HOW TO:
Nail the Vintage
Verbiage
All antiques are vintage, but not all vintage is antique.
Still with us? Consult our glossary and shop like a pro.
Antique
A collection of junk-picked items in the author’s
childhood basement, as collected by her dad.
A collectable object with a high value and considerable age,
usually more than 100 years old. Look for pieces from
the Baroque, Classical, Victorian, Edwardian, Arts and Crafts
and Art Deco periods
Architectural salvage
A business selling fixtures from demolished or remodeled structures
Collectible
A new or used object that may rise in value, though
predictions for such are precarious (think: the Beanie Babies
in your cousin’s curio cabinet)
Consignment shop
A store that sells an object on behalf of a private party and keeps
a percentage of the profit. You can sell your stuff there, too!
Dealer
A person or small company who rents a stall or space
in a store or market
Memorabilia
Collectibles within a theme, i.e. Star Wars memorabilia
Pre-vintage
An oft-derided term denoting clothing or goods that are
less than twenty years old
Retro
Vintage in style but not necessarily in age
Thrift shop
A store that accepts and re-sells donated items, often not-for-profit
Vendor
See “Dealer”
Vintage
An object that is twenty years or older; originally derived
from the dating of a particularly good bottle of wine
JUNK PICKING:
A Family Story
Three generations of “one man’s trash is
another man’s treasure.” BY CASEY NILSSON
FA M I L I E S F E U D F O R A L L S O R T S O F R E A S O N S B U T, I N M Y
childhood home, the oddest of them all involved a tall sequined
headdress and the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria.
Our neighbors up the hill — a couple with international
flair and seven bathrooms, if you catch my drift — were amass-
ing a pile of household refuse on their curb, and my dad
couldn’t help himself. Better yet: He helped himself.
My mom tolerated his penchant for junk — she even partook
from time to time — but this was different. He was rifling
through the neighbors’ trash, she said. In his defense, we could
see the bejeweled hat and the vintage ship replicas from our
living room. It was window-shopping with a most pleasant
ending! And, anyway, he’d gone over in the dark. But it was
no use. Neighborhood picking was verboten — that is, until a
pair of decorative planters appeared on an adjacent curb.
Then, all bets were off.
On the street, in a musty vintage emporium, posed in an
upscale antiques shop: No matter the setting, old things are the
best things. They hold the stories of the ages. They are morally
and ecologically responsible. They grant us a taste of seren-
dipity and love at first sight, over and over and over again.
I resisted for a while. My hometown is affluent and I — rich in
love and encouragement and stability, but not money — couldn’t
shake the imposter syndrome. But my brother was quick to
embrace “one man’s trash.” A musician, Matt and his bandmates
often drew inspiration from my dad’s collection of curiosities
— unopened beer cans, mink stoles with latching teeth, the
headdress and ship replicas — displayed behind a bar in my
parents’ basement, their practice space. And now, two decades
later, the student has surpassed the master. Last fall, Matt bought
the estate of a late hoarder that, beneath mounds of refuse,
contained several trailers-worth of pristine (and salable) house-
hold treasures. Our dad was so proud. | | CONTINUED ON PAGE 98
RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY
l MARCH 2020 47