Went to pick up a coffee table at a nearby apartment tonight - a retiring Chinese couple are moving out, to where I don't know, wish I'd asked. I knew from my first visit yesterday that the wife was tricky - she was vague when I asked about a chest of drawers, told me to come over rather than confirming or denying that it was still for sale. And her pitch worked - after four flights of stairs in the heat, I went for the table.
Tonight she was in fine form. There were papers and knick-knacks everywhere, two timid young Indian couples were following her from room to room, browsing the piles of stuff. Strauss was pumping from the stereo and every time any of us tried to settle a deal she waltzed on to show something else, crying out with wonder at the things she had to sell - Look here! Very good bargain! Veeeeery good quality!
The table, she said, was a precious wood from New Zealand, and she was amazed to learn we were also from New Zealand. It had been $50, she said, showing her photocopied flyer for proof - now was only $30, but if we polished it up we could sell it for $100 - no, not $100, $400, $1000!
And then she tried, quite unsuccessfully, to interest any of us in the large painted Chinese vases, or the beer cooler with built-in radio.
The table has some dings in it and a weird diagonal streak in the grain. It's solid, heavy and medium-toned - too dark and dense for rimu, and too rough-grained for kauri. It's too long to be a very good fit for our living room, but I really like it. Knowing nothing about woods, but pretending to, I speculate that it is cedar or Canadian redwood. N speculates coconut or daffodil stem. We agree that it may be from the interior of a baobab.
Tonight she was in fine form. There were papers and knick-knacks everywhere, two timid young Indian couples were following her from room to room, browsing the piles of stuff. Strauss was pumping from the stereo and every time any of us tried to settle a deal she waltzed on to show something else, crying out with wonder at the things she had to sell - Look here! Very good bargain! Veeeeery good quality!
The table, she said, was a precious wood from New Zealand, and she was amazed to learn we were also from New Zealand. It had been $50, she said, showing her photocopied flyer for proof - now was only $30, but if we polished it up we could sell it for $100 - no, not $100, $400, $1000!
And then she tried, quite unsuccessfully, to interest any of us in the large painted Chinese vases, or the beer cooler with built-in radio.
The table has some dings in it and a weird diagonal streak in the grain. It's solid, heavy and medium-toned - too dark and dense for rimu, and too rough-grained for kauri. It's too long to be a very good fit for our living room, but I really like it. Knowing nothing about woods, but pretending to, I speculate that it is cedar or Canadian redwood. N speculates coconut or daffodil stem. We agree that it may be from the interior of a baobab.
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