Fiction byClaudette St. Onge © 2001-3, all rights reserved
THE THIRD WEEK (STARDUST)
During Sunday breakfast, Auntiie explained that they wouldn’t be going for a fitting for the gown 'til later in the week.' Today she wanted to take Maryanne to an antique dealer’s shop and explain a few things to her about them. Maryanne thought that would be interesting, but she told Auntiie she really didn’t know anything about them now.
"I know, dear," said Auntiie. "This will be a type of education you don’t get in school."
The shop they went to had been a barn that the owner had converted into a antique shop. His name was Mr. Carlow, and Auntiie seemed to know him quite well. She told him she wanted to show Maryanne a few things about real antiques compared to reproductions.
"Glass boots and animals is a good place to start," he said, and led them over to a section of shelves that had a lot of heavy looking solid glass objects on them.
Corinne picked up a very plain looking glass shoe about four inches long. She turned it over and showed Maryanne the maker’s mark. Then she showed her another shoe that looked a lot like the first one, but the bottom of it had two numbers and an initial imprinted on it. The numbers indicated that it was a ‘run’ of a reproduction of an antique.
"Things like this are easy to tell apart, Maryanne, once you know what to look for. But clothing and paintings can be difficult at times. In a little while we’ll go to an antique clothing dealer and see what she has. I don’t expect you to start falling in love with antiques all of a sudden, but maybe we’ll see something you like. There are some things that stay pretty forever."
Maryanne was actually beginning to find Aunt Corinne’s talk about antiques quite interesting, but she didn’t understand how they could become a part of her life.
After all, even if they found a pretty antique dress, it wasn’t something you could wear outside every day.
They had a little lunch in a restaurant and then Aunt Corinne drove to a shop that had most of its window space filled by lace curtains. A small hand lettered sign propped up on a tripod was in the center of the window display. It had the single word 'Sylvander’s' on it. Once they were inside Maryanne began to look around. The clothes weren’t arranged like they would be in a regular store.
While she was taking her first look around, Aunt Corinne and the owner of the store greeted each other warmly. She seemed to know all the dealers they went to very well. The lady that owned this store was very nice looking. She had her blue tinted hair pinned up in a pretty style with a loose bun and a large black ribbon bow. The blue tint of her hair went well with the blue floral pattern of her dress. She and Aunt Corinne embraced as if they hadn’t seen each other in years.
Corinne introduced Maryanne to the older woman, at the same time asking, "Anything her age now?"
"As a matter of fact, I just finished cataloging the things from a nice estate yesterday," replied Mrs. Sylvander, "But I haven’t had a chance to wash many of them. There are some nice things in this collection though, including some pieces that look her size,"
"Marilyn, where do you hear about such things?" asked Corinne, shaking her head in wonderment.
"You have to keep your ear to the ground, I admit," replied Mrs. Sylvander. "That’s my husband’s department. He always seems to hear about such sales before I do. And of course other dealers sometimes spill the beans on themselves as well. Word gets around. And if it’s a really big estate, they’ll break it down into lots and advertise it ahead of time. These things all came from a small summer cottage an old lady used to open up every year about this time. She was 92 when she passed away. Lord only knows how old some of these things are."
"You mentioned something her size being in the collection," said Aunt Corinne.
"Yes, it’s an afternoon dress, a sort of child’s tea dress. Very pretty. Lot of detail in the lace. Must have been expensive when it was new. Very good condition from what I can see so far. Just the thing for a nice set of pictures."
"No, I don’t want to rent it for pictures," said Aunt Corinne. "I’d like to buy it outright. That way Maryanne can have it as a memento of the summer. Could we see it, please?"
There must have been visions of dollar signs floating . around in Mrs. Sylvander’s head. She lost no time in finding and displaying the dress.
Maryanne’s eyes were popping! It was more like a piece of candy than an item of clothing. It was covered with lace, a pink ribbon running around the neck and also tied in a long dangly bow at her waist. It had three white petticoats that went with it, and when Maryanne came out of the back room dressed in it, she looked like she had just stepped out of the past of a hundred years ago.
Both older women squealed with delight at the sight of her. If anything, it was just a bit big for her.
Aunt Corinne paid for the dress while Maryanne changed back into her regular clothes again. While she was doing that, she spotted something in the back room. After they had said ‘goodbye’ to Mrs. Sylvander and gone out to the car, Maryanne asked Aunt Corinne for something.
"Auntiie…would you be mad if I asked you for ten dollars?"
"My! That’s a lot of money for a little girl," said Corinne. "What do you want ten dollars for?"
"If I tell you, it’ll spoil everything," said Maryanne. "Well, I guess we can do it this one time," said Corinne. As soon as she gave Maryanne the ten dollars, she hopped out of the car and went back into the clothing shop. After a couple of minutes she came back out and they drove home. Corinne noticed her tightly clutching a small paper bag that had been wrapped up and tied with string.
During the middle of the night, a small hand could be seen placing something on the drop leaf of Aunt Corinne’s high glass fronted mahogany secretary that she used as a desk for writing and keeping her papers in order.
The next morning while they were having breakfast Corinne looked over at her niece.
"Maryanne, you still haven’t told me what you did with the ten dollars." Maryanne giggled, her bright eyes shining.
She got up from her chair and went over and took Auntiie’s hand.
"You bought me such a pretty dress to remember this summer that I wanted to get you something, too. And I saw something in Mrs. Sylvander’s shop that was a real bargain.
I already put it out in plain view, Auntiie. Let’s take a walk and see if you can spot it." Eventually Maryanne led her into the living room.
Corinne paused, looking around carefully. Then she spotted a solid glass paperweight of a sleeping cat on top of some recent mail she had received.
"Oh, a nice paperweight for my secretary!"
"Yes, and it’s worth more than ten dollars, too, Auntiie," said Maryanne. "See? It only has a maker’s mark on it."
Corinne looked down at Maryanne and gathered her into a big hug. "Maryanne, what am I going to do when you go back to living with your mommy? I’ve come to love you so much, sweetheart. But let me show you something about you little kitty." She let go of Maryanne and picked up the paperweight.
"Honey, the reason it was only ten dollars was because of a common imperfection. See the little bubbles inside the kitty? It is genuinely old, but I’m afraid those little bubbles take away it’s value. But it still looks fine on my secretary. And it makes me love you even more. Some people don’t call them ‘bubbles’. They call them ‘stardust’." And that became the paperweight’s name from then on.