Wondering about stuff: something light

This morning I got to looking at my sideboard, a gateleg flip-top table, probably mahogany, maybe cherry, certainly hardwood; a fifth leg swings out. It was used in a barn as a sawhorse—you can see it it in marks all over it. I have this piece because it was in an apartment where I lived with a prickly roommate, whose previous roommate (a glorious human) got it from her mom’s thrift shop and told me I could have it. It’s at least 200 years old, full of damage (scotch staples held part of the top together till they fell off in the last move, and I put glued pencils in where pegs used to be underneath—it was an emergency fix when Rina from India was staying with me, and Mark and Steve and Flynn were coming over from New Jersey for a St. Patrick’s Day feast and I had to get us around some kind of table, and Rina said as I assessed, grabbled, and glued, “I am in awe of you right now”), not really practical, and surely not worth much money, but I love it. It’s the object I’d bring to Antiques Roadshow just to learn more about it.

When you watch Antiques Roadshow—and if you don’t, I recommend it, as it’s interesting, educational, curious, and also restful, so human and hopeful—do you look around your place and start wondering about things? What would you bring?

Antiques, a roadshow of the mind

This has been hanging over my mantle

I inherited this from my grandmother

These were in my mother’s attic

A man offered us a thousand for this set

This ring

This doll

These books

This sword

This poster

In a barn

This rug

In the garage

This

uniform

painting

embroidery

etching

lamp

vase

At a thrift store

Hopefully we can find out something more about it

Do you remember how much you paid for it?

The artist

The owner

Was born in 1888

Late 1920s

Late 1930s

Joined the militia at seventeen

The (pick a) war

The expedition

It’s a charming story

In the original box

We’ll obviously keep this

Bowl

Bracelet

Federal style table

Rookwood Pottery

It is Tiffany

A salesman’s sample

Tomb Trade Simulator

I’ve had it for about 30 years

The maker’s mark

At the folkart table

Not Tiffany

He was a coal miner turned photographer

She was a debutante turned painter

He was a mapmaker for the government

She was an itinerant artist at a time when

I heard they

Lived in France

Japan

Bali

Alaska

Massachusetts

Auction records are scarce

Look

glass

original frame

platinum gold copper

Great patina

The watch and the chain are like nothing I’ve seen

The sales receipt is incredibly complete

Intact

Like new

A diamond set in the center

It’s perfect

Not polished

A little wear which is to be expected

Something of this age

It’s unsigned

Not popular as it once was

Any idea of value?

For insurance purposes

And you hear the stories and the insurance appraisal

and you see the vintage episodes and hear the up or down sound effect

and sometimes you just want to step back and imagine it

As it once was

And the who had it

And the where it came from

That’s the value—

the pleasure of its company.

Here’s to Sunday.