Objects with history

I grew up with antiques. Our house was furnished with pieces often handed down from This Aunt or That Uncle. Many had marble tops. 

My childhood dresser of drawers was more like a throne. It had belonged to my great grandmother. 

I used to pretend I was royalty, sitting on the drawers topped with marble in the middle section between the two raised drawers also with marble tops, my back against the black-spotted mirror located in the center, as I dispensed by royal decrees to whatever imaginary subjects were around. Of course they refused to obey my wishes.

One of my wishes, that my non-imaginary mother and grandmother didn't grant me, was to replace the "old stuff" with new. It wasn't just for economical reasons, although the New England Yankee mentality was to use it until it was no longer useable no matter what "it" was. They liked what they for the memories of how Aunt This, who had bequeathed the desk, would sit for hours writing letters to newspapers she never sent, etc. as just one example.

During most of my adulthood (except after college and early marriage poverty) I treasured the modern furnishings. They didn't have to be expensive. The clean lines of an Ikea apartment pleased me.

Yet...yet...yet there's a crystal dish which my grandmother used to fill homemade candy that I treasure. Now I understand the attachment to history in objects. Although they aren't from family my copper pans come with memories of many cooked meals for over a century (as well as new memories of being sent to Syria to be retinned when Syria was peaceful).

And my newest old acquisition? This marble top nightstand which did my late friend Barbara well for years which would have been right at home in my childhood home.