THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 31, 1994 TAG: 9407270040
SECTION: HOME PAGE: G1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KEITH MONROE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 129 lines
PETRA PELLETIER says her living room, overlooking Buchanan Creek, ``contains everything needed to sail away, except the boat.''
It's true. Pelletier is a collector of nautical antiques and they cover the walls and tabletops, hang from ceiling and crossbeams. There are gleaming copper diving helmets, a brass telescope, several harpoons, a 17th century rudder piece from a Dutch ship and rum pots that allegedly belonged to a pirate by the name of Klaus Stoertebecker.
On and on they go in dizzying profusion. A walrus tusk adorned with scrimshaw. A convoy lamp with blue glass from a World War II Japanese ship. A 19th century pub sign from England showing a British sailor: ``The Harbor Tap - Finest Ales.''
A brass flare gun, a sextant, a binnacle from a lifeboat with built-in oil lamp. The running board from the Eugenia, a ship that managed to sink not once, but twice in the Rappahannock. A crocheted table cover for the mess, made by sailors to celebrate the centennial; it is blazoned with 1776-1876, surrounded by eagles and flags.
You might imagine that Hampton Roads' leading collector of nautical antiques would be a Navy man or a seafarer, but Pelletier is neither - though she and husband Lou love sailing. Actually, they are recently retired professors of hotel management from Tidewater Community College.
``I am the collector here,'' Petra says. But Lou is an enthusiastic cheerleader.
Petra Pelletier grew up in Hamburg, Germany; she came to the United States in 1967. ``Anyone from Hamburg is born with feet in the water,'' she says, helping to explain her attraction to things nautical.
Her affinity for antiques has deep roots in her family life. Familiar scenes from her hometown dot her living room. Some are framed 18th century lithographs, others are painted on glass panels that have been set in windows.
Pelletier's father, Wolfgang Gueldner, was an importer and exporter of lumber in Hamburg. Today, Pelletier's home contains many of the family heirlooms that surrounded her as a girl - the desk where she did her homework, a kitchen table inlaid with Delft tiles, her great grandmother's grandfather clock of lemonwood, dating to 1799.
Collecting things nautical has been her contribution to the family tradition of antiquing.
``I've been collecting for maybe 20 years. The first piece I ever bought was that antique engine telegraph,'' she says, pointing it out. ``I put five dollars down. I fell in love with it. Then we decided we wanted to have a house that could sail away, so then we needed a compass and something to steer with. But you don't find them overnight.''
By now, the continual browsing is a way of life. Pelletier also collects miniature pigs and pre-World War I blue onion Meissen china.
When she and Lou travel, she says: ``I judge the places by the antiquing. San Francisco used to be good, but lately it's disappointing.'' THRILL OF THE HUNT
Before meeting Lou when she went to work at the community college, Petra Pelletier helped manage hotels from Stockholm to New Orleans. She was briefly a governess and even sold encyclopedias door to door. Today, she breeds Persian cats that she sells around the world.
She collects nautical antiques because she finds the objects beautiful, but she also enjoys the hunt and the horse trading.
Pelletier is a sturdy woman with short blonde hair and brown eyes that glint with enthusiasm as she describes the treasures she's discovered, and with shrewdness as she explains the hard bargains she's driven. She is plainly one tough kuchen.
She especially likes stories that tell of recognizing value unseen by others, stories about acquisitions that got away. It's the antiquing equivalent of the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.
She points to an exquisite brass anchor. ``It is one from only about 30 ships of the White Fleet, but they were selling it for so many dollars a pound - for the brass. There are always some dumbos around.''
On the other hand, since many of these objects are one of a kind, once they have slipped from reach they are likely to be gone for good. She still laments her loss of a captain's desk she should have bought when she had the chance.
And shortly after she started collecting nautical antiques in 1975, ``I could have bought the whole top of a lighthouse for $6,000. I couldn't afford it then, but today I would write the check like that.''
That's partly because Pelletier believes in the economic wisdom of antiquing. She remembers the harsh economic conditions in postwar Germany.
``The philosophy where I came from in 1948, with the inflation, a pound of butter you might get for an Oriental rug.'' The lesson she took was that cash can turn worthless, but objects retain value. And since antiques were, by definition, scarce, they could be expected to appreciate the most in value.
``If you buy right, you can always recapture value.'' Of course, you have to do the needed research and know what you're buying. ``There are a lot of reproductions out there. But once you start, you learn quickly.'' NETWORK OF DEALERS
Because nautical antiquing is ``a very thin market,'' Pelletier is a part of a close-knit web of other collectors and dealers.
She relies heavily on Dan Haase of Haase's Nautical Antiques on Virginia Beach Boulevard. He's in touch with other dealers throughout the country and helps spot possible additions to her collection. He also has a group of craftsmen he can call on to restore antiques - woodcrafters, machinists, optical experts.
Fellow collectors also keep their eyes out for possible acquisitions that Pelletier would appreciate, and she does the same for them.
``Friends saw that Russian diving helmet in Hampton and told them to hold it for me until I could come and look at it,'' she says. ``I got a good deal, too.''
And what will she do when she runs out of room for her still growing collection? Pelletier doesn't hesitate before answering.
``I'll have to get another house.'' ILLUSTRATION: MORT FRYMAN/Staff color photos
Grog would have been drunk from these mugs, said to have come from a
pirate ship.
Petra Pelletier, with husband Lou, has been collecting for 20
years.
Petra Pelletier's collection includes this deep-sea diver's helmet
made of brass and copper.
A ship's lantern hangs above a porthole and is reflected in the
glass.
A binnacle, enclosing a compass, was recently added to the
collection.
by CNB