A Tale of Antique Love

There is a small antiques shop where I live that I love to browse around in and drool over all the gorgeous stuff.  Gorgeous as in ~make you want to cry~ beautiful stuff!

 

Early last year, I stopped in to look around and when I walked in the door…oh my gosh, I spotted her!  My eyes popped wide open and my jaw dropped…she was stunning!  I wanted to snatch her up and take her home with me.  Gold gilt over spelter, ruffled blue shading into pink cased glass, ornate base…it was love at first sight!

 

Unfortunately, I had been unemployed over a year at that time and after one look at the price tag, I knew there was no way.  Sadly, I would have to leave it in the shop…but, oh my, did I want it!  You know that feeling when something just screams your name!

It had been purchased in New Orleans many years ago by the owner of the shop and had graced her home since then.  Deciding the time had come to sell it, she brought it into the shop.  She knew how badly I wanted to buy it, but also knew I simply couldn’t afford to at the time.

 

For months, I would often stop by just to look at it and wish.  On one of my stops by the shop in late summer, the owner told me that she had a gentleman that wanted to buy it.  My heart dropped!  I was even more shocked when she told me that he offered her cash on the spot and she turned him down.  She said she knew how badly I wanted it and she just couldn’t sell it to him.  I was speechless…but still broke, if you know what I mean!

Now my mother often would go to the shop to browse also and one Saturday, a couple of weeks before Christmas, she asked me to go with her.  When we walked in the door, the owner had this big smile on her face when she saw us.  She told us to come with her and we walked to one of the back rooms of the shop.

There it was, sitting on a table.  My mother walked over and picked it up.  She turned to me and said “This is your combination birthday and Christmas present”.  I think I actually screamed!

I know I wanted to cry!  My mother said she didn’t want to try to wrap it because she was afraid it would get broken.  I don’t know which of the three of us ~my mother, the owner of the shop, or me~ was more excited!  We were all laughing and talking at the same time…I’m pretty sure at one point I probably did cry a little. 

My friend Richard at My Old Historic House told me that Victorian epergnes, or centerpieces as they were also called, were often used on tables in a hallway or parlor.  They were also used as the focal point for dining tables.  Depending on where they were used, epergnes could have held fruit or possibly even calling cards during the Victorian era.  I wish I knew how old she is!  

This is my third epergne, so officially I now have a collection, right?

 

By far, she is my favorite of the three!  Not only because I wished and hoped for her for so long, but also because my sweet mother gave her to me.

For a while, she sat in a cabinet in my living room.  Now though, she makes her home on my antique Victorian fern stand that I restored.  You can read about that here if you would like to. 

 

I’m linking up with Beverly at How Sweet the Sound for Pink Saturday. 

Thanks for stopping by to see me today!  Hope your weekend is pinkilicious! 

Dreamgoddess