Someone was a member of the Metropolitan Museum of Art during the late 1950's and for years after. He/she did a great job of preserving various sets of cards and prints issued from the Met during that time.
 
Someone must have participated in the 1958/1959 Seminars in Art that offered study and guidebooks including a set of prints marked by numbered plates. Great care was taken to inventory a full set of 192 prints, sized 9”ish by 12”ish, protected in sleeves and apparently untouched in the years since, except maybe to share with visitors who might be interested in in a conversation on the great works.
 
Someone also gathered blank, folded cards and flats of famous prints that appear to be the benefits of membership with the Museum during that timeframe. The cards are fairly amazing, in all sizes and shapes, envelopes often included, and also preserved through tens of tens of years in clean sleeves.
 
Both collections survived a move, a downsize, an illness, or possibly the death of an owner and landed on an auction table. I’m happy I was there to spot the grouping and happier that they left the auction in my car. Can only hope Someone I Will Never Know is pleased his/her meticulous hobby was salvaged.  
 
Both are excellent options for enjoying famous works at a low investment. Add a unique frame and Just Like That a bit of culture, a splash of art, a piece of the past can live again in a new home. The “Framers” have now made their debut - individually available in RIKA’s room at Galleria 126.

Our Spring Antique Dealer Days are scheduled for Thursday, March 2nd to Monday, March 6th.  Five full days of many first-time offerings for this limited date sale.  The diverse selection will fill two grand rooms and blend perfectly into the art and ambience at Galleria 126.   Join us at 126 South Chestnut Street, Bath, PA - Gathered for your viewing and purchasing fun are: 

• 1900’s General Store and Workshop Finds
• Vintage Barware
• Glassware and Collectibles 
• Vanity Fair Prints
• Marilyn Privitere Matted Prints
• Vintage Framed Prints
• Antique Frames, Mirrors and Home Decoratives
• Small Furnishings and Lighting
• Pottery and Stoneware
• Asian Accents and Porcelain
• Pewter Figurines
• Aurora Borealis Sets

 
Dates and Times:
Thursday, March 2nd 10 am to 6 pm
Friday, March 3rd 10 am to 6 pm
Saturday, March 4th 9 am to 6 pm
Sunday, March 5th 12 pm to 6 pm
Monday, March 6th 10 am to 6 pm

A photo sampling below....and a bunch more revealed on site.

Helene’s advice on costume jewelry would likely be this: If you like it, buy it. In every color.  Along with matching pieces.  And that explains the necklace after necklace, bracelet after bracelet and trays and trays of rings.  Again, I can only use the word “massive” to describe her collection.

I have no doubt she enjoyed every moment she shopped for these items.  She was excited to decide which set she might put on with each outfit each morning, for an evening out, or at the holidays. A life lesson – any occasion and every occasion – is bling-worthy!  

I admit; I did not know what I was doing as I approached this project. I had no plan for how to organize it properly or determine what my plans were to offer the items for sale. Moving through another person’s cherished collection, I feel responsible to care for the items as the first owner did.  I enjoyed organizing the pieces, matching sets together and creating displays. 

She had fun buying.  I had fun sorting and….had tremendous fun trying on every ring.  Others will have fun viewing and shopping this special acquisition. For that reason, a showcase has been planned this month that has to happen on site.  The cache must stay put.  And it fits perfectly with rooms filled with antique china, stained glass panels and toasting glasses.  The Showcase is born.

When I reached the bottom of a drawer of jewelry boxes, I saw a glossy cover.  There was Elizabeth Taylor’s book, “My Love Affair with Jewelry.”  I couldn’t have found a more fitting end to this estate. Sparkle on, Helene. 

The Art and Antique Holiday Showcase is a private sale and shopping experience held November 11, 12, 13 in the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania. Interested? Send message for address and hours. 

She liked Sparkle.  A LOT.

After her children grew up and moved on, empty bedrooms in Helene’s home played into her joy of buying costume jewelry. She purchased a variety of organizers – jewelry trees, velvet lined drawers and armoires – that through a number of years, allowed her to amass what can only be described as an awe-inspiring collection of all things shiny.

But every “collection” becomes an “estate” in that moment we all have coming at any time – death. Hers was fairly unexpected and left her family focused on managing their emotions and transition to understanding life without her. Focusing on all the jewelry seemed an unimportant task. After the family selected a few items they would enjoy, her daughter mentioned they didn’t know what to do with the rest of this accumulation. I heard only “lots of costume jewelry” and acquired the estate in my next sentence. Unimportant task solved.

Because of Helene’s age – later seventies – I had in mind a box of old cameos and pearls, clip-on crystals and funky 1970’s stones that marked the decades of her life. I was wrong.  Helene’s fascination grew later in life it appears, as a full portion of her collection are still perfectly new items living in their original boxes, with tags, still clipped to store packaging.  Most purchased likely in the years from the 1990’s to 2015, with some of the items in the same style, name brand and color you’d find in a department store today. It’s a reminder that Estate doesn’t always mean Old.

The collection is massive, delivered by oversized sport utility vehicle in two trips out of state and back and another still in the works.  I have only been able to sort through it in portions.  The first of which will be featured at a Pop-Up Sale held this Saturday, October 1st from 9 am to 4 pm on the Grand Porch of Galleria 126, 126 South Chestnut Street in Historic Bath, PA 18014. But this won’t be the last you hear of Helene. We are just at the start of sharing one lady’s quite sparkling story.

I have something I need to say about greeting cards.  Actually, I have something to scream about greeting cards.  PLEASE JUST WRITE A NOTE TO SOMEONE YOU LOVE -ON REAL PAPER-IN YOUR HANDWRITING – and GIVE IT TO THEM ALREADY! 

Texts will disappear.  Messages on a Facebook page will get farther away each day.  A card – it lasts forever.  The paper can be touched and held, the handwriting creates a memory of a person’s personality.  They are part of our history for sure. 

My closet holds those perfect-sized storage boxes for different times in life. A box of memories from college.  Cards and notes from my wedding. An unnamed collection that is evidence of being a pen pal and writing letters, not just cards, to friends when paying for long distance phone calls was not a smart option.

That note someone took the time to write me, the card that celebrated a special birthday, offered condolence, or recognized an accomplished – they are relived each time I open a box. And I am so glad someone took the time.  Let’s not let the art of true, tangible correspondence become a subject of history books. 

A store.  A pen. A stamp.  And Just Like That, you make a moment that won’t disappear.

Enjoying the preparations for a vintage costume jewelry Pop Up Sale next week.  Join us!

Vintage decorator. Weekend scavenger. Antique hobbyist. That was me. Until an unexpected estate suddenly unloaded into my garage, a few chance conversations led to a lease in my hand for antiques sales space and a sudden education into this rewarding marketplace made me step across the line from hobby to profession. 
 
And my favorite items within those stacks of collected treasures?  Always the boxes of old cards, letters, postcards and charming stationery complete with sharp penmanship capturing moments among families and friends. And those twenty years I spent in a career that required continual writing of broad communications and executive correspondence?  Handy.  For me, a love of historical lifestyle artifacts and a personal quest to make sure words get put on paper join together beautifully.    
 
A writer who loves antiques and has been bit by the business bug? Just Like That…RIKA & Company has arrived.

...Blog and Dialog is on its way...