Welcome to My Red Cape. Long ago in another time my husband Jack and I lived in a little old red house. It was the stuff of dreams to us for the few years that we were there. I live there still a number of hours every day in imagination, with old dolls and paintings and fabrics and feather trees. I draw inspiration and happiness from the memories of that space in time and share some of it here with friends who remember how to step with Alice through the looking glass and take delight in whimsies and antiquities. ~Edyth O’Neill

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

A turkey hooked rug

Sunday we had a pleasant visit from Gina, a rug hooker we made acquaintance with long years back.  As she is an antique collector, a doll lover and a fine rug maker, we had a lot to talk about.   Here is a picture of Gina and her rug, hooked on a pattern from Country Gatherings.

We enjoy a visit from friends with similar interests to our own. Jack and I miss the company of people who used to come see us when we had our antique shop. There were always interesting people discussing American Decorative Arts of earlier times,  furniture, paint colors, fireplace iron, textiles, pewter, and on and on.. Where was it made, who made or used it, and how and when? What are the good/better/best points of this item?  How should it be restored? (Or should it be!) 
This was an endlessly fascinating study and dialog for us, a tapestry of interests so wide and varied it could never all be learned. That was what being a dealer in antiques meant to us, not the more publicised TV image of making some great find, bought for pennies and worth great sums.    Rather we concentrated on learning to see.. and to identify and evaluate what we found. Form and surface and provenance were our measures of value.   We both are grateful to have had the good fortune to live this lifestyle for a few years.  Our home is filled with reminders of all those years of adventure, very saticefying indeed!

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