What makes a purchase “worth it”? The answer is different for everybody, so we’re asking some of the coolest, most shopping-savvy people we know—from small-business owners to designers, artists, and actors—to tell us the story behind one of their most prized possessions.
Who?
If there’s a common thread through artist Francesca Wade’s work, it’s a mesmerizing sense of curiosity. Her abstract paintings feel like a magnifying glass held up against our everyday lives. The works hang in succession in her home studio, their bright hues seem plucked from the same sunset. She lives with her daughter in an airy two-story loft on a quiet block of downtown Manhattan. A self-proclaimed “early bird,” Francesca embraces the mornings in her space, no matter how late she was up the night before. “I love watching the sun rise; it feels like a sacred part of the day when everyone is getting started, like a burst of energy,” she says.
What?
Nestled beneath a wall of windows is a turquoise Formica pine table she describes as “a worthless heirloom packed with sentimental value.” The table, which has been in Francesca’s family for around 100 years, originally belonged to her English grandfather’s eldest uncle, Uncle Jack. Her grandfather remembers a version of the table pre-Uncle Jack’s very 1950s addition of Formica, where “lots of laughter” and “gin and ginger wine with sausages” were shared.
The story goes that Uncle Jack took a can of old paint from his days as a captain in the Royal Navy—the paint used to paint decks and the underbelly of ships—and used it throughout his house, including on this table.
As a girl, Francesca knew the table, which now houses her brushes, paint, sketches and notes, as the “dog table”; a beat-up fixture in the boot room where dog biscuits were stored and dirty paws were cleaned. “I always loved taking care of the dogs, so I remember spending a lot of time with this table when I was growing up,” she remembers.
When & Where?
The table has lived many lives since Francesca called it her own. Before being shipped to NYC in 2015, the table moved from Uncle Jack’s home to other homes in England. Stateside, it has lived in Brooklyn, Manhattan, and had a brief stint in Connecticut. Once a dining table, the special piece now stands in the studio section of Francesca’s space, what she calls the “central point of her painting practice.” Standing over the table mixing paints has an almost spiritual quality to it for Francesca. “There is something about the history of the table, the fact it’s had a long journey and lived so many lives that relates to my work,” she says.
