Heirlooms of Value

I mentioned a couple weeks ago that I would be receiving some furniture from my dad and stepmom. Included in that furniture were my grandmother’s kitchen table, a dresser, a bookshelf, a coffee table, and a writing desk that I am now using as a kitchen island.

I am absolutely in love with my new island. It is a little beat up with a few scratches, and its legs are somewhat loose so it wobbles. The drawer is mostly intact except that the bottom has come loose. But, all that is easily mended.

So that I don’t damage the quality of the wood, I’ll be filling in the scratches with a homemade stain of black walnut hulls that have been boiled and steeped.  To solve the problem of the legs, I’ll spray WD40 on the bolts and tighten them (they are quite rusted). And to repair the drawer, I will recycle the nails already on the bottom of the drawer. When it’s all done, I’ll place a table runner and a bowl of bright, colorful fruit or maybe a vase of roses on top. The bottom shelf will of course be used for my cookbooks.

If that had been all that was sent, I would have been more than pleased. However, my father also sent some family heirlooms that could easily be considered antiques.

 This is a silhouette is of either my great-grandfather or great-uncle. My dad couldn’t quite tell me, but even if it weren’t someone from my family, I’d still be excited to have it. Before cameras were easily accessible and getting portraits done were affordable, people had their silhouettes done. When I was younger, we had a silhouette of my grandmother hanging on the wall, and I thought it was the neatest thing I had ever seen.

I was given two of these kerosene lamps, and I can’t wait to clean them up. These sat on either side of a sideboard in our living room when I was growing up, and at some point, my dad tried to make them electric. I don’t think it worked, but the cords are still there. I’ll be cleaning the glass, removing the rust, and using gold leaf to hide previous damage.

And then there’s this:

This painting always hung over the couch in the living room, and always intrigued me. What I didn’t know until a couple weeks ago is that this is the first painting that my grandmother ever attempted. My dad had no idea how old it is, but he knows that it was done before he was born and after she married his father because it was signed with ‘Bailey.’ I looked at it very closely and noticed that it is a mix of oil and acrylic—something that I do in my own paintings. Because it’s been in a storage building for years, I’ll have to restore it back to its original brightness, but even without restoration, it is absolutely fabulous, simply because it came from her.   

Desks

I’ve always had a strange obsession with desks. From the time that I knew what a desk was, I wanted as many as my room would hold. Not only did I want the desks, I wanted things to go on them—books, letters, pens, paper weights. I wanted it all. Why? Because my aunt had several desks in her 5 houses (Yes. Five—all filled with antiques.) And so, now when I go to antique stores, I am immediately drawn to desks and writing tables. A few weeks ago, while looking for an antique shop to add to my list of places to visit, I came across this desk at Bank Street Antique Mall in Decatur.

I instantly loved it because it’s a beautiful shade of walnut. Not only does it have all the pieces (many secretarial desks are missing drawers), but it is also easily convertible to a simple table. Double duty has never looked so good.  If it weren’t for the price tag, I’d buy it.

After finding that desk, I was curious to see if another shop that I’ve visited, Hoover Antique Gallery, had a website. I found that they do, and I also found a few desks that I’d like to add to my collection.

I’m a huge fan of this table because the carving is so elegant. I wish that I could see other angles of I, but I do believe that the front is solid wood as opposed to the typical false drawer found on newer tables of this style. Although it’s shown as it might appear in a dining room, I think this table would look wonderful set up as a writing table or a simple computer desk.

My second favorite thing to look for in antique shops is sewing machines, because they are just plain adorable. They remind me a lot of my grandmother’s house because they were everywhere. They served as end tables, decorative tables, small desks, and sometimes, tv stands. When I saw this sewing machine set up as a desk, I was thrilled. I know. I know. It isn’t actually a sewing machine anymore, and the tabletop probably isn’t original, but it has the pedal and that makes it pretty awesome in my book.

This isn’t exactly a desk or a writing table. It is actually a gossip or telephone table, but it could be used as a writing table. Normally, I would never even look at a piece of furniture that has obviously been repainted, but I like the white on this because it is so simple. In fact, I almost bought this exact table the last time I was at Hoover Antiques. But, the more I look at it, the more I think that I really do want it in my house.

Chosen With Love

I can spend hours in an antique store, not come out with a single thing, and be completely satisfied. As much as I love antiques, I know better than to buy them for the sake of buying them. I am careful in my selections, only buying the pieces I absolutely love. If I can live without it, I leave it for someone who can’t.  The most important thing I’ve learned about collecting antiques is that I’ll take better care of an antique if I love it.

I have inherited many antiques over the years, and I love them like family. However, in the last 2 years I have started buying my own antiques. My “newer” antiques are loved in a much different way. They are loved because they were chosen by me for me.

These are the stories of a few of my favorite pieces that were bought within the last year.

These beauties were found in an antique shop in Tuscaloosa. I paid $30 for all three sets. Between the three stacks, there are about seventy Sweetheart Letters, all from the same girl to the same man. They are all dated in the 1940s. When I finally got them home, I opened and read them in order based on the postmark dates. The girl attended Montevallo and the guy was stationed somewhere in Georgia with the army. It’s quite a sweet story and I can only imagine that they ended up married.

Regardless of how their story ended, reading handwritten letters from that long ago was a rewarding experience. I learned a lot about how people lived then, and it made me think about all the options we have for communicating now. 

Sometimes, a newspaper clipping or two was enclosed with a letter. Most of them were about local events, some were about the war (like this one), and some were lists of people killed overseas. The letters never referred to the clippings, but my guess is that they were things that the girl thought the guy might like to know about. 

This book was purchased in Franklin, Tennessee. I’m not exactly a raving fan of Charles Dickens, but I couldn’t pass up an illustrated collection of his work. According to the copyright page, it was printed in 1880. It’s in decent condition. All the pages are still there (only a blank page in the front is loose), and they are all easily readable. The best part? I was flipping through it one day and found a lock of hair. I know that’s not exactly something you want to find in a book, but it speaks volumes about the original owner and when he or she lived. There were also several dried four leaf clovers and flowers. For $25, it was a steal.

One day last summer I was in an antique store in downtown Florence browsing the booths for Lance Cookie Jars (they’re quite collectible) for my mom’s birthday when I spotted this table. Even before I did my usual inspection, I instantly loved it. It was the perfect size to serve as an island in my kitchen, and the shelves on the bottom would be convenient for storing my cookbooks. I pulled out the drawer and determined that it would store cooking utensils because my kitchen only has two small drawers.

Deciding to buy the table was easy. It was solid oak with the original finish, and the only flaw was that three inches of the front leg had been replaced (You can barely see it on the bottom right side of this picture). Getting the table home was a bit more difficult. The table was on the second floor of the shop and I was alone. The cashier assured me that she would have her husband bring it down and I could pick it up in a few days.

I returned with my brother and we attempted to load it into the backseat of my car. It was just half an inch shy of fitting. I was upset because I had no other vehicle that it could fit in. I had to leave it again. I convinced my other brother to borrow a friend’s truck and one week after making my purchase, I had my kitchen island home.

A couple months later, my landlord moved her furniture (that I had been borrowing) out. I had nowhere to put my TV, so it ended up on the kitchen island. Instead of cookbooks, the shelves house my art books and DVD player. The drawer holds remotes, batteries, and my tiny collection of DVDs. I’ve slipped a wooden crate that used to hold bottles of chardonnay underneath the shelves. When I watch movies my cats curl up in it for a nap.  

Lucky for me, today my stepmother offered me another table that is very similar in style to this one. It’s slightly older, darker, and taller. The work surface is much larger and would add quite a bit of counter space. I will have a permanent kitchen island within a couple weeks. I couldn’t be happier with the way it turned out.  

I bought this in Huntsville a month ago. I went in the antique shop to relieve some stress and came out with this precious candy dish, a tiny cutting board, and a cat food dish. My aunt used to have several dishes like this in her house and I always wanted one.  The top is crystal and the bottom is cast iron painted gold. I paid $12 for it and now I have somewhere to keep my miniature Reese’s cups and Butterfingers. There is certainly a chance that this isn’t actually very old, but it reminds me of my childhood and that makes it worth the money. 

Dedication

I love antiques. If I had my way, I would spend all my time browsing antique stores and buying a million things. I grew up in a home where antiques were appreciated, but only existed in storage. My aunt and grandmother, however, filled their houses with all sorts of antiques. In fact, my aunt even bought a house that had previously been one of the first churches in the Shoals area. She didn’t buy it because she was in love with it; she bought it because it was old and she always imagined what the people who worshipped in it were like.

On my Dad’s side of the family, I am the only granddaughter and that meant that I had to learn how to decorate houses appropriately. So how did I learn? My aunt and grandmother took me to estate auctions and antique stores. As we browsed, they would explain to me what each piece was and how to check to make sure that it was in good condition. At Christmas, they gave me antique dolls, jewelry, jewelry boxes, books, figurines, and anything else that a little girl could possibly want (well, anything that a little girl from the 1800s would want). When we had tea and etiquette parties they dressed me in vintage clothing, even the shoes, and pinned my hair with tortoise shell clips. They slipped emerald, ruby, and diamond rings over my fingers and draped my neck with real pearls.

I felt at home among old things, and like my aunt, I wondered about the people who had used them. When I walked through my aunt’s house, I imagined that I was stepping back in time. She had antique chairs, tables, couches, desks, bookshelves, pie safes, Hoosier cabinets, dishes, paintings, rugs, dolls, lamps, beds, pianos—pretty much anything you could think of. While examining her antiques, I learned how to determine if a desk had been refinished or if a table leg had been replaced. I learned how to examine unique pieces for the maker’s mark and from there, determine the age of it. I wasn’t always right, but for my age, I was quite good at it.

At home, we only had two or three channels on our TV. For the most part, we kept it on one channel, and it just so happened that it was the channel that Antiques Roadshow came on. My Dad would set me in his lap and watch it with me every time it came on. We oohed and aahed at the items brought it, and we had contests to see who could guess closest to the actual values. It was fun to look at the antiques and learn about them, but more than that, it was fun to have something that bonded my father and me.

Now that I have moved out on my own, I am determined to furnish my home with as many antiques as I can with a reasonable mix of modern pieces. I do have a TV, but no cable, satellite, or antenna (I do have a DVD player). You would think that I would miss watching the newest shows, but all that I really miss is Antiques Roadshow.

And so, this blog is dedicated to the people who have taught me about antiques and given me a hobby that never truly gets old, at least not in the traditional sense.