We Have Your Collectibles: Home Of Fair Oaks Antiques
You Want Antiques, Vintage, & Collectibles; We've Got 'Em
Part of our “back to school” display at Exit 55 Antiques, featuring an antique chalkboard, an antique Fox Typewriter from The Fox Typewriter Company of Grand Rapids, Michigan (anyone else remember typing “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog”?), and plenty of old school books.
As always, if you have any questions, contact us. [Or you can call the shop directly at (218) 998-3088 between 10 am & 5 pm everyday, Central Time.]
We just brought this Turn of The Century French gilt brass candelabra into Exit 55 Antiques on Sunday. (UPDATE: Now in our booth at F.A.R.M.) This ornate antique candelabra was made for a church altar; the sheaves of wheat & bunches of grapes are symbolic of the blessed bread & wine of the sacrament of the Eucharist.
The depiction of Mother Mary on the base leads us to further believe this was made for and used in a Catholic church. There are signs of age and use, but it is a spectacular piece.
We were so excited to bring it in & take photos, we forgot to measure it! It’s roughly 30 inches tall — but call the shop for more details: 701-356-9199 for more information, open 10 – 7 Monday thru Saturday, Noon to 6 on Sunday, Central Time. Or contact us directly.
On a barn pick, I got a rather large box of antique wooden roof shingles. Since there are times one just has to put the piles of supplies to use, I began making a series of classic signs, such as “Gone Fishing”, “Welcome”, and the like. Of course, I had to make a few “Gone Antiquing” too. *wink* And I managed to get a number of them done just in time for the Fargo Street Fair too!
Early in May, we sold a bunch (but not all) of our old dairy cream separator funnels or cones in our Etsy shop to a lady in Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada.
The lady was Kat, called “Kat in the Hat” (she’s from Medicine Hat, remember — isn’t that cute?!), and she had a project idea based on something she saw on the side of the road…
Here’s the story from Kat:
My journey with The Whirlygig
It started out with a trip to the Dairy Queen with my son Chris when we spotted this thing on someones front lawn. I took a picture. I knew I had to make one. I had no idea where to start. I went to work the next day and talked to an old fella named Wayne about it as I had no clue what those cone looking things were. Within 20 minutes Wayne came and found me and said it sounded like old cream separators. Then to the internet and found Deanna’s photo from her Etsy Shop and sure enough that was them. I was so excited I ordered them right away. I scored 2 bike wheels off kijiji from a fella named Clark that fixes up bikes for kids in his neighborhood. I found the pipe in a dumpster of scrap metal at Bud’s Auto repair. I wanted a fancy weather vane directional for the top but those things are way to expensive so back to work (Value Village) and found a metal fish and painted it black. This whole project has been quite an adventure of meeting some really interesting people. Then came the build which wasn’t very easy as I had no instructions to follow but I persevered and step by step it came to be the most fun project I have ever done. My Name is Kat and I want to thank everyone who had a part in this most fun build.
I think it turned out to be so cool looking, don’t you?
You can keep up with Kat and her projects by following her Pinterest board.
The copyright for all whirlygig photos belongs to Kat in the Hat; used here with her permission.
Few things say “prairie fashion” like the ruffled petticoats made of cotton muslin. They are especially romantic when trimmed with eyelet and lace — and paired with other Victorian underthings, like corset covers and camisoles. But when I placed these pieces on the rack at the shop, next to our selection of vintage military fatigues & camouflage pants, I had an idea…
Really, what can be more “prairie” than combining the femininity of pretty-yet-practical Victorian underthings with military fatigues & camouflage?
These fashion looks combine the history of prairie sod-busting with the patriotism of supporting our troops — including those on North Dakota’s military bases. Plus it’s pretty cool looking, right?
We also have a very cool vintage suede buckskin vest that looks fabulous over the old Victorian cotton shift dress or nightshirt.
And did you know that wearing vintage is good for the environment too? It is!
All these pieces are currently available at Antiques On Broadway in downtown Fargo, on the corner of Broadway and Main. (You should be able to spot these items right when you walk into the shop, but if you don’t see a piece shown here, just describe the time to the shop staff — let them know it is from dealer “EQ”.)
The shop has lots of other vintage clothing, jewelry, and other fashion accessories — who knows what you’ll find to put with these pieces! That shop has closed; check our Etsy shop!
Dealer Notes: These old muslin pieces have pure Victorian styling, but likely date from the 1910s or 1920s. As authentic vintage pieces, they have some repairs and other signs of age — but that only serves to make them more charming and truly one of a kind vintage pieces. Some of the military clothing is actually new old stock (NOS) with their original sales tags. That includes the fine green and white striped shirt with shoulder epaulets.
First we scored this sweet little vintage red and white Coast-King tricycle…
It’s a Coast-to-Coast bike.
Then, just a couple of weeks later, we scored another vintage Coast-to-Coast bike.
This one is a Columbia bike and it looks pretty snazzy up on the wall as art, American Pickers‘ style.
I especially like the depth of placing some vintage hubcaps on the wall, so you can see them through the spokes in the bike’s wheel.
The old Milwaukee license plate is still on it. Note the year: 1954.
Both vintage bikes are currently at Exit 55 Antiques; please call the shop directly at (218) 998-3088 for more information at (Shop is open 10 – 5 everyday, Central Time.)
PS We also have some old bike wheels in our spot outside at Exit 55 too.
PSS We also had a retro Apollo banana seat bike; but it sold in the first hour we were at the Elkhorn flea. Photo here.
Some of the other primitive antiques currently in our window space at Antiques On Broadway (along with the antique glass chandelier). Shown here, along with the doll in the rocking chair, a pair of very worn horse hames, an antique seed planter, and a four-piece cobblers shoe last set. (Not visible in this photo is a piece of logging history, which I wrote about, an antique logging stamp hammer.)
There’s also this rusty relic from Brooks Bros. dairy of Hendrum, Minnesota, complete with “In case of loss notify Blue Valley Creamery Co.” label.
Along with our booth space at Exit 55 Antiques we have a shelf in one of the cases near the wrap desk. For the holiday, we filled it with vintage valentines, antique candy boxes, vintage cameras, and a few other bits and bobs…
Here are two of the antique mechanical valentines in action!
We also have some old valentines for sale in our Etsy shop.
You can look at, and learn more about, these and other antique and vintage Valentines we’ve shared here, here, here, and here.
This is one of our latest — and grandest finds: An antique venetian glass chandelier. This antique fixture is entirely glass (not acrylic), including the arms, the original clear crystal prism drops (with an amazing round crystal ball drop hanging from the center of the bottom), and the hand-blown globes or chimneys are hand-etched with a fine grapes and vines motif.
We were so thrilled to find this antique venetian glass chandelier that we almost kept it! But, as we already have three antique chandeliers waiting to go into the house we are restoring, hubby put his foot down and one had to go up for sale. (Sometimes men have the silliest rules!) It is now available for viewing and purchase at Antiques On Broadway.
Once I got over my broken heart by imagining how delighted someone else will be to have this all glass beauty, the question became, “How do we best display it so that its beauty can safely be seen?” Hubby knew right away: Make a chandelier crate.
Since this was the same week our furnace died (during sub-zero temperatures here in Fargo,ND!), we quickly put together this wooden crate in our living room. (I enjoyed holding onto the freshly-sawed wood parts for their warmth!)
This last photo is what it looks like sitting in the window at Antiques On Broadway — as seen from the street.
UPDATE: On September 7th (2014), we moved this beauty to our new space at Exit 55 Antiques. Here’s a photo of it on display!
Because we have the window to decorate and display at Antiques On Broadway, I feel like we share a lot of those photos — but don’t share enough photos of our space at Exit 55 Antiques. So here’s a few photos to rectify that.
This photo of our booth shows our nice (if we do say so ourselves!) holiday display. Among the findings, a vintage wooden sled, one of those fabulous vintage framed Christmas trees made from vintage costume jewelry, vintage Christmas cookbooks (featuring several from the Otter Tail Power Company), more of those old primitive yet industrial cream separators to use as candle holders (soooo cool with ribbon wound through them and set on the mantel; change the ribbons to match the season!), and a festive soda pop bottle collection all decked-out for the holidays.
We also have a shelf in a case in the antique shop and there you’ll find these antique German clips which held candles on the tree, circa 1920. Candles are not as safe as electric lights, of course, so we advocate other ways to use and display these antique metal Christmas tree clips here.
Also in our space at the Minnesota antique mall is a antique washstand displaying collectibles with a holiday theme — check it out!
