Another beautiful fall day called for another scenic drive.
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I’m sorry, but autumn in New England is hard to beat.
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The air is crisp and the trees give us a splendid tableau of color.
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It also means the last gasp of yard sales and antique store sales that my husband can’t drive by. This particular shop had auxiliary rooms made out of tractor trailer boxes and were filled with vintage horrors.
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Ack!
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Wow.
Please note the base table of this lamp lights up as well.
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Inside, my husband combed the shelves for treasure but thankfully came out empty handed.
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I’d much rather view foliage.
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Statue of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain at Bowdoin College. Hero of Gettysburg, he taught rhetoric and modern languages as a professor and later served as the college’s president. His home is across the street.
No vacation with my husband is complete without at least one trip to a junk filled hovel an antique store.
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The Newport area doesn’t have many but he found this one off the beaten path on the way to Tiverton.
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I’m not sure what crime this plant committed to be locked up in a cage, but it seemed relatively happy.
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Calling this place an antique store is a stretch. It had no name, no organization, no clever displays …
There was just stuff, a lot of it broken, everywhere… piled on top of each other.
My husband was in heaven.
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He found a stash of old BB gun air rifles and was transported back to his (more than slightly dangerous) childhood.
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I spotted an old phone similar to one I wanted for the man cave/Barn Mahal… but like everything else in this place it was useless, the guts had been torn out.
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Husband found a gun he wanted to buy but didn’t want to overpay. Since we were in a cell phone dead zone, he couldn’t look it up and had me take a picture for later.
Continuing our scenic drive we made it five minutes down the road, past a vine covered pole in the shape of a tree…
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When he pulled over to research the toy gun. Turns out it was worth 3 times the $50 asking price so he had to have it. Whipping the car around, we went back to the crap filled hovel store… only to find the old lady had closed. At 2:20 in the afternoon, on a Tuesday.
The husband was bereft. He searched the door and windows in vain for a phone number, but found only cobwebs.
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We drove on.
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Down through Tiverton…
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Past Little Compton…
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To Sakonnet Point, where this stack of rusted anchors reminded me of our resort’s artwork.
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Lovely waterfront areas all.
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And in case you’re interested? This house is for sale…
Deciding to take a drive to Bristol on our 6th day of vacation, the husband spotted an antique shop on our way out of town.
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Which turned out to be more of a tourist trap gift shop where the new items outnumbered the old so I thought I’d dodged a bullet. Until my guy started chatting up the owner and she told him about two giant antique malls he simply had to visit.
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Damn her.
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Bristol, Rhode Island is a lovely spot.
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Waterfront, like most of the towns we visited.
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With its share of stone walls and beautiful old homes.
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Arriving at lunch time, we chose an assuming little place called the Beach House.
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It was on the water, no surprise there.
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And was nicely decorated, with a warm, welcoming beachy feel.
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One aperol and pink guava spritz in…
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I was feeling right at home.
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My NY strip crostini with shallot brandy cream sauce appetizer?
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Omg.
I thought I’d died and gone to heaven. The beef literally melted in my mouth.
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And when my husband raved over his butternut squash bisque? I knew we’d chosen the right place.
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They even had his new favorite local beer.
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My main course of homemade wild mushroom ravioli with caramelized onions and porcini cream sauce?
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Absolutely decedent.
But the husband’s crab topped filet mignon with stuffed lobster tail, sautéed garlic spinach and mashed new potatoes?
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Huge.
Filling.
And perfectly cooked.
This entree alone… in Maine, would easily be $100. And we’re the land of lobster. In lovely little Bristol, Rhode Island? $44.
We were stunned.
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And vowed to come back to this hidden gem if we’re ever in the area again.
There are a few large treasures in the man cave/Barn Mahal that would be Antique Roadshow worthy…. but I refuse to be one of those poor schmucks shuffling along in line all day hauling these heavy and quite cumbersome objects.
When it comes to wanting a weird and unusual item to bring to the Antique Roadshow, I don’t think you can beat what’s hanging on our wall.
Do you see it?
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It’s a bizarre rock crystal piece that’s been gracing my family’s homes since the late 1800’s.
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What is it? Good question.
My grandfather traveled the world at the end of the 19th century and brought this back from Egypt in the early 1880’s or ‘90’s.
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When I was a child I was sure it was pirate treasure because of the skull and crossed bones.
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But the story was it came from an ancient tomb.
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For over 100 years no one in my family knew what it was, so back in 1994 I contacted a museum curator.
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Turns out they weren’t sure either. Early Christian or ancient Coptic?
Interesting.
And in case you’re wondering, I did send photos to Christie’s and Sotheby’s… both of whom sent back replies stating it fell below their $5,000 value requirement ($10,657 in today’s dollars) for auction. And if they’re not auctioning? They’re not identifying.
If we get picked to go to the Antique Roadshow taping in Maine this summer, I want to bring something unusual.
Something you haven’t seen a hundred times before.
This might fit the bill…
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My father was of Scottish ancestry, but born and raised in England. This framed print was passed down through his family and though it doesn’t currently hang in our home…. it is interesting.
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Mine is clearly hand colored.
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And the only other one I could find on line is in the National Portrait Gallery.
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A distinct Roadshow possibility…
👍
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Where there's only one step from the sublime to the ridiculous.
River's world..... 