Dusty, Musty Treasure Hunt : The Thrill of Finding a ‘Gem’

Shopping for antiques has no set rules, gender, age, or pocketbook; its practitioners combine the skills of detective, scavenger, historian, investor and decorator.

It is not uncommon for antique shoppers to spend hours, days, weekends, or even complete vacations trekking through shops that carry used merchandise, hoping to find the ultimate treasure.

To one person, that treasure may be a 17th-Century Victorian armoire; to another, it is a Depression glass dish mass-produced between the 1920s and late ‘40s; to another, a Beatles album from the 1960s.

There are about 100 businesses in North County that in some way classify themselves as antique shops. While some are small cottage-style operations, there are also huge 10,000-square-foot warehouses, called malls, in which 25 to 100 mini-shops are housed.

The greatest concentrations of antique shops in North County are in Temecula and Fallbrook. However, the coastal region between Solana Beach and Carlsbad has enough shops to keep anyone busy.

Fred Caldwell’s family has operated Caldwell Antiques in Leucadia for 27 years. He takes it upon himself to publish an annual “Treasure Map” that routes customers to 25 North County shop locations.

“I don’t make any money off the map, but customers say they like it, and it seems to help the businesses,” Caldwell said. For the same reasons, a few other proprietors also produce trail maps, and they are displayed in most antique shops.

Like many retail establishments, specialty shops exist within the antique business. These are places known for their handmade quilts, vintage jewelry, American oak furniture, authentically restored clocks, or advertising memorabilia.

Antique businesses usually spring up because their owners have amassed more antiques than their home and family can accommodate or tolerate. Kitty Gibbs calls it a “disease.” After 17 years as owner of Miss Kitty’s antique shop in Poway, she says her three-car garage at home has standing-room only.

“There’s never been a car in there,” she said, explaining how she uses the garage to stockpile her inventory under the protection of a security system.

Karen Walters, manager of the Antique Warehouse in Solana Beach, says malls have a little of everything under one roof, which is a convenience for the antique shopper. For a couple of dollars a square foot, individuals can lease space in an antique warehouse, and mall employees will sell their wares. Generally, 10% of the sale goes to the mall owner.

“It’s a good deal for me,” one dealer said, “because I work full time at another job.”

If there is a drawback, Walters said, it is that mall employees generally don’t get to know customers the same way owners do in the small shops.

Gibbs says the personal contact is important to her. “I have regular customers who have been coming in here for years,” she said. “I do this because I enjoy antiques and my customers.” She points to a sizable card file and explains that each card represents something that she is trying to find for one of her customers.

“There really isn’t any competition between shops,” Gibbs said. “What you find here, you probably won’t find somewhere else.”

“We have customers from all over who call us looking for clocks,” said Maurice Trokey of The Loft. Trokey and his partner, Dick Bowser, have a shop in Temecula, stocked with beautiful antique clocks--such as a Hersche that stands 6 feet tall, has three different chimes and is encased in a rich mahogany cabinet.

Encinitas Coin & Jewelry owner Michael Bass said he has a huge inventory of discontinued and hard-to-find flatware patterns stored in his giant safe. “If it’s been produced, we probably have it or can get it,” says Bass, pointing to jeweler’s trays laden with silver utensils.

The word antique sometimes intimidates people not familiar with the inner workings of the business. They equate the word with very old and expensive coins, fine art or signed porcelain. In the antique business, this type of merchandise is considered “high end” and is usually sold in shops in high-rent districts.

Those high-end shops are not listed on the average antique trail map. But savvy antique shoppers say valuable Southeby-type treasures can still be found in the so-called junk shops--a familiar term used by seasoned antique shoppers.

Poway resident Rick Wilson says his neighbor recently found in a shop a battered old lamp that was “so ugly his wife wouldn’t let him bring it into the house.” Because of its markings, the man suspected the lamp was valuable and had no trouble finding a buyer who willingly paid $1,300 for the piece.

Satisfaction gained through his hefty profit quickly disappeared when he later found that the lamp was a rare Art Deco piece made by an artist whose work sells for $60,000 in the high-end marketplace.

Learning how to spot antiques is a trick in itself. The casual shopper generally relies on the dealer; therefore, dealers like Carnell Kirkeeng say it is best to patronize shops with knowledgeable, honest dealers.

“If someone tells you they know everything about antiques, get out of there quickly,” said Kirkeeng, better known as Kirk of Kirk’s Antiques in Fallbrook.

After 20 years in the business, Kirkeeng says it is impossible to know the story behind every piece of furniture, china, quilt or anything else. Dealers are generally most familiar with antiques that are their personal favorites. In Kirkeeng’s case, vintage clothing is his specialty. A good dealer, he says, knows how to get the answers from books or other people in the business.

“Get yourself a copy of Kovel’s,” said Kirkeeng, referring to the guides to antiques published by Crown. “For under $10, you can stick it in your glove box--it’s the Bible of the antique business.”

Research materials like Kovel’s, Shroeder’s, Warman’s and a host of freebie antique newspapers make good reading for people who get hooked on antiques. Most of the books are available in libraries and bookstores. They have been around for some time; however, don’t discount new books that focus on subjects ranging from collecting teddy bears to jukeboxes.

The more a person studies antiques, the more apparent it becomes that there is no easy way to describe or price an object.

For years, the public has assumed that antiques must be 100 years old to be considered as such. Few people nowadays seem quite as concerned with that magic number. According to many dealers, age is just one of the determinates for antique classification.

“Something that is rare, even if not particularly nice to look at, may be more valuable than an object that is very old,” says Ray Thompson of Escondido Center Mall, in downtown Escondido.

The words collectible and antique are used interchangeably by many dealers, and there is no hard-and-fast rule that discerns this practice. Collectible seems to be the appropriate label for items that were popular from the Depression days through the 1950s--metal toy soldiers, Disney memorabilia, inkwells, pop bottles and baseball cards, to name a few.

“They’re flooding the market today by printing too many new baseball cards,” said Mary Jo Bombolis of Oceanside Adventure antiques. “I personally don’t think they’ll be as valuable in the future like the old ones are today.”

But Caldwell says he has a friend who sees potential in almost everything. He goes to stores and buys up complete inventories of new toys, dishes and all sorts of knickknacks, and stores them away with the hope that they will be valuable in the future.

“‘Star Wars’ figures are already collectibles,” Caldwell said. “It’s best to leave things in the original boxes or wrappings, because they usually have more value later on.”

Value is a complex subject when it comes to antiques, according to Roberta Ely, a senior appraiser certified by the American Society of Appraisers (ASA). This prestigious designation is attained through a series of tests and other reliable requirements. There is no law in California that says an appraiser must have a license.

Ely has been in the business for 20 years and said there are dealers doing appraisals who are not qualified. “The abuses are rampant,” she said.

Ely said all antiques are not necessarily candidates for appraisals. But once people become serious collectors and end up with several valuable pieces, it is worth having them appraised by a knowledgeable person, she said. Having an outside person conduct the appraisal can avoid a conflict of interest.

Perhaps the most common reason to get an appraisal is for insurance purposes. Insurance companies ask that valuable antiques be professionally appraised so that they can be listed separately and attached to the standard homeowner’s policy.

According to Dick Parrent, vice president of Robert F. Driver Co., his insurance company honors an appraisal on company letterhead by a legitimate antique dealer.

Although getting an appraisal for insurance purposes is probably a wise choice, most antique buffs say the money would be of little solace should something happen to their precious antiques.

“You might not be able to replace something that was made in England over a hundred years ago,” Marlene Stott said. “That’s the whole idea with this stuff.”