Roughshod - Part Four - "(Tread Bare) Resilience"

Roughshod

Part Four

"(Thread Bare) Resilience"

            “(A) remarkable circumstance” Calvin Acres titles to me the... remarkable circumstance... “these days” of the antiques found... from and once “in”... old New England homes.  You do not know Calvin and he does not know you.  He does know his ...old New England antiques... from... old New England homes.  I, myself, do not consider this “these day” to be either remarkable or a circumstance.  I consider the state of New England antiques ...in and of the old New England home... to be a resilience.  I consider it to be a tread bare resilience.

            It is always right there in front of me.  For example, the tread bare rugs are ...there... and usually... I am standing on them... too.  I do not wipe my feet on them; nobody does that.  But... “everyone” stands on them:  Resilient thread bare rugs “in there” (the old New England home).

            That is a funny way to look at it?  Isn’t it?  Thread bare Wasp carpeting is very fashionable these days.  Isn’t it?  Even having little essays with photographic illustrations that demark the “in fashion” of the “tread bare”

            “Rug”.

            For accomplishment, the “these sorts of rugs” are in the back bedrooms and on the front stair landings... on the ‘front hall’ floor and in the ‘library’ of the undisturbed ‘old New England home.  I know this  because I stand on the rugs... “too”.  I am never shown these rugs.  They are never mentioned.

            They are just there.

            Until I “clean them out”. (Part Three).

            So:  The next time I see them they are ...shown to me.  Or Calvin.  He laughs at that; the ‘being shown’ ‘antiques’ from old New England homes.  Especially ‘being shown’ them “in” an old New England home.  In the true old New England home one is never shown ‘the antiques’.  They are a ‘just there’.  If Calvin or I are a ‘shown’ antiques... in an old New England home... then we must be.... in a... new... old New England home.  “Are the floors sanded”?

            Of course they are.  And to ‘show off’ this “THAT” (the ‘we had the floors DONE’)... the “THEY” did not ‘put’ the ‘antiques’ that used to be in that room... or front hall... “BACK”.  “If we’d put it all BACK you couldn’t even SEE the floors”.  “Oh”.

            “You’ve MASTERED THAT”:  The ‘riding roughshod over the old New England antiques in the ‘our’ (new) old New England home.

            So the rest of the stuff (old New England antiques from old New England homes) just gets dumped?  On the rest of the homes?  Yes.  That is what happens.  Other homes discern, acquire and display... old New England antiques... sort of.  As a base level, I will say that ‘they have a few (antiques) in there (other homes)... kicking around.  Sometimes they are just a “there” and other times I am a ‘shown them’.  It is all fun.  Right?  And they do not have thread bare rugs ‘in there’ (the other homes).  No; they have “new” “rugs”.  That is often stated to me.

            There are so many old New England home antiques... that dumping them on the other homes... does not consume the supply.  No.  The ‘this stuff’ didn’t go to the dump (recycling center) either.  No.  It gets ‘dumped’.  At the back of the ‘a garage’, a ‘yard sale’, a ...storage unit...  a ‘benefit sale’... a ponderance

            Of single item dumping here, there and everywhere (out by the road side with a “FREE” sign attached.  There is still ‘too much’.  Everything that is an ‘antique’ was once a ‘saved’.  And is still being that (saved) too.  Sort of.  It (old New England antiques) is a ‘can kicked down the road’...

            These days.

            This is the (thread bare) resilience of these old New England antiques from old New England homes.  They (the antiques) do a better job of resilience than the old homes.  Those become new old homes.  If at all, the antiques get “refinished” or “cleaned”.  That does not include the old thread bare rugs.  Those are ‘thrown out’ or ‘given away’ with the latter promoted by ‘pet usage’.  Including that (pet pee), these rugs are “rescued” and “put back”... in an upstair back bedroom where the sniff test is rarely used in that domestic space by ...nosey neighbors.

            “I FINALLY GOT IN THERE; that old place.  Ebenezer Adams’ FAMILY HOME.  The children have taken him OUT you know.  I don’t know WHAT will happen to all his THINGS”.

            I do.

            NOT VERY MANY HOMES, these days... OLD NEW ENGLAND HOMES... “these days” have old (sterling) silver services that they use AND have a second family silver service in a service box on a shelf in a SHED.  OLD YANKEE BACK-UP that is.  Try it sometime with your old silver.  It’s harder than it looks.

            And that clears up the thread bare rugs too.  Those, too, are ‘harder than they look’.  Oh that IS the way this goes.  It makes sanding the floors... so tacky:  No back up silver service, no thread bare rugs... what else can a ‘they’ do but... sand their floors. And show that “THAT”... off.

            Meanwhile the rest of the ‘old things’ that were once ‘in there’ are now at the back of someone’s garage or out by the road “IN” a “YARD SALE”.  Those people are always so pleased to speak to me about “how much we got rid of”.  No... dear...: that stuff was supposed to be in the house... to hide the old floors and water stained wallpaper “from the Civil War”. (Part Three).

            It is the thread bare resilience of old New England antiques... right here... right now.  Calvin Acres calls it a “remarkable circumstance”.  I do not see it that way.  For me it has become a remarkable opportunity.

            While the ‘ever after’ of the new New England home neutralizes the ‘old places’, cleans them out, paints them white “again” and, of course, ‘sands the floors’... the rest of the ‘all that stuff... is a ‘still around’.  Current commercial demarcation... from within the ‘those that trade’ (“the dealers”) strongly force feeds the current market that “antiques” “no longer sell for ‘that much’ or... even... “at all”.  “No one buys them”.

            So what does that mean?  Yesterday I, in attendance at an “Antiques” “Show”.  Note the word ‘show’.  An antique ‘show’ means one may attend, look at the antiques and not need to ‘buy anything’.  “Buy” is at an antiques ‘sale’.  There are, in fact, ‘antiques’ “show and sale”.  Even ‘antiques’ “sale and show”.

            Anyway... I was in attendance... professionally.

            In the course of that I reviewed a set of six Pennsylvanian kitchen farm chairs (1840-1870) with their original paint decorated surface ($850.00).  This was the second “show” I’d seen them ‘on display’ at in a month... being ‘shown’.  “They haven’t sold” was... lamentably expressed to me... by the ‘dealer’ who was ‘showing them’ “for sale”.

            Well first off... the chair set is not from an old New England home.  They come from an old Pennsylvanian home.  If one buys them and puts them in an old New England home... one has “PUT” the wrong chairs ‘in the home’.  So... like... “don’t buy them for that”.

            Second, the style of chair; antique Pennsylvanian kitchen farm chairs... are awkward and “Germanic” when compared to antique New England kitchen farm chairs.  The self study of New England decorative arts “teaches” the eye (sophisticates the self art eye) to... “KNOW THIS”.  The further result is that... for as long as I have been an antiques dealer, these Pennsylvanian chairs ‘do not sell’ (except, of course, to appropriate old Pennsylvanian farm kitchens).  That is actually the correct solution; the chairs are not old New England chairs proper for an old New England home so... do not buy them “for that”.  That is why they don’t sell in New England.  They are not ‘not selling’ NOW.  These chairs ALWAYS were “hard sell” in ‘old New England.  And now... EVEN the reader ‘knows why’.  So these chairs; now part of the “ANTIQUES ARE NOT SELLING” market of current vogue... were also part of that same market for the LAST FIFTY YEARS I have been in business.  That chair set has ALWAYS not sold to old New England homes.  Properly... ‘nobody’ wants them.

            What do they want?  The proper decorative and fine arts of ...and historically ‘found in’... old New England homes.  That includes old thread bare rugs that pets have peed on.  If you do not like this then do not live in an old New England home.  Buy a new home in New England and fill it with all (or none) of the crap you... “I like” (Part One).  The old New England home etiquette does not care what you do “with that”.  Just do not try to say that THAT is “right”.

            It is wrong.

            Anyway:  The surplus of real and true old New England antiques from and appropriate to old New England homes... are all over the place, for sale, “cheap”.  All one has to do is know a “what they are”... this being a much harder skill than one would expect and includes “doing stuff” like “going to museums”... .  But who cares?  I don’t.  My whole fifty years as a ‘dealer’ in old New England antiques has been ALWAYS dominated by “idiots” “who don’t know what they are doing”.  Further, and as a warning... the closer one gets to truly “GOOD” old New England antiques, the more expensive they will be.  They will, too, always have greater support of their heritage (design and history) and their cultural place (old New England).

            But that takes a while.  One may begin right now by ‘filling up’ an old New England home with the “stuff” that was (once) “in there”.  That, too, is a ‘but that takes a while’.  And is a little roughshod... if you ‘don’t know anything’.  When they filled the (old New England) home up the first time... they didn’t know what they were doing either.  Except upon rare occasion.

Posterior - Part Four (B) - "Highborn"

Posterior

Part Four (B)

"Highborn"

            Let us just stop:

            This ‘all’ of the posterior market is not that easy.

            For

            The object itself; the ‘antique’

            Is not that easy

            Particularly when one stands

            With it in hand

            Within the designated buttock

            Of the antiquarian market.

            More lustre?

            Less bluster.

            Less accomplished (sophisticated).

            Less astute.

            Less art-design sword play.

            More... potato racer

            And sunscreen smell (Part Four [A]).  Yes;

            More of that.  A lot more of that

            “Taste”

            It is a malignant taste, traditionally celebrated, currently celebrated, always a ‘there’ and commonly

            Titled

            “Bad”... “Taste”

            A lot of flea market adventurers have that, especially for (in regard of) the ‘highborn’ ‘antique”.

            If I say so?

            Well just look at the board game.  Everyone loves playing board games... at the summer cottage... on a rainy day... when the (out of doors) flea market is closed.  “Chutes and Ladders”.  Playing that... ‘again’.

            How about playing Chutes and Ladders with antique English Lustre Ware; an “OLD”... “CHINA”.  “Oh yes:  It IS a little raw out today.”

            Very few of the very highborn had ‘gold’ to eat off of.  Out of.  “SILVER”, by lay terms is adequate for the mind’s eye of what “RICH PEOPLE” “EAT WITH”.   If one wants to be ‘of’ ‘highborn’ say “old plate” (18^th century silver plated copper serving vessels) (“Old” “Sheffield” “Plate”).  And all the ever-after imitations of ‘old plate’ that get crummier with each passed decade (250 years as I write).  Yes:  Make me look at your crummy ‘silver plate’ and the skimpy inclusions of “STERLING” that, well... you never use except for an ‘it’s SPECIAL’.  For the record, that is what the ‘IS THE’... is the... commercial buy and sell at flea market’s “SILVER” “MARKET”.  The ‘is the’ of these two IS “Sterling”.  I am shown objects simply because they are “STERLING” “SILVER”.

            “Tawdry”?

            Yes it is.  But that is not Lustre ...Ware.  And the sterling does not care.  I recover Lustre Ware from the common (posterior) markets.  There is silver lustre, canary lustre, strawberry lustre, copper lustre, pink lustre.  Today is a pink lustre... day. 

            The shiny pink hand painted decoration upon SIGHTLY off white mold cast ‘pearlware’ forms (pitchers, teapots, cups and saucers, et al) with the mold cast form ‘slightly (decoratively) embellished’... are, also, enhanced to the eye with popular practice of applying black transferware decals... too.  All and only ‘just (pink lustre) brushwork’ is scarcer.  The two; pink brushstroke and black transfer, “MIX” well to the eye when displayed.  Assembled, the arranged convey a certain ‘Regency’.  As they are from the English Regency period (1790-1825)... that... then...  ‘makes sense’.

            If that... then... makes sense and does this to your eye... perhaps... “HAVING” that “LOOK” is something... you “MIGHT”.  And yes it does “LOOK” ‘highborn’.

            Perhaps just starting with one... good... specimen of pink lustre... sort of feel your way in.  SEE if it TAKES with you; highborn (good) taste.  Take the crummy dishes out of the cupboard and put in ONE piece; preferably a ‘better one’, of pink lustre to “TRY”.  Put the tawdry silver plated metal and assemblage of “STERLING” away too:  OUT OF SIGHT.  Live... with your eye... in English Regency.

            “Oh don’t bother”.  But feel how much fun one may have visiting posterior markets and knowingly recovering the highborn of English Lustre Ware.  Made two hundred ago for a demanding, exclusive and design sensitive eye... the fragile china has... passed through Hell... to be at the posterior market for... I... to recover.

            It is a gas doing that; recovering pink lustre.  I get the pitcher.  You smell like sun screen.  (Part Four [A])  We are worlds that never meet.  Pink lustre is hardly the only ‘design form’ I ‘practice’ with.  No...;  Looking glasses.  Seating furniture.  Old silver plate.  Paintings and rare books.

            English glassware?  Of course.

            “Did you know some people collect old dog collars?”.

            Once one crosses over the footbridge of Lustre Ware... and leaves behind the fore noticed ‘I know’ of ‘doesn’t sell’ ‘no one wants it’... and arrives at a self directed private collection (gathering?  Accumulation?) of recovered highborn antique English earthenware... “CHINA” (‘old paste’);  Once one... well... within the current state of affairs... I have it all to myself.  And it is costing ‘no money’ too.

            This is “Why?” I am at the posterior markets; to recover highborn antiques?  Yes.

            Absolutely. 

            This essay seems to be going ‘on and on’?  It is not.  I am looking at three different things here; the posterior markets of ‘antiques’,  highborn design antiques that may be recovered at the posterior markets and... how a .’you and I’ are best suited to do that (recover antiques) there (at the posterior markets).  The weave of these three.

            The first features I bring to a posterior market are... “I am there” and “I care”.  This is buttressed by a splendid dash of “I know”:  I am more than rather well informed of highborn antiquarian design and this is ‘prepared’ for active usage amongst ALL of the those who are ‘not’ (the sun screen ‘smell of’ set, et al).  So all of those are in a defensive poise before I start... noticing... for recovery... ‘old lustre’.  And I noticing them.  Too.  That is my recognition that ‘they’ have ‘bad taste’.  And I can bet on that to my advantage.  “They do not know” (highborn) antique (design).  They... walk right by and that includes MY eye walking right by the crud THEY ‘I know’ in their own domestic setting (design squalor?).  If it is a ‘them’ like that at the posterior market, “of course”... think then... of what... it is like... “at (their) home”.  Oh that’s nasty... I know... but its foundation is solid.  Just go look for yourself.  Most will actually (act to) ‘show you’.  And again I notice that it is not just ‘old lustre ware’ I am ‘doing this with’.  The posterior market place is full of all sorts of highborn design specimens available for ‘recovery’.  What I see ... actually see... is ‘no one’ ‘doing that’.

            Oh I see a few ‘sniffs’; a pick-it-up and look over.  A ‘touch’. An ‘inspect’.  An ‘ask someone’.  (If you ask me and you do have a ‘I found’ of merit but have not ‘recovered’ (purchased it) I have no qualms about ‘being mute’, waiting for you to ‘set it down’ and then.. ah...  buying it... “MYSELF”.  YOU have to ‘decide’ (the antiquarian design merits of “THINGS”... YOUR... SELF.  Or put more sunscreen on the tip

            Of your nose.

            The cumulative effect of multiple decades of ‘doing this’ recovering highborn antique design at posterior (buttock) markets... is disturbing when ‘how much is’ recovered by I (eye).  Probably even more ‘of bother’ is the expansive array of ‘dealers’ I recover from who willfully articulate that I “AM” the “ONLY ONE” who “KNOWS”:

            “That’s the oldest thing on the field”, etc., et al.  Yes; the ‘my free range’ is so cavalier midst the “I KNOW” bad taste that it is freely spoken (joked) of AT THE TIME of recovery.  The “I KNOW” are “still going around looking”.

            For what?  And I do not want to know that.  Chutes and ladders.  A board game of  the recovery of highborn antiquarian design played on a posterior market field.  The game starts with YOU... for the antiques are already there on the game’s board.  YOU... need to KNOW...

            And set aside your personal... ah... “tastes” and... rebuild one’s taste using an educated eye.  Brutally, I say that you are not really suited to shop at ‘flea markets’ unless you’ve, at least, visited several museum collections to ‘find out about’ what you are looking for (what it, for example, “looks like”)  To get to the buttock in the market you have to ...go to art school... yourself...  Otherwise...:  “So sunscreen”.  And let your dog out before you... leave... so it can ‘pee’.

            Oh don’t hurry... or worry.  The actual antiques in quest (here today being pink lustre) will actually ‘still be there’.  Especially at the little lost flea markets.  A ‘really great antique’ may actually be “FOR SALE” for a very long time (like ‘two summers’) simply because the ‘no one knows’.  Until I ‘go through’, of course.  I stop.  Park.  I ‘go through’.  An then ‘that’s that’ until I ‘come back’.  The biggest ‘wild cards’ I find?  The classics; paintings, furniture and rugs.  The biggest antiquarian markets are the biggest ‘find’ markets:  I FIND old paintings, furniture and (‘oriental’) rugs.  I don’t use sunscreen.  Just pants, long sleeves and a hat.  And ‘proper foot gear’.