Primitive – Time-worn, simplistic, and highly collectible:
The primitives are elements that convey a more simplistic lifestyle and a past time. With warm, muted colors and natural wear, each piece has a story to tell. The primitive piece may have represented an item or toy well used in the life of someone who lived many years ago. Some primitives are simply hand-carved wooden objects that serve no other purpose than to be novelty.
Your interest in Primitives may have started simply by walking into an antique store or mall and finding an old, worn piece that caught your eye and you became interested in items from the past. Today, many people decorate their entire home to bring back that comfortable, time-worn look that reflects a simpler era.
The great thing about collecting Primitives is that perfection is not required, unlike many other types of antiques. In fact, the less perfect the piece, the better. You may be drawn to pieces with more lines of distress and character, the appeal of chipped paint, and surfaces worn from years of use.
Dolls are another wonderful example of Primitives. You can imagine, in the old days, children from low-income families appreciated these less than perfect faceless dolls that were made for them by their Mothers or other relatives using whatever materials were available at the time. Today, many artists reproduce Primitive Dolls. These dolls may not be authentic, but they capture the time-worn appearance that their authentic counterparts had.
The world of Primitive is so vast that it is impossible to go into detail about all the wonderful Primitive pieces out there. Some collectors enjoy collecting and displaying dinnerware, quilts, toys, woolen rugs, handmade tools, and dolls. Other people collect primitive Americans, old kitchen utensils, buckets, baskets, butter pans, washboards, and hand-painted boxes and chests.
Creating replay primitives is fun too. You may find that items from any time period can be made to appear primitive. For example, you could take a new dresser and transform it into a time-worn reproduction simply with a little paint and a sander or paint and special finishes like crackle.
Simple is the word when it comes to describing the Primitives, second only to “worn out or distressed.” Times were simple in the 1800-1900s and families worked hard and with what little they had. They were creative in turning the available materials into useful things and nothing was wasted.
As you continue your journey of interest in the Primitives, you will find fragments of history that will give you comfort and remind you that the simple things in life are the most important. Primitives warm your home, they are quiet to look at and, above all, they warm your heart.
