Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
As a kid, Rick Ege collected rocks, shells, marbles—not to mention fossils, which blew his mind. “It’s just an interesting concept—time existing as an object,” he says. “And it’s older than we are. As a child, you don’t have much concept of time. So that sparked my interest as far as what things can mean, beyond what purpose they might have.”
He went on to get an art-history degree, but he always remained a collector; he channels both sensibilities at his Soulard shop, R. Ege Antiques (1304 Sidney, 314-773-8500, regeantiques.com). Ask about any object on the premises, and he can narrate its story for you—who owned it or made it, or at least its historical provenance. Victorian mourning fruit under a bell jar? “It’s white, because back then, color would have been considered too bright, too vivid for mourning, because funerals were in the home,” he explains. “It’s like everlasting fruit—it’s wax—so it never goes bad. It has the surface of bone; it’s beautiful, but it’s arresting at the same time.” That stuff on the shelf, just behind the register? “This is a power amulet from central Congo; a medical teaching skull; a Maori stool of a chief with a ram’s head…”
And that tall mesh cone that looks like a postmodern Christmas tree? It was built for bats; a French guano farmer milled the wood, forged the steel, and soldered on every tiny perch. Ege also carries gorgeous 18th-century English furniture, midcentury French lithographs, regional art, and more. “It’s objects from the 1780s to the 1980s,” he says, handpicked from estates across the globe, from Arkansas to Belgium.
On any given day, you might come across a pair of 19th-century French Gothic candelabras ($975); miniature gold baskets, once filled with candies and hung on Christmas trees in Germany ($40); and glossy snapshots from the 1920s or ’50s, each for less than a ten-spot. What unites all these objects is Ege’s unerring taste. That, along with his friendly and gregarious banter, makes visits a joy.
“I’ve always been drawn to objects that had a resonating power,” he says, “something that made them special—even in their time.”
Click HERE for extra images of the treasures at R. Ege Antiques.
