And here’s your moment of irrational annoyance, courtesy of someone who didn’t mean ill by it, but aggravated me anyway.
I’m always on the hunt for curio cabinets for my museum. Yes, I already have a bunch, but I particularly need ones that have doors on them (lockable being a bonus). The Junior Assistant Curator is starting to show interest in the fossils, and is just tall enough that he can reach some that are in a more open setting. The Assistant Curator is also interested, but knows to ask. I prefer to buy my cabinets secondhand, for a few reasons.
First, good lord, have you seen the prices of new furniture nowadays? I saw one (very nice) cabinet for 1500 dollars. Um, no. Not when I can get something similar for 300 dollars or less.
Second, I’m helping someone directly by getting an unwanted item out of their home in exchange for some money. I’d rather support a person than a chain furniture store. Win-win.
Third, I’m no interested in all of them matching. A hodgepodge has a bit more character.
I’ve had the most luck on Facebook Marketplace, but I’ve also found a few at antique stores/flea markets. There used to be an upcycled furniture place near my house, but sadly, that business owner closed within a year, but not before I got three lovely cabinets and a haunted rocking chair from her. Yeah, story for another time on the chair. This last time, I’m at a flea market, and expressed interest in curio cabinets. I said the shelved needed to be very sturdy, as some of my items were pretty heavy, and I would prefer wood shelves to glass ones. I can work with glass, but I generally will put some kind of liner between it and the fossil to prevent damage to both. Here was the comment that made me bristle:
“Oh, got some heavier tchotchkes? This one should work for you.”
Now, I hadn’t mentioned that what I was needing to display was fossils. Part of me wanted to say something rather cranky in response, but I kept it in. I guess I didn’t like the assumption that the only thing a woman my age would collect is trinkets. I wanted to say something like ‘all but one of my ‘tchotchkes’ is over ten thousand years old, or is a replica of something that old. They also tend to weigh a couple of pounds each. But yeah, I just need a spot to store trinkets.’
Like I said, kind of irrational, but irksome nevertheless. It was also a turn-off in terms of me wanting to buy anything from this vendor. He had also made some racist comments (not directed at me, but I heard them) and overall seemed like a less-than-awesome person. I ended up not getting the cabinet. The price was right, but it was really banged up, with a cracked shelf and a LOT of damage to the wood (this wasn’t very obvious until I got a closer look at it…I would be dumping more money into prettying it up than I wanted). Oh well. I’ll find the right pieces at the right time, I guess.
Here’s the thing…I’m really proud of my collection. It’s taken me over a decade to put it together, and I’m not done. To have someone call it a bunch of trinkets, even unknowingly, was belittling. It would be like me calling someone’s baseball card collection a pile of paper. Everyone’s got their own thing. It’s just that my thing consists of 800+ rocks, most of which could be used as projectiles in a pinch. They’ve survived this long, right? What’s one more high-velocity impact?
Hilary
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