Tag: antiquing

Antiques on the Farmington – Canton CT

Antiques on the Farmington was located in an old mill – which adds so much to its charm. It was another sprawling place just oozing character. The first thing I noticed was a large amount of little wrought iron piggy banks with moving features. There was the usual clown eating coins and a poodle jumping through a hoop but my favorite was just downright bizarre. It was a small child sitting across from a dentist with a tooth in his hand and you basically fed the small child coins and it’d make it look like the dentist was pulling the tooth out of the poor dear’s mouth! Just WHY would anyone make one of these?? If I realized how cheap it was (a mere $25 – I guess no one wants a piggy bank of dental horror) I may have brought it home. Someday when I have a home of my own… well, there’s going to be a lot of conversation starters just lying about. That’s all I’m saying.

In fact everything I looked at here was super decently priced. There was a sharp scythe that was $25 and even a cricket bat for $35. I’d been looking for one of those… not because I want to play cricket but because I had a morbid curiosity having never seen one but knowing they make great rug beaters… And should I have owned a big oriental rug in need of a violent dusting it would have also come home with me. Did you know they’re rounded on one side? I did not. See, we’re learning things! And hey, if you like British antiques there was an actual pith helmet nearby. Sadly, there weren’t any tiger bite marks in it but that doesn’t mean much. Poor beastie could have slinked away from those big game hunters, you don’t know.

This place also had a lot of… creations. Folk art if you will. I LOVED the mannikin Christmas tree, all the angry chickens, the Victorian nightgown labelled “wedding dress” that looked perfect to haunt people in, the weird asparagus knickknack, and an old black and white photo of a foofy little dog labelled on the back, “Cuddles, our first dog.” HEART MELTING. That was only $2. I seriously contemplated buying it but thought it was a little weird to buy a photo of what is now a very very dead dog for whom I never met. Was super cute though.

And the best and most serendipitous part of the trip? There was a little free library right across the way. I left one of my signed books. It was meant to be.

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Collinsville Antiques- New Hartford CT

Twas another rainy day when we struck out to find an antique store worth travelling to having exhausted most options in Rhode Island. To Connecticut! And maybe if it stops raining we could find a nice hike. Spoiler alert, it didn’t, and I was still having flashbacks of the flash flooding from a week previous which nearly drowned the Prius as I hydroplaned from pothole to pothole. Got to my destination by the skin of my teeth AGAIN.

BUT ANYWAY. Collinsville Antiques was chosen partially at random but really because Google searches made it look big. And worth driving the two hours there (and the two hours back… did I mention we’d run dry of local options? Thank God I have a Prius.)

It was indeed a large place – sort of bargain basement of antiques LOADED with creepy dolls including a life-sized Jester hovering over our heads ready to pounce on anyone going by – probably waiting to suck someone’s soul out or some such. He was accompanied by a six-foot Gumby doll which… in retrospect made it even more odd. But what can you expect from a place that had a life size gypsy fortune teller doll? But the weirdest doll had to be a male mammie doll. Well, technically it was a couple mammie dolls all snuggled together but one of the two was definitely a dude and I have to say I’ve never seen that before! Not that it makes it any less racist. And I have to give credit where credit is due. This was the first antique store I’ve been to where the only representations of Asians were realistic and beautiful and not squinty and offensive. Also, unlike the last place we went there was a distinct lack of Nazi propaganda. Hurrah!

But aside from the cursed dolls I also loved this place for its large assortment of antique Halloween decorations and masks. There were several booths dedicated to just this and it was kind of amazing. I love retro Halloween stuff. It’s absolutely darling. And creepy! Tis the season after all.

Other happy finds were a mold for Jell-o beans (yes, beans, I do not know why,) a user’s manual for a VW bus, and a VERY badly taxidermied iguana. From here we’d decide we hadn’t had our fill yet and we’d move on to Antiques on the Farmington not too far away.

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Re-Unique Antique – Old Saybrook CT

First of all I must say this place was WAY too chic for my limited budget but WOW am I happy we ended up here! When we drove in I was already in love with the place because there were gargoyles and eccentric garden statuary in the parking lot. Inside it was swaaaaaannnnkkk. A full body of armour greeted us as did the delightful sound of old French music as Edith Piaf sang in the background. My little international heart may have skipped a few beats (I’ve never heard Edith Piaf played in a store??)

ANYWAY. This place was of moderate size but wow did it have some crazy beautiful things, all with such class. Ornate gothic furniture, a carousel horse, grandiose mirrors, folk art paintings on one wall, and not a speck of dust to be seen anywhere. Although it wasn’t without a sense of humor as someone did leave a fake spilled coffee out to incite a few gasps.

LOVED this place. Would totally go here for furniture if I were loaded. Maybe someday… Did I mention it had a guest book? An antique store… with a guest book. So cute. ANYWAY.

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Clinton Antique Center – Clinton CT

Last week it was raining so our adventures ended up being indoors at a few antique places. This first one in Clinton CT was another one of those TARDIS experiences – it looked bigger on this inside. In fact this place was HUGE with antiques shoved in every nook and corner and even hanging from the ceilings. And right away it showed its unique character as being absolutely stuffed to the gills with knives. And swords. And even firearms. Just a whole arsenal really – including a CANE SWORD. In case you want to be a Victorian James Bond.

I was not disappointed with the selection of creepy dolls but they were out staged by a large assortment of eccentric (and often woefully tacky) clocks. Wall clocks. Cuckoo clocks. Grandfather clocks. Watches. A Nixen dressed as Superman clock. Anything at all with which to tell the time which is ironic since the other thing we found there, scattered in a few random pieces throughout the store, was World War II artifacts including but not limited to a Nazi helmet and several things emblazoned in full swastikas.

“I didn’t know it was legal to sell that…”

“Legal? I don’t think it’s illegal… just not something most antique stores want to be associated with…”

And it’s true a lot of these places have these artifacts in the backroom only to be seen when specifically asked about or they refuse to carry them at all. Bad karma. It was a little emotionally distressing to see but I guess there’s a collector for everything and I am aware of at least a few Jewish collectors who go for these items (God knows why…) Let’s hope they were the buyers keeping them in business and not the skinheads we have all become way too accustomed to.

There was also a really well taxidermied blood hound just randomly mixed in with everything else. I ended up buying some marbles which were obviously created by some amateur with a homemade forge. They were “irregular” to say the least – an assortment of sizes, and none of them perfectly round. It was a bottle of wonky marbles. How could I leave them there?

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Rusty Rabbit Antiques – Charlestown RI

It was just one of those days that neither one of us really wanted to go home so instead we found the nearest oddly named antique store to where we were and decided to have at it. I mean at that rate why not?

And Rusty Rabbit Antiques is indeed adorably named and has a series of bunnies (including Bugs) decorating the sign at the entrance. It was right off the highway in an odd little nook intersection. I thought I’d passed it as there’s a boutique right on the off ramp a few feet up the road and all I saw was the ‘tique part of their sign. No matter I figured it out!

It was a small place and excessively cramped. We walked in and there really wasn’t enough room for the four people in the building including the clerk and three customers. There were only several rooms here, again very tight. The antiques were in good condition and displayed well despite being cramped but they seemed to be mostly standard faire. Hummel figurines, old postcards, salt and pepper shakers, and knickknacks galore. It was kind of like visiting a hoarder-y grandmother’s house.

The most unique items we found was a Wizard of Oz bulletin board art piece that some local highschooler probably made for a school project (let’s hope!) and a furry troll doll. Neither one of us could figure out why he was fluffy like a teddy bear. Is he perhaps of Mediterranean descent? Nobody knows… Oh! And a postcard of the devastation wrought by the hurricane of 1938 which just showed a massive pile of wreckage that was once someone’s home. I found that an odd subject for a postcard which are usually pleasant photos of vacation spots with the message “wish you were here” not a cry for help when your home gets demolished.

Anyway, this was a fun but quick distraction. I wouldn’t say you should go out of your way to see it but if you happen to be in the area anyway it’s not a bad place to poke around for a few minutes.

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The PAST Antiques – Oakdale CT

This antique store was the reason we ended up going to The Dinosaur Place – because if we didn’t like the dinosaurs there was always an antique store to pick up the flak. We did very much enjoy both but ooph! This antique store would have been worth it just as a singular destination.

When we walked in it was…. swank. A large building with everything neatly arranged and tasteful music playing softly in the background. You know the sort of place you might wonder if you won’t be kicked out for loitering like that last antique store I ventured into on my own… but the old man at the counter was very sweet and told us all about the basement we should also check out. First though we’d poke at some terribly dramatic Gothic looking furniture and play with some terrifying dolls (an antique store without properly haunted dolls is a failure in my eyes.) And then we stumbled into THE FROG ROOM. A whole room dedicated to frogs! And it just made me so happy. What’s not to love about a swarm of adorable frogs?? Actually, it reminded me of my grandmother. She had hundreds of them in her house… I’d spend hours as a child counting them. Frog bric-o-bracs, frog salt and pepper shakers, frog wall art, frog lawn ornaments… frogs, frogs, frogs. Can’t beat it!

But after this we decided to go check out that basement. And WOW. Yes, it was much larger and seemed to be miles of random antiques. This was more what we were used to. Had a COMPLETELY different feel than upstairs. We poked around every corner – through trees of weird hats, many jars of marbles, and then at the very end we found the trifecta that hit all three categories of shit I like to find. It was a creepy doll, a clown, and racist as fuck. A minstrel doll. WHY WOULD ANYONE WANT THIS IN THEIR HOME?!

We had to have spend a good hour or two down there. The perfect way to round off the day.

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Winding River Antiques – Wilton NH

It’d been a long day doing random things around Wilton. First it was failing to hike a trail that was blocked off, then it was visiting a nearby cemetery, then it was getting lost trying to find tiny free libraries and having a lively discussion with a vibrant hippie woman and now… now I was in the center of the town at their absolutely tiny but truly adorable park after having deposited a book in their little free library.

Since I was here anyway I might as well look around. There seemed to be two antique stores, a chocolatier, and a cupcake shop. Today was not really the day for sweets but why not look at the antique stores? My mother peered into the Winding River Antiques window which looked super dark.

“I don’t know if they’re open.”

Someone inside waved her in. See, if you’re going to be all creepy about it you’re going to gain someone’s attention. So we walked in. It was a small antique shop, the sort of thing you’d expect on a main street of a small town. Everything was well organized and displayed. But the two shop keeps… oooh boooy. They were throwing off some fiercely negative vibes. I think they had regretted letting us in. My mother with her doddering social inequities and myself with blazing orange hair drenched in sweat from the heat and looking like death had rolled over. The orange hair throws people. In small towns like this it causes a lot of people, and let’s be honest a lot of old men people, to instantaneously distrust and hate me. It’s fine. I find this sort of hilarious because I am the least likely person to cause an actual fuss.

Still they both watched us until my skin started burning from the searing eye contact. I took a few photos and they acted like I was trying to case the place. When my mother took a few photos herself that was apparently the straw that broke the camel’s back because one growled at her to stop taking photos. Like OK dude, was just trying to give you some exposure but if you don’t want that it’s fine by me. I’ll be just as happy to write up how ungrateful you are for customers…

And so we shuffled out without buying (or stealing!) anything. (Not to be bitchy but there wasn’t anything there worth stealing in the first place. It was all very common fare.) My mother was so put off by this experience that we didn’t go into the other antique store which I presume was probably a lot friendlier.

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Big Chicken Barn Books [and Antiques] – Ellesworth Maine

I was super happy that during this trip to Maine I remembered soemthing on my bucket list and we actually made it. Not only that it seemed catered to exactly what we were looking for – books, and antiques.

I have passed this place so many times but I didn’t recognize it with new siding this time around! It’s starting to look a lot less like a refurbished industrial chicken coop which is what it is. The area was known for being a large producer of chicken eggs for several decades but most have gone out of business since then which has left a smattering of these huge coops just gathering dust and decaying. It’s really refreshing to see someone use it for something else!

And let me tell you this place was huuuuuuuge. The whole bottom was all antiques of every kind and the top was completely dedicated to books and other media. Just thousands upon thousands of them. You could absolutely get lost up there.

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Central Maine Antique Mall – Bangor

After Fort Knox we both felt like the day wasn’t over yet so we set out to find some antique stores. The first one we stopped at was the Central Maine Antique Exchange. We had half an hour before it closed so our visit was abrupt but not bad. This place was sizable but not enormous – a good collection with the usual mix of haunted dolls, inexplicable buckets of doll parts, and of course a light smattering of offensively racist things – I think the winner of that went to a rubber doll named “Chief Wahoo.” It wasn’t all bad though – there was also a HUGE bucket labelled “peanut butter chips” and a lot of nice artwork on the walls. I don’t know if I would really go out of my way to see this place again buuuut I would stop in if you just happen to be in Bangor.

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Cambridge Antique Market – Cambridge MA

It was yet another day and yet another antique store. I know we’ve been hitting a lot of those lately but it’s hot outside at this time of year so I tend to run for the shade. This time it was at the Cambridge Antique Market which was 5 whole floors of weirdness.

I wasn’t in the most receptive of moods knowing that Cambridge is basically parking purgatory filled with empty parallel parking spots because there’s signs with super conflicting information wafting above each space confusing the ever-loving shit out of even the locals. You’ll see cars driving around and around the block for hours because there’s also not enough spaces to go around. It’s a nightmare. The antique mall was fortunate in that it had a parking lot but it was tiny, shoved between the building and some fences, big enough for maybe 10-15 cars. The front part was full so I had to go to the even tinier back bit which had parking so tight and bizarrely shaped it’d take me a 300 point turn to eventually get out. But parking drama aside this was another delightful adventure.

We had chosen this local for it’s size. It was in another mill building and sprawled out for five whole floors with who knows how many different vendors, each a new chance to find something crazy or wonderful. We’d been in a car a long time though and I had to pee so I tried to find the bathroom right off and it was… a whole separate adventure. They had an old one stall bathroom that felt like the light should be flickering. The lock on the door was this tiny antiquated dead bolt that barely aligned with the door and I was more than a little amused that they had tried to add a little class by using toilet paper with frills. I’ve never seen anything like it! It was like using a doyly! I washed my hands with their fittingly super fragrant soap and hopped out as quick as I could. This adventure was followed by getting into an elevator that could be the whole set for a horror movie any day.

But all the endearing architecture aside this place was packed full and there was a lot to find. There were the usual assortment of haunted dolls (this time featuring an old lady marionette!) deranged Buddhas, terrifying paper mâché masks, weird novelty postcards showing a woman riding a giant grasshopper, boxes and boxes of instant ancestor photos, cannibalistic looking horses, likely serial killer clowns, a smoking bunny, a boot with Chewbacca’s face on the heel, and sooo many freaky cookie jars! I mean just hundreds of them scattered about like tinker tape. We must have been in there a couple hours – time having completely evaporated.

Yes – this was a win. A really wonderful find and I would completely suggest it to all my eccentric friends.

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