Gathering Dust

Good Bye Mission Road Antique Mall

Mission Road Antique Mall, the antique mall where I've peddled my goods for almost twenty years, will close on Dec 30, 2018.  The property was purchased several years ago by an out of state developer who plans to tear down the building despite the property's landmark status.  The building was once part of the horse stables that housed the 1938 Kentucky Derby winner. 

At one time it was a furniture store, and in 1994 opened as an antique mall with the tag line "A New Way to Look at Old Things", and it really was. Unlike the antique malls I was used to visiting, with their rows of rectangular shelf lined "stalls", this mall was full of meandering spaces, and nooks and crannies.  The booths were set up like rooms and full of treasures - true antiques, pieces from Europe and architectural salvage.  The first time I visited the mall, I was in love.  I knew it was truly a special place but I would never have dreamed that I would be able to find room for myself there.

A friend rented a spot at Mission Road in 1998, and after watching how she ran her booth, I thought maybe I could try it, too- for maybe a six months or so.  Back then "shabby chic" was the new style, and Rachel Ashwell's books were our bibles.  We brought in furniture that was painted, pastel and often times, less than pristine, but people seemed to like the contrast to darker heavier pieces.

After a year or so at the mall, a couple of new dealers moved into the booth across the hall from us, and we enjoyed visiting with them during "dealer work night".  Eventually, I ended up sharing a booth with one of those new dealers- a friend who I've mentioned many times- Karla Nathan.

Karla has left the mall, but we're still friends.  And I'm lucky enough to have made many friends while tending to my booth; both dealers and customers.  Some are people I see outside of the mall, some are just always friendly faces to visit when I'm at the antique mall.  It's wonderful to have a place to go where you can share your love of the old and unusual with people that feel the same way.

As a dealer, I feel that the mall is a  "home away from home";  but many many customers feel the same way.  Customers and staff are also friends, and many customers stop in a least once a week just to say "hi".  Customers  tell me they visit the mall because it makes them happy to see the displays and pursue the thrill of the hunt.

But that will end on Dec 30, and we're all feeling sad.  As the Shawnee Mission Post   reports, "it's the end of an era".  And that's how I feel, too.

Summer Goings on at My Antique Booth

I really don't like blog posts that start with "Sorry I been away from my blog" or "Gee, it's been a long time since I've posted"...but both are true statements for me, so I'm easing back into blogging with a simple post.

Just some random phone pictures from restocking visits to my antique booth so far this summer.

One of my favorite large washbowl style pitchers.  An aesthetic design in shades of pink.  It sold quickly.  On the other hand, the pink planter in the background has been in my booth for over a year.

A display of blue and brown.

Something I always like to see...anywhere...a big bowl of lace full of texture and colors.  I'm not sure about paper mache apples.

A bowl of swirly burlap trim, with a sweet little book tucked in the back.

At estate sales, I'm always on the look out for sets of books.  Besides being beautiful like this good trimmed set from Thackeray, you can stack them to add some height and variety to displays.

I've had the set of three circa 2000 books by Dickens at my booth forever.  I know they aren't as pretty as good trimmed hardcovers,  but doesn't anyone read the classics anymore?  Oh well, I guess they're good for displaying bookends.

Simple vignette.   My favorite things- the  marbled paper background harvested from some books that were falling apart and those little white berries in the creamer.

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Dogs Rule...Especially Vintage Dogs

In my last post I said something about my house being like a frat, but it's probably closer to a dog house.  When you have three dogs, it's fair to call us dog lovers.  I know a lot of my blog friends are "dog people", too.

That's why when I ran across a booth at the antique mall that was completely devoted to dog merchandise, I had to take some pictures to share.

I love collections, groupings and themes in antique booths.  I can't even imagine how hard it must be to keep a booth stocked with vintage dog merchandise.

Holiday Decor Galore

Earlier in the week I went to my booth at the antique mall to get ready for today's Holiday Open House.  Our weather has been so mild, it seems too early for the holidays, but usually the open house is one of the highest sale days of the year.

This indented mercury glass garland is one of the more unusual pieces that has passed through my hands.  I had two, but one sold the day after I put it out.

A closer look at the garland- in a Goofus glass bowl.

A gold and silver tablescape.  The compote on the right is full of German candle clips.  Can you imagine a tree peppered with these clips with lit candles?  Beautiful, until a fire starts!

Not necessarily Christmas, but I like these vanity pretties.

When I finished stocking my own booth, I took a tour with my camera to get a look at the decor in other booths.

Santa on a snowball!  I've never seen this before- it's big- probably 15" tall.

Santas all in a row.

This incredible platter and cover is $1650.  That's more than I pay for my turkey!

One of my favorite displays.  This grouping of silver plate and mercury glass beads from Pat Brewster's booth.

Another favorite- Gail Tritten always has great displays.  Who couldn't love a silver tree with so many pretty vintage ornaments?

One last picture- this isn't specifically Christmas, but I love it.  A Florentine desk- an actual full size piece of Florentine furniture.  I also love that perpetual calendar on the upper left side of the desk.

Hope this gives you some inspiration for your holiday decorating. 

What Caught My Eye at the Antique Show

As always, the Old Summit Antique Show last weekend had a lot of unique and wonderful items.  I didn't buy anything, but I did some shopping with my camera.

Very old books.

I love this hooked rug featuring a dog.  Is he wearing glasses?

Cotton stems in a split basket.

Embossed paper fans with theorem painting.

Beautiful piece of architectural salvage.

Instant collection of colorful wooden tops.

Paper covered box.  I'm not sure if this is very old wallpaper, or paper that has been stenciled.

I don't know who these gentlemen are, but they made me smile!

 

Bisque Baby Doll Booth

Last week after I got done restocking my booth at the antique mall, I wandered around to see what's new, and found a booth that was intriguing enough that I had to take some pictures.

The booth is called "Juxtaposition".  You can see their sign, made from wood children's blocks and other tchotchkes in the upper right corner.

A good part of the booth's decor centered around these jointed bisque dolls.  You could buy them individually, or as part of assemblage art.

If you're one of those people that are creeped out by doll's heads in decorating, this might be a little much for you.  I like doll heads, and I thought this was an interesting way to show off these little bisque babes.

Besides the dolls, I liked the contrast of industrial, metal and wire with a log cabin quilt draped over a well loved wicker chair next to a sweet picture of a toddler asleep in their chair.  It's the contrast that makes you look twice- I guess that's why they call it "Juxtaposition".

Antique Mall Etiquette for Dealers

Having had booths in antique malls for fifteen years and doing shows for almost that long, I've noticed some practices, both good and bad, of dealers that add to a successful and happy selling experience. These are just some random observations and opinions. 

• Like any other place that has walking, talking, functioning human beings, antique malls and shows have lots of strains of gossip.  While it's always a good idea to keep your ear to the ground, it's also a good idea to keep your mouth shut.  In other words, repeating stories, whether true or implied, may be fun, but it doesn't improve your sales or reputation, so be careful what you say. 

(Image from here.)

• It goes without saying that if you want to increase sales, you need to keep your area shopable, neat, and interesting with rotating merchandise.  You also have a responsibility to other dealers.  No one wants to have a booth next to a messy booth, a nearly empty booth or a booth that never changes.  Bad unshopable booths create "dead zones", and if enough of that type of booth are close to each other, some shoppers will just skip the entire area.

(Image from here)

• Along with keeping your booth neat, if you have time, it doesn't hurt to do a little tidying in other dealers' booths.  If you see that chairs have been moved in such a way that they're blocking the entrance to a booth, or a stack of books has fallen onto the floor, make it right.

 This can be a little tricky.  You do need to make sure that anything    you're relocating wasn't intentionally placed the way you found it.

 Once upon a time I had a couple of garden urns for sale.  They were on  a table as the centerpiece of a display.  One was sitting upright, and the other was "artistically displayed" on its side, with vintage seed packets spilling from it.  A gentleman who was a dealer and also worked at the antique mall kept turning the urn upright and putting the seed packs back in it.  He just didn't understand why you'd try to sell an urn that was lying down.

(image from here)

Those are some "do's".  These are some "don'ts".

• Other dealers are some of my favorite customers, because they keep coming back to buy more.  Generally, I'm happy to give other dealer's discounts. My prices are very fair to start with, but if I can encourage repeat business and good will with a discount, I do.

 What I don't like is when another dealer wants to dicker on prices,  rejects my discount offer and keeps asking for a lower price.  I don't like to haggle, and I don't like to "reward" someone who's being obnoxious with a lower price.

On occasion, it happens and I give in.  And when I give in, that's on me, it was my choice to lower my price to get someone to stop bothering me. But what's even more irritating is when I see that the dealer has the item in their booth in the same mall that I'm in and has priced the item they bought from me at ten times what they paid me. 

If a dealer wants to buy something at full price and is able to resell at that kind of mark-up, more power to them.  That's really good business. 

But it's bad karma to make money at another dealer's expense, especially on shared turf.

• This may come more under the category of pet peeves than actual etiquette. 

When a dealer is setting up for a show, or bringing new merchandise to their booth, and they're surrounded by boxes and tubs of what might be wonderful treasures, it's tempting to want to dive in and get first "dibs".

I'm happy to sell my inventory right off the cart, but I don't appreciate other dealers or customers digging through yet to be unpacked boxes.  They don't know what delicate items are wrapped in the newspapers in the boxes, or what boxes are packed with jewelry that's been carefully sorted so it won't tangle.

Along the same lines, be considerate of a dealer's personal space when they are setting up and rearranging their booth.  I welcome company and conversation when I'm working in my booth, but I need a little space to move around.

Once when I was setting up for a show, the dealer couple next to me hung out in my booth for about half the time I was unpacking.  I had to keep saying "excuse me", or "could I just reach over so I can put this on this shelf", but they were either oblivious or just didn't care.  As I got toward the end, where I had everything unpacked, but I still needed to put out about 100 small items.  I tried to arrange around them, but it just wasn't working.  I tried not to show my exasperation and in my nicest voice said "I've got just a little bit of set up left, could you step out for a few moments while I finish?"  They took the few trinkets they had in their hands that they were planning on buying,  threw them on the table in front of me, stormed out of the booth and didn't talk to me for the rest of the show.  I felt bad at the time, but looking back, it was probably just as well that they didn't have the chance to "hang out" in my booth for the rest of the show.

• You only have to search Pinterest with the words "antique booth" or page through a couple of "decorating with vintage style" magazines to realize that there are definite trends in styles and goods.  A lot of  homes and booths decorated in a vintage style look quite a bit alike.  In a sense, we all copy or imitate what we see other places, and put our own spin on it.

So when are you trendy and when are you copying?

Imagine I bring in a collection of vintage 1950s TV trays or 1970s crewel floral pictures (or anything I don't normally sell in my booth), and they sell like crazy.  If my neighbor at the antique mall brings in a similiar collection, they aren't copying me, that's just good business.

(Image from here)

If someone decides to display their jewelry in bowls of rice, and the next week their neighbor at the antique mall does the same thing, is it copying?  Is it wrong?  No doubt it's copying, but I don't know that I'd get too upset about it.  It isn't going to hurt my sales and I think I'd look at it as flattery that someone liked my idea.

If a dealer takes a piece of vintage ephemera to Kinko's and has it copied on poster size paper and sells the posters, and then another dealer does the same thing with a very similar image, it's definitely copying.  Is it wrong?  I think so, because it could negatively affect the sales of the original dealer.

This list certainly isn't all inclusive, it's just little bits and pieces of my observations.  I don't mean for this post to scare anyone.  If you see me in my booth, please feel free to stop by, stay hi, shop, buy all the new (old) things I'm bringing in.  You know this post isn't referring to YOU.

 

Grouping It

While I was looking at the pictures I took at the antique show, I realized that groups or collections of things really catch my eye.  Even a humble wooden spool looks important when you gather a group of them together and invite them to live an big old garden urn.

Wooden dominos look like art when they're arranged on a wooden plate.

Even someone else's bills and filing looks good when they're tied with a ribbon.

Stone fruit isn't really a humble item, but a table filled with catches your eye.

Baby shoes are darling all by themselves, but seeing different shapes, sizes and materials makes me say "ahhhhh".

And a group of blue ribbons...well you know you've got a winner.

(Sorry, that was a really corny way to end my post....)

Fall Decorating Ideas from the Antique Show

Yesterday's antique show was another good one.  As always, I get to the show early to have breakfast -biscuits and gravy -provided for dealers by Sandee, the show promoter and her husband.  That's a pretty nice perk for an antique show.  After breakfast I wander around between the booths and enjoy the great merchandise.

One thing I love about this show is how the dealers decorate for the season while still staying true to the country roots of the show.  No bright orange jack-o-lanterns or witches on brooms. 

Instead you'll find clever displays like the fall color tins paired with an owl; or black pinecones with black branches in a garden urn.

A raven perched on a paper mache goose next to a black shutter.

A baby pumpkin is a nice contrast to this set of blue books.

A basket of oatmeal colored yarn makes you think of fall and sweater weather.

This dealer went all out with his corn stalk fence.  I doubt I'll decorate for fall with cornstalks in my house, but it made a dramatic display at the show.

A Sunday Stroll Thru the Antique Mall

These pictures aren't actually "Sunday" pictures, they're pictures I took on Friday afternoon when I restocked my booth at the antique mall. (And they aren't from my booth.) 

Above is a 1920's boudoir doll.  The boudoir doll was not a doll for little girls, it was meant as a decor item.  Here's an article about the history of the dolls that I thought was interesting and kind of explains the dolls development in terms of events that were going on at the time. 

This is Victorian diorama featuring a fox in a nature setting, found in my friend Susan Walter's booth.  I know this isn't everyone's cup of tea, but the Victorians and their fascination with nature, and the way they brought it into their homes fascinates me.

I've been calling this "Fox in a Box".  Dr Suess meets the 1890's.

I posted about a great book about displaying under glass here, and this book shows pictures of not just birds, foxes and other wildlife, but actual taxidermied dogs. 

I would rather just remember my pets with pictures.

Sorry about the glare- hard to take pictures of things under glass, especially that old handmade glass.

Another of Susan's vignettes- shells in an urn.

Love the simplicity of this, the title page of a 1778 book with a medal placed on top.

This caught my eye because I've been on the look out for stamps for Other Karla's mom who has a large stamp collection.  I hadn't really paid attention to them before, but some stamps are little works of art, and I'd like to try crafting with some. 

And in the catergory of "If one is good, two is better", I love this mix of old badger hair shaving brushes.

And this picture- I love it all!  Not a single thing that I wouldn't be happy to squeeze into my already full house.