            The women with the tote bags ‘don’t buy’ ANYTHING.

            The store; The Gallery... is, then... WHAT?