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.

Careless and Callous - Accumulation of Inherited (Antiquarian) Art - Part Four - "Affected and Placed"

Careless and Callous

Accumulation of Inherited (Antiquarian) Art

Part Four

"Affected and Placed"

            Careful screening (“vetting”) allows for sure

            Careless and Callous home décor

            “Um”?

            Affected and carefully placed ‘all’ fill the décor of space

            “There”;

            “My home”?

            Hardly... and all of that is not hardy enough ‘for the region’ (old New England)

            To last.

            Look at the map on the back of the packet; it shows where ‘that’ (the affected and placed) are ‘frozen out’ (frost killed).  “Too early” or “too late”.  Anyone’s old eye for old things may deduce the fraud; ‘endeavor of fraud’.  That is all it is anyway; an “endeavor” that is

            Brutal

            Fraud.

            Whose bones are broken? 

The fraud-dee.

In their home.

            The curious want to know?  Actually they do not

            Want to know.

            “A clutter bug in there they are” is an easy pass

            Bye.

            Notorious hodge-podge of gathered (no... never gathered... “HOW DID THEY GET ALL THAT?” “THEY INHERITED IT.  HIS MOTHER.  You KNOW”.  “OH”).  There then ...is the regulation of placement; no ‘screening’... or affected ‘place’.

            That is such a serious stage that no one may understand this unless THEY TOO have a vantage from behind a ‘good eye’ (antiquarian eye).  It is a murky morning mist.  A dream.  A charm.  A way... of old things.

            Beginning with poor lighting; “it is dark in here how can you stand it?”.

            “I do stand it”.  And cold... except for there; the ‘her old chair’.  “We don’t turn the heat on in the summer (April 15^th to November 15^th).”

            So it is dark and cold “When you were in there”.

            What follows next is rooms; ‘the rooms’.  Lots of rooms never used “anymore”.  Actually they are used... just not ‘anymore’.  The rooms; lots of rooms, are ‘used’ and just fine ‘that way’ (the way they are used).  That ends that doesn’t it:  You don’t have any rooms like that

            Do you.

            Then there are ‘the things’ in ‘the rooms’.  Each rooms has each things in

            ...each rooms.  And all just stowed away in there; each things in each rooms.  Yes...:  Clutter bug.  It is actually easier at this juncture of careless and callous domestic decoration... to denote that to accomplish this it is, in fact, easier for the people to ‘move in’ to the home with the rooms... then it is to move the rooms with the things into the home of the

            People (inheritors).  Peeking at this that way... it gives a better sense of scale to the ‘things’.  There are a lot of ‘things’.  In a lot of rooms.  Dark cold rooms.  You think you have one of those (a dark cold room) you say?  Aren’t you just FOOLISH.

            If a thing is in there... it was not put there.  PUSHED there maybe... after ‘being in the way’

            One day.

            You didn’t (push it) but someone did and no one knows or cares of a reason why.  So now this that is ...there.  The drawer is full too.  No one has opened the drawer

            Since “I don’t know when”.  That is a valid time designation for a full drawer in a ‘thing’ in a ‘room’ that is used as a room that “isn’t used anymore”.  It is dark and cold in that room.  Too.

            Are you starting to get the hang of this?  Presuming so... one must now be becoming a self enlightened ‘good eye’ as to the

            “WHY?” of what I am speaking of; the true careless and callous décor; not the affected and placed fraud (phony) endeavoring to fool by emulation.

            Density is; each room has a ‘deep stock’ of things (inherited).  Each thing has a drawer that is full of things never looked at.  Never opened.  “For how many years?”  “It never occurred to me (to look in there)”.  The drawer... or the room?  Or both.  We already know the ‘explains this’ (Part One).  The whole of the inheritance was “admired”.  Admiration does not require looking in drawers and rooms.  That is why they (the heirs) never do.  Maybe once they push “that” “back”... once.  Otherwise it all just sits there in the dark and cold room.  Except, we understand (Part Two), for the ‘good things’ that have become the ‘they were sold’.  There is a hallow... but not much of one.  There are never many good things because good... good things are few... so when ‘sold’ they are ‘not missed’.  “There is just SO MUCH else”.

            There is; “density”.  A ‘deep stock’.  That is the stumble.  One cannot just ‘get that’.  No.  One must ‘inherit’ that.  That is why it may not be ‘affected and placed’.  No one may ‘affect’ and ‘place’ inheritance.  It is ‘too much stuff’.

            If one is not sure of what I am speaking of; the density of inheritance, then one ‘has not’ any of this.  And you won’t (will not).  No.  Your admitted to ‘only a safe distance’.  They won’t have you grubbing around... with your decorator tabloids designating ...oh... ‘your adolescent whims’.  No... your never in... and should you ever get in... they certainly don’t want you talking about it; what you “SAW”.  Go home to your rolls of paper towels.

            Correctly denoted, the ‘box store’ of the old New England inheritance... should be furtive... and furtive only to the knowing eye.  It should suggest, at a ‘behind eye’ moment, that ‘there could be’ a... ‘there could be’... ‘in there’.  THAT is the... the.  Careless and callous already assures that THAT ‘has been sold’ BUT that should ‘could be’ a ‘something’ to the ‘that old eye’.  “I WANT TO LOOK IN THE DRAWERS”.  It is that foolish a decorum.   And it works.

            It is like no other ‘home’ ‘in there’.

            Let us practice this so we are clear; a concise ‘we understand’.  I am stating that the actual eloquence of ‘careless and callous’ is the mirage it creates to the knowing viewer’s disciplined eye that... even though it is concise and precisely understood that the ‘good things’ ‘have been sold’, the imbedded density of the remaining inheritance... found properly distributed within the rooms of the family and/or heirs... convey a decorum that believably purveys that... a ‘good’ (‘great’) ‘thing... may still be found.  And that voyeur believes this... with no self dispute.

            “OH GOD THAT IS NASTY”.

            But... too... real.

            Such a successful decorum; the ‘careless and callous’... it assures ‘you are not’.  No...:  Not a ‘vanity of’, for example, of an ‘old money’ decorative touch...  That is not an ‘it’ and, too, makes the ‘one look (very) foolish’.  No, no, no.  I said pushed back... in the cold and dark.  That is not what you actually do.  No... you cannot escape your own ‘show off’.  You...

            Are not dense enough.  Old enough (generational).  Rich enough.  Own enough.  Know enough... about NOT knowing enough.  No... you are not a full drawer that has not been looked at.  No.... YOU ...could not resisted... “going through that”... then worse... insisting upon... showing ‘it’ to me... inclusive of the false pretence that ‘the room’ is “dark and cold” too... with its ‘pushed back’ “I inherited’.  You lie.  You live a lie.

            I... with my eye...

            Know the difference.

            “Not hardy enough for the (old New England) region” I advised at the opening of this chapter.  Go back and look.  It is there.  Old New England... frost.  Kill.  Killed by old New England frost.  It is dark and cold.  “It” is ‘the whole inheritance’.  It is not, in the whole, the “THINGS” one “I GOT”.  No.  Never on the ‘your wall’ hung... does one find the frost line.  It was too cold.  Too dark.  One did not... does not... ‘go there’.  Once, now; you are thinking back, you think once you... could have been near a room where the things in there could have been, in there, dense enough that THERE, then, THAT could have been

            A room

            DENSE and dark enough that THERE THEN could have been a HOME that this there; the careless and the callous... WAS that THERE THEN

            But

            It was too... dark and cold and

            “I could not see”.

            You think, now, you remember this; that.

            You are a ‘little sure’ of this-that being that:

            A careless and callous

            “In there”.  Don’t you still wonder... if.

Careless and Callous - Accumulation of Inherited (Antiquarian) Art - Part Three - "Decoration"

Careless and Callous

Accumulation of Inherited (Antiquarian) Art

Part Three

"Decoration"

            When... one... walks

            Into a room does

            One walk noticing?

            The room

            The entry

            The doors

            The windows

            The whole affair?

            And the ‘things’

            “In there”.

            “My things” you say?

            “Put there” you say.

            “I

            Suppose it is, as you say:

            Decoration”

            “I”.

            So it is an accumulation after all.  Isn’t it?  I just purveyed (Part Two) that you did not ‘take’ the ‘good things.  No:  You wouldn’t pay and someone else

            Took them away.  But you did

            “GET”

            Lots of things

            “From there”

            And I have to look at them again... after years (decades) pass.  You introduce them as a whole, an all, as ‘from there’ and then carry that prefix as an understanding, to

            “Each and every”

            Thing

            You now show as your own “in there”.  Yes... you are now old enough that you too, now have your very own ‘in there’ of ‘things’.  How many ‘rooms’ of ‘things’ do you have?

            It “turns out”... you don’t have things.  No... seems to be more

            Toward

            “Stuff”.

            You have stuff “like”.  That bad?  Yep.

            AND you took that and you put that and... then-there came

            The ‘stuck with it’ ever after.  I mean... it is not as if one is going to have an

            Epiphany

            And order out the stuff like and buy crazy good things to be your

            “In there”.  No... your not going to do that; it does not happen.  Your stuck with it; your ‘get’ ‘lots of things’ ‘from there’ (“inherited” “antiques”).

            And then, you, too

            Do not think I notice (know); that you ‘decorate’ with ‘stuff like’... and not

            Real things.  Oh no:  No, no, no.  Go back to your rooms and look.  I am NOT over boundary.  I am speaking of fact.

            The fact is... that it (each room) is... a decorated with accumulation...; the ‘your rooms’.  I may denote this just as I enter each room.  Whom did you think you are fooling and... I did not want to be around them ‘anyway’.

            So let us stop with the ‘decoration’ of each room and drag the ‘stuff like’ around as it should be; push us against and stood upon; back to the wall front to service.  Dirty drawers filled with clutter.  Old wrinkled and smelly carpets.  No one’s eyes see that

            Except mine.

            Yes there is a back edge to the gold blade of one’s accumulation of inherited antiques.  But one must put them (accumulated antiques) down.  IF you have a tall clock (grandfather’s clock)... do not decorate with it.  Do not display it ‘at me’.  No.  Never.  Unless, of course, it IS a ‘an actual good one’.  THAT means THE old CLOCK has merit... not YOU.  But:

            Careless and callous.

            Is a secret Santa?

            The first bad boy (Part One) was the objective status that the ‘things’; each thing, in the inherited estate contents were not ‘know what they are’ by the heirs and that was

            Careless and callous.

            The second bad boy (Part Two) was the objective status that the ‘things’; each thing, in the inherited estate contents, were distributed (with and including denoted cash valuation).  Most if not all of the truly ‘good things’ were purloined by a silent “I know” who, too, actually ‘paid’ for those ‘good things’, too; the ones that were ‘highly’ valued (appraised ‘high’).  Although not noticed or understood by the heirs, this looting-of-the-best (things) was, too

            Careless and callous.

            The third bad boy has just been broached.  Gathering your ‘I take’ from the leaving and scrapping still within the estate, one’s “I LIKE” (“I know”?); your fair share of the “of that” and... taking it to ones own home and...

            Yes...

            Decorate.  THAT... the ‘decorate’ IS domestic promotional... a showing off of

            ‘My good things’.

            It is too...

            Careless and callous

            Pungent

            Enough for you?

            And now we are back to the ‘but...’

            “Careless and callous... is a secret Santa”:

            If you are really stupid... you think Careless and Callous is a ‘style’ you

            Can do.  Oh take a bite from that apple.  It is poison.  Careless and callous is a style but

            It

            Does you.

            First the old ‘inherited’ estate must be “full” of (good) “things” “not known”.  Then (second) it must be looted of these ‘its best things’ by those who are “I know”.  Then the heirs ‘come though’ and “take”.  Then the estate is formally ‘cleaned out’...  Leaving only, thereafter, the ‘come through’ and ‘take’ cashes... spirited away to a ‘new and better’ “HOME”.  There is ‘nothing good’ ‘in there’ (the new and better home).

            BUT:

            No Wasp estate will settle for that.  No.  They...

            Cart it all home and shove it everywhere.   ALL of Dad’s books.  Ratty chair after ratty chair... to be used as seating for old dogs to lick themselves in.  ALL of the flower pots.  MOST of the kitchen... “THE DRAWERS ARE FULL” with little odd ‘bottle twisters’ from ‘mother’s house’.  All the frying pans (“SHE NEVER USED THEM”) (or “HER” “bean pot”).  Rakes, tire irons, bird feeding supplies, flashlights that don’t work.  Telephone directories from the cottage.  Door mats.  “TV tables”... what ever those are.  Children’s sleeping bags from the trip to the New York World’s Fair... in 1964.

            If you leave it

            I take it.

            But; Careless and Callous

            Done right

            Leaves little behind.

            The mess and clutter moves to your house.  “Isn’t that interesting!  THAT’S how its done.  I always wondered.”  No fanfare.  No speaking of.  The grandfather clock... in the first estate ‘didn’t have a movement’ “in the appraisal” but that movement was found in a cardboard box on the bottom shelf of the backdoor cupboard then

            Moved to the heir’s home with the clock...

            Almost:

            It was... ‘put down’

            “Somewhere.  We HAVE It I’m sure” but, too...

            With the BONNET (whatever that may be) of the tall clock’s case

            “SET OFF” in

            “THE OTHER ROOM” “THE CEILING WAS TOO LOW” (to put the bonnet on) “OK?”.  And everything else is that way too.

            “Mother’s”

            Is a careless and callous

            Wasp interior decorative style.  It takes generations to perfect and may be spotted by the knowing eye in seconds. It cannot be ‘faked’.  It may be tellingly emulated and THAT be a LIE.  Oh don’t think for a moment that I don’t know exactly what I’m talking about and what it looks like.  Just because you’d never live that way doesn’t mean it is not a way... a Wasp way.  They just won’t let you see it and... none of their things are ‘that good’

            Anyway.