EPISODE 825 WHAT WE BOUGHT OR BARGAINED..SET SALE MAY 2023 MATTHEW BOLTON, MRTIN BUDD
alan skeoch
May 26, 2023
Some Of our friends are ‘downsizing’. Moving from large homes to smaller condominiums or
apartments. We are going in the opposite direction…’upsizing’ for the movie industry. Doubt
very much that any reader will feel envious. Some may even be rather shocked.
In order to upsize for these two five ton truckloads my nephew Robert Skeoch and i spent
a whole day reducing our collection and hauling a lot of things to the dump. Some had
to be rescued later when a movie set wanted things we had decreed superfluous.
We have learned a hard lesson. We cannot provide al things to all movies. So our collection comes under the headline of ‘period’ items. Some
things are even abused. No self respecting movie script seems to want brand new set dressing. A little or a lot of abuse makes a movie seem real. Life
is that way. Imperfect. Abused by the human hand. Used .. neglected. Broken and forgotten. Such things are valued highly by set buyers. “There
is no fake aging process that replicates the ravage of time.” Painters and carpenters can do a good job making a brand new chair and table look old
and abused. But time and neglect do a better job.
A n obsolete three furrow plow abandoned in a fence row for half a century cannot look shiny and fit for the showroom floor. A crate which is supposed to
be weathered and broken cannot show the new heads of Robertson screws. Get the idea?
The cast iron machine on the left looked good to me. I have no idea of its purpose . But it looks good…Fading paint make it look better. If you know the machine then drop a note to me. Cast iron with a pulley that connected to a motor of some kind. Pretty.
There is an exception to every rule. The ammunition crates above , sort of military looking. do look new and should be so if the 40 of them
are part of a war themed movie. We bought all 40. We had a gut feeling they will be wanted. Of course we could be wrong. Some of the
things we hauled to the dump had never been wanted by a set buyer.
Even raccoons and Opposums and squirrels had avoided them. One winter
a large grey owl took up residence in our barn. That discouraged other creatures thankfully.
Marjorie provided home made pizza for the crew. Now that is unusual … moreso than anything else in these pictures.
