The collector's whatnot : $b a compendium, manual, and syllabus of information and advice on all subjects appertaining to the collection of antiques, both ancient and not so ancient — John Shaqi
The collector's whatnot : $b a compendium, manual, and syllabus of information and advice on all subjects appertaining to the collection of antiques, both ancient and not so ancientTarkington, Booth
General
The collector's whatnot : $b a compendium, manual, and syllabus of information and advice on all subjects appertaining to the collection of antiques, both ancient and not so ancient
Tarkington, Booth
Antiques -- Humor
No. The perfect glass of my dreams—for I admit I am always dreaming
of it—the perfect glass of my dreams is a bit of plain glass, very
simple. It may be either pressed glass or moulded glass—I care not;
and it may be browned in the making, or clear; I am indifferent about
that. I do not even insist upon its antiquity, though the older it is
the better, of course; but what I do value is the state of preservation
in which I find it. That is to say, as I have already pointed out, a
specimen of glass, to be really worth while, should be precisely in the
condition in which it left the retailer’s shelf to pass to the original
purchaser’s possession, and, above all, THE ORIGINAL CONTENTS SHOULD BE
INTACT.
I admit that this is asking a great deal. It is more than one requires,
for instance, of seventeenth-century Venetian glass, or of old Bohemian
or of Bristol. Shall I be accused of jingoism when I say that I,
personally, have found perfection only in American glass? (A Hungarian
collector, now resident in this country, once asserted to me that he
had found a sample of Scotch glass in the state I hold to be really
worth while; but he was absolutely unwilling to show it, though I
made every effort to induce him; and I ended by doubting him.) I do
not claim that I have found worth-while glass frequently. Alas, no!
For though I have looked and looked and hoped and hoped for it during
many years, I have actually discovered but two perfect examples—only
two! The first (a superb thing from Kentucky) I found absolutely
by chance in the queerest, quaintest little place imaginable, up a
passageway behind a hotel, early in the morning after the election
of President Taft; and the second (not so pure, but nevertheless
wonderful) I discovered only last September, among some shrubberies
close to a summer mansion on the rugged coast of Massachusetts. What
these discoveries meant to me, only one who seeks with a like patient
enthusiasm could comprehend. I shall not describe my sensations; it is
enough to say that there are pleasures one must keep to one’s self. I
did not even speak of my discoveries at the time; but it may not be
out of place for me to say now that they made me very happy. Indeed,
after the second, I wandered for hours as in a dream, and even on the
following day, when I chanced to meet a friend, he passed me, and
then looked round over his shoulder at me for some time, all without
recognizing me.
[Illustration:
THE GLASS PERFECT
From a drawing by Jared P. Kilgallen, Esq., J.D. & R.P., of the
item he considers most worth while in his collection. Note: This
glass is no longer in original condition.
]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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