How to Choose Antiques

How to Buy Every Antique in the Area

Even before we'd closed on our house, we bought a cool antique at a huge antique store (managed by a man named Walter, who represents over two dozen dealers). It's called a low-boy, and it is comprised of 15 deep drawers arranged three across in five rows. We found out later that in the time it sat in the store, many people came in offering more money for it. Shirra is planning to use it for yarn storage (tho it's already been useful in telling a good yarn, haha).

A few weeks later, just after we'd come back from Martha's Vineyard and were settling in, we visited a yarn store that sits next to a different antique store, one we'd never noticed before (and there are a few others in town). What grabbed my attention was a cash register in the window. This huge, heavy thing used to sit on a pedestal in a department store. Built in 1913, it was the largest model put out by the National Cash Register company (NCR), weighing in at 250 pounds! It's in good condition, tho I didn't know that at the time. The owner of the antique store, Jack, didn't know for sure if it worked, tho he strongly suspected that it did since his children had played with it over the years (he had only recently decided to part with it).



Over the next few days, we bought two more items, one each from Walter and Jack. From Jack, who mainly deals in beautiful, rare, and pricey items, we got one of the least expensive pieces in the shop, a Hoosier cabinet that beautifies our dining room. And from Walter's, we bought a cool cabinet that nearly defies description, but I'll try: It stands about four feet high and has four pull out drawers arranged two-atop-two. The "drawers" tilt out (making them "tilters," I guess). It was meant for vending bulk items about 100 years ago, and that's why each tilter has a glass covering (so that the store owner could advertize what was in each). This odd item had sat in the shop for many months; those who liked it couldn't find a use for it, I guess. We got it for half of what the owner had originally wanted. We're using it for storing our laundry.



We still have space for a few more antiques of a medium size or larger, but there is the matter of money. When we have some, maybe we'll go antique shopping again.