Aging beauties

Young Chang

Maybe it’s that originality seems impossible to come by nowadays.

Because how often does a song sound totally new? Or an idea original,

a sentence fresh, a clothing style independent of history?

Rarely and with reason. The present can only be seen as a child of the

past, antique collectors say, and what’s the harm in honoring that which

is old?

With PBS’s “Antique Road Show” as much a part of pop culture as “Who

Wants to be a Millionaire,” local antique lovers and the organizers of

Thursday’s Newport Beach Spring Antiques Show say antique-collecting is

gaining popularity.

“People are starting to look at items they’ve maybe inherited or had

hidden away in the attic, and starting to have an appreciation for them,”

said Marion Palley, chairwoman of the upcoming antique show and a

collector herself. “It helps us appreciate where we are and where we’re

going.”

Tom Stansbury, owner of Tom Stansbury Antiques in Newport Beach and a

participant in the antiques show, says it’s a matter of retrieving what’s

lost.

“We really don’t have fine-hand wood carvers,” he said. “Prior to

1830, everything had to be done by hand, and you have an immediate

connection between the craftsmen and the object and you. And because they

were made by hand, no two objects, even though they’re similar, are

alike.”

Pieces from Stansbury’s collection will be sold along with goods from

more than 40 antique, art, carpet, china, silver and other specialty

dealers from throughout the West Coast at Lido Isle this Thursday through

May 13. Items will date back as far as three centuries.

Antiquarian Gep Durenburger, who is also a decorative arts historian,

will give a guest lecture on Saturday. Organizers expect more than 10,000

visitors throughout the show’s three-day run, which is sponsored by the

Lido Isle Women’s Charitable Foundation.

“We have so much building going on in Orange County,” Palley said. “We

have tremendous growth, tremendous technological advances, and we haven’t

had many resources in terms of antique shows in which people who are

building new homes can go and learn about incorporating antiques and

collecting into their lifestyle.”

For Palley, a Newport Beach resident who’s filled her house with

antiques, that which is old and dusty and once possessed by someone else

brings “warmth.” The house is a lively one where her husband and three

kids don’t have to tiptoe around the furnishings.

“For people who don’t collect, they often think of antiques as kind of

stuffy things -- like something they can’t sit on,” she said. “But

antiques work into anybody’s home. They ground a contemporary home, and

they bring life to a traditional home.”

Just how does one begin collecting? Palley cites herself as the

perfect novice more than 10 years ago. One of her first antiques was a

walnut inlaid gallery tray with sterling silver handles and a rail that

probably dated back 150 years. (The definition of an antique, by the way,

is something more than 100 years old.)

“It just resonated,” she said. “It just had a warmth to it.”

She then added antique decanters on top of the tray as well as a

collection of antique books around it.

“Then what happens is you get interested, so you start to read about

them, to go to museums. You just begin to grow in the decorative arts,”

Palley said.

Stansbury, who also collects antiques at his Newport Beach home,

enjoys the “romance” of an object’s age.

“The different houses they’ve been in -- it’s kind of like the

different stories they have to tell,” he said.

Marcee Leibe, owner of a used-furniture and antiques store named

Second Chance Attic in Costa Mesa, compares antiques to something like an

old friend.

“Because they’re old and they’re beautiful,” she said.

Leibe owns furniture dating back as far as the 1720s -- old pine

secretaries, dark mahogany armoires dating back to the 1890s, love seats,

lampshades. You name it, she’s got it.

“Quite a few of them are from estate sales -- two or three million

dollar houses in Newport Beach and surrounding areas,” Leibe said.

Her business, as do most antique shops, restores pieces too.

Stansbury says fixing up an antique involves balancing two goals:

preserving the integrity of the object and guaranteeing that it’ll

continue to exist.

“You want to make it stable, you want to make it functional and you

want to make it beautiful again,” he said. “It’s like asking, ‘Do I want

to keep this wrinkle or do I want to get rid of it?’ ”

Stansbury is one to keep it.

“Because age softens you,” he said.

FYI

WHAT: The Newport Beach Spring Antiques Show

WHEN: Preview reception at 6 p.m. Thursday. Show will be held 10 a.m.

to 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. May 13.

WHERE: Lido Isle Club House, 701 Via Lido Sud, Newport Beach

COST: $12 daily admission, $25 for lectures, $100 for opening evening.

CALL: (949) 673-0076