Antiquarian Sophistication of the "I" and the "Eye" Upon the "It" - Part Two - "Diffident Process"

Antiquarian Sophistication of the "I" and the "Eye" Upon the "It"

Part Two

"Diffident Process"

            “A”... “Diffident process” you are with this... portal... of antiquarian stealth...

            You say?

            “Tawdry stoppage”; a ‘your finger in your own dike’?  Sometimes...

            And sometimes not.

            Presuming this ‘your dog on your leash’ goes for a walk and you are in tow... or is the doggie in tow (?) at regular intervals that one now aquatints, at the least, as a ‘hobby’ (“antiques”) and may even have a carry of ‘buy and sell them’ (antiques) or... ‘collect them’ (antiques)... or one may just

            “Bird watch” them... only... too.  Then:

            This portal begins with ‘it’; an antiquarian object and comes to one by ‘eye’ (a physical process; “see”) and

            Is then carried by ‘I’ to ‘I’ and...

            A triangulate back and forth follows

            With the ‘I’ winning out as the demarcation of the ‘eye’ and the ‘it’... good-better-best... win-loose-draw.  As a ‘best case’ scenario.  Often there is some seepage at the ‘your finger (“I”) in your own dike (“I” again).  “Things” “don’t go that well”.  But we have found the barrier (guarded gate).

            It is not the ‘it’.  There are ‘abundant’ of those.

            It is not the ‘eye’.  That is a physical tool; a... how about... surveillance system.  The ‘your eye’ just does that; surveillance.

            Neither are a critical “I”.  So everyone is stuck with that; the “I”.  That levels the playing field; equals opportunity.

            ?

            Well... let us be fair; that; the “I”, IS the culprit.  And it (the “I”)... is not fair and... does not even play fair.  Yes.  That:  Your ‘I” may blind your “I” so that it blinds your “eye” AND the “it” too.  This is commonly heard in the antiquarian interest as (they, him or her) “walked right by that”.  As a crass commercial qualifier it is heard as “I can make a living off of what (they, him or her) leaves behind”.  That is not, in my antiques dealer realm, what one wants said of ‘you’.  No.

            So the ‘I’ is the culprit.

            How is the culprit at work?  If your “I” is antiquarian hollow; not only not sophisticated relative to ‘object’ (‘it’), but having no “knowledge” other than a hand scoop of dust, purloined overheard banter, art terms mingled (“an oil painting”), smart phone visions (of objects), dim witted reading (including little if any comprehension of what was ‘read’) and a bombastic and perpetual urge to ‘keep coming at it’.  Too...  One will get out on the bridge of all of this; well out on it... before...

            “Turning back” ...in one way ...or another.  Just say “I ... KNOW” before each antiquarian utterance... and you’ll “do great”.  And will often “go for a long time” like that , in front of everyone... with all of these having no one... that will ever say anything to you.  If this last should ever actually happen, that ‘knowing one’ being told... that ‘knowing one’... usually... becomes upset.  To say the least.

            The way around all this mosh pit fall; the drop of self onto the floor of the antiquarian concert hall... including the hard bump to the head,

            Ego

            And self voyeur... self... is to keep to basics.  I... my ‘I’... in a ‘let it come to me’ ratio.  I do not ‘hunt’.  No.  I do not go to upscale haberdasheries and outfit myself  before... and then, with crisp blind eye, (“I”) stomp and... stomp off into the antiquarian wood.  No.  I ‘let it come to me’.  So, as I said above, there are plenty of ‘it’.  And my surveillance system is on (“eye”) and... I

            Empty my “I” out (“clear history”) at the start and ...over and over and over as I pad about (a doggie on my ‘I’ leash)...; always wiping the my nose prints off of the spotless and sophisticated “I”... so I do not ‘miss’ ‘any’ “THING”.  Sensitivity discipline?  I wish it were just that.  You noted the word ‘sophistication’ in this too?

            That is “bother” isn’t it.  Particularly if it is viciously subtle.  And so much of antiquarian sophistication is that; viciously understated.  Requiring the “I” to go out to the “eye” so then to go out together to that “it” and, well, bring it ‘home’ all by its (the ‘I’ and ‘eye’) self.

            “OH BOTHER.”

            So just give this all up and go back to putting the rabbit ears up and watching TV (antique art) in... black and white.  No one will notice.  Or care.

            The first innovators of what are now ‘fine antiques’; they... were... often times... very... viciously subtle.  By choice.  By mental design.  By physical design and by ‘resulting object’.  I speak of, for example, ‘old china’.  For long before ‘old china’ came to become a ‘be’... “they” ate off of ... wood, pewter, tin glazed earthenware, plain earthenware and, very rarely, ‘imported Chinese porcelain’.  Josiah Wedgwood ‘bettered’ that by introducing (England, 1760) a ‘plain’ (white) semi-porous clay body (“soft paste” mold cast ‘china’ to compete with the other ‘eating ware’.  The ‘plain’ ‘white’ was actually a subtle eggnog hue and became titled ‘creamware’ for this subtle color tone and the ‘feel’ of the surface that is, too, ‘as of cream’.  Wedgwood produced a ‘plain’ ware; no applied decoration to a very slightly mold embellished ‘blank’ ‘ware’ (“creamware”).

            Others quickly discovered... about blank creamware... the novelty and the... enhancement of the popularity... of the novelty... with ‘applied decoration’ so... quickly produced ‘decorated’ ‘creamware’.  Wedgwood, himself, never moved from his ‘plain’ creamware preference (‘the way it is supposed to be’...he commanded).  The ‘but’ became the ‘popular middle class taste’ of ‘decorated creamware’:  The novelty of decoration appealed to the middle class taste... no matter how poorly that decoration was ‘applied’ to the ‘creamware’ “blank”.  Eighteenth Century “Decorated creamware” is easy to find these days... for the knowing “I”.  Blank creamware is around too... if one happens to ‘I notice it’.  Most walk right by it.  Even whole collection cases full of it... at (Historic) Deerfield.  For example.  But if one does ‘discover it’ with one’s “I”, ones “eye” is, forever ‘sophisticated’ to this ‘it’ (plain Colonial era creamware... “old china”.

            Where do I go with that; the pottage of the ‘I’, ‘eye’ and ‘it’ and creamware?  NOT very far.  I may sophisticate my eye to this ‘it’ but I find my ‘I’ too... stymied by my ‘surrounders’  Yes... babes in the antiquarian woods... most of my ‘with this’ sophisticated subtle ‘old china’ is, in daily intercourse, a ‘walk right by’.  I’m going to burn the house of good taste to the ground right now, inclusive of my own ‘I’, ‘eye’ and ‘it’. 

            Foisting obvious scarcity as a weak defense position; the Colonial creamware is NOT ‘around’ for it was slight in the amount made in addition to having what was made be highly breakable.  Too.  So... Good Bars, hunting doesn’t work.  No.  It is easier just to ‘miss that stuff’ and capture, for example, a ‘popular culture’ gathering of double oh seven Goldfinger trading cards; a ‘collectible’.  “Good luck with that”.  Those really are...

            Sophisticated

            Good taste.

            And.... so... therefore:  I am left alone for the ...whole part... of my ‘I’ sophistication with... only very rarely, ‘another’ someone who knows ‘around’.  That’s right:  The house of classic good taste (including Wedgwood’s creamware) burns flats and I stand alone in the rubble.  These days.

            I don’t care.  I actually like it.  It is ‘bye-bye’ and that includes being overtly shown the specimens of “what I DO like”.  Too.  Yes; nasty and I do want to shower off after that sort of intercourse.  It is particularly painful if this ‘they’ actually handles ‘something good’.  But that doesn’t happen very often.  I usually leave a little ‘toy’ (for example those oh, oh seven cards) around that attract the children and ...they play with that. 

            That doesn’t change it though.  Subtle sophistication does... not... take place.  I am ‘work alone’.  I then I DO find all sorts of ‘it’ using a very modest surveillance of my ‘eye’ to spy what are usually a forlorn and ‘lost’ ‘it’.  Finding a Colonial era creamware platter sticker priced for two dollars at a community thrift store... inclusive of that platter having ‘been for sale for months’... scares the shit out of even me.  It should.  And a ‘find’ like that assures my vigilance.

            Yes:  Vigilance.  Here in the now-discovered-‘I live in’-wasteland of the rubble of the burned down home of the classic sophisticated ‘I’ of good taste AND mingling with the creatures of the deep darks (bad taste) who inhabit the surface of the wasteland (“my camo cargo shorts are art”)... I find a full cupboard of traditional and classic decorative art, et al, sitting around for sale with no one even ‘looking’ (‘I’, ‘eye’ and ‘it’).  THAT WIDE OPEN a work setting... “dirt cheap” too.  All one needs to do is ‘go there’

            And...

            “How do I do that? (go there)”

            You say.