Posted 12 years ago
Brimfield
(30 items)
This is stone fruit, made out of marble, to be specific. According to Judi and Cy Stellmach of Blue Dog Antiques, this is the real deal, hand carved and hand painted white Carrara, not the new sponged-and-sprayed stuff.
I would have walked right by this bowl of handsome rocks if Judi had not pointed them out to me and explained their story. But our conversation was cut short because while we were chatting, Leigh and Leslie Keno's father, Ron, stopped in with his granddaughter, who's also a budding collector. Like a lot of Brimfield dealers, the Stellmachs specialize in primitive pieces (not just furniture; more on that later), but the Keno clan went straight for the stone fruit, and Ron went straight for the largest apple of the bunch.
He held it in has hand, admiring its perfect, meticulously rendered defects. Judi was asking 325, Ron wanted to pay 200, Judi said she could not take less than 225. Ron vacillated, and then, just as you could see he had made up his mind to buy it for Judi's price, she suggested 220. "I like 225 better," he said with a smile, and the deal was done. Meanwhile, his granddaughter was picking up a couple of bruised strawberries, a nectarine, and a pear. "I don't have a pear yet," she said.
For more about stone fruit, visit Judi's blog post on the subject:
http://www.bluedogantiques.blogspot.com/2010/01/stone-fruit.html
Stone fruit....love it....great article! Thanks!
And to think, my mom had a bowl of stone fruit on the dining room table when I was growing up and I don't know what ever became of it. She had a beautiful bunch of grapes, and I think an apple and pear. She was told they were alabaster.
Who knew they would end up being so valuable.