Morning Moon at Preston Beach, Swampscott, Massachusetts, Low Tide- During the Great Pandemic 2021.

Re-starting the Book and Antiques Business

It's been some time since I last wrote or tried to write a blog about books and a lot has happened to all of us over the last several years. But the good news is I survived the Great Pandemic of our lifetimes! The first one of these I ever encountered was when stationed at Fort Polk, Louisiana, that we all lovingly called 'Fort Puke', because nearly all of us got the Hong Kong Flu. I woke up after passing out in an ice bath, completely naked with two nurses standing over me. I was told that I was in a coma or semi-coma for nearly two weeks and that the ice baths were to keep my temperature below Army standards....That was a shock. But I have to say, this SARS CoV2 virus was far worse than the Hong Kong Flu for many folks, many didn't make it and entire families were nearly wiped out, if not decimated by this virus.

So, I'm back! But now my interests and the interests of Calix Books has broadened not just with the usual books and ephemera but into antiques and in particular, interesting antique smalls that can be shipped and sold over the internet. Calix Books, besides its usual website which only has books and ephemera is now listed Etsy!  

Also, our listings on ebay (I've been a member since 1997!) are not just books but a variety of items either bought at auction or found out in the world. Take a look!

Some new interests are:

Japanese Water Pot used to boil the water for the Japanese Tea Ceremony called Chanoyu (Hot Water for Tea) 茶の湯

The first one of these 'Iron Kettles' also called Tetsubin (鉄瓶), that I bought at an auction, when it arrived, I was blown away! It used in and is a part of the Tea Ceremony which in Japanese (known as sadō/chadō (茶道, 'The Way of Tea') or chanoyu (茶の湯)) is a Japanese cultural activity involving the ceremonial preparation and presentation of matcha (抹茶), powdered green tea, the procedure of which is called temae (点前).

More on this later, because of that one purchase, this opened an entirely new area of interest for me, much to my wife's chagrin (What now?). Well I've always been a collector of Japanese block prints and bought my first one as a student at Ohio State University in 1973, a print by Hokusai. His formal name was Katsushika Hokusai (葛飾 北斎, c. 31 October 1760 – 10 May 1849), known simply as Hokusai, was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist of the Edo period, active as a painter and printmaker. Which is below:

Hokusai's early printing, traveling around Japan and documenting 'ordinary life' in the Japanese countryside.

Well more on all of this later! Thanks for stopping by! Keep on collecting!