La Tienda Part II

Continuation from last week's post: La Tienda Part I

Crowding the back of the garage for over a year, the Tienda, stood unused and decaying. There was no  garage storage space and the office remained without a proper bookshelf. As much as my genealogy materials called out at me to be properly archived, I couldn't allow myself to spend thousands of dollars on a new bookcase. I felt stuck! Out of frustration, we decided to do the second best thing: unpack and put together the Mexican bookcase for use as garage storage. Not ideal, I admit, but better than letting the tienda continue to deteriorate the due to lack of maintenance and use.

A friend, who in turn hired three more friends and two large ladders, helped assemble the heavy shelves. The fixture looked completely out of place (sorry, I don't have a picture), housing balls, bicycle helmets and coolers, but at least we had somewhere to store our junk. It was not a pretty sight. The garage, overwhelmed by the sheer size of this bulky bookcase, remained only a tiny bit more functional and marginally less crowded.

Three weeks ago, everything came to a head, when I was leaving for the little league match. I needed a folding chair which was awkwardly placed on the bookshelf between a couple of elegant columns. In the process of squeezing myself between the car and the bookshelf, I knocked over three bikes. Though I hate to admit this in public, I just about lost it that day. My frustration with the garage just about boiled over and I could not believe that the garage would stay so tight and messy indefinitely.  I called my local version of Don Miguel, our trustworthy neighborhood handyman—Lincoln, and asked him to take a look at the garage and somehow find a place for a bike rack.

Lincoln, examined the situation closely. Since the bookcase took up eighty percent of the back wall of the garage, he suggested,  hanging the bikes from the ceiling.. This solution generated some problems and he questioned me about the bookcase which clearly looked out of place. When I relayed a briefer version this saga, explaining how there was no way to get the bookcase into its' intended destination, I noticed a sparkle in his eyes. He listen politely and then proclaimed: "I can do it. I can take it apart. I love this kind of delicate projects!"

"Really? Are you sure?" I asked in disbelief.

He took a few steps up and down the gigantic bookshelf, tapped the sides and examined the construction and then stated emphatically, that what I thought was impossible, could definitely be done. His plan involved pulleys to get the longer parts through one of the small third floor window, but he was confident quite confident it would succeed.

One of third floor office windows used
 to pull up the bookshelf. It is the smallest window
 in the house measuring about 2'x3.5'

I knew Lincoln was the man for the job! It took four days, one assistant and a lot of patience. He disassembled the old bookshelf into more than fifty smaller parts, three of which were eleven foot long. Lincoln even found a small bullet embedded into the ancient wood, which he extracted and handed over to me for safekeeping. Last week, after spending two unhappy years in the garage, the Mexican Tienda appeared like new—or more like—unharmed in my office!

My mission now is to bring the bookshelf to it's original glory. I spent the weekend, rehydrating the thirsty wood with oil and then stacking it with books and office supplies, some of which have been in boxes for as long as the Tienda spent in the garage. The garage is now empty and ready to receive proper garage storage shelves which Lincoln will build. Finally, the office has become a pleasant place to work! I bring you this post from my antique desk (a desk with its' own story). Every few minutes, I can not help but raise my eyes and glance with amazement at the miracle of having La Tienda here with me. The bookshelf is so large, that it now houses not only many of my books, but also most of the family photos albums and my genealogy files.  Best of all, it displays many photos of my ancestors as well as my descendants. For lack of display space, they were in storage for quite some time. These vintage photos have accompanied me along my genealogy journey and inspired my work and it is a wonderful feeling to be able to enjoy them again!

La Tienda, in the third floor office!

Lincoln had  the foresight to. when possible, use screws rather than nails, making disassembly easier in the unlikely possibility of needing to move the bookcase in the future. We are also adding a library ladder make the top shelves more accesible. I hope to replace the missing glass from the drawers which will bring back the transparent compartments to their intended use (see pictures below) and  I am on the lookout for matching drawer knobs. In leu of antique candy jars, I found some vintage looking ones and filled them with office supplies. They now sit in the jar niches.

Closeup of a drawer missing glass & knob.
(Click to enlarge)

One remaining glassed drawer
with original knob. (Click to enlarge).

Closeup of the knob

Vintage style candy jars in niche.
(Click to enlarge)

When we purchased this Tienda, I had yet to discover my passion for family history. I knew that my great-grandparents owned a grocery store, but I spent little time pondering what the store may have looked like in the early 1920s, 1930s and 1940s. I never made a connection between this old Mexican grocery store display and my ancestors grocery store. But, as I was writing this post and contemplated the Tienda, I recalled a photo I came across recently. This amazing snapshot, printed as a postcard, is one of the few surviving photos the Bloomfield Market. In this unlabeled photo, taken around 1920, I am able to identify my great-grandfather, William Bloomfield who is standing behind the counter. To my amazement, behind him is what looks like a very large set of shelves, neatly stacked with rows of boxes, bottles and canned goods. It's difficult to tell from the photo, but it's quite possible that the vertical dividers are columns, just like the Mexican Tienda. Far away from Puebla Mexico, this vintage family photo, provides a glimpse of what the Mexican tienda would have looked like in its heyday. I am not sure what became of the New Hampshire tienda, but Minnie provides a small clue in her Memoir, Stored Treasures:

"We bought a grocery store from a friend of Will's (William Bloomfield). It was some ten miles from where his mother's store was located. She had some fixtures that she loaned us. So without any money, or experience, we were in business." (Stored Treasures, 137)

William Bloomfield, at the Bloomfield Market
Laconia, NH c1920
(Click to enlarge)

It's very likely that the loan included the fixtures in this picture and my guess is that they were returned to Freida Toby when William and Minnie moved to Houston. I don't believe any furniture from that period remains in the family. Though I'm not a big believer in destiny, I feel as if the Mexican tienda which now proudly sits in my office,  had a purpose in fighting it's way back into my home.

As of now, my children do not have much of an appreciation for our eclectic taste in rustic furniture. Hopefully, one of our sons will one day want to inherit this beautiful tienda. Thanks to this blog post, the bookcase, will come with a story!

La Tienda Part I

Have you ever wondered about a family relic, perhaps a piece of furniture? Have you thought about the story it holds? Where does it's story begin? Why has it become important to the family? If only it could share the events it witnessed? This past week, I have been thinking about one such treasure I own, La Tienda.

Many authors have written about heirlooms. Nicole Krauss—well known for The History of Love—for example, tackles this subject in fiction. In her latest book, Great House, she traces the adventures of a desk. Reading this story, we span generations of fictional characters, following the movements of the desk across continents and historical periods. Author, Edmund de Waal choses to tell his own family history through the history of a collection of Japanese netsuke, miniature sculptures, which survives World War II  and which he eventually inherited from his uncle. As his interest grows in the collection, so does his curiosity of the Ephrussi family and their history as the wealthy bankers who emerged from Odessa and made their way to Vienna and Paris. de Waal, turned the story of the netsuke into the best seller, The Hare with the Amber Eyes.

La Tienda, is my bookcase or library. I dubbed it, La Tienda—The Store, for it's original function. The story of this enormous bookshelf in our family dates back only about a decade. How old is the piece, I'm not sure. An antique expert may know, but my guess is that it is at least 50-100 years old. In the brief ten years the bookcase has spent in my custody, it has already managed to acquire a great story. I thought it would be fun to document it's most recent tales in a two part blog post.

My husband and I, love collecting original art works as well as antiques. We are far from connoisseur . Our philosophy is to purchase objects that call to us, object we like. We don't spend a lot of money. We buy student paintes, or pieces from our artist friends we believe in. Our collection is eclectic and quite rustic. Our purchases are not made with investment in mind.  Rather, we enjoy decorating our living space with pieces which survived the trials of time and were not mass produced.

Ten years ago or so, we went on a family trip to Puebla. Located about an hour and a half from our home, Puebla is a colonial Mexican city, known for it's numerous churches, it's Mole (a delicious dark, chocolate based sauce) and it's antiques stores. We had just completed building our home and we excited with the idea of buying some furniture. We stumbled upon a quaint hotel/restaurant, which was decorated with Mexican antiques. Jacqueline, my husband's aunt, heard about our outing and  recommended the hotel she stayed at, Meson Sacristia de la Compañia  both for it's delicious food and fantastic store. We enjoyed the typical Mole and decore and noticed that all of the unique pieces in their collection were not only decorative, but also for sale. There were two beautiful bookcases on display in the dinning room and we fell in love. When we asked about the furniture, we were told that it used to be a "Tienda" or a storefront. Well, not exactly a store front, more like the display case, behind the counter in an old fashioned Mexican general store. When you examine the bookcase closely, you can see that one drawer is labeled, Plumas or pens and another, Estrellas or stars (for star shaped pasta). One of the drawers even contains the original glass, retained the small compartment at the front of the drawer to be filled with beans or pasta, which made it easy to mark the content of the drawer. There are concave sections which functioned as a rest for the front of class containers filled with assorted dried goods.

The bookshelf as it looked in the hotel
dinning room when we discovered it. (Click to enlarge)

What we had in mind was converting the bookcase into an entertainment set. Unsure which of the bookcases would fit our family room, we decided to return to Cuernavaca and measure. We took the hotel information and agreed to call back with the measurements.  When we examined the space, we realized neither bookcase would fit and agreed it would  probably be a crime to remove some shelves to make way for our large screen TV. We called the store and after measuring and remeasuring, on our part and theirs, we ordered the larger of the bookcases for our formal living room instead. Despite the hotel's good reputation, I was quite nervous about ordering a large piece of furniture. After all, this was Mexico, and I was accustomed to at least watch the store pack-up my purchase and send it on it's way, before I left the premises. Yet, we took our chances and purchased what we felt was a bargain Mexican antique. A new piece that size, would have cost three or four times what we paid, and certainly would not have had half as much personality.

La Tienda, in our Cuernavaca living room. (Click to enlarge)

To our relief, the bookcase arrived promptly, in two gigantic pieces. It required four men who climbed two ladders to mount the two halves together. To our surprise the bookcase did not fit, it was too tall for the space! Luckily, our trustworthy handman, Don Miguel, found a solution and was able make the necessary adjustments by shaving a layer off the top molding. He also added four decorative lights. Once put together, there it remained, in our Cuernavaca living room for many years, where we enjoyed it mostly as a decorative piece.

By the way, if you like these type of Mexican antiques, I highly recommend the Meson Sacristia de la Compañia. Puebla is well worth the visit. They ship all over the world and are quite trust worthy, so you can even order on-line.

During the summer of 2010 our family relocated to the Boston area. At first, we rented a furnished home, and left our own furniture in Mexico. A year later, when we bought our home in America, we shipped some of our belongings. Deciding what to bring, was not an easy. I knew we needed bookshelves, and it seemed that our Puebla antique would be ideal for the office. The bookcase, which measures about 9x11feet is quite large for most American homes, but the third floor office had space to spare, both height and width wise.

The bookcase arrived with the international movers, in May of 2011. It was one of the last pieces to come off the at the back of the truck. They removed the two carefully packed, bulky halves from the container and asked me to direct them to where this piece of furniture would go. When I replied the third floor, the all shook their heads to the contrary. The foreman explained that what should have been plainly obvious to me from the start. "There was no way, this bookshelf would clear the staircase", he said." He then continued: "Even if it cleared the stairs, it would never clear the two corners in it's path to the office".

The staircase leading to my office and a view
of the narrow hall and corner the
 bookshelf had to clear.
(Click to enlarge)

The stairs! I had forgotten about the stairs. I was so excited that the office ceiling was heigh enough for this enormous piece, that I didn't take into account the narrow stairs. The movers  who detected my distressed, questioned if the bookcase would come further apart, which I confirmed it would not. They even suggested bringing it through the window, but when we looked at the tiny dormer windows, this creative possibility was immediately nixed. Disappointed, we made a quick executive decision and left the two large parts of the bookshelf, packed and stacked against the back of our new garage.

Once we settled into our new home, we debated what to do with the Tienda. Maneuvering around the gigantic package in the garage was extremely tight and uncomfortable. I called upon a family friend who is very handy and good with carpentry to examine the problem. He took one look at the antique furniture, and highly advised against trying to disassemble it. "The old wood" he explained, "was held together by antique nails.  Don't touch it," he said and suggested  we sell the bookshelf.

The bookshelf did not fit anywhere in our new home. Shipping it back to Mexico was very expensive and out of the question. Sadly, I therefore resolved to part with the bookshelf. I sent an email to all of our family, friends and acquaintances informing them I was looking for a home for this special antique and offered them first dibs and a low price. I posted on facebook and listed it on eBay as well as Craigslist. When that didn't work, I called consignment shops in the area. When they heard the dimensions they all declined the bookshelf, claiming no one wanted such big furniture.

We were stuck!

To be continued.....