Editor's Confession

I got duped once: I found a set of vintage dining chairs that a shopkeeper described as English. I suspected differently but was drawn to the light wood that nearly matched our lonely table at home. I had just a few moments to make up my mind, and the price of these odd little chairs was very right. Once home, I placed them around our table, deemed them perfect for the dimensions of the room, then examined the markings and discovered I had a set of lovely but significantly altered chairs from Poland. That’s a far cry from a British breakfast room. But I liked them. Had someone added a couple of zeros to the price, however, I would have felt foolish for impulsively placing emotion before reason, aesthetics before authenticity.

So let’s approach the world of collecting, first of all, reasonably. And once that’s done, if you truly adore the piece you’re considering, please feel free to snatch it up regardless, with no regrets.

NextLook Inside, Out, and Underneath