Careless and Callous - Accumulation of Inherited (Antiquarian) Art - Part Five - "Ample"

Careless and Callous:

Accumulation of Inherited (Antiquarian) Art

Part Five

"Ample"

            I do not

            Worry about it

            Much

            Anymore:

            The “keep”

            Or the abandonment

            Of inherited (antiquarian) art

            In the home.

            The pattern is established to my eye and the formula of that pattern has been shown to you (Parts One through Four) so

            More often then naught I am a ‘merely’ “again” looking over and through some other old antiques picker’s craft and slight of hand.  “Okay” I say to all that and noting that “markets change” (in their short terms) for the various ‘old things’ but the classics and standard bearers of the realm of ‘good’ ‘antiques’ has not faltered.  And does not.  Tawdry users of the that word; “antiques”, continue the old school traditions of beeline value valuations (careless and callous) and ‘don’t know’.  The ratio is about the same as from when I started all this (antiques hunting) now fifty years ago.  I would like to say I find it vulgar... that in this day and age they be so that; ‘careless and callous’ but... I don’t.  I find it pathetic and amusing.

            The ‘ample’ of my now long work experience ‘in the houses’ and with the keepers of the keep... or the their abandonment of the ‘their things’ is

            As natural as puddles after rain.

            So natural is the domestic domain of the variable of careless and callous and the resulting ‘keep’ or abandonment... that I harvest the singular result that is “I cannot fail”.  So much ‘is in there’; the old New England private homes... in such disarray... and in the handling-of-all-this... beeline value... that it (the contents of the old homes) has more often become a messy baby’s diaper.  It is so messy that one, alone, ‘cannot change it’.

            I don’t do anything about that.  I do not try to be reasonable about that.  I do not even ‘get in the way’.

            Usually, when I finally do arrive on the scene, it has taken a while for the true ‘careless and callous’; the established pure décor (Part Four), to be bandied in its wholeness to message the principals (heirs and executer, etc) that their special needs... need me.  I am speaking of a ‘really’; the décor of true careless and callous; the depth of that (Part Four), that is ‘so that’ that... oddly... I do get ‘in there’.  After dispersing the less experienced (and less professional) rabble; the “I want to be” and “I CAN DO THIS” (they cannot), I soon find myself alone ‘in there’ wrapping cordage around drawers full of ‘not looked at’ and “getting it all... out of there”.

            That may take years; decades.  That is the part most hidden in a careless and callous décor distribution.  It all just does not ‘get dumped’ in one swoop.  No.  It is ‘pieced’.  I do that: the ‘pieced’.  Everyone enjoys that; it is not a bumpy road or a violent rip.  It is not a scream, a horror show, a trashing or a crass rummage.  In fact, managed amply, ‘rummage’ is ‘never’ ‘anything’.  Even the worst (a TV table, for example) leaves on ‘fair terms’ with no screaming and, often, a friendly pat.  The drawer may be tied shut and never looked in but ‘amply’ is a satisfactory ‘carry out’ the front door.

            The first time I purchased (purloined?) a true ‘careless and callous’ estate’s contents, I, after a period of mired in abundance, discerned that ‘one may live off these’ estates for years.  That is what is ‘done with them’.  If I don’t get (by contents purchase agreement) the estate contents all up front, the estate contents usually becomes ‘a mine’ that I ... mine... for decades.  The heirs may ‘do that too’.  Mining; a mining operation.  Over decades.  There is that much stuff... ‘in there’.  Long term mining is easier on everyone; a flock of small decisions are easier than a ‘battle plan’ clean out that often, in fact, requires an army and precise maneuvers.  I know of what I speak.  Well.

            The steady hand on the helm of the old New England ‘careless and callous’ ‘accumulation of (antiquarian) art’... allows the whole to slip through the shallow harbors, avoid prying eyes, avoid ‘dock fees’, avoid consumer disclosures and, taking the last a little further, avoid inventory of... and lists of... “anything”.  Presented properly below radar, a careless and callous ‘old New England’ estate contents is one of the richest ‘surface deposits’ of undistributed assets... in old New England.  But again; note the ‘steady hand on the helm’ phrase.  I do not need or want a dizzy wrecking ball yabbering about ‘VALUE’, ‘MONEY’ and... “ME”.

            Around.

            Usually, the historic tradition of the contents; its careless and callous strength, and the maturity of the heirs in the community (a sixth sense) allows the steady hand process.  Annual distributions from the contents (“mining”) over... several decades... is a “the best way”.  Eventually it gets down to ‘the dregs’?  Reminding of “THE (kitchen) DRAWERS ARE FULL” (Part Three) state and the “rich enough” clause (Part Four), one may denote that any ‘dregs’ may well be ‘way above’ in quality from comparison with ‘any old average’ estates kitchen drawer contents.  If the contents is as it should be; a true careless and callous contents, then ‘there are no dregs’ in there.  The mine... is gold.  Commercially, ‘it is all good’.

            If sterling silver butter knives are scattered in the closed drawers of the estate’s furniture... after once being called to serve to ‘pry open’ or act as if a screwdriver... now “bent” and tossed into a closed drawer...:  If one discerns that... and has that status complimented by the discernment of scattered sterling silver teaspoons... “here and there” too... one may take that train of discernment for a very inclusive grasp of the... logical... deductive... status of the whole (true careless and callous old New England estate contents).  And bet on that.

            Again:  And bet on that.

            Yes, that is right:  Gamble.

            If the careless and callous estate’s qualities are symbolically represented by old bent sterling silver butter knives ‘tossed’... then one may take that to show the wealth and quality of the whole estate?  Then turn with that informed deduction and

            Buy it all

            By gamble (“sight unseen”).

            This very last is where the “you” are not “there” and only a scattered few “I” show up with the abilities to market this gamble.  If... one has actually seen those butter knives in a careless and callous décor as I describe... then, possibly, “you know”... but may still be hesitant to gamble.  If one ‘has not seen this’ (tossed sterling silver butter knives)... then all of this will probably appear to be a vague confusion that would, at a ‘least’, “require” you look it over (examine the contents carefully; the beeline value valuation noted earlier).  That alone; consideration of doing that, in my realm, takes you out.  The “they” of the estate rarely want a “you” “doing that”.  I am saying I put my money down, tie the drawer shut and carry it all (the estate contents) off ‘without looking’.  Most ‘would never’ (have the... well... ‘bone of back’ to) ‘do that’.  And... THAT

            IS THAT.

            Now that I have spoken (in five blog post chapters) of and about ‘careless and callous inheritance of (antiquarian) art, I feel confident that I have, at the least, taken this estate setting to an expanded definition of its neglect.  I have too... turned this estate form back on itself to show it as a true state of estate contents wealth; a singular and notable ‘rich peoples’ way.  Between these two realms one finds very little wiggle room if one is trying to squeeze through the ‘door opened a crack’.  Most visitors have only an accidental and momentary ‘peek’.  Others have the residue gleanings of

            What ‘they’

            “Got”  (“From my mother’s house”)

            that they “think is good”

            And want to “SHOW THAT TO YOU” (me)

            Yuck.

            I prefer the pure strain... and pursue only that.  Messy inheritance with the ‘come and go’ distribution... assures a hurried and definitively stated “I WANT” then taken out and... taken away... leaving

            “The Rest”.

            This ‘the rest’ is so dense and of such consistent quality that my “I” (eye) needs only a blurred view, rapidly ‘walked through’ to, these days, assure a ‘gamble’.  It is little gamble I suspect the reader now discerns.  Simply that much, that good, that dense and I get it all... ALL... out.  Too.  I don’t talk about it:

            The “careless and callous accumulation of inherited (antiquarian) art” and

The estates from whence it comes.

            This is the first time I have ever spoken or written of it at all.