2011 © Antiques in Bethania
EVERYTHING YOU WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT ANTIQUES, BUT WERE AFRAID TO ASK . . .
Many antique dealers consider themselves as an expert in one particular area . . . I am an Antique Junkie and I specialize in Wabi Sabi which is everything that has had a former life and even owner . . .
My expertise covers many areas, which is why my antique
shop is very eclectic. I attended my first auction when I
was five years old and bought my first treasure, a trunk,
for the outrageously high price of a quarter. My mother filled our house with wonderful furnishings and my father, with books and papers - tons of ephemera that most people would have thrown in the garbage pile. I was spoon fed on reading from 17th, 18th, 19th century original letters, diaries, newspapers, first edition books, and any type of paper product imaginable, including prints (although I later succumbed to charcoal, pen and ink, pencil, hand-colored pages, watercolors, and oil on canvas). My parents also believed in history and took my brothers and I to museums, art institutes, and historical settings throughout my childhood. Even to this day, it is not uncommon for me to become lost in history.
My professional career has taken me from coast to coast and subsequently being a lone female traveler, I used my spare time to hunt antiques and discover history from one end of the country to the other. During the 16 years I lived outside of Chicago, I spent many weekends scouring flea markets, standing hours in all kinds of weather at auctions in the country, and eventually bought my first historic property to restore (and many outbuildings to store my ever growing inventory of antiques).
I am a Wabi Sabi person because I can’t bear the thought of throwing anything away. Wabi Sabi mean imperfections. I love the sound of these two Japanese words as they roll off my tongue almost as much as I like what they refer to; something that has outlived its initial intended life and has been recycled over and over again. I abhor the saying that nothing last forever because I am at an age when I may have outlived many of the purposes I once set my mind on doing. I am in a constant state of flux and always thinking of new ideas. On the other hand, I believe that “one man’s trash is another person’s treasure.”
I prefer to call my avocation - saving the destiny of a trash pile. I have an old bushel basket from the 1920’s when they still made such containers to last. The bail handle is of sturdy iron with a wooden turned handle. The green paint is well washed into the lapped weaving though the inside of the basket has wear. Someone around the 1960s cut newspaper tin used by a printing press and overlapped the exterior of the basket with V shaped metal newsprint telling stories and life in the southern town of Winston-Salem, North Carolina. This the perfect example of a Wabi Sabi item because we all know when a container has holes, it’s a goner.
2011 © Antiques in Bethania