Day 106! awaiting the call for Anna's double lung transplant.......
I guess we are in need of distractions. The feeling that this waiting is getting long is definitely a shared one. So, today we went on an adventure of sorts.
Over the weekend Anna and Casey straightened up the garage. While there Anna noticed some books that she had received as gifts from a dear friend of mine. Virginia was a member of my long time woman's group. She was the elder member whose time came a few years ago when she had to let go of many possessions, sell her home and move into a senior living apartment. In the process many friends received books, kitchen items, garden pots, and unusual treasures as keepsakes from Virginia.
I offered a lot of time to Virginia to help her prepare her home for sale, move and be a caregiver of sorts. She was a strong minded, independent, well read, liberal thinking, nature loving fabulous woman who also loved the teachings of the Buddha. In many ways she was a character who was a role model of how to get old with honesty, generosity and courage. Like my mother, her arthritis limited her and robbed her of much of her independence. But even so, she was a whipper snapper and kept everyone on their toes.
While cleaning out Virginia's things she said to me one day, "go into the garage and get that thing, that pitcher, in a brown paper bag. That is for you." I walked into her charming unattached barn like garage and found a bag with the top rolled over to seal in its contents. Inside was an old pitcher blackened with tarnish. Virginia had bought this at the San Jose flea market years before. She was a collector with an eye for quality and value. This was a lot like my mother. The black silver pitcher was a Tiffany no less. She bought it for only a few dollars knowing it was some kind of treasure and she wanted me to have it for helping her. As it turned out after cleaning it up and researching on the internet I discovered it was worth a few thousands of dollars. Wow, how fun and how generous of her.
I love Antique Roadshow! For a few years I never missed an episode. The idea of people finding antique treasures at garage sales, in attics and just around the house was so intriguing to me. I loved to hear the stories that went along with appraised items. After a huge cleaning out of Virginia's house and garage those of us in the woman's group chose items as keepsakes. What was left sat on the front porch to be boxed up and sent to the Goodwill. As I did so I noticed a ceramic pot with a mark on the bottom that seemed old and because of my interest in antiques decided to take it home. The next evening, Antiques Roadshow was on. I remember sitting on my comfy sofa ready to take in the stories. Near me sat that little blue pot with pink flowers ringing the top. It wasn't a beauty of a piece but intriguing. I decided to look up the makers mark on the bottom while I watched the show. When I discovered the identity of the mark my heart started to beat a little faster, could it be? Could it be that I have a find? That little 5 inch pot was made by an artist, Sadie Irvine from Newcomb Pottery of New Orleans and worth at least $2,000! Woooo Hoooooo! Antique Roadshow was still on the TV and I was having an AR moment in my own living room!
I took the little pot to Virginia the next day. I asked her if she knew anything about it. Her response was, "I just kept posies in it." When I told her of its value she shrugged with a little aloofness that was her signature and reassured me that I had found it and it was now mine. Oh, Virginia, you were so fun. I miss your friendship.
So, to get back to Anna finding a book in her garage that came from Virginia. It was a copy of the Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking sealed in plastic. It looked old and perhaps original, or could it be first edition? Because of my earlier experiences with finding treasures from Virginia and knowing that she was also a book collector and had an eye for finds, this book was highly suspect to be valuable. When I arrived at Anna's yesterday she told me of the book. After treatment and as we were getting ready for the day, the idea that this book might be a hidden small fortune grew into an obsession. Because the book was encased in plastic wrapping and we were afraid to open it and then lessen it's value we were only able to guess about its identity. We did as much internet research as we could before deciding the only thing to do was get it to a rare book dealer to find out more. The big question was, do we dare remove the plastic wrapping? It was going to be the only way to find out if it was indeed an August, 1961 first edition.
We called Bells Books and were told that Faith, the one who would know about this book would return to the store after 3. We were there, book in hand to find Faith......... so funny, we had to chuckle as finding faith is what we have been seeking during this whole transplant experience. Well, Faith was there but we could not see her as someone else was taking up her time. We were asked to come back. So close, yet so far away as they say. We drove home musing over the question, to open or not to open. Since we found books of first editions on the internet without the original plastic to be worth $1,000 we decided even if it did reduce the value it would be OK and anyway with out seeing the inner story of published dates it was not worth anything any way. As we drove into Anna's driveway it was decided, we will open it!
The whole day had been filled with the excitement of a potential treasure and that feeling of magic that we have had from time to time on this adventure. It was fun, exciting and very distracting. Now, Anna had the honors to slit open the top of the plastic and gently roll down the plastic cover. It was revealed, there in her kitchen, Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child, et al was............................ a first edition, but a later printing, it was printed in 1968, not what we hoped it would be, the first printing in August, 1961 so, it may not really be worth anything more than being a great cookbook. Research into value will continue...........
The high energy day was brought back to earth. Darn! Virgina, I thought we found another extra special treasure. Oh well. It was fun while it lasted. Anna and I were so glad we opened it by ourselves without an audience. It would have been a bit embarrassing with all the story line that we were attaching to this simple book to have shared that moment with a rare book dealer........... so in a way, we are glad we could not find the Faith........ but only for this time. Hopefully the faith and the hope that we really need can always be found and not too busy for us.............
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