This is going to be a quick update on a fun day . . .
Yesterday, February 2, 2013, the weather was nice, we had snacks, and we felt like taking a drive. We loaded the Tahoe with said snacks, copious amounts of coffee, my camera gear, and a Google Map . . . to Florence, Colorado. It’s a small place, but a couple of blocks of Main Street are occupied by Antique Shops. Housed in old buildings, and crammed full of old stuff, these shops hold treasures from days gone by.
This will be a quick tour, and there is no associated SmugMug Gallery . . . but I do plan a full post, and that one will have all the pertinent information. For now . . .
This is the first shop we went to, and this was the first photo I took.
By the way, in each shop I asked the persons working there if it would be OK to shoot some photos. All agreed.
The lady who ran it had a large number of old clothes (1800′s), and original hats from the era. But she also made her own hats.
This dress is an original from the era, and the first thing that struck me was . . . damn, they were small back then.
You can read about the fashion from those times HERE.
A number of shops have old sewing machines, typewriters, and other stuff.
What strikes me about these is they are (were) not only functional, but ornate. It spoke to pride in the product; it spoke to artisanship, of caring about what one produced and sold. Look at those designs adorning the sewing machine. They serve no function other than to provide art with the utility of the tool.
Even this relatively unadorned telephone speaks of substance. My Droid X offers me a window into the world, but if I had a soul, this phone would touch it.
There is a tactile quality to it, a fit to the hand, a utility which modern electronics and appliances cannot hope to match.
You can find pretty much everything you can imagine in these shops, but primarily they do reflect the area they sit in . . . this is, after all, The West.
I really wanted to buy this chart . . . but could not think of where I would display it.
I have a much newer version of this very contraption, and use it still. I should have asked how old this is.
Scales are expensive . . . the older, the more expensive. This postal scale was a good pairing with the world. Get it? Mail goes all over the world . . . never mind.
They had a tub of buttons . . . go figure.
This next thing, for me, was the most impressive piece of all the things I saw. It was incorrectly described as a Netsuke, but it is instead a Chinese Puzzle Ball.
I would have bought it, but it was $450 . . . read about how they are made . . . amazing.
Just to give a sense of scale.
The last shop we visited was the first one we had visited. I bought a camera that was there, and will show it when I do the full post of our visit to Florence’s antique shops. But meantime . . . a blast from my youth (in Italy, not here).
Cap Guns . . . it reminded me of the strong Italian Gun Culture.
We left Florence, and headed West, and then North to Guffy. A very small town with some interesting stuff.
Guffy is a town I spent some time in during one of our previous drives . . . back in September. I still have to document it, but this serves as a preview of what’s there.
As usual, thanks for stopping by, and I hope it was worth your while. If it was, tell everyone. If it wasn’t . . . man, you guys are picky!
Mad Duck
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. . . my FP ward . . . chieken shit.
Some absolutely wonderful shots of great stuff. Love so many of them that I don’t even know where to start. That old engine/contraption thing is right up my alley, as is the old phone and the cars
Well, if I ever get back on track, there’s lots more to come . . .
What a fun day and with snacks and copious amounts of coffee – perfect!
Oh yeah . . . We plan many more.
Great pics and interesting subjects. My better half would love the tub of buttons to add to her collection of many thousand she already has (I must ask her one day, why?) Good to see the MG Midget, had great fun in one of them many years ago :)
Yeah, those buttons held a strange fascination for me, even as I have absolutely no use for them.
. . . and . . . hopefully that’s not you in there. In case you can’t read it (no larger picture available yet), the license plate reads “I saw the mothership”. Great touches, and a level of humor that appeals to me.
I quite agree with your wife, Eddy…. you never know when you might need a button, and meanwhile a collection of them is decorative.. I love poking through stores like this, and really enjoyed the pictures…some fascinating items there!
Thanks, Sandy. As I mentioned, more to come . . . eventually
I would have bought the chart, framed it, and hung it in the guest bathroom. Beats old magazines for reading material! Great shots, Emilio.
The more I thought about it, the more I will buy it if it’s still there when we go back in a month or so.
It was worth my time! Great pictures of some very cool history. I’m drawn to teaching aids and loved the chart, too. The cars made me laugh. Very nice, Emilio!
Thanks . . . and I’m still not getting notices of your posts. I’ll have to go see what’s happening.
Excellent variety of objects, but I agree with Carissa that I, too, would have bought the Chart and placed it in a bathroom. Nothing like filling yourself with wonder while letting go of the useless. Looking forward to more posts like this. Oh, and cannot forget to mention that the pictures and the article/videos about the Chinese Puzzle Ball were more than fascinating. So glad you share.
It’s one of those things where I’m tempted to buy it, and then won’t know what to do with it.
This way, I am aware of it, find interest in its background, and can appreciate it without cluttering up the house.
Thank you for the outing on this cold Monday. I have cabin fever! Last weekend we went antiquing but the stores were so cold it felt warmer outside in sub-freezing temperatures!
We had great weather . . . I think it hit mid-50′s, and some of the buildings were heated with original stoves . . . nice and toasty.
i love those clothes. that 1880 dress is beatiful. i could spend hours in a place like this.
Beautiful shots. What a wonderful place to go to take photos. I want to go there.
I’m sure there are plenty of antique shops out your neck of the woods. I never used to notice them, but now I see them everywhere.
Just the right stuff for me. And nice pictures showing this fantastic things and atmosphere.
Thanks Bente . . . it’s a tad frustrating because we are at the stage of our life where we want to “pare down” on stuff, and at these places there are many things you looks at and say . . . it would be nice to have that.
I’m forcing myself to make-do with just a photo of them.
Makes two of us (most of the time).
Great shots. I love stuff like this.
Thanks. I never had much interest to go in these places, but once I changed my focus (pun intended) from shopping to documenting things of times gone by, it made it a lot more interesting.
And, there’s also the nostalgia factor, as we see many things we have owned, and discarded. Well, not the very things, but things like them.