Antiquing in Buenos Aires

The guidebook published in 2006 we expected would lead us to some antiques shops was looking like it might be a guide to things that weren’t there anymore. While the first two antique shops were gone, we did manage to locate a healthy antique district.

I expect antiques to be more popular in a country with a weakening currency, however. At least as far as the lower and mid-range antiques go.

Two larger mall-type stores in the San Telmo area were set up with gates that divided the stalls. Each was operated individually, not having a central cashier (some in Manhattan are like this). Visiting each mall several times, most stalls were closed on both occasions. The offerings were not so different than what you might find in a U.S. antique mall. Most things were not arranged in any kind of setting.

The higher-end shops carried mostly items with a French flair. I don’t know if any of it could have been produced in Argentina, I expect not. One store, Guevara Gallery (Defensa 982), specialized in Art Deco items, but there wasn’t much midcentury- whether that’s a symptom of interest or availability- I don’t know.

That said, some of the things currently popular in the United States are also popular in Buenos Aires. Among these are vinyl records and typewriters. One shop near Florida Street has what appeared to be reconditioned typewriters at significant prices. Several booths also contained vintage clothing items.

Walking on Defensa to Plaza Dorrego, you’ll find vendors selling old books, compact discs, and leather items. On Sunday, this becomes a large flea market. I didn’t get to visit it but imagine it to have more of the same type of thing.

A store called Velvet (Defensa 956) was packed with interesting paintings from a century or more. Adrianna, the owner said her mother started the shop and we were invited to another building also filled with treasures, but we declined.

My favorite shop, Arte Colonial Sudamericano (Defensa 1066), specialized in Colonial-era silver, much of it of a religious nature. These are items made by local craftsmen and painted by local artists. The shopkeeper was ready for American buyers and able to explain something about each piece we inquired about. The prices were in U.S. dollars.

While I am jealous of such a thriving antique district, you can see how some are being replaced by boutique shops. The proprietors are mostly older, and there is the fear that a rebounding economy may not be the friend of the antique district here.

Unfortunately, the stores were not keen on photographs being taken.

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Response

Francisco de Oliden

July 6, 2014

San Telmo, Buenos Aires
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other uses, see San Telmo (disambiguation) and St. Elmo (disambiguation).
San Telmo
Barrio

Clockwise from top: the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, Lezama Park, a Tango show in Dorrego Square and antique fairs in Defensa Street.

Emblem[1]

Location of San Telmo within Buenos Aires
Country Argentina
Autonomous City Buenos Aires
Comuna C1
Important sites Plaza Dorrego
National Museum of History
Area
• Total 1.3 km2 (0.5 sq mi)
Population (2001)
• Total 25,969
• Density 20,000/km2 (52,000/sq mi)
Time zone ART (UTC-3)
San Telmo ("Saint Pedro González Telmo") is the oldest barrio (neighborhood) of Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is a well-preserved area of the Argentine metropolis and is characterized by its colonial buildings. Cafes, tango parlors and antique shops line the cobblestone streets, which are often filled with artists and dancers.

San Telmo's attractions include old churches (e.g. San Pedro Telmo), museums, antique stores and a semi-permanent antique fair (Feria de Antigüedades) in the main public square, Plaza Dorrego. Tango-related activities for both locals and tourists are in the area.

Contents [hide]
1 History
2 Contemporary art
3 Image gallery
4 References and external links
History[edit]
Known as San Pedro Heights during the 17th century, the area was mostly home to the city's growing contingent of dockworkers and brickmakers; indeed, the area became Buenos Aires' first "industrial" area, home to its first windmill and most of the early city's brick kilns and warehouses. The bulk of the city's exports of wool, hides and leather (the Argentine region's chief source of income as late as the 1870s) were prepared and stored here in colonial times. Their presence led to the first residential settlements in this area: that of Africans, slaves and free, alike.

Street performers in San Telmo

Dorrego Café

"El Solar de French," one of numerous colonial residences converted into lofts or galleries, since 1980
Previously separated from Buenos Aires proper by a ravine, the area was formally incorporated into the city in 1708 as the "Ovens and Storehouses of San Pedro." The neighborhood's poverty led the Jesuits to found a "Spiritual House" in the area, a charitable and educational mission referred to by San Pedro's indigent as "the Residence;" their 1767 suppression led to the mission's closure, however.

The void left by the Jesuits' departure was addressed by the 1806 establishment of the Parish of San Pedro González Telmo (or "San Telmo"), so named in honor of the Patron Saint of seafarers. This move failed to replace the lost social institutions, however, and San Telmo languished well after Argentine independence in 1816. The Jesuit Residence, restored as a clinic by Guatemalan friars, was shuttered in 1821, and San Telmo saw no public works for the next 30 years except a Black Infantrymen's Quarters and the construction of the dreaded Mazorca Dungeon by Governor Juan Manuel de Rosas.

San Telmo began to improve despite these challenges, particularly after Rosas' removal from power in 1852. The establishment of new clinics, the installation of gas mains, lighting, sewers, running water and cobblestones and the opening of the city's main wholesale market led to increasing interest in the area on the part of the well-to-do and numerous imposing homes were built in the western half of San Telmo. This promising era ended abruptly when an epidemic of yellow fever struck the area in 1871. The new clinics and the heroic efforts of physicians like Florentino Ameghino helped curb the northward spread of the epidemic; but as time went on it claimed over 10,000 lives, and this led to the exodus of San Telmo's growing middle and upper classes into what later became Barrio Norte.

At first hundreds of properties became vacant. A few of the larger lots were converted into needed parks, the largest of which is Lezama Park, designed by the renowned French-Argentine urban planner Charles Thays in 1891 as a complement to the new Argentine National Museum of History. Most large homes, though, became tenement housing during the wave of immigration into Argentina from Europe between 1875 and 1930. San Telmo became the most multicultural neighborhood in Buenos Aires, home to large communities of British, Galician, Italian and Russian-Argentines. The large numbers of Russians in San Telmo and elsewhere in Buenos Aires led to the consecration of Argentina's first Russian Orthodox Church in 1901. Expanding industry to the south also led a German immigrant, Otto Krause, to open a technical school here in 1897.

San Telmo's bohemian air began attracting local artists after upwardly-mobile immigrants left the area. Increasing cultural activity resulted in the opening of the Buenos Aires Museum of Modern Art by critic Rafael Squirru in 1956, as well as in the 1960 advent of the "Republic of San Telmo," an artisan guild which organized art walks and other events. San Telmo's immigrant presence also led to quick popularization of tango in the area: long after that genre's heyday, renowned vocalist Edmundo Rivero purchased an abandoned colonial-era grocery in 1969, christening it El Viejo Almacén ("The Old Grocery Store"). This soon became one of the city's best-known tango music halls, helping lead to a cultural and economic revival in San Telmo.

The 1980 restoration of the former Ezeiza family mansion into the Pasaje de la Defensa ("Defensa Street Promenade"), moreover, has led to the refurbishment of numerous such structures, many of which had been conventillos (tenements) since the 1870s. As most of San Telmo's 19th century architecture and cobblestone streets remain, it has also become an important tourist attraction.

Contemporary art[edit]
A great number of contemporary art galleries, art spaces and museums are located in this area. In 2005 the gallery and artist-run space Appetite opened and the Argentine public and media immediately noticed the crowds attending its openings and parties. Other art galleries began setting up in this neighborhood and it became a Mecca of contemporary art. The first to talk about it was Rolling Stone magazine which said in late 2006: "When all the movement seemed to be getting installed at Palermo, the Daniela Luna tornado opened the appetite with an art gallery in San Telmo and little by little is monopolizing the neighborhood and transferring the scene." [2] A few months later, the New York Times described "To find Appetite, an avant-garde gallery that everyone I met recommended, I had to return to one of San Telmo's less atmospheric blocks. Pop-punk exuberance is Appetite's stock in trade, its walls (and floors) are covered in a profusion of styles". [3] Many media remarked the transformation of San Telmo into a destination for contemporary art lovers, such as the newspaper La Nacion, that counted around 30 galleries and art center in 2008.[4] Later that year, the same newspaper published another article that started: "Contemporary art moved into the neighborhood. San Telmo Art District is born."[5]

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