Welcome to page 18, a rather unusual place for the editorial, but that’s what happens when you get bumped – all for good reasons.
This is the issue that heads off into the new year, to parts unknown. I wonder, like everyone else does, how 2020 will unfold and what it has in store.
What a great number 2020 is. It’s just so easy to say “2020.” The hard part about it is that I can hardly believe that Y2K was two full decades ago. So much has happened in the past 20 years, far too much to squeeze into this space.
A lot of it has been monumental in our lives. A new business (2006); the loss of loved ones – too numerous to mention, but including a very dear niece, my dad, and many others; Peter’s retirement; the marriage of our son to his wife; the birth of their child, our first absolutely amazing grand-daughter; some serious (but conquered!) illnesses dealt with by my sister and her daughter… not to mention a few close-call hurricanes that left me so distracted with concern for my family in the south that I was about as useful as a teaspoon emptying out an ocean for days on end.
Where will the next 20 years take us, aside from (in our case) well into our senior years? Having been bitten by the antique bug a very long time ago, I don’t worry much about not having something to keep us busy and interested – it’s a never-ending field and as time goes by there will more and more antiques and collectibles to learn about and try to keep track of. It’s intriguing to look back over the past two decades and see how collecting has changed in such a relatively short period of time. In 2000, Victoriana was the rage, “brown” furniture was cherished and coveted and old glass of infinite varieties was sought-after and displayed with pride. Sadly, it was also a time where manufacturing companies caught on to the fact that they could reproduce just about anything under the sun, and gradually, as more and more people opted for the less expensive as opposed to authentic, we were flooded with replicas of what we once found to be worthy of our interest and our hard-earned dollars.
Of course, many things have retained their intrinsic value, thanks to those who have an appreciation of history, workmanship and crafts-people and who grasp the concept of time and how it ultimately changes most things. Proof of that can be found in Robin Pridham’s Decorative Arts column in this issue (page 8), where he wrote about the superb Burney auction that took place last October at his auction.
As well, sales reported from our many excellent shows included more higher-end items than in recent years – very encouraging. Further proof that we are searching for more significant items is the introduction of the National Capital Antique, Art and Design Fair – a wonderful new event held in Ottawa (page 6) that perhaps indicates a desire for the finer things… things of value that teach us a little bit about our history and how we can learn about it through items that are documented and/or well preserved for our appreciation in years to come.
Maybe 2020 will be a renaissance year of sorts, and we’ll start to turn away from the cheap replicas for valid reasons… to be believers and participators in recycling and to see and appreciate the value in those things that we’ve been overlooking for far too long now.
On page 13, Robin McMullen, the organizer of the fall Port Perry Antique show mentions that an article in a well-known magazine suggests that “brown” furniture might be on the re-bound. Wouldn’t that be wonderful news? (I will try not to think of all the beautiful pieces hauled to the dump or heavily painted to the point-of-no-return.)
I look forward to this new decade with excitement, especially now that we have a little grand-daughter in our lives. I hope in the years ahead we can be part of the movement that will help to restore this planet to the healthy, beautiful and safe place it should be for her and all other creatures great and small.
I would like to thank everyone who advertises in the Wayback Times for their business over the past year, and all those who read the Wayback Times, for their time, support and kind comments.
Peter and I wish you a healthy, happy, rewarding new year in 2020. We’ll be back in the spring and wish you a safe and cozy winter in the meantime.
Thanks for reading – be safe and God bless. Happy 2020!