Tag: Antiques

Market Stall Finds – China 2014

/ Matt Talley / Leave a comment

My mom drug me all over Texas as a kid; visiting antique markets, flea markets, auction houses, garage sales, junk shops, etc… I hated it at first, but more and more, I would find some cool old nick-knacks, books, or a tool that would make the trip worth it. I think my dad made her take me along so she would not be tempted to buy out every shop. I had side deals with both of them: to rat mom out and keep my mouth shut when Daddy asked about the amount spent. It was a lucrative arrangement and usually netted me $10 a weekend in hush money and my father would slide me a Verboten Sneakers Bar under the table for tidbits of information. As I got older, I became my mother’s pack mule – training that my wife now truly appreciates!

My first sword came from a garage sale and was a rusty WW1 Cavalry saber that I defeated entire imaginary armies with, became a pirate, an Arthurian knight, a samurai, a ninja, a Jedi, and was Teddy Roosevelt leading the charge up San Juan Hill! As a note, that hill was a mound of dirt pushed up by a dozer at a construction site, but it didn’t matter to my 9-year-old self. I now look back with fond memory on all the bits and bobbles that came home with me from that time and those early trips into the dusty corners of market stalls has left me with a love of the same. I hope that when I retire from my J-O-B to have my own little Rag and Bone shop of furniture and antiques to while away my time in.

For now, anytime I travel, I try to take a couple of hours to explore the local markets. I have spent hours roaming, looking, haggling and bargaining in market districts from Berlin to Paris, Marrakesh, New York, Tokyo, Abu Dhabi, Tel Aviv, London, Belfast, Beijing, Hong Kong, Montreal, Calcutta, New Delhi, Los Angeles and so many points in-between.

I just returned from China where had a little time in Xi’an and Chengdu to do some wandering and I found a few treasures to bring home and some that stayed right where they were… Some of the offerings included:

Wooden and stone beads
Cabinet Hardware
Brass statues
Corn and honey sweet treats
Bamboo chop-sticks that were made right there in the stall (~10 cents a pair)
Human skull caps (stayed at the market!)
Teapots
Hand bells
Military Surplus
Old Suitcases
Musical Instruments
Dried fruit and nuts
Polished turtle shells
Go game pieces
Furniture
Fans
Paintings
Silk
Reproduction coins
Terra Cotta Figures
Chinese calligraphy paintings
Religious mementos
Animal horn combs
20 different poses of Buddha
Porcelain dishes and bowls
Wood Carvings
Old books

Off to the Antique Market we go!!

/ Matt Talley / Leave a comment

A couple of months ago while talking to my son on the phone, I mentioned that Stamps-With-Foot and I had been at the monthly Antique Market here in Toulouse. My boy, The Ruminator, started roaring with laughter and said something about how “…going antiquing was for old ladies!..” I let him laugh a while and then explained how awesome it was to find bobbles and treasures and cool stuff at the different stalls. He wasn’t having it and continued with the giggles. Fast forward to this past weekend (1st full weekend in March). My lovely wife and I planned the day out around going to peruse the market: Coffee and lunch and wine and crapes while touring strolling the lanes and bargaining for small bits, talking to the locals, and looking a treasures that we won’t ever be able to afford – the 7’X12′ landscape paining from 1930 or the french-polished table form the reign of Napoleon.

There was a little of everything to be found: a jar of brains, a VERY cool turtle, black powder shotguns, Persian rugs, linens, paintings, desks, tables, tapestries, rusted iron tools, old dolls, military medals, an anvil, low chairs, cutting blocks, glass ware, sculptures, books, etc… We ended up with an 18th century book stand from an Abby, a haberdasher’s display rack (our new entryway coat rack), a SWEET industrial Cast-Iron-legged table that has a 28″X72″ oak slab top that is over 100 years old! I also happened upon a rusty axe head in a stall full of miscellaneous crap that resembles a large 17th Century broad axe in the Armor and Weapons section of the Louvre. Not saying that this one is the same thing, but it looks REAL close. I immediately sent my son the following text:

“…Made fun of me for going to the Antiques markets… This weekend I got what looks like a 300 year old Battle Axe made for storming castles. It was $40. Too bad antiques are for old ladies and you won’t be going to any any markets while you are here. Are you laughing at me now? Mwahahaha!!…”

As a note, The Ruminator is enamored with Vikings, swords, castles, armor, and all things Medieval. I did my black heart some needed good to wave his antique-arrogance under his nose a little. It make the evil-inside almost giddy thinking about the “AWE MAN!” face he made when he read my note.

Below are some shots of both the market and our haul.

Dreams of My Own Little Shop of Curiosities..

/ Matt Talley / Leave a comment

I have a dream: I want to open a small to medium sized antique shop and have a place for my wife to work where she can take the babies and puppies. A place where I could indulge in my love of furniture/design/history and still keep my day job and health insurance. This is not a pipe dream, I have a written draft business plan, have worked out a logo and ethos (solid wood only) and have a special savings account for the start-up costs. In addition to classic and choice mid-century pieces, I would sprinkle in a few of my own newly constructed items and the occasional consignment.

I found the perfect place a couple of years ago: an existing antique shop where the owners were thinking of retiring and had good open space with FANTASTIC ambiance. I found out recently that the shop had closed forever and that the space was being converted to some other purpose. I snuck over and took pictures of the interior before it was sold or leased and some idiot rips it apart, installs IKEA cabinets, and opens an ironic hipster shop…

It hurts my heart a little to see someone else get the spot that I have long coveted, but I will find or make just as good of a space when the time comes.

The most awesomest desk ever!!!!!!!

/ Matt Talley / Leave a comment

The wife and I have desk issues:  Not problems with sharing, it that we own too damn many.  I have a 1950s copy of a 1790s Federal secretary, we use an Art Nouveau drop front secretary as a liquor cabinet, her sewing desk is a ’80’s maple laminate, there is an 7X3′ drafting desk in the basement, I am currently refinishing a solid oak university desk for her office and we pay the bills on a Duncan Phyfe drop-leaf.  We need another desk in the house like John Hinkley, Jr. needs an assault rifle…

For Stamps-With-Foot’s birthday, we went and perused jewelry stores, had lunch and coffee down town, window shopped for a new Persian carpet, and eventually wandering into our favorite antique market…  Damn!  I bought another desk.  In my defense though, this is the most awsomest desk ever!!  No, really.  It is a solid wood 1960 build of a Norwegian/English/Swedish cabinet desk – a modern interpretation of a Moore or Wooten folding wing desk.  It unfolds and slides like a fvcking Optimus Prime Transformer!  The minute I saw it, I felt all funny in my lower abdominal region…

Now, to get my little bride to agree to this purchase, I had to promis to sell the Federalist secretary and a 5-drawer quarter-sawn oak dresser, but it was SOOO worth it.  Additionally when I went back a couple of days later to pick up the desk, I also brought home an additional 2’ section of library card catalog.  The wife was not as pleased with that surprise…

Sorry, the pictures were snapped with my cell at the shop and do not do this beauty any justice at all.