Category: Antiques

Sandwich Antique Center – Sandwich Massachusetts

You’d think after a hike and a cemetery jaunt we’d be too pooped to go on but no, there was the promise of antiquing nearby and how happy I am to have found this place! It was a GEM.

Upon entering we were greeted and told there were 200 plus cases of antiques here and I was welcome to take as many photos as I pleased. I was a bit speechless because usually I am regarded with deep suspicion for taking photos and then I have to make the whole spiel about no, I am not a robber, just someone with a travel blog, and so on and so forth. I probably should have at least said as much but I was so taken aback by the moment I didn’t get a chance to.

Most antique stores are pretty similiar but every once in a while you find one that is just oozing personality. This was one of those place and myself and my travel companions had great fun peering into each case and finding the most disturbing or odd objects we could find. There was just SO MUCH of these things – from the usual probably haunted dolls to a vase swarming with infants clinging to every side. You know, something for everyone. There was an abundance of creepy old horses that only vaguelly looked said creatures and my personal favorite was a faded old cannister which depicted a giggling baby clutching a razor blade. Things were different back in the day. And if creepy wasn’t your thing there was also cute in the form of a really neat nursery tale book written in some sort of thick dialect – maybe Scottish or Irish? And there was also beautiful in the form of a really neat chandelier made of slices of agate and some exquisitely carved furniture as well which I had to joke wouldn’t fit into the Prius. Shame I lost my ability to speak properally in that moment. This happens fairly frequently to me but it’s still annoying.

This was also a lovely place for weird art. It adorned the walls and showed up in 3D as odd folk-art of animals and homemade Gothic dollhouses. There was just one delight after another. And we apparently enjoyed ourselves so much the owners couldn’t help but comment on all the giggling. But no buys? Not this time ma’am, but I am sure we will be back on some day at least one of us has money (yay, poor planning!) This place was an absolute joy. I’d suggest it to anyone who loves the old and the odd.

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Antique Center of Yarmouth – Yarmouth Massachusetts

There’s few things more enticing than the promise of a large antique store with multiple dealers. This was one of those and whew! We found some weird things! My favorite was a wrought iron bank that was in the style of Punch and Judy. Give it a quarter and they walloped each other! Fun for the whole family!

As usual we got to play Is This a Dog? with a painting that looked…. vaguely doglike and yet just bunnylike enough to raise a few eyebrows. Another “dog” had such weird googly eyes we couldn’t tell what was wrong with it. But the overwhelming theme of this shop seemed to be disturbingly suggestive bric-a-bracs of tipsy and or seductive children. Little weird. Little uncomfortable. That’s not even mentioning the commemorative plate of a boy betting another boy to…. eat something. What was the something? WHO KNOWS! But it’s not all losses on the side of the children – there were two photographic wall hangings of a sweet little girl that I am absolutely positive came with a free ghost. And if that wasn’t to your style there was also a uranium glass lemon juicer. Nothing like irradiated lemon juice. Mmmmm. Taste the glow. Speaking of which there was also some anti-CIA Russian propaganda that was… an interesting rabbit hole to fall down. Thanks to FaceBook and someone image searching the damn thing. “The Moscow City Court sentenced Paul Whelan, a citizen of the United States and several other countries, accused of espionage, to 16 years in a maximum-security penal colony, finding him guilty of espionage against the Russian federation.” (The poster full of rats was — a depiction of a rat getting what it deserved. Wink wink nod nod.)

All and all this was a fun shop with a lot of un finds. Worth the travel for its good size and variation.

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European Country Antiques – Cambridge Massachusetts

It’ not often we get to check out a new antique store! This one just moved to this quiet location in Cambridge. It doesn’t look like much from the outside but it was very decent.

This is one of the few antique stores that have a consistent vision of what they want to sell. Inside we found almost entirely furniture – all of it farmhouse, country chic, or rustic DIY. I loved it but…. I don’t have a house or the budget for this place. I don’t think I saw anything under a couple grand. Well, except for a giant basket out back marked $18. I pondered if there was a missing zero.

Despite the prices I would absolutely recommend this place for anyone looking for that old farmhouse feel. It’s by far the largest collection of rustic and country chic furniture I’ve ever seen in one place so if that’s your style and you’re blessed with more wealth than myself by all means check this place out!

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Spring Brimfield Antique Market 2024

We went to the Spring Brimfield Antique Show on the day of its opening and I meant to post this not long after but you know… I’ve been on the go for over a month now and crashed pretty fucking hard. Tonight, I am feeling a little back to myself so I am going to regale you with all the delightful weirdness we found.

First off I must say I took A TON of photos with my phone, only a portion of which I have been able to upload. UGH. It’ll have to do! We arrived at noonish, I think, and paid $20 to park at the church having learned our lesson for trying one of the ten dollar lots on an earlier visit. Today I had two companions, one which had never been before which is always double the fun. All three of us were immediately overwhelmed. This place is HUGE. We were there all day and made it to the back of one of the lots but probably only saw MAYBE a 4th of what there was to see and some of the vendors told us there were still whole fields not even open yet!!

It proved to be a fantastic day for haunted dolls, terrifying carousel horses, blasphemy, antique titties, mounds of racist bullshit for every minority, a random smattering of Nazi regalia, lots of weird iron banks, MARBLES, and whimsy galore. And the vendors themselves were often very sweet! We ended up getting tips to find free water and bathrooms from one adorable hippie couple towards the end and we didn’t even buy anything from them.

Of course, the food trucks were also out which made keeping myself hydrated extra easy! The fresh squeezed lemonade is an outrageous $5 a cup but goddamn is it good! We also had some bomb pulled pork. But that’s all besides the point.

We had spent the day mostly just weaving between the unbelievably wholesome where we “awed” and the over the top inappropriate which we giggled like 12-year-olds and made equally obscene jokes about. At least one of the vendors was amused I was joining in this game – I don’t care I have tits, I also have a sense of humor.

“I don’t know if this Jesus is in pain or orgasming.”
“He looks Catholic, so both.” [Sorry, not sorry, I’ve seen too much church sponsored torture porn to answer this in any other way.]

So. Many. Dolls. Swarms of them! Sailors, mammies, porcelain, drawers of doll parts, steam punked horror doll lamps… and clowns… I mean quite a few things here looked proper haunted including some of the furniture and there was so much furniture this time around! We agreed it’d be super fun if we had money to come here and just furnish a whole damn house. They even had a booth of house plants! And they were GORGEOUS and healthy. So many succulents! One was over $600.

Of course, one of my favorite spots was well to the back where there weren’t many people, an artist was tending his forest of 10-foot-tall metal mushrooms which swayed in the wind and made my heart just go pitter patter. They were over a grand a piece but maaaan… the whimsy! I felt like I was in Wonderland! Similarly, a metal artist near the road had some really impressive beasts made of nuts and bolts and whatnot including a life size moose head. Again, if I had that kinda money… *heart eyes*

I did end up with a print from a local artist of a bunny in an overcoat. It was so cute I couldn’t leave it there! I did leave a bunch of marbles. They were everywhere, without price tags, which is why none came home with me. That and one packet literally said they were pickaninny marbles and had a super racist little logo. My melanin blessed companion made sure to point them out, as well as all the mammies and no colored allowed signs, in part I think to see the response of the vendors which is indeed an extra layer to this game and makes it even more amusing.

Meanwhile, my other companion has become somewhat jaded to all the Nazi memorabilia but not completely. He still finds it fascinatingly distasteful. Who would buy this?! He asks that a lot. Not me. That’s some bad mojo there.

Anyway, enjoy the photo dump of all the weirdness. Due to AdSense rules I couldn’t keep in any of the antique titties. Or weird erotic fanart. Sorry.

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Route 1 Antiques – Hampton Falls New Hampshire

We had decided to go to Maine to attend the Cryptozoology Convention and in the process we decided to take the opportunity to hit a few antique stores during the long drive north. Route 1 Antiques in Hampton Falls NH (not to be confused with Route 1A Relics in Ellesworth Maine) was the first of three we would check out on this day.

This was a shop that was clearly situated in a repurposed old farmhouse and upon walking in I felt it was a place that was a little rich for my blood. All I saw was well maintained display cases. But there was a shop dog working as a door buzzer and being that she was rather cute I settled in. This first part of the store was indeed a little much for me. They even had a super realistic sculpture of a hawk that I thought was taxidermy! The keep was excited to talk to us about it saying it was a rare piece and told us about the artist. I love art and supporting independent artists buuuut I don’t think I’ll ever have the money to pay for proper rich people art! Luckily this place also had a basement and an attic which were easier on the old wallet.

The basement was neat in that it still had this crazy old fireplace in it but otherwise there wasn’t too much interesting down there for us. The attic however was filled with toys for all ages starting with the mandatory Howdie Doody memorabilia which is much beloved by the Silent Generation and scares the ever lovin’ bejesus out of the rest of us. They also had this primo haunted marionette doll that was out for my own heart, a “Ken doll with prosthetics” which I am pretty sure was the Million Dollar Man, some Rock em’ Sock em’ Robots, and even a few things from my generation including a Star Wars ship and an original Optimus Prime with real metal parts! So I’m told by my companion. His excitement was adorable. Sorry to say I wasn’t allowed to watch many cartoons, TV, or movies, growing up, transformers among them. My mother thought I should be spending my time playing in the dirt. This has resulted a reverence for nature and a profound lack of cultural reference points.

This place was cute. I definitely would say it’s worth checking out if you like antiques of all price ranges. Or toys. So many toys.

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Main Street Antiques – Bennington Vermont

Onto another antique shop! This place was typical of a main street antique place in that it was small and orderly. We walked in and were greeted with a $300+ cast iron dutch oven and a very ornate wood stove. There was also THE SADDEST AND CREEPIEST CLOWN and a doll with glowing red eyes for no apparent reason?!

But really we were most enamored by the coins. So. Many. Coins. My travel companions were ahead of me and poking at some confederate coins when the shop keep lit up and gave us all an impromptu history lesson.

“You want to see something you’ve never seen before?”

“YEAH!”

He pulled out a note from his pocket that stated it was worth a 20-dollar gold coin. And he showed us the coin that someone could have traded it for. And then said how worthless it was at the time due to wartime inflation. Very cool.

We chatted a little bit. I think he was hoping we were monied folks but we are not. Though we did stop to look at the Nazi occupied country coins, which were interesting in their own way. It never really occurred to me the currency changes in occupied countries. I guess because I never had to think about it.

In the back we found a bottle labelled Boyes Oil and I cracked a joke. And continue to do so. Did you try the Boyes Oil? I found a bunny cake pan that looked like it did. DAMN was that the most ripped bunny I’ve ever seen. Why did it have the muscles of a bull?! What a terrifying Easter someone must have had.

Anyway it was a cute little shop, with a lovely staff and lots and lots of coins if that is your thing. Or bottles. Some of those bottles were super unique. One even had a Halloween cat stretched across it shaped into the glass.

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The Berkshire Emporium – Antiques & Snack Bar – North Adams

I rarely need reason to go back to the Berkshires, a gorgeous portion of New England that I have scarcely gotten a chance to poke at (mostly because it’s so damn hard to get to.) No worries the four-hour drive was still worth it, well worth it!

We started at the Berkshire Emporium, our plotted out starting point. From the descriptions online it looked big which is always a plus when you are making a day of it. And I have to say getting there was just as much of an adventure. The scenery was out of this world as we drove a grumpy Prius through the mountains!

When we eventually got to the cute little town of North Adams we found the Berkshire Emporium without any troubles in part due to their greeter – who happened to be a velociraptor standing in front of a basket of props you could put in its mouth, or in its talons, or the top of its head if you wished. Just inside the door there was a little mini bakery cafe which was decorated with lots more dinosaurs, some were featured in portraits done by a local artist! There were also cookies. Big ones. I nearly fell to temptation but beyond that delicious distraction was the antique store…

Of course the emporium was another winding maze of absolutely random things. One of the first things we came across was Bigfoot in all his glory. Or rather a costume of Bigfoot chilling in a big room with The Bumble…. which I’ve been calling the Abominable Snowman for like… 38 years… my bad. The next room to them had all kinds of cool instruments and an old off-key music box which played Farmer in the Dell in the same way a horror movie might. In fact this place seemed wonderful inspiration for such a venture as I also found the creepiest box of antiquated plushies, some Halloween memorabilia, a flying monkey, and a number of disquieting art pieces made from melted sneakers poured over manikins and clothes. Quirky.

We had a lot of fun at this place but it wasn’t quite as big as we’d anticipated and we didn’t spend too terribly long, though we did take a moment to give the velociraptor a fish. It only seemed right. From here we’d do some ambling to see what other trouble we could get ourselves into.

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Re Antiques and Interiors – Kingston Rhode Island

By now my companion was looking a bit off and not feeling up to his usual so we decided this would be our last stop of the day. Really, he just wanted to go out on a high note and the last antique store was… underwhelming.

Luckily, we hit another treasure with this one! It seemed to be all the weirdness of the first antique store of the day combined with all the respectability of the second, in a larger space. Fancy paintings adorned the wall with old foreign ad posters. We found cultural items from all over the world – some which I still maintained probably came with a free curse for the white people buying them, but I digress. There were African statuary, a bunch of scary masks, and even full Samauri armor. I was also mesmerized by this gorgeous swinging baby cradle. Other hits were a writing desk fit for a wealthy historical fiction author, a wire rat Halloween decoration, a country chic armoire, and a tin Easter bunny from the bowels of hell.

A woman sat in the main part of the shop and kept an eye on customers, and I knew my photo taking was making her a little tense but me being me I wasn’t about to say anything. I swear to god, I’m not casing the place, and the things I am taking photos of are not the most valuable items, more like the most random. Congrats on that Easter bunny!

As I was leaving she finally asked if I was having fun taking photos or something along those lines and I said, “Yes! I’m taking them for a travel blog.” The ensuing conversation honestly just served to confuse her more, but she did say if I ever get the chance I should go to England. Touché. My companion seemed more entertained by this conversation than myself who resorted to self-depreciating humor because I lack the imagination to see myself financially well off enough to go overseas again and I also suck at lying. Especially on the spot. These things take planning. And need crazy detailed back stories. No? I guess I may be the odd one here.

Maybe someday I will visit England. Or all the countries on those two little islands half a world away where all my ancestors seem to have come from. Or perhaps I can see the Oracle at Delphi, or revisit the Parisian catacombs, or sit with the rats at the Karni Devi waiting for a white one to approach. It is nice to dream, isn’t it?

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Corner Cupboard Kingston Rhode Island

Onto the second antique of the day we decided to hit the Corner Cupboard. It was yet another one of the shops we had not hit because they were not generally open on the two days a week we were out and about. But today was Thursday! Glorious Thursday!

It had a nice little parking lot right off the street and although the traffic on that day was near suicidal I got there just fine. Inside the shop was very country chic. In fact, that seemed to be the theme of the entire place. It even had a Norman Rockwell birdhouse. I didn’t even know those existed!

Still, it was small, and lacking in the creepy and depraved things we usually look for – haunted dolls, “satanic” photos, portraits of tuberculosis-addled Victorian children, and the like. This place seemed… respectable. And there were plenty of people in it which is why I didn’t take almost any photos. I was already getting weird looks from other customers best not make a scene.

No shade to those that like this sort of thing it just wasn’t what I was looking for. In any event if you are in the area and looking for the perfect country chic item I still strongly suggest this place.

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Antiques at Old Tiverton Rhode Island

It was an unusual circumstance in which my companion had an illustrious Thursday off. A Thursday that all the antique stores closed on Tuesday and Wednesdays would be open. AHA! A BUCKET LIST!

And this first one was a riot. We drove all the way there (GPS fucking with me the entire time, because why not) and when we got there we found a building with a very small parking lot of sorts fitting about five cars. It was full. Luckily one of them was leaving, an old couple who seemed VERY confused I was waiting for their spot.

We checked out the yard first. The yard which legitimately had a fire exit… In case all the junk spontaneously combusted I suppose. It was fun junk too. Yard decorations, old street signs, a cross gravestone (with no name – probably either an extra or replaced by something else.) There were some big ceramic jars and a wild assortment of random things all packed into a very small area. It was like being in Maine again!

Inside was much the same. Just really random things all piled up in a small space, the people in the shop talking about how they have to sell things for the price they’re at to make a profit. I don’t know why anyone would try to haggle here, everything already seemed cheap considering the other prices in the area. There was even a drawer full of glass apothecary bottles I had to pry myself away from. Yes, they’re cool, what would you do with them though? MAKE SPELL BOTTLES? You’re not a witch, cool your tits.

There was also a little area for a local glass artist who had some adorable sea creatures. The rest of the shop had everything from old can labels and coupons, to a few creepy masks, to a seriously cool old leather cat carrier. It looked like it had been custom made for Hannibal Lecter’s cat and I looooved it. But alas, I am catless. Woe is me.

All and all I liked this shop. It clashed violently with all the other chichi froufrou upscale antique stores in the area. This was a common man’s store. And there’s nothing wrong with that!

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