A friend of mine was moving house, and as you do, decided to throw out the old, unused items that she no longer wanted to keep 'just in case'. We all do it, the opportunity to clean out the soul (as well as the house) is sometimes a huge factor in the success of any move. You get the chance to 'spring clean' your house and can be ruthless where before you might have been 'careful'.
I was luckily there the day my darling friend decided she no longer wanted these antique keys. She used to collect them, and has kept hold of them for many years. My favourite is the tiny little key that demonstrates the perfect shape, age and story that any old key must have. Where did it originate? What was it's purpose? Did it hold the secrets of a small diary or safe? This is one of the things about antiques that I love...the possibility of romanticism is hard to resist. Thus I have become a collector. A collector of unwanted small furniture items (furniture restoration opportunities!), jewellery (valuable or not...), garden furniture/pots (I draw the line at gnomes) and even old fabrics or shoes.
