Antique Antics
Collecting is a beautiful disease. Insidious with no known cure. You acquire a thing. You love it. You get another thing, similar, but not the same. One day, you look around and you have a collection.
Han Dynasty 206 BC – 220 AD
Chinese antique porcelain and Asian sacred art grabbed me and wouldn’t let me go. There is something awe-inspiring about holding something in your hand that was created thousands of years ago. It lives on your fireplace mantel.
Bronze, probably Tibetan, 19th century?
You look at it and imagine all the people who have touched it, whose lives this pot has touched, whose prayers this Buddha has heard. It’s living history.
Qianlong (1736-1795) porcelain.
Thus, when I had to reduce the collection, I didn’t sell anything. I split the collection and gave more than half my favorite pieces to my friends, people who I knew would treasure it as I did. How much was it worth? A lot, maybe. Or not so much. I don’t know. It was beyond price to me. Money is transitory but these precious, fragile, beautiful pieces need to be protected, to be kept safe, not sold as decorations.
Tang horse with servant
A great deal of the world’s great art has been casually destroyed by governments and individuals with no reverence for art or history. War, natural disasters have contributed to reducing the number of these fragile pieces of art. If I can save a Han pot, a Qianlong vase, or a single Tibetan Buddha. I’ve saved something of value. I no longer collect, but I continue to preserve and protect.
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Categories: #Photography, Archeology, Arts, History
Daily Prompt: Simply the Best – AS FAR AS EYES CAN SEE 
SERENDIPITY - SEEKING INTELLIGENT LIFE ON EARTH 
“Insidious with no known cure” So true, but eventually I narrowed down my addiction to hand made wooden bowls hewn from one piece of wood and hand carved wooden anything : )
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Oddly enough, Harold has some pieces just like those, just saying. 😉
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WHAT a coincidence!
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I have a too huge collection of Kachina dolls and other native Indian artifacts… some of them several centuries old. They sit in a closet, collecting dust. Not my passion, nor my style, just an inheritance. Cannot bear to part with them, would never sell them… it would be just…. wrong. Unless it was someone with passion for them… but Goldwater is long gone. 😀
My thoughts keep leading me toward a museum… however, am too fearful of them moldering along in a cardboard box. Perhaps, one day, I will attempt to return them to the tribe who originally used them. Or not. Then my progeny can figure it out. Bwwwaaahaaaahaaaa.
Likely, the oldest thing I own is me. Pretty damned sure it ain’t my first go-round.
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If you are ever serious about finding a proper home for them, I have Native friends who will find appropriate places for them where they will be treated with honor and respect.
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I had to search my memory to remember the oldest thing I own. Until recently it would have been my BMW motorcycle leathers, circa 1985. I gave them to Goodwill when I moved into Eric’s condo 6 months ago. Now I would say it’s my genuine Lee Denim jacket. It’s still had the tag proving it was made in the U.S.A.. I worked for the textile mill, Graniteville Company, that made the denim that went into that jacket. My youngest niece tried desperately to talking me into giving it to her when she was still a teen. Now she has a daughter who is 21. I suppose that becomes the record holder. I still wear it on occasion with no nostalgic feelings attached. It’s rugged and so well made I doubt it will ever wear out from my use. It has zero lining or insulation so it only gets worn as a windbreaker/sunshield in mild, sunny conditions. I bought it brand new and it cost me $50.
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I have one of them and so does Garry. They are indeed indestructible!
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Qo’D has a couple. From the fifties. Don’t fit real well (were my Dad’s). They still feel real darned good when I put them on. One is lined, red plaid flannel. One is unlined. Both are nice enough after all these years to make a cowboy cry. 😀
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These are beautiful. I knew you had some wonderful ancient treasures.
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I love them. I just wish I didn’t have to dust them. I’m always afraid of klutzing out and dropping it!
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Reblogged this on VIVIMETALIUN.
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Oh Marilyn, what a lovely collection! I have a pair of gold bracelets that belonged to my great grandmother. I also have her wedding pictures with the bracelets on her arm. One of the bracelets has a dint in it from where my mother bit into it when she was a baby.
Leslie
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Nice to have some family stuff. My family seems to have escaped the old country with nothing but the clothes on their backs and their memories.
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At least they got out, thank the good Lord for that.
Leslie
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Yes. Those who didn’t get out disappeared during the second world war. Vanished and presumed dead.
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It is all so sad. We have so much to be thankful for.
Leslie
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Love the bronze one from the TIbetan era. He looks like he would bring good juju!
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He’s not Buddha, but one of many BODHISATTVA — a soul that voluntarily comes back to help humankind find perfection. So yes, he’s a good guy 🙂
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