Antiquities

When I think of antiquities I think of my grandmother a soft gentle woman that loved to collect so many different kind of things. To her the value was in the memories of where she had found them all. You see she had traveled extensively with my grandfather through their life together and once he passed on she would reminisce with me about the times that they had spent holding the antiquities in her hand and stroking them lovingly as she spoke.

Once she passed on she gave the antiquities to me in her will and sometimes usually when I miss her loving presence I will sit with her antiquities and remember her and the stories she told me. Here are some of my favorite antiquities:

Greek bronze figure of Zeus – Zeus the ruler of the gods and the sky was one of gran’s favorite antiquities and she said that its worth a lot of money because it is old but she would never have sold it because their time in Greece was magical and it was given to her by a peasant couple on their journey through the countryside. My grandfather had been a doctor and they were driving through the countryside and had stopped to buy some lunch at a small village.

While they were there they helped deliver a baby, as the closest doctor was miles away. The family adopted them and held a feast in their honor and at the end gave them Zeus as a token of their thanks for delivering baby David into the world so this was one of the treasured antiquities,

Mexican folk art donkey – they had a wonderful trip to Mexico when they were young and this was one of the pieces that started gran’s antiquities collection. It’s a gorgeous little bronze donkey. They were lost while driving through Mexico on a month long holiday and couldn’t find the turnoff to find their hotel. Instead they ended up at a small village market and stopped to look at the wares.

Gran had spotted the donkey and they had been invited to stay with a hospitable Mexican family who wanted to help because they were lost. They ended up staying in touch with that family for the rest of their lives. And the donkey? Well it started a long tradition of antiquities and stories in our family.

Roman brass belt buckle – this was on the same trip to Greece. They ended their tour in Italy and were wandering the beautiful countryside on foot when they came across this partly buried in the earth. They added it to their antiquities collection after they brought it home with them and it was confirmed as hundreds of years old – and they were just out for a picnic! They used to bring this out with some of the other antiquities and make up stories about the person that may have worn it and what had happened to them. My gran was a romantic so it was invariably a love story.

Egyptian necklace with scarabs – this was a trip that gran was always talking about her trip to Egypt she always wanted to go back there but didn’t get a chance to before she died. This beautiful necklace was the only one of her collection of antiquities that she wore and she wore it often and I tell you it looked beautiful around her neck. So radiant when she wore it like a queen.  My grandfather had bought it for her for their 30^th wedding anniversary and after she died she would sit with this necklace in her hand I am sure thinking about all of the wonderful years they had together and then sadly she would return it to the antiquities collection.

Ming tomb pottery soldier – the trip to China was their last together and they brought this piece home and added it to the antiquities collection only a few months before he died. They had spent a few months in China traveling around. They were fascinated by talking to people and avid students of different cultures all around the world but to them the Chinese culture held a special fascination. They spent some time with a doctor and his family in Shanghai. My father had been corresponding with him for years and they finally met on this trip. The soldier was a token of their friendship, a friendship that had lasted over a century.

American Indian knife points – these last antiquities that I will mention held a special place in my grandfathers heart. It was the only trip that my gran did not travel with him because he was working with a group of doctors that were learning from the medicine men about their form of medicine. Kind of like an exchange of ideas. Grandpa became good friends with the chief and these were a parting gift to seal the friendship – which lasted till the day he died. They were often in contact and spent many hours talking about healing and my grandfather would often look at these in the collection of antiquities.

Of course these days with the wonderful world of the internet you can get some of these antiquities online but in my grandmothers day you had to travel to find them and I think it is the stories themselves that make these antiquities so special. They were times when we learned about the world and the fabulous things in it and I will keep all of these antiquities so that I can share them with my children and add to the collection as we travel.