Antiques: Return of Yesterday's Artifacts

The clever ones call it "instant nostalgia," but others insist that it's just junk. The quest for the artifacts of yesteryear, which has been indulged in by many Americans for years, has now reached epidemic proportions. Behold! A hot-air grate, raised on a walnut stand, becomes "sculpture." A chamber pot leaves its place under the bed and appears—lo!—as a soup tureen. Fortunate is the man who inherits a 1912 Corona typewriter or an Atwater-Kent radio in plywood Gothic style. They are also lucky who have—squirreled away somewhere—cast-iron toys, lead molds, bubble-gum...