Books

Literary Material

An object is an object is an object. Or so the logic goes. And yet, for many of us, there is a magical moment when that object ceases to be a mere thing and becomes infused with meaning. A jewel transforms into an heirloom; a handsome piece of furniture tells the story of its past lives (and of those who used it); a painting purchased on a whim, or after much deliberation, becomes part of our personal narrative. Dumb, immutable matter becomes alive. It’s an age-old story, but it never grows old.

Which is why great literature has long concerned itself with the sway that things have over our lives. As summer begins to draw to a close, we’ve culled a collection of books, both new and old, in which objects play key roles in the plots and in the emotional lives of their protagonists. From vintage watches to Old Master Dutch paintings, the objects in these stories not only have character — and, indeed, are characters of real importance — they also astutely illustrate the passion to possess, which affects collectors of all stripes.


AN OMEGA SEAMASTER DEVILLE

blackswancoverEnglish novelist David Mitchell — perhaps best known for his bravura, genre-bending novels Cloud Atlas and, more recently, The Bone Clocks — also has a quieter side to his oeuvre. In Mitchell’s 2006 semi-autobiographical coming-of-age novel, Black Swan Green (Random House), the object of desire is an Omega Seamaster DeVille watch that once belonged to the grandfather of the book’s 13-year-old protagonist, Jason Taylor, a schoolboy growing up in the Margaret Thatcher–era English countryside who’s afflicted with a stutter and blessed with the articulateness of a poet.

The watch, we are told in the novel’s first 20 pages, was a Boxing Day gift from Jason’s father, who’d inherited it from his own father:

“Grandad bought it off a real live Arab in a port called Aden in 1949. Aden’s in Arabia and once it was British. He’d worn it every day of his life, even the moment he died. That fact makes the Omega more special, not scary. The Omega’s face is silver and as wide as a 50p but as thin as a tiddlywink. ‘A sign of an excellent watch,’ Dad said grave as grave, ‘is its thinness. Not likes these plastic tubs teenagers strap to their wrists these days to strut about in.’”

 

Jason accidentally breaks the Omega and his guilty evasions and attempts to repair or replace the watch (through surreptitious visits to antiques shops and watch dealers) are woven by Mitchell throughout the book. In the end, the broken Omega represents the emotional wreckage surrounding Jason, who feels somehow responsible for the implosion of his parents’ marriage — the watch was shattered, he struggles to fix it — and his own passage into quasi-adulthood as he ultimately lets the watch go.

Material That Matters

Omega Seamaster retailed by Tiffany & Co., 1960s, offered by Peter Suchy Jewelers
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Omega Seamaster retailed by Tiffany & Co., 1960s, offered by Peter Suchy Jewelers
Black swan wooden sculpture, ca. 1840, offered by Leif
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Black swan wooden sculpture, ca. 1840, offered by Leif
Stainless steel Omega Seamaster 30, 1960s, offered by Matthew Bain Inc.
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Stainless steel Omega Seamaster 30, 1960s, offered by Matthew Bain Inc.
Stainless steel Omega Seamaster 300, 1960s, offered by Matthew Bain Inc.
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Stainless steel Omega Seamaster 300, 1960s, offered by Matthew Bain Inc.
Stainless steel Omega Seamaster 120, 1960s, offered by Philippe's Watches
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Stainless steel Omega Seamaster 120, 1960s, offered by Philippe's Watches
<i>Black Swan, Centennial Park, Sydney, Australia,</i> 2004, by John Huggins, offered by Sears-Peyton Gallery
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Black Swan, Centennial Park, Sydney, Australia, 2004, by John Huggins, offered by Sears-Peyton Gallery
Stainless steel Omega Seamaster with shark-mesh band, 1960s, offered by Foundwell
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Stainless steel Omega Seamaster with shark-mesh band, 1960s, offered by Foundwell

Shop Omega Watches


A DUTCH OLD MASTER PAINTING

 

goldfinchcoverThe Goldfinch (Little, Brown and Company), Donna Tartt’s blockbuster from 2013, is a different sort of bildungsroman from Mitchell’s, and the titular goldfinch painting is certainly a different object of desire than a handsome, hand-me-down watch. The real-life 1654 artwork by Carel Fabritius (one of the jewels in the collection of the Mauritshuis, in Den Haag, the Netherlands) is at the core of the novel’s plot, and through 13-year-old Theo Decker, we follow its course. While the book has a focus on possession — the painting, stolen while on loan to New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, changes hands a few times during the book — there’s a self-reflexive quality to the ownership of the artwork, too. Just as he’s transfixed by the power of the furniture and antiques that his friend Hobie so lovingly restores, Theo sees in the goldfinch — “trapped in the heart of light: the little prisoner, unflinching” — an image of himself. To others, the Old Master painting might symbolize a quest for power or great wealth, but Theo is bound to The Goldfinch because it signifies his desire to grab hold of something and be a part of a family.

 

Material That Matters

Landscape with birds, 1790, attributed to Jan van Kassel, offered by Verdini C Antichita
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Landscape with birds, 1790, attributed to Jan van Kassel, offered by Verdini C Antichita
<i>Summer Finches,</i> 2014, by Hunt Slonem, offered by DEAN PROJECT
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Summer Finches, 2014, by Hunt Slonem, offered by DEAN PROJECT
<i>A Garland of Flowers,</i> by Gaspar Pieter Verbruggen, offered by Darnley Fine Art
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A Garland of Flowers, by Gaspar Pieter Verbruggen, offered by Darnley Fine Art
<i>Fruit Still Live in a Bowl,</i> ca. 1640, by Johannes Bouman, offered by rare object
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Fruit Still Live in a Bowl, ca. 1640, by Johannes Bouman, offered by rare object
<i>Lieven Willemsz van Coppenol, Writing-Master: The Smaller Plate,</i> ca. 1658, by Rembrandt, offered by Christopher Clark Fine Art
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Lieven Willemsz van Coppenol, Writing-Master: The Smaller Plate, ca. 1658, by Rembrandt, offered by Christopher Clark Fine Art
<i>Finches on a Branch,</i> 1950, by Honore Theodore Camos, offered by Heritage Fine Art
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Finches on a Branch, 1950, by Honore Theodore Camos, offered by Heritage Fine Art
Still life of flowers by Jacob Van Huysum, 18th century, offered by the Cider House Galleries
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Still life of flowers by Jacob Van Huysum, 18th century, offered by the Cider House Galleries

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VINTAGE COUTURE FASHION

 

chinarichcoverThe desire to possess the past takes a different turn in Kevin Kwan’s recently published novel, China Rich Girlfriend (Doubleday), a hilarious parody of Eastern spending habits and a follow up to his equally fantastical debut Crazy Rich Asians. Though the profligate consumerism of the .0001 percenters is the stuff of comedy in this novel, there is also something about possession that rings true — the desire to inhabit past people’s lives. In China Rich Girlfriend, the spending is fast and furious, whether on real estate, gourmet meals, Chinese antiquities, contemporary art or jewelry — anything that can be had, will be. (Kwan, for his part, gets the style references down pat, name-checking everything from antique Meissen platters to JAR jewelry to a vintage cobalt-blue Jansen desk.) But that need to attach to the past is perhaps best encapsulated by Astrid Leong and her closet full of vintage couture. Mysterious and unknowable, Leong channels herself into her clothes, and it’s a closet with quite a pedigree: an Yves Saint Laurent jumpsuit from his final collection, a priceless Fortuny dress and a Grecian Madame Grès confection are some of the drool-worthy standouts.

Literary or not, never has vintage fashion — or life as a tai tai (a privileged lady of means) — been quite this fun.

Material That Matters

Mariano Fortuny Persian-style velvet coat, offered by Vintage Luxury
Double-sided Chinese Coromandel screen with 12 panels, ca. 1820, offered by Cardeal
Blue-and-white porcelain vases, 17th century, offered by the Chinese Porcelain Company
Madame Grès beaded slub-silk tabard and silk chiffon skirt ensemble, 1960s, offered by Jennifer Kobrin
JAR Paris book, 2013, offered by Potterton Books
Meissen Imari plate, ca. 1740, offered by Moorabool Antiques
Lacloche Frères Art Deco chinoiserie desk clock, ca. 1925, offered by Hancocks
Yves Saint Laurent Le Smoking jumpsuit, 1980–2000, offered by Devorado

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 A PEARL NECKLACE

 

henryjamescoverHenry James upends our ideas about worth and value in his morality tale “Paste,” a short story from 1899 and inspired by Guy de Maupaussant’s “The Necklace” (published 15 years earlier), which tells of a woman who borrows an extravagant diamond necklace for an evening, loses it and then spends her lifetime repaying the debt only to discover the original was a fake. In “Paste,” Charlotte inherits from her aunt a string of pearls thought to be fake. When she suspects they’re real and returns them, her cousin, scandalized at how his stepmother might have acquired them (they were a gift from a lover), says he shatters them. In reality, he sells them off, profiting at the expense of Charlotte, a poor governess.

In his sobering ending to the tale, James comments on people’s mania for objects of desire: “I’m dying for them,” says Mrs. Guy (named by James as an homage to Maupassant, she ultimately purchases the pearls, compelled by their “romantic” provenance). “There’s a special charm in them — I don’t know what it is, they so tell their history.” In that moment, the pearls are transformed. Regardless of whether they are paste or real, they are worthy of being longed for and attained.

Material That Matters

Three-strand pearl and diamond necklace, 21st century, offered by Betteridge
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Three-strand pearl and diamond necklace, 21st century, offered by Betteridge
<i>Jacqueline Kennedy in Pink Dress,</i> by Mark Shaw, offered by Liz O'Brien
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Jacqueline Kennedy in Pink Dress, by Mark Shaw, offered by Liz O'Brien
Cartier cultured-pearl torsade necklace, ca. 1990, offered by RAF
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Cartier cultured-pearl torsade necklace, ca. 1990, offered by RAF
Cultured-pearl necklace, 1960s, offered by Jacob's Diamond & Estate Jewelry
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Cultured-pearl necklace, 1960s, offered by Jacob's Diamond & Estate Jewelry
Van Cleef & Arpels cultured-pearl and diamond necklace, 1970s, offered by FD
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Van Cleef & Arpels cultured-pearl and diamond necklace, 1970s, offered by FD
<i>Marilyn Monroe: From “The Last Sitting,"</i> 1962, by Bert Stern, offered by Staley Wise Gallery
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Marilyn Monroe: From “The Last Sitting," 1962, by Bert Stern, offered by Staley Wise Gallery
Baroque-pearl necklace with gold rondel and pink sapphires, 2014, offered by Stambolian
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Baroque-pearl necklace with gold rondel and pink sapphires, 2014, offered by Stambolian

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A COLLECTION OF NETSUKE

 

harecoverIn Edmund de Waal’s 2010 memoir, The Hare with Amber Eyes (Macmillan), objects take center stage. In researching a collection of Japanese netsuke (intricately detailed miniature sculptures carved from ivory or hardwood) that he inherited from his uncle, de Waal traces the rising and falling fortunes of his own illustrious relatives. From their acquisition by Charles Ephrussi (an influential Jewish art critic and noted aesthete who was a cousin of the author’s great-grandfather), the netsuke travel from Ephrussi’s stylish rue Monceau townhouse in 19th-century Paris to a dressing room in a palatial Ringstrasse mansion during Vienna’s Golden Age, to a glass vitrine in an art-filled Tokyo bachelor pad, and, finally, to their current home, the London living room of de Waal, who is, not incidentally, a noted sculptor and ceramist. The set of 264 tiny carvings are touched with the transformative power of de Waal’s narrative. They are treasures, undoubtedly, but made even more so by the history of their respective owners. Or as de Waal puts it: “Objects have always been…. stolen, retrieved and lost. It is how you tell their stories that matters.”

 

Material That Matters

Hobe Asian-themed netsuke pin, 1930s, offered by Jeweldiva
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Hobe Asian-themed netsuke pin, 1930s, offered by Jeweldiva
Sterling silver hare cocktail shaker, 1910, offered by Pullman Gallery
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Sterling silver hare cocktail shaker, 1910, offered by Pullman Gallery
Diane Love malachite and diamond netsuke brooch, 1969, offered by Neil Marrs
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Diane Love malachite and diamond netsuke brooch, 1969, offered by Neil Marrs
Carved Japanese netsuke on a stand, early 20th century, offered by Pagoda Red
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Carved Japanese netsuke on a stand, early 20th century, offered by Pagoda Red
Japanese gold lacquer inro with a netsuke, 1840, offered by Galerie Tiago
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Japanese gold lacquer inro with a netsuke, 1840, offered by Galerie Tiago
<i>Rocky Mountain Hare (Pl. III),</i> ca. 1842, by John J. Audubon, offered by Daniel Stein Antiques
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Rocky Mountain Hare (Pl. III), ca. 1842, by John J. Audubon, offered by Daniel Stein Antiques
Hobe Asian-themed netsuke pin, 20th century, offered by Jeweldiva
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Hobe Asian-themed netsuke pin, 20th century, offered by Jeweldiva

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