It happens often on Antiques Roadshow. Someone buys a painting at a thrift shop, notices the paint is flaking, finds hidden behind that painting a wonderful masterpiece worth thousands. Or tens of thousands!
Or somebody brings a vase and says, “Oh, I only paid fifty cents for it. It captured my imagination. See the pretty swirls and the cute little curlicues?”
“Oh, my dear, each little swirl is worth a thousand and those little curlicues? Try $500 per curl,” says the voice of antiquish wisdom.
Gosh! Why can’t I do that? Maybe I should go to every garage sale in town and surrounding towns this spring. Maybe I should be a weekly visitor to Goodwill. Maybe I could, like a good detective, sniff out the clue to monetary expansion or smell the scent of a treasure hidden beneath layers of dust. Do masterpieces have a certain odor?
And then, I look at the furniture I already have. I bought this lovely green upholstered chair at a re-sale store. Losing my enthusiasm for it, I put it on the curb to give away but nobody wanted it. These are signs that it could be a real find! Remember all those stories that started like this? So, I lugged it back in. Perhaps it is deserving of a closer inspection. True, the upholstery tacks keep coming out but maybe it’s trying to tell me something. One chair leg is cracked but maybe a portly long ago historical personage sat in it. Perhaps under that uncertain shade of green lurks a relic of a renowned wood carver. Hmm.
And those chipped bowls that have been in the family for eons–well, I’ve heard them say on the Roadshow that in light of a master artist, a few chips don’t really matter.
I’m not sure where I’ll put all my possible wealth until I have a chance to go through each piece with a magnifying glass. The garage is already over-flowing as is the storage building and my house. Perhaps the car won’t mind sitting in the driveway. And I could squeeze a few more pieces of furniture into the house if I leave a path to the kitchen and bathrooms.
Ah yes, I can see it now–me on Antiques Roadshow, when the expert says, “Mrs. Manos, this stiff and pointy toed little shoe was once worn by Napoleon Bonaparte and, although it’s only one shoe, and is cracked and the high heel is coming off, we’ll ignore all the slight imperfections and concentrate on the small but mighty man of valor who wore it. It’s worth a million or so.”
And, I will gaze at it, my eyes as wide as porcelain saucers and say, “Oh, wow! Wow!. Oh, wow.”
Surely, somewhere around here, there’s gotta be a treasure!
http://www.blanchedaymanos.com/samples/the-cemetery-club/
I have a painting that intrigues me. It is not especially pretty but something about it makes me hang on to it. Surely someone famous painted it!
It could very well be. Does it have a signature? Check on the back of the frame. By the way, you have a beautiful website!
I keep thinking the same thing about all the stuff in my grandmother’s china cabinet (it’s a bonafide antique in itself!), but I never get around to taking pictures, etc. I know I have a matched pair of vases that my g-grandfather gave to my g-grandmother for Christmas in 1868–and as a matter of fact, I saw the exact set in a tour home (now closed) in Vicksburg MS some years back!
Goodness, Judy, that sounds wonderful!