PROLOGUE

We’re excited to launch this blog along with the Myrtle’s Art & Antiques website and related media

You’ll see a little description along with each category item – some longer than others. 

I started collecting and curating items for an online art and antiques store a couple of years ago, just as the pandemic started as a matter of fact. I came upon a stack of antique and art books at a couple of online auctions and dove in to find out more. 

My grandmother Myrtle Gamble Knister Grace taught me a lot about what to look for – sparkly is always good, avoid all chips and cracks if you can. I may avoid a few of her eccentricities – refusing to sell something (it could be anything from a tea cup to a floor-to-ceiling oil painting) if it didn’t ‘suit’ the person. No matter how persistent the would-be buyer. Nor the price offered. If it didn’t ‘suit’, it didn’t suit. 

I don’t think that will be my selling strategy. I think if you think it suits you, and it actually doesn’t, well that’s on you. 

I’m selling online and hopefully you’ll be able to pick up the item yourself or maybe we can work out a delivery or shipping. It will be on an item by item basis. 

In the last two years I’ve had a few flashbacks – like being dazzled by carnival glass. These glass items were actually given away at carnivals back in the early 20th century. This glass is made by combining different chemicals to create an iridescent colour. Manufacturers were mostly located in the U.S. – Fenton, Northwoood, etc.

Grandma used carnival glass tumblers for her morning orange juice. I smile when I think of that morning light catching the juice through the prism effect of the glass. 

My grandmother had studied at OCA and while I never inherited her gift, I did inherit her passion particularly for oil paintings but I’ve come across Albert Smelko – a distinctly different watercolour artist, and love the David Duchene etchings you’ll see later on this site. 

• Lisa Grace Marr