There was a time when we regularly visited auctions and took an interest in the windows of antique shops. We were younger then, starting out in life, and the prospect of a bargain buy of an old piece of furniture to add to our home was something that appealed to us. In fact, we still have several of those purchases today including a lacquered and painted bamboo table, a chest of drawers, and some jade elephants. We retain them because they have served us well down the decades
I was reflecting on antiques the other day when we were in the Lincolnshire town of Horncastle. This is a place that has specialised in antique shops - it has many. Did antiques, I wondered, appeal to us more because we were younger? Did the age and character of the pieces offer us something that contemporary pieces didn't (apart from, usually, a better price)? In recent decades I believe that antiques have generally become less desirable than they were. They are not something I would go out of my way to buy today. But then, I have all the furniture I need, and am likely to need, so from our perspective that is certainly a difference from our younger years.
But, even though I'm not in the market for antiques, old habits die hard and I still have an occasional look at them through shop windows, on pavements, in yards, or wherever else they are displayed. Today's photograph shows a collection of pieces in a narrow yard at the side of a Horncastle antique shop. This section of the jumble of pots, statues, tiles, plants etc made a pleasing composition, and sepia with a vignette seemed a good way to present the shot.
photograph and text © Tony Boughen
Camera: Nikon D5300
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 52mm (78mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f8
Shutter Speed: 1/250 sec
ISO:100
Exposure Compensation: -0.33 EV
Image Stabilisation: On
