Learn about your antiques and collectibles with Georgia Caraway

Archer City but Denton can claim him too since he graduated from UNT He wrote Cadillac Jack in the early 1980s about a scout (picker) of salable antiques, collectibles, and curiosities of all kinds Of course there is a deeper meaning to McMurtry’s book than the antiquing theme, but Jack’s occupation qualifies it for this collecting genre.

is inherited by an architect who wants to tear it down to build a new architectural firm on the site. There is enough romance, conflict, and antiques lore to qualify this one for the collection

Several years ago when I started my collection of books by Texas authors, I never thought about collecting books that were written with antiques, antique shops, antiquarian bookstores or antique collectors/dealers as their theme That was until I read an article in an antique collecting magazine about that topic and Eureka! a new collection was born (Remember it doesn’t take much prodding for true antiqu-aholics to start a new collection.)

The tried and true books like Jonathan Gash’s Lovejoy series were easy to find at my favorite antiquarian bookstore, Recycled Books

Records CDs on Denton’s Square. You may recall the Lovejoy books or the Lovejoy series that ran on PBS several years back Lovejoy is a roguishly attractive Brit who buys and sells antiques, always with some murderous mystery attached, and is romantically linked to one or more “birds ” Gash has written at least 24 Lovejoy books which are full of antique lore

And many of you will be familiar with Stephen King’s Needful Things, published in 1991, about an antique shop by the same name operated by the creepy Leland Gaunt where there is “something for everyone ” At Needful Things the prices are high and Gaunt’s pleasure is to see how much people will pay for their most secret dreams and desires. This one almost made me want to stop acquiring things well, almost, but not quite

And our own Larry McMurtry. Yes, he is from

You may not be familiar with some of the other authors who have used the antique-theme as the basis for their stories, so I am going to take the liberty to list a few of them and leave the hunting for others to you

Barbara Michaels has written at least three mysteries with antiques as a basis: Into the Darkness (jewelry), Stitches in Time (antique bridal quilt), and Shattered Silk (textiles)

British author Mollie Hardwick, better known for her two famous books, Duchess of Duke Street and the Upstairs, Downstairs series, has written a series featuring antique shop owner, Doran Fairweather I know of 7 books in this series

Robert Westfall, an antiques dealer, has written a book of ghost stories called Antique Dust. And two lawyers from Indiana, Joe Hensley and Guy Townsend, collaborated on a book called Loose Coins, about coin collecting The protagonist in the series by Nicholas Kilmer, Fred Taylo,r is a non-collector who buys artworks for rich clients We foray into the world of art dealers, collectors and museum curators through these well-crafted mystery books, called by the odd names, Man with a Squirrel and Harmony in Flesh and Black

Even romance novelists have gotten into the act Catherine Palmer has written Finders Keepers, a romantic fiction with a biblical foundation about a woman who wants to open her antiques shop in a Victorian mansion that

Tamar Myers has written some books that are pretty lightweight in their content, but the titles have great appeal to me; in fact, I had given some thought to writing some fiction with antique-related titles that were puns until I discovered that Ms. Myers had already done that Who could resist books titled, So Faux, So Good; Larceny and Old Lace; Gilt by Association; Baroque and Desperate; The Ming and I; and Estate of Mind?

And my favorite, is John Dunning, a fulltime writer and bookstore owner (Old Algonquin Bookshop in Denver, CO) who writes about Cliff Janaway, a cop and book collector Dunning writes as an insider to the “wonderful, unpredictable world of old and not-so-old rare books.” These books opened my eyes to the value of books of fiction and made my forays through the bookshelves of junk shops, old bookstores, and thrifts take on new meaning

It isn’t easy to find fiction books with antique collecting as a theme because a list of them hasn’t been completely created But that makes them that much more fun to seek out This collection satisfies three of my “needful things”: foraging, reading, and acquiring

Dr Georgia Caraway, former director of the Denton County Museums for 14 years, and her friends opened the Howe Mercantile on April 25 Store hours are Thursday through Saturday noon until 8 p m In addition to Tips, Tools, & Techniques: Caring for Your Antiques and Collectibles, she has written four Denton history books and is working on a 5th history about the North Texas State Fair and Rodeo