In the same way that the people who have left us will live on as long as there is someone to remember them, the life of things lasts as long as there is someone who values them.
To enter La Nave, in Santa Ursula, is to go through the time tunnel to the past. More than an antique shop, it is a museum of history, with furniture, decorative items, lamps, jewellery, crockery, clothes and an extensive collection of cameras, technological devices and vintage electrical appliances. For the youngsters, rather than entering a time tunnel, it is more an adventure of discovery to guess how old pieces such as a simple Bakelite telephone, musical instruments or an analogue camera were used.
Jorge Sosa, Abel de León and Erik L’hostis met through the sale of antiques at the street markets in which they regularly participated. One day, six years ago, they decided to open to the public what at first was a warehouse to store all their furniture and belongings.
Over time they have become a point of reference on the island for finding unique pieces that in some cases they restore or repair to their original state.
The concept of this place is also coworking since the owners sometimes lend the space so other people can sell, this happens on the second Sunday of every month when they hold an open day called El Desembalaje de la Nave where you can find very interesting pieces and spend a different Sunday morning.
Jorge Sosa has a degree in Fine Arts and is in charge of the more technological side. Each generation is marked by different events, but also by the technology that surrounds it, the style of music, the jewellery, the clothes or the furniture, and that is well represented here”.
Jorge says that there are trends. While a few years ago, older people were demanding more classic, empire-style furniture and decoration, today they are looking for 50’s style and everything vintage, even plastic, which was common in the design of furniture and household goods of those years.
This large warehouse receives goods from all corners of the archipelago. “The spaces we live in are getting smaller and people don’t want to accumulate. What we do, is commit to the circle, giving new life to pieces that already have a history. It’s a commitment to sustainability.
It is exciting to see the research work that sometimes has to be done to find out the history of certain pieces before they are offered for sale. In this sense, Jorge tells us how one day he received some glass negatives from the beginning of the century and was finally able to find out they were family photos taken at home by a photographer from Arico.
Amongst armchairs, tables and shelves with old books, vinyl records and crockery, we find curious elements such as bellows from a German smithy or a large, very well-preserved glass window from Vienna from the 1920s, which had been in La Palma for forty years until it was moved here. But, without a doubt, the collection of hand-held vibrators from the beginning of the 20th century, wooden, jade and methacrylate dildos, are the most curious items in La Nave. Another of the partners, Abel de León, tells how he acquired them from a lady in her eighties who said they belonged to her mother, diagnosed with female hysteria in Victorian times. At the time, patients diagnosed with this illness received genital stimulation treatment, hence the therapeutic use of this equipment.
Abel specialises in jewellery and stresses that when choosing what he buys, he values design because “we don’t buy by weight to melt down, we sell the whole pieces”. Before meeting Erik, his partner of 18 years, he worked as a waiter in a family business and has learned everything through interest and self-taught training.
Erik L’hostis is French although he was born in Gabon. He arrived in Tenerife 23 years ago from Limoges, famous for its porcelain factories. He recalls how he was passionate about decoration from a very young age: “When I was eighteen, instead of asking for a motorbike, I decided to buy a Louis XVI desk that cost my parents €1,200”. After the death of his father, he decided to leave France and his profession as a nurse to devote himself to his passion in a shop in the area of Las Galletas. At that time he was successful and had exclusive rights to French brands such as Luneville, La René and St Medart de Noblat, but he finally closed down because “the second homeowners who spent the winter here at that time did not invest in decorating their flats”. It was then that met his partners at the second-hand markets.
A new business opportunity has arrived with Tenerife as a set for audiovisual productions, which has been a good way of facilitating the rental of furniture and props. During this time they have worked with numerous production companies, carrying out many shoots in different locations on the island.
Jorge lived in Amsterdam for twelve years and worked at the Dzwaan auction house. It was there that he really learned to know the true value of the pieces. The dilemma comes when establishing a price and is complicated because on one hand there is the emotional value of things and on the other the sentimental value, which is undoubtedly incalculable. “Many times an expectation is created that is not real,” Erik tells us.
Another service they offer clients consists of going to the property to be emptied and referencing all of its contents then subsequently opening it to the public and proceed with the sale. This is done in practically all the islands and is becoming more and more common. As an anecdote, Abel tells us about a lady who bought an armchair from her deceased neighbour’s house because they always sat there chatting and it was a way of keeping her memory alive.
La Nave offers a different way of looking at objects that surround us. After all, everyone has some memory of those elements that were part of their childhood and it doesn’t hurt from time to time to look back to see how far we have come. Seeing a record player or an old hairdryer can bring back memories of a lost childhood in seconds.
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