As y’all know, there’s shopping and there’s buying. I’m a big, big shopper, but I get pretty scrawny when it comes to buying. I try to be especially careful not to overspend at each Antiques Show, but my well intentioned No Purchase Policy usually surrenders to a modest acquisition or two, which is still more than I have room or need for. Here’s what I bought last show, in its booth and on my wall.
No regrets, right? I spotted another great piece that I saw in Lynette’s booth in its forever home, the lounge area over at the Round Top Ballroom aka the fantastic Recycling the Past warehouse/event space.
G. Harmon served up some wonderful lobsters and crabs and other assorted still lifes. I’m also mad for his brown leather chair. He didn’t just hang around the house though; check out his streetscapes. They’re so sooty and confining and loud.
Here’s a parade of pieces Lynette brought to the 2015 Big Red Barn Winter Show.
And finally there are his clowns. What is it about clowns that feels so completely 1967? Well, in reading Smithsonian Mag’s historical recap of the clown as both a cheery and downright terrifying character in our culture it does appear that, thanks to Clarabell and Ronald McDonald and of course, Bozo, clowns did have a strong mid-century uptick. Since the 1980’s however, the killer clown appears to have taken over, resulting in reports of “a decline of attendees at clown conventions or at clowning workshop courses.” Good thing no one told the Brooklyn Juggler.
We all need to work a little whimsy into our landscapes.
I’d love it if someone would ask me to organize an International Folly Tour for them. No, not that kind of tour. I mean a tour where we’d visit a variety of famous follies, or “buildings that are often eccentric in design or construction” that look useful but are really just for decoration. Buildings like the Swallow’s Nest in Crimea or the Creaking Pagoda in Russia. Much of our tour would need to be spent in the UK, which makes complete sense in a droll, dry-humory kind of way. And apparently Ireland is jam-packed with follies, not because the Irish are such pranksters but because folly constructions were popular government make-work projects during the Potato Famine and as a result the country is a gold mine of “roads in the middle of nowhere; screen and estate walls; piers in the middle of bogs; etc.”
Round Top’s best examples of the genre can be found in the form of birdhouse-styled garden follies by Ludmil at Willow Nest. I saw my first one along the entry walk at N°3 in Round Top and fell in love with the country chic styling. Good thing I had the chance to see Willow Nest’s gorgeous booth at Marburger on Preview Day last fall because when I went back three days later it was pretty much shopped clean.
On a personal note, my house came with a sort of pitiful little structure in the yard that I’ve found looks a whole lot better if I tell myself, “It’s not a shabbily constructed gazebo, it’s a folly!” If you also have an unfortunate structure in your view, you might want to give it a try.
I’m assuming the doves were sold with their gorgeous cage but I didn’t ask so here’s hoping they didn’t become a pot pie. (Too droll? Sorry!)
Frasier the Labradoodle is definitely my favorite new Prost! friend, but honestly he has had some competition. There’ve been all the great RT Locals; full-timers and weekenders and old-timers and newcomers. And there’ve also been the charming Nearby Towners; LaGrange shopkeepers and Brenham musicians and Austin collectors and Houston REALTORS® (I’m pretty sure I needed to type that all caps and with the little register mark since it seems very important to them and who am I to deny them their ®, especially now that I’ve figured out it’s no harder than holding down the Option Key while typing a normal R). And there’ve been the real (maybe even REAL®) fun Out of Towners, particularly during the Antiques Show weeks. (Yes, Bonnie Neiman I mean you!) And then there were the horsewomen from down the road and the bar manager from down the road and Barbara’s dear friend whom I later ran into down the road and… Bottom line, if you think need some new friends, you probably just need a glass of good wine.
This young man appeared during the Antique Show hoping to book an evening gig on the patio. Penny (as in Penny and Mike Ceis, Prost!’s owners) gave him a quick audition and I was lucky enough to be able to sit on the stone steps and listen in. RT is full of these kinds of special impromptu moments so when you visit be sure to keep your ears and eyes and heart open to anything. You’ll thank yourself.
FYI, the wine here is fine, just like the name says, and they’ll sell it to you by the glass, the bottle or the case. Prost!
Ender Tasci’s Elephant Walk booth is the streetfront anchor shop for the EX-CESS field, and EX-CESS is pretty much the anchor field for the whole Antiques Show. So Elephant Walk is a hard to miss space, if only as a slow-creep-drive-by-looky-look while you sit in traffic on one of the busy days. I find myself visiting Ender once, twice, maybe three times every show, often helping friends get some truly beautiful things at great prices.
Elephant Walk’s permanent location and warehouse is in Orlando, FL of all places. Which of course got me thinking about how much the Round Top Antiques Show is like a Disney theme park experience: Completely overwhelming visual overload, endless traipsing well beyond your exhaustion point, long hot lines at the casual dining spots, groups of families and friends desperately trying to keep track of one another, parents taking turns pushing strollers, costumed characters everywhere you look… I’ll let you decide which fields are Tomorrowland, Frontierland, Fantasyland, etc. but Warrenton is definitely Main Street USA.
This gorgeous beaded tray is a perfect example of how things get away. I saw it two days after I was super-tempted to buy the almost matching beaded stool at a booth down near Zapp Hall. If I’d known the Zapp stool had a matching tray waiting at Ender’s I would have grabbed it for sure, but in the interest of my sanity I’ve instituted a strict a never-go-back rule for myself, so I will be without either.
You are surrounded by infinite possibilities of choice. Yikes!
Antiquing is such a thrilling feast of possibilities. What makes things even more interesting is that “possibility” is a completely relative concept. Your possible might be beyond my wildest dreams. My possible might be your so-not-worth-it. When you really think about it, that isn’t just a booth full of old treasures and castoffs, it’s an entire possibility multiverse.
As they are paid to do, interior designers, decorators, furnishers, stylists and their ilk look around the fields and tents and see even deeper layers of possibility. And here’s where Mel and El finally enter the picture. Next to their Old Depot tent full of super-stylish frenchy chairs, settees and benches that they’ve recovered in great hair-on hides, old Army bags and worn in vintage feed sacks, Mel and El also set up a complete upholstery workshop. The pros (and anyone else with the nerve) can order a pair of throw pillows for a new settee. Or they can bring some metallic leather from Arbor and an old stool from North Gate and have the whole thing redone on the spot. Or they can choose a custom fabric scheme for one of Mel and El’s own yet-to-be-done chair frames and it’ll be whipped up in a couple of days. What a handy and empowering and mind-opening resource to have in your pocket as you shop the show. Possibilties x 10!
Speaking of possibilities, let’s quickly review what I call the Sure You Can Do It, But Will You Really? possibility principle that must be kept in mind during all antiquing trips. As you find yourself slipping into the seductive “oh that burlap wreath plate charger with ombre dip-dye accents is so darling but I don’t need to buy it because I can make it myself” possibility trap, stop yourself and remember: What is possible when we get home from the show has its limits because we are involved, and we are busier and lazier than we think.
These are the beauties waiting for their turn!
And lastly, you’ll remember that my Grandmadean used to say a house or a shack or a town had “possibilities.” That’s what I thought when I saw this fabulous hide chair. The second photo shows how perfectly she fits into her new home!
The good news? You've discovered The Crush List. The not so good? I haven't been actively posting here for a few years now, which means the never terribly reliable details about my crushes are even more unreliable. Antique vendors have switched venues, shops in town have moved or passed on, donkeys may or may not be in the same front yards... In spite of the risks of massive misdirection I've left the site up in hopes that it still achieves its goal - to inspire you to visit Round Top for the Antiques Show or any time you have the time.
With that said, I leave you to explore this random list of my very favorite things about my very favorite place. I’ve tried to capture the area’s special pieces and parts. Some are big deal, some are small gestures, some are legendary and some are just tiny pip and squeak.
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