Kevin Marshall Antiques Warehouse (2/7) By Michelle Dee

(1/7), (2/7), (3/7), (4/7), (5/7), (6/7), (7/7).

Photograph Gallery   Gallery 1,   Gallery 2,   Gallery 3,   Gallery 4,   Gallery 5.

Tables and chairs turned this way and that, chests of drawers, bureaus, bookcases and blanket boxes. Display cases filled with every conceivable design of door knob or drawer handle. Candlesticks and paintings, exotica from far away countries, masks and figurines, tiles and trinkets and yet more boxes just asking for a good rummage through.

You may move chairs, not stacked in an orderly fashion like in Church halls, but topsy-turvy balanced precariously, one on another. It is then perhaps you glance at the wall and behind yet more furniture you see what appears to be a mural on the wall. It depicts the battle of Trafalgar: with tall ships and billowing sails, cannon fire and milk like sea-spray.

Looking to the adjoining wall I see the architectural perfection of a Greco-Roman scene with pillars and statuettes framing an existing window. It is surreal that such scenes should be half obscured, providing the backdrop to a warehouse packed almost to the rafters with so much furniture and fancy goods.

Turn a corner and you enter what is affectionately known as the nautical room with Merchant Navy memorabilia and model ships and signs, a picture depicting the language of semaphore and another illustrating every knot from a bowline to a sheet bend. Kevin Marshall is ex- Merchant Navy so this themed room may not come as quite a surprise to some, yet is no less interesting and provides a glimpse of our seafaring tradition. For the first time today, but not the last, I think on this place as more of an odd type of museum. A special place, where treasures are lovingly collected, then secreted away for the unsuspecting passer by to discover.

Kevin encourages people to mooch around and lose themselves amongst the multitude of desirable objects. I notice with amusement a small round millstone for grinding grain leaning nonchalantly against a doorframe upstairs. Completely out of place, yet seemingly at home. "I liked it," says Kevin simply, "so I bought it." He goes on to explain "I would like order in here and I used to apologize for the disarray, but later had to resign myself to the fact I was a chaotic. Anyway, the customers like it they believe they're going to find some something at every turn, something really special."

Continued .... Next Page (3/7)

Photograph Gallery   Gallery 1,   Gallery 2,   Gallery 3,   Gallery 4,   Gallery 5.

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