This book isn't a book.

Wait.....what?

It's a boxed collection of lovely-sized, heavy-stock cards with illustrations on one side and descriptions on the other, so you can turn through the pages on your coffee table as if it were a book, or you can take out your favorites, frame them, and hang them on the wall. 

You'll learn about the most intriguing and romantic antiques, both rare and familiar: balloon chairs, Staffordshire dogs, Imari china, Windsor chairs, tulipieres, ginger jars, Delft tiles, Gustavian furniture, patch boxes, nautilus cups, intaglios, sailor's valentines, tramp art, lusterware, oyster plates, Vietnamese shipwreck pottery, and so on....

I began working on this book with my mother before she passed away. We would sit at the kitchen table and go through our lists of antiques, and she would tell me more about the stories and histories of the objects. She knew an incredible amount and she had a memory for details. She also had impeccable taste. My mother had The Irish Pedlar antiques shop here in the Napa Valley for a quarter of a century, and it was quite a large and magically charming shop full of the wonderful goodies she found in Ireland, England, and France.

To me, antiques are neither dusty nor obsolete. They are full of life, personality, memory, and meaning. Long before we arrived, they were woven into the lives of other people—their celebrations, heartbreaks, homes, travels, and dreams—and long after we are gone, they will continue their journeys with new caretakers. They connect us to stories larger than ourselves and remind us that beauty, craftsmanship, and human curiosity endure across generations. With this book, I hope to honor the people and objects of the past, to bring their stories back into the light, and to encourage a deeper appreciation for the remarkable things that continue to enrich our lives today.