Today, The Hub took the day off and we went to the Baltimore Summer Antique Show at the Convention Center.

We had several goals:
a) to see how the other half (i.e. those dealers the bulk of whose inventory does not come from The Exchange or an auction where the key to the restroom is attached to a giant wooden pig) live....

b) to develop ideas about how to better display merchandise

and c) incur a legitimate tax write off, since by now the business is certainly going to have a profit for the year....unless I manage to really screw something up badly (which is not outside the realm of possibility) One of the main points of the business, I should add, was to show a loss for the first two years as part of a larger, if somewhat nebulous ,financial plan involving....well, who the hell cares. The problem, I think, is that I can't stand to fail at anything, even on paper.

None of which has anything to do with my point. But, if you've read this blog before, I guess you're used to it.

So, anyway, we made it to the convention center, which is over 20 years old and where I'd never been before the whole time I've lived in the area. I had to take my cane since I was still very weak from the whole killer carrots episode, but I was pretty steady on my feet. We paid our admission, walked in, and realized that the contents of most of the booths were would pay off the mortgage on our house. And then some.

But, hey, it didn't cost anything to look. Well, okay, it cost $12, but we'd paid it by that time, hadn't we?

I had a very informative conversation with a woman who restores alligator handbags, and met a lovely gentleman who was able to speak about the finer points of working with celluloid. There were, in fact, so many alligator bags around the place that it's a wonder to me that there are any alligators left.

We did get some good ideas about display. Unfortunately, they were all conflicting ideas, which then lead to a fervent discussion about The Hub getting his own booth.

I visited the booth of a gentleman down from Soho New York who had a number of old illustrations for sale. These things might be passe in New York, but he had a lot of stuff you don't see too much of at WAM, and, given that I have the talented Hub to do framing for me for free, I thought I could make a profit on some fashion plates from the late 1820's. I bought 3. The Hub bought 3 architectural prints for the booth in his head.

And then we met Dennis from The Bryne Gallery
He specializes in Russian art, specifically icons. I am pretty sure that I am the only Quaker in America who has a genuine, though modern, icon of Risen Christ in her bedroom. I absolutely LOVE this art form. I love it on every level, from the aesthetic to the historical, to the wild and mystical stories the icons inspire.

"Ugh! Tea, I'm sorry, but you and I have different tastes." my mother used to tell me as I'd drag her into my favorite gallery at The Walters, "This is just ugly, and there's...look, this person is in three places at one time, the heads are all out of scale...."

"I know, Mom. It's symbolic.Realism is not the point here." I'd mutter, enraptured.

So anyway, Dennis really perked up when he could tell that I knew at least a little about what we were looking at, and he was telling me about various different techniques which had been used to create the various colors which I find so appealing. I was just enthralled, and so before we left, I went back to ask him for his business card, because I thought he'd said his gallery was in Virginia (which it is)

The next thing I knew - I mean this happened really, really, fast - he and The Hub had bonded as "small business men" and he was offering him a refurbished copy of The Virgin of Kazan at a sharp discount so that The Hub could give it to me as a gift. And before I could get any words out, The Hub had taken out cash and I spent the next 15 minutes trying to get my breathing to return to normal.

Don't panic. We're talking about $100 here, which, for artwork (which will probably appreciate in value) is hardly anything. It was just....I hadn't planned on buying anything. It was just....kind of dizzying, the idea of having something like that in my house. The image is primitive, but all the more beautiful for it. We hung it over the mantle piece in the living room, where it looks, really, I have to say, perfect.

I'm still sort of overwhelmed. (Does anybody ever just get "whelmed"?)

Not only that, I've lost the receipt for parking.