Good Antique Hunting: Hitting The Trail

After planning for quite some time, we were prepared to hit as many antique shops as possible on our buying trip to Florida and back. I had made a list using the Antique Week Travel Guide, my own stack of old business cards from stores visited on previous trips and some on line listing services. Arranging the schedule to fit in as many shops as possible is in fact impossible. With road construction delays, lost time for foolish endeavors such as lunch and filling the gas tank, plus the grossly short underestimated time needed to peruse a good mall, and our timing was out the window. Other delays for car overheating and flat tires, were also not included in my well prepared time table. ( I’ll be back in anger management classes starting as soon as I calm down.)

The listing of stores for our route is also to avoid hitting each and every store ( I use store and mall interchangeably) that displays a sign along the interstate system. While many fine shops are found just off the “I” system byways, my preference is for places that have a following based on the quality of merchandise, and not the distance from the highway exit. Over the next several postings of mine, I’ll try to detail some shops I consider worth a return visit, as I have done in other blogs dealing with places in Wisconsin and five or six other states. I’ll try to show you some of our purchases, and if you snicker and giggle, it’s probably something Wifey found, and if you view the items as valuable additions to our hearth and home, I’m sure you’ll congratulate me on my insightful buying habits.

I have a non-written list of criteria that a mall should meet to deserve a revisit, and one of these days I’m going to write it down in pencil (never write lists in pen, it’s too hard to correct your errors) and then add a rating system. Until that list is completed, let me review some points.

1. If antique is in the name, that’s what I should expect to see as the majority of items. Bric-a-brac has its place but let me know before I drive off the road if decorative contemporary glassware, pottery, furniture and nic-nac’s are what you feature and call it a collectibles or decorator shop.
2. A good, well run mall, is always neat and clean with good lighting and uncluttered booths, so I don’t have to wear ballet slippers to tip-toe through a booth.

Well, that’s a start for my list, and having said that, I’ll next admit that the first store we visited had many decorative items , but we still managed to find some good oldies, because they stuck out from the newer items like a pumpkin in a bean field. It was in Battle Ground, near Lafayette, Indiana we stopped at the Shoup House, with owner, Michelle, 765-567-4132, serving up a delightful mix of nice antiques and decorative items.

From there it’s straight into Lafayette, Indiana and a store we have been into three or four time over the past years. The Leaping Leopard Antiques, is definitely no road kill, and fitting in with my preference for places that are worth the ten minute drive away from the “I” system. Located at 2145 S. 4^th Street Lynn and Tanna manage to have a great selection of quality furniture sprinkled with antique glassware, vintage clothing, paintings and fine prints throughout this well established mall. The mall has been in business for fifteen years with the last five at this location. Lynn mentioned an 1880s plantation desk from Judge Vinton’s court house that currently attracts lots of attention from local visitors..

Lynn has been acquiring artworks and paintings for twenty years for her personal collection. Next to Lynn is Jim, another of the fine helpful staff of the Leaping Leopard. Our visit produced some great finds including some fine hardware for some doors at home that need back dating to replace newer ones that do not match the year our home was built. You will find the Leaping’s ads in Antique Weekly and I suggest calling 765-474-9100 for their hours and directions to their mall.

 My intention with these road trip articles is to encourage our community of collectors to have fun hunting while on vacation or just on a weekend jaunt. If you have a suggestion of a store or mall that you have returned to several times and found the place to be worth the visit, please use the “reply” to share the location and their specialty with our readers and friends.