Why, hello there. Would you like to go shopping with me? It’s a beautiful day out, why not? What? Oh, for antiques of course. Is there anything better?
For you see, while we were up at the world’s most peaceful mazet recently, the twice yearly Foire Internationale Art et Antiquités was being presented at a mere ten minutes drive away in the always beautiful L’Isle sur la Sorgue.
So what say you? Shall we swan along together? A tiny bit of time travel will be required but just wiggle your nose Bewitched-like and we’re off…This week’s posts will be dedicated to a little virtual wish-listing. And while I am sure that Remi will sigh in exasperation at my including too many photos (as usual), I wanted to make sure that there was something for everyone…
Of course, all of the usual suspects were present, such as charming old pétanque balls…
…eye-blinding bling…
…la vannerie that would look very smart slung over a crooked elbow at the farmer’s market back home…
…plus – the perpetual favorite – pots à conserve whose prices finally seem to be going back down…
…as well as grain sacks waiting to be plumped into expensive scratchy pillows or upholstery in upscale boutiques around the world.
But there were a lot of unusual items as well.
I was especially fascinated by these oriental molds for printing wall paper. Wouldn’t they look lovely mounted in a group in a hallway or in a bath?
Similarly, Remi and I were both drawn to this set of silver molds until we saw that A) it was 287 Euros and B) it was made of ivory. Ahhh, non et non.
For the intrepid, there were many tables crammed with interesting and inexpensive bric-a-brac to trawl through. Alas, patience is not exactly my middle name…
No, I was drawn by the bigger gestures and especially the stands that offered an intact aesthetic, such as with this seller’s juxtaposition of French provincial with Asian antiques. Now we are talking.
These six sculpted Chinese flowers might have gone home with me in better days (ahem) and I loved how beautifully they complimented the gorgeous faded colorway of the dresser.
Of course, there were plenty of smaller pieces that caught my eye.
Who can ever have enough crackly old suitcases to stack at the end of the bed…
…or passmenterie to pull back those extra long linen drapes?
Pieces with authentic or even exaggerated patina were still in abundance, even while the “whitewash everything/Annie Sloan chalk paint” look is fading into the past.
Simple seems to be the order of the day, which is just fine by me…
…as well as using basic items or materials creatively, such as these stacked (albeit wobbly) vegetable crates as end tables…
…or sections of old Indonesian boats to form a perfect outdoor sofa (although I will pass on the hot pink plastic Rhino head, thank you very much).
Not all of the faire’s 250 vendors (in addition to the permanent shops) are in the old goods business.
I knew that I had seen the yellow mid-century style console before and sure enough, everything at this stand was the work of two young women from Arles. Eve and Soriana, created their company En goguette (which means “a little bit drunk”) in 2009 and since then have been creating their designs out of cardboard. The results are precisely well thought out, fun and environmentally friendly.
Which is just wonderful. For while it is always a delight to puff up the dust of the past, how important it can be to keep one eye squinting directly towards the future…
Have a wonderful week everyone! More soon…
And thank you kindly for all of your interest concerning Vickie Lester’s “It’s in His Kiss”…it tickled me pink.
Ooooooo – love these treasures!! I was just at Treasure Mart yesterday and nothing can compare to this stuff! I especially love the wall paper molds and the patina door, but it all looks wonderful! The burning question: did you get anything???? Maybe you are waiting for Treasure Mart….IN EIGHT DAYS!!!!! AHHHHH!!!!!!!
p.s. I'm going to go search for your birth certificate – I'm pretty sure your legal name IS Heather Patience Robinson.
Nothing at that Fair was any more Creative or well executed than your post, photos, and dialogue .. fantastic job. You just keep getting better and better. Bravo!
Dear Joan,
"And trying to resist the wall paper stamps…..". One of my favrotie things in this old house stuffed with fifty years of my things is large bowl filled with what look like knobby, black, ends-of-branches (each about five inches long and about half the size of a soup-can?) that someone's snatched from a fireplace. What they ACTUALLY are?????…..My longtime friend, Suman Bhatia (she of the Indian restaurant where I got my Basmati bags back in 1986 or so) brought 8 of them back from India for me…..twenty years ago?…..and each rough piece of wood is sawed-off cleanly at the end, and someone has carved intricate floral designs across the flat end of the piece of wood. They were used to "print" designs on cloth. Essentially, they're just like those "Wallpaper stamps" Heather's found.Suman found them just tossed-into-the-gutter (they do, eventually wear down and wear-out) of some village in the Punjab (she's from Delhi and was home for a visit), picked them up, and brought them back to me as a present. I used them for years to create the "Indian" borders on her ads and menus (I got my start in my current, Brilliant & Gorgeous Career by volunterring to do the ads for her restaurant when I was a broke, highly dissastisfied, gradstoodint laboring away on a obligatorily "Feminist" dissertation on Thomas Hardy).
In any case, I tend to love things which are beautiful ande could be passed off as mere bibelots, but which once had a highly practical function (My older brother, who was in the navy, made a practice, there for a few years long ago, of stealing the brass, top portions of ships' telescopes for me; they all sit on amantle now….gleaming brass cylinders with odd screws and strange magnifying glasses in them; no one can ever figure out what they actually WERE, once upon a time).
Well, enough from me now. All I want now is to go a-looking with Miss Heather (unlike the Hattats, I know when to quit when it comes to stuffing the house with things, as though it were an infinitely-expandable Christmas stocking).
—-david terry
http://www.davidterryart.com
I always enjoy your market/fair trips; so much enjoyment and I don't have to spend a cent. I used to own a cardboard chair, in the 70s. It was wonderful.
I would love to go to one of those fairs although I'd probably lack the discipline to stay within my budget. I certainly would have been tempted by those Chinese flowers.
As an antique 'junkie' ( and dealer for umpteen years…along with being an art dealer) I am totally in love with those Chinese flowers! Small flea markets around the world offer similar and distinctive treasures…..some old, some not so old, and some just plain 'must haves'!
So much to tempt a compulsive collector…even the smallest found item can be a forever treasure.
Thank you for wonderful photos….never too many.
Lovely. I'd be looking for wonderful small bedside carafe with glass to use as lids. And trying to resist the wall paper stamps. Thanks for the wonderfull stroll.
The show has everything for everyone, Yes, “something for everyone”. Mrs. Abstract’s sister like antiques and will love to browse this one. And who could resist looking at old things. They have a certain charm.
I like the petanque balls and the silver molds.
Heather I see many items I love, the artifacts and oriental molds are so interesting!!
xoxo
Karena
The Arts by Karena
a little bit drunk…that is the most wonderful name for a creative business…and anybody with a sense of humour will always do well it seems….
rather adore the wallpaper moulds…can still see the marks of the tree's lines under the pattern