Afternoon Tea’s the Ticket After a Few Hours of Hunting Antiques

Consign yourself to antiquing along East 17th Street in Costa Mesa. If your feet get tired, or your eyes prove bigger than your pocketbook, sympathy’s only 50 cents at the tearoom.

11 to 11:25 a.m.: Instant Replay/Consignments Unlimited carries furniture, radios, glassware, jewelry and Asian urns, all mostly pre-1950, as well as antique golf clubs and a still life with eels and squids priced at $150.

But lift your eyes to see a real treasure.

“The cow painting is $20,000,” said shop owner Michele Weaver. “That was done pre-1890 by a Frenchman named Emile van Marcke. The English translation is ‘Three Cows in a Field,’ but if you say it in French and rub my feet at the same time, I’d probably purr.”

Readers, try this one at home: It’s “Trois vaches dans un paysage.”

11:25 to 11:40: Heirloom Galleries, a multi-dealer antique mart, was just moving in last week, but already on display were selected furnishings and antique jewelry.

If I had a room at home to match, I might have gone for the reproduction Louis the who-knows-what desk, an ornate affair priced at $850. Also intriguing was a small wooden box ($48) carved with the name Vladivostok and, in the four corners, the letters a, e, s and f . (Perhaps it’s a safe box!)

11:40 to noon: At the Book Rack, you can rent the latest hardback best sellers for $2.50 a week, but the shop deals mostly in used books.

You can buy them for half the cover price; you can bring in two books to trade and take home one book of similar type and price; or they’ll give you store credit on books you bring in at one-quarter the cover price.

There were sections for young readers, and the small nonfiction section included “Freud for Beginners.” Mysteries, mysteriously enough, are broken down by gender into female and male authors.

Noon to 12:20: Squadgy, an antique dealer once based in Beverly Hills, had been trying to open in Suite 24 for about six months, and it may even be open by now, but it wasn’t when I visited.

So I continued on to the Attic of Westport. In the window of the Attic were antique fishing poles ($25 and up) and old and odd telephones, including one with a metalwork cover ($25). Inside were Elvis LPs, a fern stand ($250), a 1929 Jewel stove ($500) and more very beautiful furniture.

12:20 to 1:30: Afternoon tea once meant the feminine get-together made fashionable by the Duchess of Bedford a century and a half ago; it served as both a between-meal snack and a time for discreetly sharing delicious scandal. The tearoom was where housewives met after washing, ironing, cleaning and marketing.

Both men and women now enjoy afternoon tea or lunch at Tea and Sympathy. (Historical background is printed on the place mats.) It’s a tearoom and a British shoppe stocking imported food stuffs, antiques, gifts and the most extensive selection of Scottish, Irish and Welsh books in California.

On the menu are meat pies, including Cornish pasty with mashed potatoes and peas ($7.25). The Cambridge salad ($6.25) was, ironically enough, described as Oriental chicken. Toasted crumpets are $1.75 and a pair of warm scones are $2.25 (add 95 cents with Devon cream).

Toad in the Hole edged Welsh Rarebit as my lunch choice; the former is sausages in Yorkshire pudding, the latter toast in a Cheddar sauce ($6.25 for either dish).

Afternoon tea includes a pot of English tea, tea sandwiches and a scone with raspberry jam and whipped cream ($9). Add $1.25 for a glass of sherry and 50 cents for sympathy.

Sympathy?

“Just what it sounds like,” said the waitress, smiling and patting her shoulder.

Bread pudding is $2.95, and the sherry trifle, at $3.50, is a must. On my way out the door, I noticed a flyer advertising weekly tea leaf readings with Doreen.

1:30 to 1:40: Newport Consign Design specializes in large furniture, such as dressers and sofas. Among items of more than passing interest were an Oriental monkey screen ($500) and an antique painted headboard with angels ($1,250).

1:40 to 2: According to shop owner Lisa Renee, Consignment Gallery is “one of the original consignment stores in Orange County. We’ve been here over 20 years. A lot of the consignment stores started from us. Either people have been my customers, or they’ve worked here. . . .

“We don’t specialize in anything. We try to have a mix of everything. Actually, we specialize in . . . traditional.”

That’s still a pretty broad scope, and it incorporates antique furniture, jewelry and tea sets; silver serving ware includes engraved knives, sterling tongs, ornately slotted spoons and even slotted forks. Renee makes lamps from antique cups.

In some genres, Renee’s cup runneth blissfully over: Pitchers, for instance, cover a gamut from 19th-Century Tiffany sterling to a ceramic hippopotamus.

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3-HOUR TOUR

1. Instant Replay

369 E. 17th St., Suite 20

(714) 642-8898

Open Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

2. Heirloom Galleries

369 E. 17th St., Suite 21

(714) 650-4294

Open Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

3. The Book Rack

369 E. 17th St., Suite 23

(714) 646-6694

Open Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

4. The Attic of Westport

369 E. 17th St., Suite 28

(714) 645-9548

Open daily, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

5. Tea and Sympathy

369 E. 17th St.

(714) 645-4860

Open Monday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

6. Newport Consign Design

270 E. 17th St., Suite 14-A

(714) 642-8890

Open Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

7. Consignment Gallery

270 E. 17th St., Suite 18

(714) 631-2622

Open Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Saturday, 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

PARKING / BUSES

Parking: There is ample free parking in lots at each location.

Buses: OCTA Buses 57 and 45 run east and west on 17th Street, with stops at Santa Ana and Tustin avenues.