Hubby and I left the house very early Saturday morning to be sure to arrive on time at the Northern Illinois Antiques Dealer Association Show in Rockford, Illinois. The Show opened at 10:00 and we were right on time, but had a line of anxious buyers to contend with. It was their 48th Annual antiques show but our first visit there. And it was certainly worth the drive!

There were 38 dealers in attendance, each one with a nice variety of top-quality antiques. No reproductions here, there was a great deal of integrity in their wares. The set-up was delightful too! The show was held at the Forest Hills Lodge which offered plenty of space, great lighting and with booths open and easy to flow through. The show has been held here for the last 15 years, they know a good setting when they see one!

We inquired at the check-in as to the name of the individual who was managing the show and they referred us to Bob Campbell of The Swan House Antiques. Bob was very friendly and professional and eager to share his knowledge about the Association and its members. He attributed the good turn-out to the agreeable weather and their history of offering quality antiques. Bob and his wife, Jan, do not own a store or lease booth space, but simply do shows, generally 3 or 4 a year. They’ve been members of the NIADA for 37 years.

Many of the dealers at the weekend show were from the area, but there were several we recognized from shows in Wisconsin, including a few members of WADA (Wisconsin Antiques Dealer Association.)
The first booth that we were attracted to was that of Joyce’s Silver & Antiques. She’s been in business for 41 years and sells at the newly re-opened Antique Mall in Rockford, Illinois, located on State Street.

Joyce specializes in silverware and hollowware, much of it in sterling and with a wonderful variety of products. Tea service sets, flatware in numerous patterns, candlesticks, and other fine antiques from England, France and the U.S. Very knowledgeable indeed!

Our next stop was the Blue Clover Antiques booth. It was run by partners Bill Byers and William Miller who have been selling for 25 years, specializing in flow blue ware. They belong to the Flow Blue International Collectors Club. This Club was founded in Rockford, Illinois 38 years ago. At that time there were 21 members. Bill and William were two of those founders. We were told there are about 1,000 members across the United States, England, Europe and Israel. The next show for the Flow Blue International Collectors Club is scheduled for July 24-27 in Rochester, New York.

While their specialty is flow blue dishes, they offered a nice selection of other antiques. Bill is pictured holding up a doll from the 1850s that collectors of black memorabilia would definitely find desirable! Her price was $350 and we thought she was incredible!

As the morning wore on, the crowd continued to grow. We found it challenging to get pictures of more of the booths. We do note the high concentration of primitive items, some very unique such as a metal piece from a prison in Indiana, a 5-part metal hog trough/feeder, signs from many Illinois establishments and on and on.

On a personal note, we were able to add to our growing collection of antique copperware and bought this fish cooker with a magnificent ‘starburst’ pattern. It was made in France in the 1890s and was nicely hall-marked.

I suggested that it could be my early birthday present, but then I always use that as an excuse when I truly “NEED” something!

In turn, I bought hubby two silver pieces. One is a cheese peeler, and the other is a pastry server for impressing our guests when passing out the Krispy Kremes!

It was an excellent show and one we will mark on our calendars for 2009!

Hubby and I continue on our hunting trip! We left Illinois and drove into Indiana. We had been told that Covington had a number of shops and we were anxious to check them out! We came to Back Home Again Antique Store first. It was relatively small and we found just a few things, but they were quite interesting. The lady at the counter was friendly and informative and suggested Glorie Bee Antiques.
We entered this charming store and just loved it! The artwork on the outside of the building was by Cheryl A. Harris.

The proprietor, who turned out to be the ‘name-sake’ of the store, could not have been more delightful. You could tell she just loved her new venture and was more than willing to talk about it. It turns out that her grandmother was a ‘grand Southern lady’ and always called her “Glorie” instead of Gloria. When she decided to open a combination antique/garden store, she put the emphasis on the “bees” and voila, Glorie Bee was born.

This store was not always so lovely. It took a lot of work and reconstruction to turn it around. Gloria had pictures of the befores and afters and told us that at one point, her husband just told her to forget it and move on to something else. We are glad she declined his offer. It opened in 2006. Out of love for her grandmother, and the glamour of Victoriana, one of her favorite timeframes, she had a picture painted of “Ms. Glorie Bee” and has a mannequin dressed to the hilt! She was kind enough to pose for a photo with her!

We found a few delightful glass pieces – these were actually to keep! We promised to return in the not-so-distant future, as she really tries to have good ‘turn-over’ of items.
We found two more shops in Covington. One was the House with the Lions Antiques. It was a very nice experience and purchased a few items. Next was Summers Timeless Antiques. They had some neat industrial advertising pieces and we picked up a few there.
We left this lovely little town and headed to Crawfordsville, Indiana. First stop was Cabbages and Kings Antique Mall – a recommendation from the folks at Summers Timeless Antiques. It had such an interesting name we just HAD to ask. It was taken from the novel of that name by Lewis Carroll, of Alice Through the Looking Glass fame! It was very nice and clean, 3-1/2 floors, filled with some pretty unusual items.

Several of the dealers had sales and we found some real bargains. One of them was retiring and had a 50% off sale. The lady was actually on the premises and told us she had been in malls and selling at flea markets for 35 years and loved every minute of it. But she could not continue and wished us ‘young folks’ good luck in our endeavors. Considering we’ve been “in the biz” for 25 years, we enjoyed the compliment.

Next stop: Indianapolis! We know that Southport Antiques is open until 8:00 PM and headed up there next. We’ve been to this large mall 4-5 times before and have always enjoyed it.

On several occasions it was our last stop and they were kind enough to tell us to ‘take your time’ even though it was closing time. But this time we planned ahead and arrived in the late afternoon. We were able to go through in a more leisurely fashion this time. This is billed as the “Biggest and best in Indy” and it sure is large. You need a map to get around inside! We tend to get much more selective as a trip progresses and while we found some unique items, not a lot of volume. But that is OK with us and we will definitely be returning in spring.

The friendly folks at the counter asked If we had been to the Exit 76 Antique Mall. We had not but we heard it was really nice. It’s located in Edinburgh, Indiana, about an hour from there. But definitely too far to do any shopping so we stayed overnight and went there first thing in the morning.

And when we say ‘first thing’, we mean we were the first shoppers inside. And it was huge! Clean, lots of variety and extremely helpful staff. They have a numbering system – meaning when you have an item put on hold behind the counter, you are assigned a number. We were Number One. We spent several hours there and after a short while, they knew us by that number.

There were a lot of dealers with ‘specials’ because of the upcoming holiday and we sure took advantage of those lower prices. We bought quite a few things, some as gifts, others to sell. This is a class A mall!
Our next stop was one we had planned. Lafayette, Indiana held some fond memories for us. We often shopped at a small shop right off the ‘square’ called Hanson’s. The lady was an absolute delight – always had antique collecting stories, a joke or two and great finds! We pulled up at the store-front and to our dismay, it was closed, now housing a political party office! We were disappointed to say the least.

A nearby store we had been to on several occasions was “First Class Clutter.” This lady is a hoot too! Cheerful and full of fun, and her prices are always on-target.

We asked about Hanson’s and she told us that her that the owner’s husband had taken a job transfer and they had auctioned off the contents of the store back in September. Sure wish we could have attended! She asked if we had been to Leaping Leopard, which is just a few blocks away. We had forgotten all about that charming store and rushed to get a little shopping time there.

Leaping Leopard is a mix of antique and artwork – lovely pottery, superb jewelry and some drop-dead gorgeous furniture. By now, the van was getting pretty full. As hubby said, all we could purchase was ‘thimbles and toothpick holders’, no more room. But we were able to re-arrange a bit and purchased some very neat items here. This is an “A List” store and we will be back for sure. They are open until 5:00 PM and they told us to stay later if we wish – no rush! So, we were able to browse until 5:30 or so which was quite nice of them.
We had to head home the next morning and did not have time for any of the other shops in Indiana. But we will be more focused next time…and there will be a next time!

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Normally at this time of year we plan our Fall vacation to Florida. The trip is usually by road and allows Wifey to shop for antiques as we travel. Florida had never proved to be fertile ground for purchasing items for her type of customer, but last visit we did locate some shops of interest in the St. Pete area.

This years plans fell apart at the last minute, but with the time off from my real job, (if you can call industrial sales a real job), we decided to take the time and do some antique and collectible hunting in an area beyond the distance we consider manageable on a “day trip”.

Several routes were laid out with the idea of visiting antique malls and shops we were familiar with from past excursions into Indiana and Kentucky. Many times we call ahead or write to assure ourselves of the open hours and to ask about any new shops in the area. I always over-engineer the trip before we leave, setting the exact time to be at each shop, how long would be allowed at each location and where to stay at night. (It never works out)

But alas, with short notice and no set direction, we loaded the van with maps, a coin to flip, cell phone, laptop, soda cooler, snacks, packing boxes, bungee cords and, oh yes, a change of clothes and deodorant.

I did pull up one of my favorite web sites for antique store locations and clicked on the states we expected to visit, printing the pages out (33 pages in IL alone.)

Heading South and West to avoid the road construction in and around Chicago, we arrived in Sterling IL, where we found our first mall, American Heritage Antique Center. At first glance more of a decorating place but with a little digging we found some nice items like advertising wood boxes and advertising playing cards.

A friendly place, we put this one on our ‘C’ list for places to stop when in route. The store manager asked our destination (we had none) and offered suggestions, then directed us to the next stop.

K&T Antiques is a small shop where the owner, Karen Holland, shows glass, dolls, lamps, jewelry and collectibles, located in an old auto service station in Sterling. She is a certified Appraiser and really knew her stuff. Again our hostess directed us on our way.

We followed the instruction from each store to the next, with the intention of heading into Iowa and then down to Missouri. It was part of our plan devised while first driving out of Wisconsin. Now heading South on IL 40 out of Sterling we found the our next stop, Color of Country Antiques, in an older shopping strip center in Rock Falls. We had an informative chat with the manager who explained his interests in antiques and mentioned how new the store was (less than a year old.). Nicely laid out and inviting, our purchases included some agriculture advertising items from the area

View Larger Map“>We followed his suggestion to continue South on IL 40 to Manlius, IL and J&S Antiques just North of I-80. Here we had a fabulous antiquing experience. The owner, Sandy, and her staff were informative, friendly and fun. Giving us their attention when we needed case after case opened for inspection of cufflinks, lamp finials, antique door knobs and other smalls. Her personal collection of pedal cars and Mobo riding bronco toys decorate the store, but sorry they are not for sale, unless you come up with the amount Wifey jokingly suggested she would pay. If they had accepted her offer, she’d have to ‘pedal’ a lot more than those little cars.

Definitely on our ‘A’ list. Worth a return trip. Fair prices, great variety of items for any collector, well staffed, clean, well displayed and readable price tags.

Sandy suggested Sherwood Antiques in Princeton, IL which was open till 9pm, located east of IL-40 off I-80. Here we found another mall filled with wonderful vintage items. With late hours we were able to shop to our heart’s content. We found a good assortment of advertising items here. Sherwood is on our ‘A’ list.

Sandy from J&S also suggested continuing on to Peoria, IL. So the next day we headed to the Illinois Antique Center on the waterfront in Peoria. Its downtown location is close to restaurants and other fine shopping. But our only interest was in the antiques offered by the many dealers located in this well-run store.

As we had found at other ‘A’ list places, the staff was most helpful in quickly opening display cases, carrying large items up to the check out area and pointing out special discounts dealers were offering. The booths were clean, items displayed in an uncluttered manner and prices easily read. We purchased many antique door knob sets, watch fobs, advertising signs and pins.

Our hostess here directed us to East Peoria, IL and the Pleasant Hill Antique Mall. She provided a hand drawn map to guide us. (Do the Letters GPS come to mind?)

The Mall is located in a former school house. It, too, was open late which gave us lots of time to browse the 30,000 square foot building divided into sections with a restaurant at the center. While all manner of goods were offered, we purchased a bunch of cufflinks and tie bars, and some spatterware items (ask Wifey, I don’t know spatterware from spongeware). Pleasant Hill would rate a ‘B’, good goods, and we will add this stop for a return visit.

Surprising were the prices on Caterpillar Corp. advertising, employee pins, etc, priced well above what we had expected, given the abundance of these pieces we saw on this trip. We passed many of their huge factories located along our routes.

The most disappointing thing one finds in any “antique” store is merchandise that is cheap and newer or a mall filled with reproductions that are not identified as such. Places that let the dealers run their booths like storage sheds, goods piled in, so one cannot walk in to see what’s there. Some stores we found on this trip are left out of this discussion, when a quick visit suggests the operator lacks control of the type, age of goods sold or where prices were well above normal.

In a future article we will discuss the continuation of the trip as we enter into Indiana and visit some new and exciting stores.

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