I went to an antique show this weekend. A HUGE antique show. The Christie Antique Show.
Twice a year Canada’s largest antique show sets up shop 5 minutes from my house. Even though people drive from hours away to attend, I only end up making it there once every couple of years. It is 5 minutes away. Sometimes that’s a struggle. If the show were held on my front lawn, there are times it would be a struggle to make it there. My grass for instance is currently 17 feet high because it’s such a struggle to make it out there.
Christie’s has 300 dealers on 10 acres of field. Anyone serious about buying or selling antiques is at this show and they’re there EARLY. And they’re well nourished and hydrated.
My sister and I arrived fashionably late, by 6:45. Just kidding. We rolled in around 10:30, figuring that 7 hours would be plenty of time to stroll around the wares. My sister and I are stupid. We made it through the first 5 acres in about 6 hours and ran through the last five in an hour. I slowed things down by constantly taking pictures, she slowed things down by looking at every single wall sconce, chair and table in the place. She has issues.
I have so many pictures of so many great things from the day that I’ve decided to split it up into two posts. One part now, one part next week.
I struggled with trying to categorize all the things I found into “Art”, “Unique”, “Ridiculously Expensive”, “The Classics”, etc., but I ultimately ended up deciding to just show you everything in the order I saw them in. Starting with … the entrance.
I never met a bowl I didn’t like. ‘Cept one filled with brussels sprouts.
- I don’t know if you know this but any crock or jug with painting or lettering on it is expensive. How expensive? This one was $1,300. I’d need 6 so clearly this was out of my price range. I maybe could have pulled off 5, but not 6.
- Can’t say I love the framing, but I love the old needlework.
- Very large wood horse head. $850.
- Jadeite was still around but not nearly as prevalent as it used to be. For some reason, it’s still as expensive as always. I do love it still.
- A vintage sink still in its wooden packing crate.
- Flamingo? Flamingot.
- What makes Christie’s so much fun is finding items you’d NEVER find anywhere else.
- Like this lady.
- … and this super bizarre and frightening life sized guitar playing clown.
- It’s been raining for 23 months in Ontario so the field was extremely muddy. Everyone was wearing rubber boots and half of those were Hunter’s. Watch for my post on “The Rubber Boots of Christie’s” on Friday.
- Nope. Not for sale. An actual old truck filled with straw to cover up the mud everywhere.
- It was kind of picture perfect.
- Again with the bizarre.
- There wasn’t a lot of “retro” sort of stuff, but the stuff that was there was reasonably priced. This chair was priced at $125. By the end of the day *another* dealer had it in their booth at a higher price!
- shoes
- Big wood head. Who doesn’t need one of those?
- Creepy yet cute jewellery display. Jewelry for you Americans.
- Very cool button necklace on mannequin.
- This bronze sculpture was priced at $40,000. Surprisingly, it was still there at the end of the day.
- More art.
- This booth had ferns everywhere and it was *beautiful*. A fern makes *everything* look better.
A small child doll recently released from prison.
- Pretty, pretty wall sconces in a multitude of colours. Or colors for my American friends.
So that takes us up to around hour 4 at Christie’s. And I have yet to buy a thing. That’s coming up in hours 5 and 6 which you’ll will see in next week’s post.
I cannot say enough about how much fun going to an antique show is. Especially one held at the beginning of summer out in a big field. You know it’s a great show when people leaving without anything are just as happy as the people leaving with bags and boxes full of stuff. As you can see from the pictures, every booth you walked into, every row you walked down was filled with tons of beautiful and fun objects. I could have stared at the big pile of sap buckets alone for an hour!
Now if you’ll excuse me I have scads of money to make by writing a horror movie starring that hideous clown.
Now I can’t sleep…very interesting…though…i stay far from Chucky…his hands look freaky…just gotta chill
I LOVE THAT CHAIR for $125!!!
I wish we had a big antiquing show like that in Vancouver. Siiiighhh
My parents have a hydrant just like that.
Thanks for letting me know. I have never been to one and I would love to go but I fear I will have no transportation….
Karen! I had that doll as a child, he was a promotion for Bad Boy furniture, he even creeped me out, i think I named him Frankie. I think he is naked somewhere in my parents basement!
Debbie – Maybe Frankie’s NOT in your parent’s basement. Which is even more frightening. ~ karen
Hands down my favorite way to spend a day. Sorry I missed this one but hey, I was in NYC,,my next favorite way to spend any day : ). Thanks for the great recap. I’ve noticed that the ugliest things are also always the most expensive. ??!! Im in search of another pair of wellies other than Hunter, looking forward to what you saw there!
What fun….thanks for sharing especially for those of us too far away to go to Christies its fun to see it through your experience. Can’t wait to see what you ended up going home with:)
I’m so envious I went from red to green:( That horse head is calling to me. Thank you for sharing and feeding one of my addictions today :) xoxo
Thanks for coming to visit Christie’s vicariously through me! More to come. ~ karen
Can’t wait for the next installment! Love seeing stuff through other folk’s camera lens.
“Creepy yet cute jewelery display. Jewelry for you Americans.”
Ok, laughing at this. Best comment on us so far. Love it.
When I skimmed the photos, I half expected you to say all the manequins came from your basement. Can’t say I’d be surprised. I kind of imagine you having a whole audience of ‘friends’ down there, all set up and waiting for you to pop down to pull a roast from the freezer and also see what’s new with them.
Scarey clown playing guitar???? WTFudge….. I am totally frightened by this post! I did however love your rubber boots, and have been wanting a pair.
Glad you made it out alive!
Cindy
I went to Christie’s for the first time on Saturday and it was quite an experience. I didn’t manage to buy anything though :( Did you?
PS – I’m the one who rather abruptly popped up in front of you and said ‘I love your blog’. I may have mentioned my brush with a blogging celebrity in my last post ;)
As soon as I saw that child prisoner doll, I knew what it was but googled it to be sure. This guy is missing his prison cap.
The doll was a promotional giveaway with a furniture purchase from Bad Boy in the late 60’s. For our American friends, Bad Boy furniture is a local furniture store with the tv spots starring the owner wearing a striped prison uniform because his prices are a ‘steal’. Bad Boy furniture is still around and Mel Lastman still stars in his commercials, except the years his son took over while he was serving as major of Toronto.
My parents got one of the dolls when I was a toddler, I have no recollection of it but my mom told me of it.
Who knows why Mel Lastman would think that creepy dolls would sell more furniture? Nooooooooobody! ….(Sorry, there is no way to translate this one for those in the US)
Cred – You’re right! That makes perfect sense. Thx! I wonder if the woman who bought the doll realizes what it is. ~ karen
You make me so happy each morning I read. Just love how you write and you never disappoint. I love Antiques and that Jadiete it lovely. You are right; it is harder to find and that is pushing the price up even further on the pieces that are available. Thank you so much for some wonderful pictures. Make it a wonderful day.
Black parking? Who ARE these auction people?
And who is the woman in the stetson?
Mountie hat I think.
Do black people get preferred parking? Cool!
Ok, bad joke…
You’re horror film should also include someone waking up in bed with that beautiful wooden horses head next to them!
ooops *Your
We had that fire extinguisher in my living room growing up. Played with it all the time. Now I wonder if my mom still has it.
OMG! Can’t believe you ran into my ex-mother-in-law, the “Big Wooden Head”! LMAO! Looking forward to the rubber boot shots!!! Totally diggin’ the button necklaces and the manequins they are shown on :) Would you be so kind as to send me more info on this twice/year event. We may just make a road trip to Ontario just to check it out! Would you have room for us? We can sleep in lounge chairs on the deck – we’re very easily accommodated house guest. I make mean-ass cheesecake!!
This sort of thing makes me very pleased that I am thousands of kilometres away…..that’s *miles* for the Americans.
…..shiver…….take….scary…..dolls…..away…..
Must be great to have a day so close at hand to just look – all the pics–you don’t need to buy anything…just snap everything you like..
I hope your horror film also includes the creepy prison doll!
All of the creepy fake people/children are going to give me nightmares.
The jadeite photo is loverly. Yes, wiggly red line, I meant to spell it that way.
oooh looks like fun. I love treasure hunting!
Yikes, that doll in the striped pajamas is freaky! I had to miss the show this year but am glad I didn’t run into that doll!
That doll was actually bought by someone. She was walking around with it and I asked her to stop and put it down so I could take a picture of it!