Careless and Callous - Accumulation of Inherited (Antiquarian) Art - Part One - "Admiration"

Careless and Callous

Accumulation of Inherited (Antiquarian) Art

Part One

"Admiration"

Accumulation of inherited (antiquarian) fine art

And

Accumulation of inherited (antiquarian) decorative art

And

I won’t touch the rare books

In the domestic library.

            Those are not ‘rare’

            Anyway.

            ‘Careful’ is always my first step, when offered a chance to admire.  I suppose it is ‘admire’.  That is never said (stated).  Admire... that is quite the word to use... ‘of inheritance’.  So that is another ‘issue’ I notice right away:  There is ‘the stuff’ and there is the

            Admiration of ‘the stuff’.  A fork in the road

            That is careless and callous.

            Okay so that doesn’t look like it could be fun... does it... should one be

            “Called to carpet”.  Especially if that (old) carpet was “upstairs in that room I never go in who would have thought (that by preserving) the carpet in there (from pet pee et al)”:

            “I knew it was there and I want it.” retorted one of the heirs”.  They didn’t get it in the end.

            I did

            They... “wouldn’t pay THAT for it”.  They retorted.

            Are we having fun or a raucous?  “Damn if I know!”  Or care.  Except for... the consideration of ‘accumulation’.  If they don’t buy the good rug then they are choosing their inherited rugs between ‘leavings and scrapings’.  The other old carpets in the rooms ‘are nothing’.  But their ‘value’ seems low enough that they could be... almost... ‘free’.

            “I thought inheriting art (fine and decorative) was free.  I didn’t realize that it was appraised.  And I didn’t realize... that is I thought... when it was said ‘to be appraised’ that this was anything more than denoting the ‘things’ that are ‘nice’

            In the house

            (Estate).”

            “Oh... that’s too bad.”

            Yes:  “Free”.  The collection ...one has... was “free”.  I know... it is no longer free.  The ‘collection’ is ‘valuable’.  Or is it an accumulation

            Of inherited decorative and fine art

            Of modest merit and monetary value that

            Due to consideration of those aspects, one has

            “Got them” (the inherited art ‘that’)

            And keep it

            To foist an ‘admire’

            Here, there and “I am where?”

            That.... to the knowing (art trained) “I” (eye)...

            Is careless and callous.

            “OH GOD:  We are STUCK in the MUCK.”

            “Oh... now... just back out graciously and shut-up.  Everyone has had enough of  the ‘admire’ of the ‘inherited’

            Anyway.

            It was so much easier when the ‘call to carpet’ was still upstairs in the ‘guest bedroom’ where the dogs never peed on it.  “I DIDN’T KNOW”

            Is careless and callous

            (Crass and tacky)

            “Yikes”.

            “Oh just hang it in the front hall”.  No one will ever think that painting actually shows off what you know about ‘art’ (your taste) (unqualified) and antiquarian fine art.  “English gentlemen do not accumulate old fine art”  They collect?  Hardly.  One time; it was whimsical, “he bought that”.  It was after lunch and the painting was in the gallery’s window.  He ‘liked it”.

            Slow down is what I do.  Next.  One day one time one painting bought once... there... hanging there.   (I) Don’t say anything.  They will never know.  “Let’s look around at ALL the OTHER paintings (you have in your

            inherited

            Collection”).

            You know; a ‘good’ painting should take your breath away when you first see it.  It’s not an ‘oh THERE is ONE; an old oil painting... in its frame.  Yes:  THERE.  About halfway down the hall on the left.  Or on the wall of the ‘first floor stair landing’.  Or... “they put it way back up in the attic after he died we found it”.  That’s always fun... to find.

            But keep in mind

            It should take one’s breath away.

            If it doesn’t do that then it is an ‘is one’.  No question about it:  It IS ONE, an inherited fine art awaiting the ‘your accumulation’ that I am shown to... ‘admire’.

            And spend the rest of it (tour of admiration) hoping I can ‘get through’ without the “WE ARE

            THINKING

            OF SELLING

            IT (the inherited accumulation).”

            “I am NOT thinking of BUYING

            IT (the inherited accumulation).”

            So I admire it a little more

            And step out the door

            “So careless and callous of you.”

            Yes... but it works.

            Wasp etiquette is what happens next.  It (the inherited accumulation) just sits there.  Like it always has.  No one ever collected.  They accumulated.  When it was free.  “KEEPING THAT” they did for seven generations.  “Now we’re cleaning out”.  “Down sizing”.  “Getting rid of some THINGS”

            “We don’t want”.

            “Didn’t ever BOTHER with this before.  Suppose we should have.  Quite a SURPRISE.  There is an old INVENTORY.  We gave it to the lawyer.  He’s having it looked into.  Suppose to be someone to come along and look.  Cannot suppose you’ll be the only one.  Several opinions will show the better value I’m SURE.  FATHER always said THAT ONE was an especially GOOD PAINTING.  It doesn’t feel right to just take it down from the wall like that watch you just walk out the DOOR with it.  Better we look into it some more.  Really:  Most of the artworks are quite good you know.  ‘LISTED ARTISTS’ they said.  The inventory has that typed in bold.

            Do I get through this?  Or does it get through to you?  Or both.  Whenever?  Hard to say isn’t it.  Why?  Because you don’t know.  Careless and callous is the knowing one of inherited (fine and decorative) art.  They “like” “that” and “want” “that” and show me “THAT” and “were wondering if” “THAT” is “if we talk to my brother, I THINK it is actually HIS WIFE who WANTS...

            “Well we don’t really know what to do since the appraisal was done.  We didn’t KNOW.”

            That we would

            BUY IT

            (actually)

            FROM the estate.  WE THOUGHT WE ARE the estate.  But that (the estate) is actually right here and WE have to come HERE  to it

            “And admire it?”

            “Yes, I guess that is a way of looking at it isn’t it; admiration.  What happens next?”

            Distribution.

Old New England Glassware in the Home - Part Twenty-One - "Summarily; Terse and Blunt"

Old New England Glassware in the Home

Part Twenty-One

"Summarily; Terse and Blunt"

            Old New England glassware

            In the home:

            It is in

            The bottom of the cupboard

            In your grandmother’s

            Dining room.

            She has ‘kept that there’

            Since she inherited that

            From her mother

            Who kept that there

            After she inherited that

            From her

Grandmother and then...

            Kept that there.  Too.

            Everything (in the cupboard bottom)

            Was doing just fine until

            “I cleaned that out” and

            “Gave ‘it’ to the church”.

            Where it was said:

            “That is for the set of eight.

            Can you carry those alright?”

            To me.

            Unpleasantly, for me (I do not care about the reader), I need to be summarily... terse and blunt.  I do not like that... because I find that dull; no dancing verbiage.  And no romance ‘of tale’.  With one seated before the empty and clean plate (‘about’ old New England glassware in the home) I now briskly fill; serve-up.

            Established that we are of the context of “NOW” I have suggested (Part Twenty) three physical characteristics of the “THEY”

            “ARE EARLY”

            “ONES”?:

            Heft of the metal, ground and polished pontil and... fire polished rim.  I add the topic of ‘the metal’ (glass; molten glass, cooled glass).  I add the press mold process.  The press mold itself.  The pattern on the pressed molded glass.  These, too, are physical quality aspects that are ‘there-then’ too; the ‘back then’ the our “NOW” may NOW discern to be a ‘back then’...:  These TOO... were of the little antebellum window (in time).  Then... I add:   The

            Glass

            WARE.

            Too.

            It is the ware... of ‘glass’.  (“Where?”).  We are now ready for that... again; a reminder.  I have established, here spoken as summarily; terse and blunt... that there was NO glass... ware... in the ...old New England home (Part Two).  We, in this essay, have followed this trail of no glassware.  To find ourselves with “THEN” ‘they made’ “glassware” “for the home” (the butter dish; Part Eighteen).  WE need to remind that when ‘they’ made ‘that’ ‘back then’ they... had no context to compare... therefore discern... what ANY sort of “MADE” was... because it had ‘never been’ ‘made’ ‘before’ (glass metal design innovations.  Note plural).

            “NOW” we may so easily discern... the qualities... for we have ample supplies of decadent glassware to... ah... ‘compare’; compare a 1970’s juice glass with an... 1840’s “tumbler”... and... easily

            Discern ‘the difference’.  Should one care to.

            But they, back then... did not for there was no ‘that’ to ‘do that’.  They just ‘made it’; their ‘that’.  And then destroyed it.

            Of course they did not feel THAT; that they destroyed it.  No.  They believed they “IMPROVED” it.  But from our “NOW”... we have questioned that and

            Concluded... that... “no”... their ‘improvements’ actually represent a

            Perpetual

Decline in the quality of and the manufacture of...

The old New England glassware in the home.

I am not the one who ‘did that’; discerned the decadence.  No.  The discern of the ‘that’ was well established before I... quit my seventh grade (news) paper delivery route and ‘turned the pro’(1967) of ... feeling for ground and polished pontils... with my... own little fingers.  I, myself, never thought about the ‘how they’ ‘that’ of EAPG for, well... how about ‘a quarter century’.   NOTICE:  I was, in and of that quarter century, VERY adamant that one ‘should know’.  BUT NOW... at a half century... I’m the ‘You know what:  DRINK FROM YOUR crummy juice glass... you idiot.  I ‘don’t care’.  And that minister is about to find this out (Part Twenty).

This does not change ‘it’; the “NOW” and “back then”.  I will expostulate (pontificate?) all over this decadence.  It’s easy to do; it’s ‘in your face’ easy ...to do.  It is ‘touch my lips’ vulgar.  Properly understood... one should... being of informed taste (‘discernment’ Part Eighteen)... on this... actually rather broad ‘of daily contact’ (of one’s lips in fact) ‘design of (in) one’s lifetime... glassware... iota... one either... ‘improves’.... or ‘remains of that’

            Ilk.

            The ‘I don’t care’ of the ‘if you know’ and ‘if you care’ wins.

            It’s an old adage... in the antiquarian trade.  Very simplified I:  IF one is going to have a painting on a wall for one’s ‘those’ to ‘see’ one should be sensitive that this painting be a ‘good enough good one’ and ...and.... AND privately address the “would I know a ‘good enough good one’ MYSELF and then there... should then there... HIRE someone who DOES to get YOU a ‘good enough good one’ so that WHEN... the ‘those’ ‘see it’ they... WELL:  Most of ‘those’ who ‘see it’ wouldn’t know either so... well... yeah?  NO.  EVERY NOW and then a ‘those’ who ‘does know’ may (could) ‘happen along’ and they... in the quarter second glance will ‘take the bait’ of the painting YOU ‘hung there’ and either will.. be enraptured with... well.... delight or... be enraptured with

            “Yikes”.

            Getting a pro to do the dirty job of having a ‘good enough good one’ on YOUR wall... protects a serious OPEN BOOK visiting ‘those’ may read.  This assemblage of taste carries OFF the wall and to the GLASSWARE that ‘touches lips’

            “Oh.”

            That’s good enough for now?

            NOT WHEN IT IS USED as a hidden-from-self insult TO ALL who ‘touch lips’.

            The assemblage of ‘in the home’ is a very serious undertaking.  Glassware usually is ‘blown off’.  This is usually ‘blatant’ to discern.  Funky show and tell of décor objects ‘acquired’ for one’s decorum; “oh please’.  If you have a mid level chest of drawers that you “FOUND” at a “SALE” and ‘believe’ it is ‘Chippendale’ while you offer... ‘instant’ ice tea in ‘my mom’s’ “THE MINT’S FROM THE YARD” (Part Fifteen ) ‘ice tea glasses’ (a design form)...:  OK?  The nightmare goes from there so... BE VERY careful; someone who ‘does know’ might

            Show

            Up

            Someday... by accident?

            What I’ve just said is; summarily terse and blunt... that it is better for one to

            KNOW

            Before one endeavors to

            SHOW

            The ‘your collection’ in the

            YOUR

            ‘Old New England’

            This is, of course, qualified by remembering that it is... ‘ok’... to have listened to

            Your grandmother and her generation... and her previous generations... to

            Ah...

            ‘Get with the program’

            ‘On this’

            Keeping your wallet closed and your art eyes open (opening)... maybe one is starting to get to where the

            Glassware

            In the cupboard bottom

            “They are early ones”...?

            Remember the old girls at the church sale (Part Fifteen).  They listened to their grandmother so

            They do know.

            And... know you don’t

            Know...

            As instantly as I do.

            The worse ‘thing’ one can do “NOW” is to

            Suggest

            That one does know.

            It is better to give great grandmother’s glassware to the church sale than it is to... endeavor to suggest that ‘you’ ‘do know’ when

            You don’t.

            I get revenge.

            At the church sale.

            So ‘NOW’... if I buy the diamond point pattern EAPG at the church sale for ZERO DOLLARS for a set of EIGHT

            (Including the broken one that was hidden in the

            Heating grate)....

            And a month later MR. Minister is gurgling his sherry, setting ‘it’ (his glass) down and ...staring across the room and

            Then has the ball-dash-to-me to say (inquire?)

            “IF YOU EVER HAVE A SET OF THESE for sale I’D LIKE TO BUY THEM”.

            (THEY ARE FOR SALE SIR)

            But not to you.

Coon Hill - Part Ten - "Stop! Thief!"

Coon Hill

Part Ten

"Stop!  Thief!"

            The puzzle on table number three.  Instead of offering to art-wise and commercially explain a... 19^th century cast steel and painted ‘sculpture’ of a young girl ‘at quoits’ (ring toss) on her, she slipper footed, lawn, (probably French but possibly Austrian...):  Instead of that I will also not ...art-wise and commercially explain... the old English Victorian cottage figurine of the fox hunter, the fox, his dogs and his horse... with their vibrant polychrome color and ‘characteristic’ worn gilt gold highlights... once ‘tied by a ribbon’ and ‘hung on a wall”?  “OH that’s just old (fireplace) mantel TRASH”... here found in a rural Maine farm THREE THOUSAND MILES from where it was ‘made’.

            Why not be fair to all of the antiquarian imports to the ‘this estate clean out’ that have been found by I and pitched on ‘table three’.  I like the possibilities of the little painting best for it is... ‘of that ilk’ yet “AMERICAN” (New England).  Too.

            It; the little old painting in its ...original gilt gold frame ‘as framed by the artist’ and ...sold so... at the... local... gallery ‘downtown’.  Gallery downtown?

            Why of course for this little bitch (sight size four by six inches) of an ‘oil painting’, ‘artist signed’, has a ‘gallery label’ ‘intact’ and a... ‘still there’ too... on the original gallery framed dust paper on its back... too.  “SEE?”:  it says “Walter Heywood... Providence, Rhode Island”.  That is just where the artist ‘lived’, ‘painted’ and, well, TRIED to ‘sell these’ (paintings he painted that ...look just like this one).

            He was a busy man though; this artist; Walter Whitaker, a ‘the dean of Providence painters’.  How does one get to be that?  Well Walter did by becoming ‘the first instructor of oil painting at the Rhode Island School of Design’.  What a bad boy he was.

            And he painted ‘these’; this little tiny signed framed-in-gilt-gold... Victorian re-do of seventh century type Dutch ...still life... to be... including the frame and the gallery label... ‘hung’ (displayed for sale)... so a ‘walk in the door’ “women mostly” of ‘obvious fine taste’ “MAY I BUY THAT ONE.  TODAY.  PLEASE”.  And she did.

            She took Walter’s work home and... leaving it in the brown paper it was carefully wrapped in at the gallery... took it with her

            On the train

            To Maine.

            “I just thought that Estonia should SEE a pretty picture when she

            Wakes up in the morning”.

            That’s how it ‘got there’; into the little room in the attic chamber of an old, old, very old... old farm... in

            Maine.

            I am the one taking it ‘out of there’.  NOT YOU or anyone else.  EVER.  Just me... stealing it.  And I know exactly what it is too.  It is an American ...Victorian... painting.  Is it American art?  I know that too; the answer.  Why don’t you try... to answer.  Too.

            “Typical of his work” isn’t it.

            Does that mean that ...to me... the BEST thing about this painting is that it was ‘in there (the old Maine farm) and ‘up there’ (in the chamber room) and that it was I who ‘found it’ and

            Put it

            On ‘puzzle table three’.

            There is nothing wrong with the painting... and its package (frame, dust paper, gallery label, et al).  In fact it is in PERFECT CONDITION... because... no one, including Estonia, ever cared about it ‘being there’ at all.  I am, I am confident, the ‘first person’ to ‘do that’; ‘care’.  Your number two.  IF you do care.

            That means the ‘other stuff’ ‘like that’ I found ‘in there’ too?  Yes.  That’s where that stuff came from:  on a train... to Maine.  “Cultural enrichment” endeavors by well meaning and well healed “FAMILY”.  It worked too:  All of the boys went to Bowdoin.  Then were killed in a war.  No one... in the old, old Maine farm... ‘collected’ “ART”.  They just ...had some around.

            For me.

            To find.

            And steal.

The puzzle on table number two.  Is too... about art.  But here, by my divination upon discerning the ‘old stuff’ ‘in there’... it is about ‘American (New England) Art’.  I:

            Eye

            And was pleased and relieved... to ‘find’ ‘that’ ‘in there’.  I put that stuff on table two and

            Stole it

            Too.

            Now I know the glance-of-eye that separates that on table two from that on table three.  I know that it is NOT I and my EYE that has divided the discernment so I and my eye ‘don’t have to worry about that’ for finer eye than I have, have very long, ‘done that’.  And I will speak to that ...with the thief; I will specifically discourse with him ‘about art’ when I return us (Part Two at the end) to I speaking with the thief when we are alone together in the old house... and together with that (the able two and table three stuff)... too. 

            BUT:  I touch for support... now...  of that-coming-later, a notice of the helpful NEED to ‘work with’ ‘design’ ...as I go along... doing this (clean out old Maine estates).  SO I just mentioned above ‘The Rhodes Island School of Design’.  What does that mean?  It means ‘art school’.

            And ‘school’ means ‘studying design’?

            Do I care

            If you care?

            No.

            I... at table two brushed off (the attic dust off) two... old... paint... brushes.  “YES; PRETTY”.  Actually not.  Visually they are a bit of a ponder for they are ...design forms... not encountered (‘old paint brushes’) so the first view may perplex.  The two I found; a ‘household set’ of a ‘big one and a little bit smaller one’ ‘identically made’ ‘hand made’ by a ‘once’ a ‘brush maker’.  A crafts person who made paint brushes and...:  Could one make a living in 19^th century rural Maine making ‘paint’ ‘brushes’?  Or were they made in England and... ‘brought over’?  It was cost effective to do ‘that’ (import paint brushes)?

            Ok so these brushes... once the “I OLD STUFF” puts the breaks on and... LOOKS AT THEM ‘design form’ denoting the horse hair, the strips of iron wrap, supporting stammer of rivets holding the hair, the handmade carved wood (oak) handles the... it took more than thirty minutes to make ‘one’ didn’t it... one’s eye searching ‘design’ quickly denotes.  Making a... making that... that will be used in the... making of a ‘something else’... (“HOW DID THEY PAINT the pumpkin pine farm house walls OLD RED?”) is here noted by eye to have been ‘white paint’, that is, WHITE WASH, ‘brushes for’.  These are old handmade whitewash paint brushes.  “Oh... huh... cleaned ‘em good too.”  Yes; the two brushes are remarkably well preserved too... after being ‘well cared for’ by ‘the user’.  I ...love this kind of design... “IT’S ALMOST LIKE IT’S ART”.  Could it possibly be that old New England handmade paint brushes for painting whitewash on old New England homes... fences... butteries could be... of a true... art... SHOULD one ever... inspect ‘their design’.

            That’s what puzzle table two is all about; what’s ‘going on there’; the American (New England) Art.

            I’m stealing it.

            Puzzle table number one?  I covered that in Part Nine

            With the leeks

            Carrots

            And beets:

            She didn’t care... Her puzzle table tells me... about the ‘old stuff’ in the estate.  She lived ‘otherwise’ and was ‘well settled of things’.

            It (the ‘stuff’) was there

            She didn’t care.

            Nor did she ‘do anything about it (the stuff) ever.  Never, ever “did”.

            I am the one who “did”.

            Steal it

            I was the first person to do that?

            She knew that?

            I, then, went down and retrieved the Coon Hill sign... Her spirit ‘told me to’.

            I knew the thief would be there; at the bottom of the ladder... looking up at me?

            Of course.  He couldn’t stand it; to be out done by a better thief than he.

            One last for puzzle table one?  An antidote (cure)?  Or a ‘piece of the stuff’?

            Beth... sold her honey... and her herbal teas... at the local (“farmer’s”) market.  In a field.  In the ‘summer’.  Across from her Terry (Terence) Halifax sold... his small tree stump ‘wood carvings’ of little bears and other animals (mostly bears) he ‘carved’ with his small chainsaw.  Big, beefy, flapping shirt tails and, aside for his size, otherwise not much to look at... he did “always” show up, show up on time, show up clean and... was very patient with the tourist who... did actually buy many of his little chainsaw carved ...little bear carvings.  Beth sold her honey and teas ‘across’ from him and

            ONE DAY said to Her when she had purchased a small jar of honey that she (Beth) wondered ...out loud... ‘what she could do to EVER catch his eye’.  ‘She’ (of this tale), holding her little jar of honey, looked ‘across’ too and, peacefully pausing in her view for a minute, then turned back to Beth and said “Perhaps... if you put some honey mustard and strips of bacon in you hair that will do it”.  They both laughed.

            BUT the NEXT WEEKEND Beth came DOWN the booths of the ‘across the field from her’ carrying a tin tray with two pounds of  ‘still hot’ cooked bacon and, as she came upon Terry’s booth and started to veer across the field to her booth from Terry’s booth she... flaunting her... baited trap... DID ‘catch his eye’ and HE (Terry) said “Whoa girly where you going with THAT?”.

            She, a little flustered at the prompt success of her trap, says “I have a jar of my honey, some of ROGER’S mustard, a loaf of ***** Bakery’s BREAD and WITH THIS BACON FROM Bob’s he just cooked for me I MAKING SANDWICHES would you LIKE ONE?”

            “Well I do think I WOULD.” said Terry.

            And now... over fifteen years later, married with two growing children, Beth and Terry still are always... happily together... set up at the (farmer’s) market.  Beth has been ‘long been told’ by ‘Her’ that she (Beth) ‘still owed her’ for ‘the witchcraft’.  This stood to the day of ‘Her death’ and... continues to this day.  “I still owe Her” she says.

            Now how am I going to steal that: “Put honey mustard and strips of bacon in your hair that will do it”?

            I put it on puzzle table one.

            And then stole it.  I just showed it to you.  Want to buy it?  Could be one of the best things I found in this ‘estate clean out’.