Tuesday Treasures #26 - American Art

Reaching back in the archives to my visit to the Smithsonian American Art Museum to post for Tom's Tuesday Treasures.

I think the artist on this first one was Edward Hopper.

Don't know the artist on these other two.

All are quintessential American scenes don't you think?

Tuesday Treasures #22 - Family

Gathering the family for a photo.  Despite our efforts not all made the final photo.

A treasure for sure.

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Tuesday Treasures # 14 - Selling Treasures

The online auction service, MaxSold.com was here Monday.  Dan and I had done a lot of sorting for their coming by putting like things together into lots.  When Dorothy, the person in charge, walked in she asked "Do you want a job?"  I guess I did a good job prepping for them.

We have 102 lots to sell.  Interested?  Go to MaxSold.com put in zip code 21244 and look for Windsor Mill, MD.  There's a photo up already of our leather furniture.  Now the drawback for those of you far away is that you have to come here to pick it up.  No shipping, sorry.  Apparently people will drive up to three hours for something they really want.  That means there's a whole lot of people out there that are potential buyers.

The photographer, Dorothy, her trainee, Carmen, and the catalogers, Julie and Angie arrived at 10 and worked through 2 o'clock.  They will assemble photos and descriptive copy and send to me for editing.  The auction goes live on Friday evening and runs through Thursday, the 12th.  Pickup which is managed by MaxSold staff happens between 11 and 3 on the 14th.

Here are just a few of the treasures I am selling.

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Every lot is numbered and assigned a pick up category.  Fragile things get picked up first so this lot is 532A.

The table is one lot and the chairs another.  On the table top are three different lots.

It was hard but I can't take all my Mother's painted work.  Daughters took some and I kept some. Others someone else will enjoy.

Paired down the table linens especially since we will have a small table.  We are taking the one on the porch for now.

Didn't know I had so many baskets.

Daughters and I each took a set of Amish figures but I'm letting the rest go along with these Amish prints.  I'm keeping my Mother's primitive Amish painting.  The original family of four that started this collection and that I played with as a child are included in this lot.

There is much, much more.  How did we accumulate so much in 10 years here?  We thought we'd downsized when we moved here?

Today, I got our new address and phone number.  Our move date is June 27th.  

Tuesday Treasures #12 - First Iris

The flowers in my gardens are treasures because I planted everyone of them.  I am enjoying each new blossom this spring as it is my last here with this garden.

Today I noticed the first iris blooming and knew it had to be featured as a treasure.

Other blooms just showing are the bleeding hearts, not in the profusion they have been in past years because of heavy frosts we have had in April.

The grape hyacinths have never done much but here is one lone stem of flowers.

These daffodils have been blooming for a week or more.  

And this volunteer in the rock path, one of many, was in focus in my viewfinder.  Don't know why the rocks took the focus instead.

Here are some treasured plants potted up for my daughters: peonies, irises, and lily of the valley.

And in the Glen Garden the May apples are up next to the hosta.  Nice to have those spring wildflowers.

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and

Our World Tuesday

Treasures I Will Say Good Bye to One Day

The old timbers in our great room are treasures of sorts.  Most came from old barns, repurposed for our house.  The horizontal one above with the peg sticking out of it and below, above the stone fireplace, are chestnut.  Chestnut trees don't grow here anymore since they succumbed to blight.

These beams came from an old church in Northern Baltimore County that was built in Colonial times, likely late 1600s or early 1700s.  So these trees were growing in this area before Europeans arrived.  A bit mind boggling I know.  The timber framer who built this portion of the house found these beams laying by the church after a major renovation had taken place which removed them.  He got a good deal and originally hadn't planned to use them in our house, but changed his mind.

But here's a new treasure that will go with us: the latest painting by my husband.  His father was a Washington DC policeman hence the jacket and baton, his maternal grandfather was a founder of the Franconia fire department and his paternal grandfather was a train engineer.  One of the engines he drove is in the Smithsonian.

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Tuesday's Treasures #6

These sets of old photographs are treasures in this house.

They are arranged together on a wall in my front hall.

The two on the left are from my family and the two on the right from my husband's family.

On the right is my father, his parents in the center, my grandparents, and my father's maternal grandparents on the far left.

Now if you are familiar with the author Beverly Lewis who writes novels about the Amish, these are the grandparents we share.  Our grandmother was not Amish and neither were our great grandparents.  My father frequently argued this point with my cousin Beverly.

I have no memories of my paternal grandmother because she died while we were in the Philippines in the early 1950s.  I have a memory of that occasion because it was rare for us to get a phone call from the States.  My mother took the call and was crying from hearing the news of the death.

Here is my mother's family with her parents on the left.

My first memory of my grandmother was in 1957 after we returned from the Philippine Islands where my parents were missionaries.  By this time my grandmother was paralyzed from the waist down.  This is the grandmother whose photo I featured in Tuesday Treasure #4.

No one in the above photo is alive any longer.  My Uncle Paul, the young boy on the right died at the age of 102 in November 2015.

These are the Browns.  Dan's paternal grandfather is the man seated, great grandparents are the two standing photos and great great grandparents with offspring on the right. 

Dan's mother is seated there on the right, her parents married the day after the big stock market crash in 1929.  There they are seated on a jalopy and Dan's grandfather stands there with his short tie that was the fashion.  Dan's paternal great grandparents are the couple on the left.

I've been doing some genealogy on Dan's ancestors.  I started this back in the late 70s but have just gotten back to it with the advantage of the digital age.  I find myself with the same puzzle: who was the mother of Dan's great-grandfather?  I hope to solve the puzzle.

Joining Tuesday's Treasures.

Tuesday's Treasures #3

When I was a child I played with these four heavy Amish figures: Papa, Mama, sister and brother.   I don't remember when I came to own them; maybe when my parents downsized to move to a retirement community in the 90s.  I also don't know how my parents came to acquire them.  

Once I owned them I started to collect more.

I'd see them in antique stores.  Some were salt and pepper containers.

Others just figures.  I have never found any like my original family of four.

Some are obviously newer than others.

These two sit on a bench.

These two are part of an ash tray.

My last three purchases are these. Larger than the others, they are banks.

I still look when I venture into an antique store but its been years since I've seen any to purchase.

Besides I don't know where I'd put them.

Joining Tuesday's Treasures.

Tuesday's Treasures #2

This second treasure is also related to my mother.  Mom took up painting upon her retirement and became quite prolific.  In 1992 I asked her to paint a picture for me in the primitive style.  Now I didn't remember that it was that year, but luckily she dated her painting.

This is the painting she gave me that I treasure.

It's not true primitive style because there is some perspective to it.  My husband teases that its a giant there above in the barn because he's the same size as the woman on the porch.  I don't care because its such a wonderful pastoral scene to me.

A treasure!

Mom painted up until she died in 2013.  Her eyesight gave her trouble so her detail was not as fine towards the end, but she still had her sense of colors.  In fact she was adding color to a frame of a miniature she'd painted the week she died.

Joining Tuesday's Treasures.