Arieta Antiques

When I was a kid I liked to break things. Drop things from heights, drop thing from heights on other things, throw them against trees, walls, our driveway. I once drove my pedal go-kart into a bonfire to see what would happen. Unsurprisingly it melted, and I didn't get a new one. It wasn't that I was an angry kid, or even particularly unruly, but I guess most things just looked better broken. On my parents belief that doing what you love and what you're best at will take care of everything else, I plotted my course into adulthood. Vocations I seriously considered from an early age included stuntman, demolitions expert and a stock car racer. Lucky for all of us then that my love of carnage was just a phase.

But for some, those early interests and explorations don't die out or fade away. Sometimes a gut feeling or an instinct for what you enjoy really is all you need. That certainly seems to have been the case for Valerie Arieta.

Arieta Antiques is a small antiques and decorative arts shop on the crest of Kensington Church Street. Every day on my way to and from work I walk past her shop, and almost every time there is something new and beautiful in the window. Ranging from 19th century Scandinavian landscape paintings, to handblown glass bottles, Victorian botanical illustrations and Native American crafts, her taste is broad, but certainly not undiscriminating. "You just can't afford to be if you depend upon it", she told me when I popped in for a chat.

With an instinct for quality and a developed sense of her own taste, Valerie started out selling bits and pieces in the flea markets and on the beachfronts of her native California. It was as a student that she decided to take her passion to the next level; driving a van laden with Native American Indian baskets across the country to New York and the East. At that time the trade of Indian art within the States was somewhat of a frontiersman's career; a saturated southwestern market could turn a tidy profit out of the east coast dealers, if they took the time to get there. As potentially lucrative as it turned out to be in those early days, money was never the primary motivation. The thrill of discovery was far more rewarding. 

One of the most interesting and unusual pieces Valerie showed me was a Japanese shamisen bachi. The shamisen is an ancient Japanese instrument, slightly similar in look and sound to a banjo, but with 3 strings, no frets and played with a bachi, effectively a large plectrum, or pick. Originally carved from ivory, or tortoiseshell in the shape of a gingko leaf, these bachi are the epitome of form meeting function. She once sold one to a Parisian antique dealer who didn't even stop to enquire about its history or purpose, so besotted was he by its grace of line and simplicity of design. 

At the moment her bachi is kept in a drawer under a glass cabinet filled with small archaelogical finds: arrowheads, jewelry and some kind of purse or pouch that looks positively medieval. On an equally ancient looking wooden cabinet sit slightly more modern items: a Victorian cartography manual, a bone chess set and case and beautiful handblown glass bowls and vases. It is cluttered, but delightfully, artistically, deliberately so. Every single object is displayed with a sensitivity to those around it, so your eyes are rarely given liberty to linger on anything for more than a moment. 

Valerie's half of the shop is to the right

On a street famed for its antiques, and with over 60 independent shops and dealers, Arieta Antiques still stands out from the crowd. It's the quirkiness, the lightness of touch and the honest and down to earth approach to labeling and pricing that makes it more appealing and approachable. And then of course there's Valerie herself, who's absolutely lovely. 

If you're in the area, it is well worth a look in.