NYC - High Rents Killing the Antique Business??

Jessica’s apartment is only 5 stops from Manhattan, about 12 minutes on the subway and within walking distance from the very hip Williamsburg. Spacious and cheap by New York standards, her railroad style apartment has an open hallway from the kitchen through the living room and bedroom to the front room. There’s also a roof you can use as a “deck” if you climb out the kitchen window. Her friends from Manhattan are always amazed at how large her place is but it seems tiny to me. The bathroom has tiles falling off, there are water stains on the kitchen ceiling and the wood floors slope quite severely. All this for only $1300 a month! One could pay the mortgage on a very nice house in Columbus for less but as Jess says - it would be in Columbus.

She shares her place with her babies Nancy and Fuzzy. The kitties didn't appreciate Iggy coming to visit them and didn't want to play. Iggy loves cats. He used to live with two cats and they played together all the time so he was a little disappointed that these kitties didn't want anything to do with him.

I go to sleep but my girls stay out late and sleep in the living room

I have to admit that the front room where she has her studio is perfect with two big windows and plenty of room to work on a large canvas.
The next morning I take the L train to Union Square remembering an antique section close to the park. However, when I find the right street there are only a few stores left the others having closed or moved due to the economy and high rents. The remaining stores carry mainly European antiques – somewhat disappointing for a collector of American glass. I stop in a couple of vintage clothing stores and OMG – a purse like the one I just (happily) sold for $37 was priced at a whopping $125 – I guess the rent has to be paid somehow.

Giving up on the antiques, I decide to visit some wholesale bead stores and on the way, I notice this odd little sign so of course I head down the stairs to the basement of the church. At first, nothing catches my eye but then I see this darling doll and I have to take her home with me. There is a wind-up key on the back and she still plays “Thank Heaven for Little Girls”. When I find out who she is I’ll be listing her in one of my stores.

Next - we leave NY and head for Miami

The Brothers Grim

I went to an auction yesterday way the heck out in rural Ohio. A very pretty drive from Columbus, once you exit the expressway it’s nothing but farms, fields, and churches at first, then a little while later there’s woods and smaller farms and the occasional pasture with horses or cows. I saw an Amish family with a horse drawn plow and a little further down a man on a tractor. The Amish way sure seems a lot more earth friendly, there’s not all that dirt being kicked up and blown away like there is with a tractor. Of course, it’s a lot harder and more time consuming. Every once in a while I would drive through a little town where it didn’t look like much had changed in the last 30 or 40 years, including the speed limit, and you better pay attention because I think tickets may be a major revenue source. And no, I wasn’t stopped for speeding; I was good - at least going through the little towns. ;)

After an hour and a half, I finally arrived at the auction where they were selling the estate of two elderly brothers who had lived together for a long time according to the townspeople at the auction and died within a week of each other. There were box lots laid out in the front yard with lots of goodies, old dishes and linens and suitcases and other miscellaneous items that one accumulates over a lifetime. On one side of the house were tools and lawn furniture including those cool metal chairs and on the other side antique furniture, including a huge old oak headboard and footboard attached with a wood frame, so gorgeous!

Inside the house was just sad. The house had a lot of potential and although small, I’m sure it was quite lovely in its day. Big windows with large oak frames, beautiful 6 panel oak doors, a front parlor, a front porch, a side porch, and a back porch, all enclosed and a big country kitchen with a washroom or mudroom off to the side. Upstairs there was a big open room on one side and two bedrooms on the other. At least, that’s the way I imagine that it was. The house had fallen into a sad state of disrepair and was dirty, full of mold and mildew, with a leaking roof, rotting structure and generally just falling down around the brothers’ ears. The relatives were tearing it down and all of the fixtures, windows, doors, moldings and whatever else could be sold were up for auction. Another woman and I were wondering why the relatives would have let the brothers live in such circumstances, it’s not as if they lived out of town. I heard two of them joking around with each other at the auction and I had to bite my tongue not to say, “How could you be so uncaring!”

That’s the 'good for me' but sad thing about many estate auctions. On the one hand as a buyer, I want there to be beautiful things being sold but on the other hand, I don’t understand why no one who knew the person wants to keep those things. It seems that many people don’t value the things, or in some cases the people, of the past.

Coming up next – Surprise in a Suitcase