LONDON – It was the last weekend of our holiday in the sun but even so, we couldn’t not go to the 47th annual Suncoast Antique Bottle & Collectible Show. After all, we went to the 46th and readers with long memories will recall I wrote about it here last year.
LONDON – Fate found us in Venice this week, looking at valuable stones. Except this was Venice, Florida, and the stones weren’t gems, they were … well lumps of rock. It was fascinating. We found an antiques fair and with the weather turning a little cooler than the 85-degree record-breakers of previous days, it was a blessed relief.
SARASOTA, Fla. – It’s impossible to visit Sarasota on Florida’s Gulf Coast and not come into contact with the legacy left to the city by the circus impresarios the Ringling family. We’ve left behind the rain-sodden United Kingdom and are here for our traditional annual holiday in the sun. In contrast to the UK, temperatures are hitting records in the mid-80s.
LONDON – The latest Star Wars blockbuster and all the excitement around it is all very well, but as collectors of antiques, we prefer to look back in time, rather than what awaits future generations in galaxies far far away.
Collectors of antiquities look back farther than anyone and they have the advantage over most of us: The objects they search out might well be thousands of years old, but that doesn’t always mean they cost the earth.
LONDON – It’s a charity shop in a prosperous town (no, I’m not letting on which) that we call on often. I buy books and CDs; the Business Manager, (Mrs. P) buys costume jewelry. All of it is really stylish and much of it so inexpensive that, if money is tight, it’s good enough to give as Christmas presents. She assures me it remains highly wearable.
LONDON – It’s a brave man who admits his mistakes. More years ago that I care to remember, I wrote a collecting column pontificating about how the only people ever likely to make any money out of signed, limited edition reproduction prints by L S Lowry were the peddlers of the things (apart from the artist that is, he would have been paid for each print he signed).
LONDON – I’m not sure where, but somewhere in the house is my late uncle’s truncheon. He was a special constable and, sadly, he died before I met him. From him, I inherited a love of fishing and a fascination with the unusual.
LONDON – It was one of those impulse purchases encouraged by expert salesmanship combined with my love of gadgetry and the excuse (handy during the ensuing persuasive discussion with the Business Manager, Mrs. P) that a robotic vacuum cleaner would save her both time and energy. It sort of works, although it eats rechargeable batteries and never quite reaches into the corners.
LONDON – It was Groucho Marx who famously said he wouldn’t want to be a member of a club that would accept people like him as a member, and I share the sentiment. But as a collector, I confess to being fascinated by the raft of Freemasonry memorabilia that turns up with frequent regularity in antiques fairs and auctions. Should I start collecting it? Writing this might help me decide.