Adopting a Classic…
I have been thinking about the nature of collecting and living with things that have history.
I love my vintage and retro things, but it’s not my only interest. I have my finger in many pies (as my long-suffering family will attest!), and another of my real passions is the ancient Japanese art of Bonsai.
This is the growing and displaying of trees in pots – the trees are full-sized varieties found in nature but are pruned and cultivated to be miniature representations of themselves. It is an artform which allows an expression of nature alongside the skill and imagination of the Bonsai artist – but that is all possibly for another day.
A couple of weeks ago I acquired a truly stunning tree, a Field Maple around 60cm tall and 60cm wide (quite large for a Bonsai). The tree is 35 to 40 years old and has been nurtured during all this time by one gentleman who grew it from a seedling. Over the years it has grown, been styled and restyled, and thoroughly loved to become the unique thing that it now is.
So now my turn – during the next 10 or 20 years I get to build on what has already been done, but also add my own character and interpretation into the tree. And when the time is right, the tree will move to a new owner (some Bonsai are hundreds of years old) for the process to continue.
And surely this is what we do when we collect use or display pots, glassware, artwork and items of furniture that have had a previous life. We not only recycle and reuse, but for a time adopt something into our lives that we cherish and enjoy, and then at some stage in the future pass on for others to do the same.
It’s almost like a loan and gives me huge pleasure to think that we are involved in the curation, preservation and enjoyment of things that can be loved and then passed on for others to also love in the future.
So next time you buy vintage, think not only of the beautiful new possession that you have acquired, but consider that you have adopted a classic – you are a chapter in that items story - a part of its life as much as it is a part of yours.
Stay safe, Nigel