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.