I Should Have Brought My Camera
While running my Saturday errands solo this afternoon (Jeff's on his way back from a conference in Boston as I type this), I decided to check out an antique mall a friend told me about. It's in one of the relatively near North Shore suburbs, and I thought it might have some cool stuff. If it was a true treasure trove, we could add it to our semi-annual rummage sale forays...
Well, it has a lot of very nice stuff. A good mix of jewelry, china, glassware, hanging lamps, paintings, and furniture. But cheap, it ain't.
Now... there are a couple of antique malls in the city about two miles south of us, and they are not bargain emporia either (which is why we prefer to drive an hour an a half up to Wisconsin for our main treasure hunts--those troves are FULL of bargains). But this place puts the city malls to shame!
A sample:
A beautiful black lacquered Chinoiserie secretary for $795. Well, to be fair, I would expect to pay something like that for something like that. Still--not what you usually find in antique malls...
Jars of buttons (as in, old jelly jars, and not the king-sized ones either): $15-$20.
An 8 X 10 vintage photo of a kid in a 50s/early 60s style pedal car (unframed): $85.
An empty turtle shell: $40. (I mean... huh????)
And the piece de resistance--the reason I wish I had my camera because you would just not believe this one--a grossly amateurish oil painting of a nude, a piece perhaps more befitting an exhibit of thrift store art: $295!!!
Two hundred ninety-five samoleans! For a nephew-art nude!
My guess is that we won't be doing a lot of treasure hunting here! We'll save OUR samoleans for the Glenview Treasure House and School Days Antique Mall in Sturdevant, WI, thank you very much!
Well, it has a lot of very nice stuff. A good mix of jewelry, china, glassware, hanging lamps, paintings, and furniture. But cheap, it ain't.
Now... there are a couple of antique malls in the city about two miles south of us, and they are not bargain emporia either (which is why we prefer to drive an hour an a half up to Wisconsin for our main treasure hunts--those troves are FULL of bargains). But this place puts the city malls to shame!
A sample:
A beautiful black lacquered Chinoiserie secretary for $795. Well, to be fair, I would expect to pay something like that for something like that. Still--not what you usually find in antique malls...
Jars of buttons (as in, old jelly jars, and not the king-sized ones either): $15-$20.
An 8 X 10 vintage photo of a kid in a 50s/early 60s style pedal car (unframed): $85.
An empty turtle shell: $40. (I mean... huh????)
And the piece de resistance--the reason I wish I had my camera because you would just not believe this one--a grossly amateurish oil painting of a nude, a piece perhaps more befitting an exhibit of thrift store art: $295!!!
Two hundred ninety-five samoleans! For a nephew-art nude!
My guess is that we won't be doing a lot of treasure hunting here! We'll save OUR samoleans for the Glenview Treasure House and School Days Antique Mall in Sturdevant, WI, thank you very much!
Labels: nephew art, overpriced antique malls, treasure hunting
posted by Cathy VanPatten at 4:35 PM
5 Comments:
I've been in those overpriced places before. I don't really know much about antiques, but I do know a fair bit about Star Wars stuff, vintage and more recent. I'm always astounded to find Star Wars stuff that was made in the 90s, and isn't even popular with collectors, is often priced at 3-4 times what it's worth. Steven and I are always shaking our heads over that. Or vintage figures out of their boxes, missing weapons or capes or whatever else they come with, and some idiot vendor wants $20-$30 for it. Then they wonder why sales are so slow...
By any chance was the old photo taken by someone famous, or were they just hoping that the vintage look of it alone would make it worth that crazy price?
I think it was just the vintage look. There was no "provenance" given for the photo, which was simply loose in a pile of similar photos (although most were not 8x10s). Most of the photos were priced at $4-$6, which I think is also steep (not as steep at $85!)--most places the photos are $.50 to $1 unless they are old tintypes or such. I like to purchase ones that I find interesting and use them as writing prompts.
Baby Boomers and online auction sites have ruined it for us all. I cannot tell you the number of times I've had something obscure and seemingly unpopular on my Amazon wishlist only to see it go out of print in 3-6 mo. and then start commanding ridiculous prices.
Still, armed with perseverance and a sharp eye, one can find some amazing things at thrift stores and yard sales.
Hey, you never know when you might need a turtle shell. How could you let that one get away??
I wonder how places like that stay in business...oh yeah, some people have many more buckeroonies and less sense than we...
Beth
I just love going to these places because it's almost like a museum of national culture--even if I don't buy a thing. But as GW said, it's a matter of having a sharp eye and persistence to hunt out the bargains. In some places, though, there are NO bargains. I think that's the case with this
And Beth, if only I could find a way to make a $40 turtle shell tax-deductible (it WAS very clean!), I might have considered it--Heh!
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