Photo-a-Day - October 2012 - Day 18: Antique

Photo-a-Day - October 2012 - Day 18:  Antique

Please ignore the ugly metal table leg and cord. 

I love antiques.  I always wonder at their history.  Who owned them?  Did they love them?  Did they use them?  Or were they just sitting in a corner, taking space? 

I particularly love desks.  Desks have a particular life.  I found this little 1800's inlaid-oak captain's desk quite a number of years ago at an antique shop in Burlingame, CA.  As are so many, the shop is closed now.  The moment I saw it, I knew I really wanted to make it mine, but it was not inexpensive and really not within my budget so I didn't buy it...at first.

I couldn't get it out of my head.  It called to me.  I had a space just the perfect size for it.  It wanted to be mine. 

A week or so passed and I couldn't stand it any longer.  I called a friend to go back to the shop with me.  My feeling was that if the desk was still there, it was meant to be mine.  How's that for justification. 

It was there, waiting for me.  We looked it over carefully.  My pragmatic friend kept saying things such as:
"But LJ, it's not in perfect condition.  The finish is very worn."  
"That just means it was well used and loved." said I.
"LJ, did you notice the crack in the wood in the back?" 
"Yes, but it doesn't make it less stable and no one will see the back."

I was not to be dissuaded.  I only wish I knew who had owned it.  Did it truly travel the seas with a ship's captain?  Where did they go?  Is this where he kept his ship's log and wrote letters to his family at home?

I'll never know the answers to those questions.  All I can do is assure the previous owners that I love the desk, will take care of it and, hopefully, will one day pass it on to someone else who loves it as well.