Show me any item that I have bought and sold, even from 30 years ago, and I can usually remember where I found it - and how much I paid for it! It`s not a talent that will ever make me rich but it`s just something I can do! Probably because I love truffling for treasures so much!
I remember coming across this fabulous 19th century lamp very clearly. I absolutely adore it; it's one of my favourite treasures.
At a very early morning brocante at a small local fishing port it had been a slow start and I didn`t really feel that I was going to come home with very much that day. Most of the tiny cottages along the quay are owned by Parisians for holiday homes; many were unocuupied, and it wasn`t looking very promising at all.
We then passed a tiny cottage just set back from the road with an empty table set up on the pavement outside the front gate. As we walked by the door opened and a very chic lady came out carrying this lamp. I stopped dead in my tracks. I couldn`t decide whether to smile sweetly or rugby tackle her! Needless to say it never actually got to be displayed on her table.
She told me that her grandmother was Italian and had bought the cottage as a family holiday home in the early 1900s and although grandmother was long gone she loved to come up from Paris and stay for a short holiday once a year. This year she had decided on doing a bit of a revamp - and had decided that this lamp had to go. And "go" it did! We haggled over price ( as of course you do!) and the lamp was mine.
Heavyweight bronze with the most delicieux hand- worked silk and lace shade. The icing on the macaroon is the wonderful Parisian maker`s mark!
As we continue moving along the other stands we were stopped by three separate dealers who all wanted to buy the lamp off me! In the end we took it back to the car so we could continue truffling uninterupted.
It never fails to surprise me what treasures are still hiding in the old houses over here....and long may it continue so!
A demain mes belles
xxxxxxx
I thought the lamp was terrific, but finding out the shade came with it, makes it more wonderful! I have the same, odd memory for prices of my antiques but can't remember why I came into a room. lol ~ Maureen
RépondreSupprimerI actually have my best ideas right before I go to sleep but I don't write them down and they are usually gone forever. Maureen, I totally forget why I entered a room...it's hilarious.
RépondreSupprimerLovely story and timing is everything. J'adore that lamp.
Oh Shirley...this lamp and shade absolutely take my breath away!!! What an absolute treasure...xxoo, Dawn
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