Vintage art & furnishings · Wayne, Pennsylvania
The Address
No. 2 — September MMXXVI
- Off the Pike: the town that only ever wanted blue and white
- The Wall: every house keeps a dog that was never its dog
- One Object: a suitcase that has already been somewhere
- Everything on these pages is one of one
The Address · No. 2
Contents
-
04From the House
More came in than we planned to write about -
06Off the Pike · Exton
The town that only ever wanted blue and white -
14One Object
A suitcase that has already been somewhere -
18The Wall
Every house keeps a dog that was never its dog -
26Under Fifty
Still the shelf most of the shop lives on -
32Found a Home
Nine more, gone since we started counting
On the cover
Pair of Tiger-Stripe Urns. Gilt bronze mounts, ormolu handles. The one room in a composed house that's allowed to misbehave.
$225Take it home
From the House
More came in
than we planned
to write about
A few of you wrote in after the first one, mostly to say the same thing in different words: more, and don't dress it up. So this issue runs long. Forty-some pieces came through the door since we last wrote — a town we hadn't covered, a whole wall's worth of dogs that were never anyone's actual dog, one suitcase that had clearly been somewhere before it got to us.
One thing is missing on purpose. The Room is waiting on better light. It'll be back next issue.
Nothing here is being recommended. It is being shown.
1Off the Pike · No. 2 · Exton
The town that
only ever
wanted blue
and white
Route 30, further out than we've taken you before. Same road, a completely different color story.
The road doesn't announce a change of character. Then, for about a mile, nearly every booth is selling some version of the same thing — blue and white, mostly porcelain, the odd piece painted rust instead because somebody's grandmother liked it that way anyway.
None of this is coordinated. It's just what happens when enough dealers along the same stretch collect the same lines for long enough: a planter that came with its own stand, jars that only ever traveled in pairs, a dish nobody remembers buying that was clearly always going to end up here.
2
3
Every dealer on this
stretch collects the
same color.
10Off the Pike · Exton · ten pieces
- 1Koi-Motif Porcelain Vase. Blue and white, and cool enough to change a room.$148Take it homeFound a home
- 2Rose Famille Planter, on Its Own Stand. The good corner, tended more than anything else in the room.$200Take it homeFound a home
- 3Double Happiness Ginger Jar, Lidded porcelain. Still has its lid, which is rarer than it sounds.$125Take it homeFound a home
- 4Delft-Style Floral Pitcher. Cream in the morning, cut flowers by afternoon.$24Take it homeFound a home
- 5Limoges Trinket Box, Blue lattice & rose. One ring, taken off before the dishes.$50Take it homeFound a home
- 6Blue Transferware Plate, Rowland & Marsellus. Meant for a wall, not a table.$45Take it homeFound a home
- 7Delft Holland Cache Pot. Hand-painted, still holding whatever you put in it.$46Take it homeFound a home
- 8Arita Tartan Cache-Pot. A bow, painted on, that never needs retying.$38Take it homeFound a home
- 9Hand-Painted Cantonware, Japan. Crossed an ocean once already.$64Take it homeFound a home
- 10Delft Holland Covered Dish. Kept something warm under it, once.$39Take it homeFound a home
One Object
A suitcase that has
already been somewhere
Crocodile-embossed leather, the brown that only comes from decades of being handled, brass fittings gone soft at the edges instead of shiny. Nobody buys a case like this to pack it. They buy it because it already has been packed, many times, by somebody else — the corners worn down in a pattern real use makes, not the kind a factory fakes. Empty, it goes at the end of a bed or under a console table and keeps doing the one job it always did: holding the idea that somewhere else exists.
$295
Take it homeThe Wall
Every house
keeps a dog
that was never
its dog
A gallery wall's worth of them came in at once this month, which finally makes the point on its own.
Walk through enough old houses and you notice the pattern before you notice you're noticing it. There is almost always a dog on the wall that isn't the family's actual dog. A setter's head in profile over a desk. A pair of porcelain sporting dogs on a study shelf. Sometimes it's the exact animal, kept on in oil. More often it isn't anyone's pet at all.
A house wants something in it that's glad to see you, reliably, before you've even got the key in the door. A real dog can hold that post for twelve or fourteen years, and holds it imperfectly. A painted one holds it forever, and never once has to be let out.
Two of what came in with this batch were gone before we finished writing about them — a terrier on a step and a pair of porcelain setters, both keeping watch nobody asked them to keep. What's still here is below.
4
A real dog has to leave
the post eventually. The
painted one never does.
The Wall · eight pieces
- 1English Setter Head Study, Brass corners. Not the family's dog — the hallway's.$375Take it homeFound a home
- 2Corgi Portrait, Pat McCarthy. On a dark wood chest, entirely unbothered.$275Take it homeFound a home
- 3Westie with Leash, P. McCarthy. Carried his own leash to the door. That was the ask.$275Take it homeFound a home
- 4Setter with Pheasant, P. McCarthy. Mid-retrieve, gilt lace-border frame.$285Take it homeFound a home
- 5Leopard Watercolor, P. McCarthy. Checking whether you noticed it leaving.$275Take it homeFound a home
- 6The Finish, Heywood Hardy, A.R.W.S. The moment right after the thing that mattered.$125Take it homeFound a home
- 7Fox Hunting Steeplechase, Oval wood frame. The half-second before a horse leaves the ground.$97.50Take it homeFound a home
- 8Cheltenham, 1951, Lindor Edwards. The quiet before a race, and everyone pretending not to be nervous.$98Take it homeFound a home
Under Fifty
Still the shelf
most of the shop
lives on
Most of what comes through here still costs less than dinner out. This month that's a zebra with more personality than a $25 object has any right to, a goose that belonged to somebody's grandmother, a bowl that arrived as a gift decades ago and simply never left.
None of it is trying to be anything else.
Under Fifty · eight pieces
- 1Ceramic Zebra Figurine. More personality than a $25 object has any right to.$24.99Take it homeFound a home
- 2Reclaimed Wood Serving Tray. Individual planks, metal corners, already collected once.$25Take it homeFound a home
- 3Goose Figurine, Germany. Belonged to somebody's grandmother. You never asked why.$22Take it homeFound a home
- 4Strawberry Watercolor, Rustic gilt frame. Five inches, entirely sure of itself.$30Take it homeFound a home
- 5Two-Tier Serving Stand. Comes down off the top shelf every December, goes back up in January.$40Take it homeFound a home
- 6Eagle & Stars Bowl, Rust-red on white. The one that only comes out once a year.$40Take it homeFound a home
- 7Gump's Porcelain Bowl, Rust florals. Showed up as a gift. Nobody remembers from whom.$40Take it homeFound a home
- 8Silver-Plated Formica Tray, 14″. Wood grain and a polished rim, an odd pair that works.$45Take it homeFound a home
Found a Home
Nine more, gone
since we started
counting
These are not coming back, and no version of them is coming back either. We print them because a shop that shows only what is still available is telling you half of what it is.
Unsigned
English
P. McCarthy
Milk glass
Porcelain
Cast iron, 1920s
Unmarked
Mid-century
Arthur Armor
The
Address
Published monthly by Tallmadge Ave, Wayne, Pennsylvania.
Vintage art and furnishings, found along the Lancaster and Chester County pikes.
Every piece in this issue is one of one.
No. 2 · September 2026. Objects found on Route 272 (Adamstown), Route 30 (Gap, Coatesville, Downingtown, and this issue, Exton), and Route 340 (Intercourse, Leacock).
Next issue: The Room.
