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Vintage Americana
During my young years in Washington,DC, and Rehoboth, Delaware, I learned to love the American flag. It seemed to be on display everywhere, from monuments, embassies, parades, and museums to the boardwalk, at ride parks, miniature golf, and the beach houses in the summer.
In the 1960s, when I started collecting antiques, the fad was to purchase things mainly from Europe and Great Britain. Then in 1976, a Bicentennial exhibition at the Whitney Museum in New York City—I think it was called the Flowering of American Antiques—fascinated me. And the American Antiques show really woke me up to purchasing American antiques only—especially since I did most of my antiques hunting in New England, where they were old and plentiful. That’s when I really started buying antiques with flags on them.