I thought there were more buildings on the property when I was checking out Fairground Antique Market so I drove around the weird dirt parking lot until I found two more antique stores. One was closed on that day but this one was open so I checked it out.
The front of the building had very worn signs so I guess this place is older than the hills. I walked in and was pleasantly surprised. It was a large building with careful displays and lots of walking space. The antiques were mostly modern and were mixed with junk shop items like a library full of DVDs. There wasn’t a lot here but what was here was very decently priced! In the back there seemed to be a second whole building filled with very well preserved furniture for jaw droppingly cheap prices. Most were hovering around $250. I’m talking hutches, display cabinets, dressers, wardrobes, an ice chest, writer’s desks, really anything you’d find in an old farmhouse and some were quite unique like the wardrobe with huge Gothic arches and the very niche bread baker’s cabinet which had a flour dispenser, a kneading table, and other cool bread making features. Two carousel horses and a bunch of smaller items were scattered about as well.
I would deffinately suggest this place to anyone looking for real wood furniture for extremely affordable prices. This place made me wish I had a house to furnish!
I have driven by this antique mall hundreds, if not thousands, of times as I travel to Keene for various errands but I never stopped in because the outside of the place looks confusing and uninviting. These days this doesn’t bother me, I’ll still poke around, buy in previous years I wasn’t so adventurous. This time around I decided it was time and drove into their dirt parking lot that promised antiques through various signs. I parked near a door I thought was the entrance but alas it wasn’t and I had to hop and skip around a number of icy puddles around the building to get into the correct door. I wasn’t expecting much but this place turned out to be huge and filled to the brim with all sorts of neat things.
There were a few probably haunted dolls, oodles of absolutely bizarre knick knacks, a delightful smattering of cast iron, a herd of Breyer horses (appaloosas to be exact,) two black Raggedy Anne dolls, a depressed Gothic Raggedy Anne doll, a series of old toasters that looked like they’d work better as inciniary devices, and some fun vintage hats and clothes including a lacy Victorian child’s nightie that looked fit to be buried in. You know, ghost clothes.
This store also did well what it didn’t have – no N@zi bullshit, not a single item I could find, no “Chinamen” type bricabracs, no weird Native American stuff clearly made by white people, and no mammies! Hell, I only found one racist doll that looked like a Yeti doing a minstrel. At least he had character.
Every time I go to a place like this I tell myself I need to educate myself on what’s actually valuable so I can start a career in picking. I sometimes flip through cases of old vinyl records hoping to find gold but this place oddly didn’t have many vinyls. And my phone had no internet or reception in the building so I couldn’t even look it up if I found something. I was however really drawn to this particular cast iron cauldron I found. It was $125 and I couldn’t really justify spending that much but boy it was weird and beautiful. After I got home I looked it up and found out it was an early piece from Fall River Massachussetts, produced at a mill that burned down in the 1920’s after nearly a century of production. There was a mint condition one selling on ebay for seven and a half grand. WHAT?! I didn’t even know cast iron could have that kind of value! I mean this one wasn’t in mint condition as it was clearly used and loved with chips along the rim but there’s a huge gap between $125 and $7,500+! So I went back the next day and bought it. And while I was looking through this place again I found a cast iron ladle in another booth and they looked so fetching together it came home with me too. I guess I’m probably an honorary witch now.
The cashier was sweet and asked if I had an old house to put my new purchase in. I smiled broadly and said, “Not yet!” But I do have a terrible fondness for houses from the 1700’s, especially shakerbox style, and if it still has a fireplace this cauldron would be a hell of a showpiece to put in it. She warned me such places are money pits, she knows because she owns one, and I laughed. I know, but it’s worth the ghosts that probably haunt them. I know these days my daydreaming might seem a bit childish when the world feels like it is collapsing around me, but it’s these moments that make life worth living and memories of these moments no one can take away.
Anyway… If you’re looking for a large place to pick through and maybe find your own treasures check it out! It’s not only large but there’s two other antique stores across the parking lot. Make a day of it and be happy.
After a long day we wanted to come back to Bangor and find something to eat but after parking we decided we were close enough to this antique store to brave the negative degree winds and check out one more place. This was surprisingly large for being directly in the city but I guess Bangor isn’t that big of a city compared to others in New England where rent prices might be outrageous. As such it was easy to get to by foot and despite having an entrance that didn’t look spectacularly large it was two full floors of stuff!
The first floor looked like any Main Street antique store – just lots of stuff in cases and likely for higher price tags. There were coins, books, jewelry, and of course salt and pepper shakers which are a must! One of the walls had what really looked like a haunted photograph of a 1920’s or 30’s child star, though I couldn’t place the name. I also enjoyed finding a manual to oral birth control from the 60’s. What you should know about taking the new pill! Do tell me.
The basement was where the cheaper and weirder antiques were that were more our style. Bizarre squirrel taxidermy, retro Halloween decorations, TONS of paintings depicting pioneers fighting bears for some reason, old political cartoons, a few lovable cookie jars, and of course a haunted doll or two. This was a fun little jaunt to end the day, worth it if you’re already walking through Bangor and seeing the sights.
Two Old Goats Antiques was the second to last antique store we decided to visit and funny enough I don’t think we’d been there before even with a catchy business name!
The first thing I noticed walking in was a wooden whale on the wall that freakishly looked like it had human teeth (on closer inspection they were rocks but this somehow didn’t make it any less distressing to look at.) The second thing I noticed was the cutest goddamn pit mix wandering around greeting people and what a good pup she was! I did not steal her. I may have wanted to.
This shop was on the smaller side but the things in it were sufficiently weird to make me smile especially in their unheated garage section where I found a box of lawn darts on the floor. I’ve heard of lawn darts and how dangerous they were but I’d never seen them and was absolutely horrified to learn they weren’t the size of regular darts. These suckers were the size of soup cans and just as heavy with a goddamn spear on the end. No wonder they were taken off the market! How many jugulars did these flying death pokers hit?!
Other fun finds included a three-foot-tall soulless Easter Bunny with nothing but gaping black voids for eyes. The tag literally read, “Buy if you dare.” And I can appreciate the humor in that! I really liked this one painting of two weird carousel horses for 35 bucks, but I couldn’t justify buying it. I don’t have a wall to put it on but someday, should I ever gnaw my way out of Dickensian poverty I shall have the most glorious and bizarrely decorated house that ever existed, displaying all sorts of uncomfortable treasures from my trips to antique stores – deathly looking portraits of Victorian children, an iron piggy bank displaying a dentist ripping out the tooth of a small child, a row of haunted ventriloquist dummies, and the kind of folk art that will make you wonder if I bought it from a mental institution. Promises, promises!
I’ve been to the Hancock Creamery before but for some reason it never got posted?? Which is weird because that day we walked in and all I ended up buying was this awesome book of creepy photos and poems that one of the workers there wrote. It was called Sea Witch; Photographs, Poems and Forget Me Nots from a Mainer Growing Up. I should have had her sign it… as it absolutely delightful! The photography was whimsically dark, the poetry vulnerable, and it’s by a local author! What’s not to love?(Though for legal reasons I have to tell you if you buy it from the link above I will receive a small commission. I’m trying something new with this Amazon Associate experiment.)
This time around there wasn’t a stack of books at the door but instead we were greeted by an old man offering us fudge. Apparently, every Friday is fudge day. It was delightful fudge! And the antique store didn’t disappoint, just rows and rows and isles of some of the strangest damn things – everything from lobster shakers to a two-foot-tall chocolate Easter bunny mold to a decapitated ceramic clown head. Everyone needs one of those. And it was for the most part all different stuff than the last time. This has definitely been added to our list of continued haunts!
It’s that time of year! Our few days of Maine vacation! And this was the first antique store that popped up on our radar. It was not disappointing – an expansive mall that seemed to go on for miles getting increasingly unhinged. Very Stephen King-like.
So many dolls! And they all looked so joyous to be probably haunted. Also an old ESP test card kit met us practically at the door. This place was going to be weird… and it was! The bric-a-bracs were just…. baffling. Clowns having tea, a fully dressed anthropomorphic elephant with a top hat, a “barber” holding his razor to some poor Joe’s throat?? WEIRD. Very weird. The kind of weird you shouldn’t look at for two long in case you become part of the display in the case. *Twilight Zone music plays*
There were also a few booths from local artists, a nice stockpile or uranium glass, an inordinate number of weird books, some distressingly well-done taxidermy, and some Christmas decorations that could have put Liberace to shame. HOLY GLITTER.
This place was definitely worth the drive. It was large and had something for everyone – even the all-out freaks. What’s not to love about that?
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.
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.
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!
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.
