Home Sweet Home

So, in an earlier blog post I talked about my father being a jeweler; and more specifically that he implemented the system of bartering to obtain things we needed like dental visits.  But his bartering also extended to my sister and I having a trousseau, or dowry.  A trousseau is something every bride brought to the marriage in numerous countries.  The wealthier you were, the wealtheir your trousseau.  It contained your wedding dress, as well as things for setting up your new home; blankets, crystal stemware, china, sterling silver pieces, jewelry.  It might also contain various types of livestock, money, servants, art works. While technically it was in order for the bride to have her own things, trousseau's were ultimately incorporated into the man's wealth and more times than not, never belonging to the bride to begin with.

It is an odd thing to think about.  Today a trousseau is generally not something a bride has, nor needs.  Also, with our monetary status as it is, our trousseau's would really consist of something to get married in and maybe a couple of chickens, perhaps not even that?  But because of my dads mad bartering skills, we each have a trousseau to rival that of any wealthy young lady of means in times past.

Part of our trousseau's consist of my father's bartering.  A fine china set and crystal stemware for my sister, sterling silver flatware sets for both of us, and sterling silver serving set items.  Not from bartering, but simply my dads job, we have a plethora of jewerly amongst us to set up very nicely.  My sister and I were even encouraged to choose our own engagement rings.  I, being thirteen, thought it was weird and opted not to.  My sister, however, was older and thrilled at the prospect.

I myself, inherited from my grandmother, a crystal stemware set as well as a set of fine china.  And for the wealthier ladies, you had a trunk or chest to put it all in.  Yep, we've got those too.  We are also in posession of multiple antique, hand knotted, oriental rugs, but I'll save that for a future post.

So this post, I'm combining the trousseau through bartering and inheritance aspect, as well as what my rooms look like.

Bedroom

Here we have a Polyvore set of my bedroom, basically.  I recently figured out you could import items, so I've done that as well.

The furniture set, which is scattered between three rooms, I inherited from my maternal grandmother.  My maternal grandfather purchased an estate in the late 1940s.  The house was built sometime in the 1870s and all of the furniture was included with the house.  The house was on Kingston Street, so we call it Kingston, and use the name when referring to the items that came with the home.  When my grandmother passed away, the furniture and items were split between my mother and aunt and my mother immediately passed certain items on to my sister and I.

This furniture set is one of those items.  It's from the early 1900s and is made of Bird's Eye Maple.  It's two twin beds, a low and a high dresser, both with mirrors.  It did contain a wardrobe that my mother tried having refinished, but those creep me out, so I'm glad it's dismantled and unfinished in our little back storage building.  Also there was a kitchen table and sideboard in the same style, but those went to my brother, which I'm OK with.  My bed frame has spindles on either side of the solid headboard and the feet and legs are stockier, but it does have that lovely curve to the footboard that I love.

My bed is along the wall with the headboard butted up against the adjoining wall.  I have those exact curtains hanging infront of my bed.  The natural bookshelf is at the end, to make a sort of cubbyhole for the bed.  That one and the one used for my TV were handmade by my godmother to fit inside my closet.  Mine do not have a bottom shelf (to allow for shoes and boots).  So, the one by the bed is where I feed my cats (since there is plenty of room under it), and is home to most of my DVD collection.  The other one we flipped and the TV fits in that large open part, while the other shelves are devoted to some books, as well as my PS2 and DS (and the games), DVD player, and Roku.  Also there is Fish.  That is his name, Fish (that's the name he liked).  He is a Betta that acts like a puppy.  He's ADORABLE!

The other bookshelf is small, painted pink, and has only a lip on the back, but otherwise is open.  The sides are carved out in a design.  That was the closest I could find to represent it.  It was inherited from my grandmother and came from the Kingston House.  The little thing beside it is to represent a miniature vintage loom souvenir from a Middle Eastern country.  It was given to my sister by our aunt when she was kid, it ended up breaking, but the tall part of the loom is intact, so was given to me.  I own all of those records.  Van Halen and The Ramones I inherited from my brother, while Leontyne Price is really still my mothers.  Elton John and the one featuring Bossa Nova music I purchased at yardsales, as well as the fabulous record holder from the early sixties with starbursts on it.

The "record table" is from Kingston.  That is the closest I could find to represent it.  It's my record table, because my record player is on it, with half of my record collection on the bottom shelf.  And that's my actual lamp.

The side table beside the bed is a Kingston piece.  It's similar in shape, but is all wood and is closed halfway on the sides to the back.  With a second shelf a quarter way below the top.  The lamp is the closest I could find to represent the mid century modern lamp I inherited from my California mom.  And those are a few of my actual bed things.

The Oriental rug above the side table is to represent the one that I have hanging on the wall.  My aunt gave it to my mother to give as a Christmas present to my paternal grandparents.  My paternal grandmother died last year and so I inherited the rug.  The other is to represent the one on my floor, which was a gift to my father from my aunt.  It is my favourite rug.

Bedroom Details

So, you can see the details of actual items.  The hexagon sheet set, the curtains and both duvet covers (flowers and leaves).  The lamp on my record table as well as the pendant light over the DVD and book shelves.  The record holder and art that I love, The Quick-Witted Crow print by John W. Golden.  I had it framed.  It's awesome.  Most of the other art in my bedroom are gifts; works by my sister and my friend in Scotland, as well as an Owly print which I forgot to include, but is totally worth seeing!  I was born in autumn, so have Owly in Autumn.  I gave my sister the Owly in Spring print, because she was born in the springtime.

See?  Is that not adorable?!?!

Closet

Next, we move onto my "walk-in closet".  I use the quotes, because I do have a regular closet, just a normal simple one.  But attached to my bedroom is a small slant ceilinged room.  This is what I made into my walk-in closet, or rather, walk in a few feet and then kneel.  Haha, but I digress.

Again we see the same Bird's Eye Maple furniture.  This is the tall dresser.  My furniture has a serpentine front and claw feet on the legs.  Also brass handles, not wooden pulls.  I took off the mirror and ornate mirror holders from both sets of dressers.  They are stored in the office closet.  Also of note is that my grandmother had a HUGE collection of vintage and antique keys when she died.  Only one key actually fit any of the furniture we inherited, but not that that would matter, because she glued the locks down in place, including on these dressers.

Remember me saying I had a chest to store my trousseau in?  That'd be it.  Actually that is a 1730 chest.  Mine is only from the early part of the 20th century, but looks exactly like that, just less warn, less old.  I inherited it from my grandmother and it was a Kingston piece.  I do own that exact storage basket.  It is where I keep my bed linens.  The little table; make the metal pieces wood, add a bottom shelf, make the colour more golden and you have my table, another Kingston piece.

The Art Deco vanity is another Kingston piece.  It was my mothers childhood vanity.  It used to have a round mirror, but it broke, and I'm totally alright with that.  It was originally wood, but my grandmother liked to paint things, so it started being painted white in the early 1950s.  I painted it a beautiful green last year.  I also added those black draw pulls (though kept the original deco hardware).  The only major difference between this one and mine, is that mine has doors.  From the top of the bottom drawer all the way to the top of the bottom molding is a door on either side.  

I have a accent stool/ottomon from Target that I use as a vanity seat.  Couldn't find a photo, but the legs are black and similar and it has a watercolour flower design in pink and purple as the seat.  The lamp is also from Target, and has a green shade with flowers and part of the shade is sheer.  I have that exact mirror, also from target.  We're used to such heavy, lead based mirrors, my sister and I, that we almost broke this one getting it down from its hanging spot in the store.  We were expecting heavy, but it was so light it almost flew out of our hands.  Good times.  

I have a Fassa Prayer Rug on the wall, though it belongs to my parents.  The other rug is a fake oriental, picked up from TJMaxx (as in American made on a machine).  It's small and pink and really belongs to my sister.  The one pictured is much prettier and actually real.  And then there's my wonderful mid century quilted gold laundry hamper that I picked up at a yard sale.  It's awesome.  And the small entrance wall is covered with postcards I obtained through Postcrossing.  And the slant wall is being collaged in maps; some from my aunt and grandmother on their travels through the Middle East, some are survey maps from parts of my home state, and others are National Geographic world maps.  I need more maps, however, because that project is not yet finished, but almost.

Closet Detail

Again showing the Bird's Eye Maple, also the vanity stool print.  That is the only piece of my sisters art hanging it my room that is not mine and is currently for sale; Patronus, yes as in Harry Potter.  And the painted, wooden doll figurine is from Egypt.  My sister was brought one back when she was a child.  Her's is tall and slim, wearing green and has a basket on her head.  This is the one my grandmother purchased for herself and which I inherited.  It's quite fitting as that's about what I look like in wooden, Egpytian doll form.  Also of note, I took the photo in my office window.  

Home Office/Guest Room

Why yes, my home office (also the guest room) IS crazy!  But, I swear it looks better in person than as a Polyvore collage set, though it is full.

Again, the same Bird's Eye Maple furniture; the other twin bed as well as the low dresser.  That is exactly what my dresser looks like, shape and style wise, as well as the mirror.  Also this photo is missing the fancy, curvy things that hold the mirror in place, as well as that mine has brass knobs for the top two drawers and brass handles for the other drawers.  Also of note is that there are a few swipes of pale green paint on the side of mine from when my grandmother repainted the room in Kingston that these resided.  Also, there is a dark hair shallacked on the top, from an earlier (or the initial) coating.

The library table is a dead ringer for ours, only we have one drawer that is not flush with the table, which is how you open the drawer, as there is no pull.  It was a Kingston piece that was given to my mother when my sister and I were children.  There is a small bench I use to sit at.  I inherited it.  It came from the chapel that was dismantled on some campus my aunt attended for college in Georgia.  She purchased it and gave it to my grandmother.  And as you can see I use this as my computer table.  The tower is on the lower shelf and the wireless mouse, keyboard, as well as the moniter, obviously, are on the top.  Along with that exact lamp, which is my sisters, that I use when making illustrations.

We have a table similar to that white one.  It was a Kingston piece that my grandmother painted white.  There are no drawers and the opening is wider because we took the doors off.  We're not sure what this piece was supposed to be.  We all only ever remember it being white and having two wonky doors, with a weird latch on the inside and no bottom, so it was never a cabinet in our knowledge.  We have a little white TV on the top and my iPod dock, as well as a terrarium.  I have the vintage Alice in Wonderland poster print above it, and it's framed.  There's also a piece of my sisters art above it, but Gikki The Grass Sprite didn't sale a few years ago, so he's all mine now.  I <3 div="" him="">

Then we have the big Target bookshelf with books, as well as craft supplies.  I have included the 1920s Mahjong set that I inherited and the Chinese roosters my sister and I both inherited.  The Mahjong set my aunt purchased for my grandmother, but didn't want back.  The roosters are sort of gold in colour, but that is the only photo online that I could find.  And that Ikea pendant shade I purchased and my sister and I rigged it to be the center light shade.

Then there's one of my alien illustrations over the bed.  And on the other side a large chinese mountain painting we inherited (this is just a representation).  It is massive and framed and was over my grandmothers fireplace.  She purchased it in China in the 1970s when you still needed super special permission to enter the country.  And the globe my sister received from our grandmother as a gift.  Mine is in the basement.  We each have our own globes, how very posh of us, and they're both so outdated they still show the U.S.S.R.  I even have a very large world atlas under that white table that was a Christmas gift from my grandmother one year.  That thing is awesome.

Then there's another Kingston piece, the odd and ornate triangular shaped table.  Our is not as fancy except in the braces between the legs, but this was the closest I could find.  And the light is the same style and colour, but it's much wider at the top and is in a hexagram pattern.  The red arm chair is a Kingston piece, though only similarly looks like the one pictured.  And the vintage Dutch currency?  It's what my sister brought back from her trip to Holland in the early 1990s.  We have it framed.  We love it, though it's strictly hers.

The rug is a very large, room sized wool Oriental carpet.  There are two.  One used to be in our dining room and one in the living room.  Now one resides in here and one in my sisters attic room.  They were gifts to my mother from our aunt.  

 

Office Detail

My alien illustration, which is not for sale, but others are.  An upclose of the front and backside of the vintage Dutch currency.  Our stackable coffee mugs to go with the coffee maker for guests, though the coffee maker gets the hell used out of it by me.  The speaker detail of my iPod dock, which is the reason I love it.  And I own both of these Swedish Elf posters and both are framed and on the wall behind where I sit.  They're awesome.  I even have a carved soap of each of them, which they hang out on a shelf in the bathroom my sister and I share.  

Inside of Mahjong set

The Mahjong set, which while searching online there were a lot of different variations.  Mine is red wood with two green characters on the front (though not the characters on the box pictured).  They're all the same shape box and same on the inside, but the outsides are different. Brown, black or red coloured wood.  Some with a single character, some with two, some in gold, some in green.  Some that say 'Made in China' under the characters, some that only say, in an Asian stylized font, simply, "Mahjong!".  Others with no characters at all.  It's strange.

The front panel slides up and off to reveal four drawers.  The box design, like I said, is pretty much the same for all of them, it's just the wood colour or what is (or isn't) on the front of the panel that you remove.  Sadly the game pieces; tiles, and counting sticks, are made of ivory.  :(  But it IS a beautiful set, none-the-less.  

Dining Room

Alright, here is one some of the bartered trousseau items come into play.  We have a lot of dishes.  I am serious.  We have A LOT of dishes.  Besides what is pictured, there are a lot of odds and ends pieces; creamers, single bowls or a few plates, serving bowls, cordial glasses, decanters.  Most of them are Kingston pieces.  My grandmother would use them in the greenhouse, so there might only be two or three pieces from what was once an entire set of china, and most of those pieces have rings on them from the plants resting on top.  There is a tall brown cabinet that my parents found and resurfaced.  There are four shelves and it's filled with all sorts of vases and decanters and glasses; random pieces from my grandfathers family as well as my grandmothers and from Kingston.  Also there's The Lamp.  

The Lamp

Ah, the lamp.  This thing is between 3 and 3.5 feet in height.  It's massive and it's very heavy.  It's made of two different shades of onyx (the base and the shaft) and the rest is all bronze.  It was originally an oil lamp, one that an extremely wealthy family would have used on a table in the foyer or hall.  The globe, might or might not be original.  By the style of chord you can tell that it was wired for electric between the 20s and the 40s.  We tried to re-wire it, unsuccessfully, which is the white bit you can see by the base.  

I have no memory of this at Kingston, but at my grandmothers newer house it was on the main floor shoved in a coat closet.  Whenever my sister or I had to open that closet door we found this lamp quite unnerving.  It was like a creepy child size entity, all in the darkness of the closet, with it's large head shaped top and the bonze parts that caught the light.  But it was part of my mothers inheritance, so we brough it home.  It's much less creepy out of a closet.  Though it is quite imposing.  You can see the tall brown cabinet I was talking about, also the colour of the walls and the curtains which I tried to swatch on the collage set up there.

Here's the strange part.  My grandmother said this was an heirloom from her side of the family.  Regardless of the fact that no one coming to America would bring such a lamp with them considering it weighs about 30 - 40 lbs; my grandmothers people were very unwealthy farmers from Switzerland, they never could have afforded such a thing.  My grandmothers grandmother was the first immigrant of her family in America.  She worked as a washerwoman; someone who washed wealthy people's laundry.  Her mother married a man who worked for the newspaper, so her parents were middle class.  My grandmother, in turn, married a man who made quite a bit of money for himself.  Her family did not buy second hand items, only she, with her wealth, started buying antiques after her husbands death in the late 1970s, besides the fact that he purchased second hand items with the house.  So, how is something this grand an heirloom?  Something purchased before she was born?  Did her family knock someone out and steal it?    

Note the column scroll work at the top of the shaft, the largeness of the oil reserve, the wreath at the bottom of the shaft, or the curved feet with filligree.  

The small table to the side has all sorts of silver pieces, random tea cups, candle sticks, sugar creamer sets on both shelves.  There's also a tiny shelf between the table top and the mirror with more things.  

The large buffet is covered in three sets of crystal stemware, one set of crystal glasses with lilies painting on them, and has three sets of china in the bottom doors.  The rest of the drawers are filled with random bits of silverware, boxes for the other silverware sets, random plates, butter pats, salt cellars, etc.  The sideboard has one set of china and some candleobra's, and a fancy looking lamp I purchased at TJMaxx.

OK, so the large buffet, which we call the old buffet is a Kingson piece and looks pretty similar to the one pictured.  We have fruit carvings on the doors and filligree and a lions head carved up top on that shelf.  But, otherwise it's pretty much the same.  The sideboard is a newer piece from the 1970s.  It's dark wood, no lower shelf, plain legs, three drawers.  The top however can fold out to double in size.  Again, inherited from my grandmother, it was a purchase of hers.  The mirror over the small table is a Kingston piece and has carved ornamentation on the top, but looks the same as this one, otherwise.

The dining room table looks about the same as what is pictured.  It has one leaf extension, which we can not use because our rooms are too tiny.  It is from the 1930s and was a wedding gift for my grandparents.  The dining chairs are pretty similar to the one pictured.  They have needlepoint seats in light green with flowers in the center.  We left that and just put white fabric (that we inherited from our grandmother) over that.  Of course there is an Oriental rug under the table.  The chandelier came with the house.  It's very 1970s, but a bit fancier than normal.  

Dining Room Detail

Ah, the details.  The gold rimmed crystal stemware is mid century and my sister inherited it from our California mom (yeah, my sisters got double the fine stuff here for her trousseau!).  The top pattern in crystal is hers that my dad bartered for in extrange for jewelry.  Some little old lady came in seeing if he would buy it, as happened with most of the silver, china, and crystal, so he bartered instead.  The pattern underneath is mine, which was from my grandmother; it contains a full set of water, wine, champaign, and cordial glasses, as well as a water pitcher, salad plates and a sugar and creamer set.  

The green dishes are French and have a merrygold pattern on them.  My dad bartered these for my mom.  The delicate roses pattern is mine from my grandmother.  There are dinner plates, salad plates, cups with saucers, bread plates, dessert bowls, soup bowls, a few covered serving dishes, a gravy boat, and a sugar and creamer set.  

The next two patterns are my sisters.  The first is china made in the 1940s stamped Occupied Japan.  They're extremely fancy and really pretty.  Dad bartered for this set as well.  It has basically the same pieces as my set does.  The next is mid century California china, which she inherited from our California mom.  There's a coffee pot and a tea pot as well as dinner and salad plates, soup bowls, cups and saucers, and creamer and sugar.

The little Viking longship is one of my favourites.  It's nothing special, just something anyone could obtain in the 1970s, which my mother purchased it for my father.  But it's pewter and it's a salt cellar and the oar is the spoon.  The candlesticks are crystal in a beautiful wave pattern with prisims.  My sister and I love them.  They are so pretty.  Then there is the pickle container.  Also from my grandmothers side of the family.  I realize there are some descrepencies here.  My entire life I heard that my grandmothers ancestors were not wealthy, and I don't mean they were millionaires instead of billionaires, but that they were very low middle class.  Always.  But this doesn't explain some items or stories.  My mother says the pickle container is solid silver and was a wedding present in the 1860s.  There used to be a piece of paper inside talking about a reproduction piece that was clipped out of a newspaper (wonder where that went?) and I just cleaned this particular item and it's silver plate.  

It is not unheard of for my mother to say one thing and later change her story, claiming that she has never changed the story.  Even if I go by what my grandmother said, I only ever heard her say how neat the pickle container was and that it was a very Victorian thing to keep pickles in fancy jars.  Also in regards to the lamp, she would say it was passed down through her family and then wink.  Then there's some creepy rocking chair we have that is tiny (apparently if you've seen the film Water for Elephants, I hear that Christoph Waltz character has a rocking chair.  That's the rocking chair.); anyways, my mother always says it was passed down through her fathers family and that it's from the early 1700s.  I looked them up and the rocker we have is a reproduction of the 1700s style.  It is from the 1870s when that style was back in fashion, and you can tell because of the way something about it is different from the original and also the needlepoint is not nearly old enough or ruined enough and the pattern is a very 1870s pattern.  

I have found several descrepencies in my mothers stories; whether she was misinformed or she just got everything confused, I don't know.  So, our stuff is old, but it's not that old, and also none of it, to my knowledge, is anything fantastic where someone would be thrilled to the moon over such and such item(s) that we have.  If you've seen Antique Road Show, then you'll know what I'm talking about.  When a guest has that really fantastic item and the antiques person is super excited?  Yeah, that.  I'm pretty sure we'd never get that reaction.  

You can probably see how people see the inside of our house and think we are super wealthy.  I won't deny we have some nice stuff, but also a lot of that stuff has been ruined or broken and put back together.  Not to mention that in the antique world, our stuff may be a little on the fancy side, but it's pretty much crap.  Seriously.  The items are a dime a dozen, so an entire table might be worth less than a brand new one today, because no one will buy it, because there are five hundred more just like it.  We might not have the Walmart versions, but we probably have the TJMaxx versions of things, as far as the antiques market goes.  A real wealthy person has the original Van Gogh, and we have the one somebody in the 60's decided to try their hand at painting.  

Plus, you can't eat stuff or pay the bills with it.  We can't send a silver teapot off to AT&T and say, "Here, my good man, this should cover the bill."  We would not have 90% of the stuff we have if we'd had to purchase it.  We received it all as either gifts from my aunt or my grandmother, my grandmother giving it to us while she was alive, or us inheriting it after she died.  We've tried to sell somethings off through antiques people or our own yard sales.  Some things went but we maybe made $100 and that was for everything sold at our yardsale over the entire weekend.  Most people make more than than in one day of having a yardsale.

This ties in with my previous post about we have things, but are upper poverty, lower middle class.  Things just lined up in the Universe and we were lucky, so to speak.  My parents couldn't afford to buy us Cabbage Patch dolls or My Little Ponies or anything new and shiny other kids were getting, but we ended up with fine jewelry, things from other countries, real Oriental carpets, fine jewelry, crystal, and silver; because they were given to us.  Because my aunt happened to be in the Oriental carpet business so it was nothing to purchase one as a gift for family.  My grandmother happened to have been left a fortune and a house full of antique, so we later got some of those antiques or she was able to purchase nice things for us.  Because my dad decided to become a jeweler and couldn't afford things so used what he had to make us gifts of fine jewelry or to barter for some of the nice things we have today.

I suppose my family is sort of like the Chance family in the short lived TV show, Raising Hope.  Only now picture that people gave them fine things.  Lots of fine things.  What an odd life, right?  And if the Chance's never went to the pawn shop or sold anything, they'd have a house full of nice things, but would still struggle to put food on the table.  I'm living this life and I still have a difficult time wrapping my head around it.  And obviously none of this is to brag, it's to illustrate the utmost oddness that is my life.  Because you have to admit, it's really an odd life.