06/13/2025
After I hit send on today’s newsletter email, I went searching for an image similar to the subject of the memory I was holding. (It’s from Rafael Osona Nantucket Auctions)
An earlier image in an email from one of my vendors set me on a course of happy nostalgia.
Here is a clip from my newsletter:
The Father’s Day messages that land in my inbox always hit hard.
I lost my father 24 years ago.
👴My father was an antique dealer and master craftsman.
His woodworking shop produced some of the finest antique reproductions and custom furniture ever made. Two pieces of his now live in the Smithsonian.
When I was little, he would let me help sand; always guiding my eager, tiny hands to apply the correct pressure for the wood type and to NEVER go against the grain.
My sister, cousins, and I pulled scraps out of the wood pile to build accessories for our dolls and other imaginary adventures.
We climbed through barns of stored furniture and books pretending we were in college, running a saloon in the wild west, or hidden in our pirates’ cove basking in our b***y.
I learned to use the larger machinery to make presents for family and friends.
And we went to auctions. I loved the auctions. My dad’s best friend, Les, owned an auction house as a hobby. My dad + his friends were eccentric.
Les was real estate mogul. But he kept his best finds in his exploits for himself.
He owned a beach house that he decorated with authentic items from the ship industry—a massive siren figurehead and her bulging breasts greeted you when you walked in.
—There was a larger than life-sized wooden bust of a cranky old fisherman with the biggest nose you would ever want to encounter in the dark on the way to the bathroom. There was an antique dive helmet, a table from a ship complete with leather captain’s chairs, and so many other memorable accents. It was like a quirky museum tribute to North Carolina’s Emerald coast and its rich pirate history/bachelor pad.
🌊Nothing “matched” but everything was perfect. And it was infinitely fun.
Actively avoiding FDay emails, but searching for sales to share with my membership community, I saw a funky wooden mirror that brought -Cont.⬇️
