A Grandmother's Gift: Giving & Collecting
Since the Antiquing in Brimfield, MA - Part 2 episode aired, I have received a number of emails from viewers asking about my grandmother’s lamp, which is referenced in the episode. I’m happy to share what I know.
My grandparents received the large lamp as an anniversary present from my grandfather's brother, Gerber. Gerber and his wife Eve owned an import store from the 1930s-1970s in Allentown, PA.
As a boy, I always admired the lamp, and much to my delight, one day when my grandmother came to visit me in my first real New York apartment, she brought it along as a gift.
The round lamps in this photograph, I found in my flea market travels. It brought my grandmother a lot of joy to see her lamp take on a new life in my homes over the years. She also thought it was pretty fun that I found some ‘babies,’ as she called them, to display along with the original.
These lamps have come up for me in two episodes of MARKET WARRIORS (Cummings, GA and Brimfield, MA - Part 2 ). In Cummings, GA, a kind and generous dealer gives one to me after hearing me talk about my grandmother. In Brimfield, it is a similar lamp that helps lead me to find my winning items.
A few years ago, a client asked me to find one of these lamps for her, and in researching them, I discovered that they hail from Pakistan. Just enter Pakistan Camel Lamps into any search engine and they come right up.
While these lamps don’t hold an enormous amount of monetary value, the one I received from my grandmother is priceless. She embodied pure generosity, and her lamp serves as a daily reminder to me that there’s a lot of joy in giving. My grandmother liked giving her things away while she was still alive, so she could enjoy them in a new and different way. I guess my takeaway is to give more, expect less, and light the way for a new collector.
Photo by Bob Richter
