On Virginia’s Antiques Trail

They are the kinds of tales that tease out the fortune seeker in all of us.

There’s the one about the $40,000 Stickley music stand cloaked in neglect and nabbed for $500, and the $1,100 Steuben Arts and Crafts bowl with a $3 price tag.

But antiquing here in Northern Virginia’s fox-hunting country is like the sport itself. It’s mostly about the thrill of the chase and the spectacular ride through gorgeous countryside. It turns out that the gold-mine find is as elusive as the crafty little fox.

That doesn’t mean you’ll go home empty-handed. I’ve been successfully trolling hunt-country antiques shops for the last decade on my own and with an antiques dealer who knows the obscure places where treasures might lurk. Although my house is crammed with interesting and odd pieces, I’ve yet to find a hidden gem I can buy for a song.

Still, it’s been a great ride. And you won’t find prettier country for your quest. This is a place where four-board fences and intricate stone walls edge manicured green fields; where the soft peaks of the Blue Ridge Mountains define the horizon; where the lazy Shenandoah River flows.

The countryside is peppered with grand country estates with palatial barns, and the picturesque towns have more antiques shops than churches. There are hundreds of them within 75 miles of Washington, but the area around Middleburg, about an hour west of the capital, has the best combination of landscape and antiquescape.

Starting in Middleburg, I made a weekend loop in December with my companion, John Muncie, through the part of Northern Virginia tucked up between West Virginia and Maryland, revisiting favorite antiques shops and finding new ones.

We saw it at its dowdiest, when all the trees were bare and the fields tinged beige. In early spring, Northern Virginia begins to put on its party clothes. Jaunty daffodils brighten a landscape that’s popping with new green everywhere.

Middleburg is a historic village of 600. It’s small, walkable and so quaint it looks like a Hollywood set, which it has been. When TV’s “The West Wing” needed a picturesque New Hampshire town to film, it took its cameras to Middleburg, which is lined with old stone buildings.

Middleburg was established in 1787 by Leven Powell, a colonel in the Revolutionary War. Powell named it Middleburg because it was midway along the Ashby Gap trading route (now U.S. Route 50) between the cities of Alexandria on the Potomac River and Winchester at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Among some of Middleburg’s 160 buildings listed on historic registries are numerous, mostly up-scale antiques shops where prices often hover in the four- to five-figure range. For example, Skandina, which specializes in big, blond Scandinavian pieces, is crammed with large wardrobes, sideboards and armoires ranging from $1,975 (an 1860 Danish armoire) to $6,900 (an 1840 yellow Swedish secretary).

Around the corner on Main Street, Hastening Antiques has two stores a block apart. They’re the kind of hushed places with carefully printed cards for each item. Hastening specializes in 17th and 18th century European furniture and you-must-be-kidding prices. When we were there, an 1840 French provincial extended walnut dining table with four leaves was going for $23,000 and a 1710 George I red pine sideboard for $12,500.

Just three blocks away is the far less pretentious and far more fun Powder Horn Gunshop.

For the past 26 years, owner Bob Daly has filled the Powder Horn with antique firearms and accouterments of war. Even if you’re not a military buff, the Powder Horn is a fascinating mini-museum of surprising memorabilia.

Like the display of pre-Revolutionary flintlock rifles behind the cash register. Daly took one down and held it up next to himself. It was taller than he. (He said it was 6 feet, 1 inch long.) The rifle dates to about 1730-40, and Daly was asking $3,500.

Is it shootable? John asked.

“Anybody who would fire one of these is insane,” Daly replied. “It would break the spring mechanism and blow out the bottom of the rifle.”

It just doesn’t get horsier than Middleburg, home to the 12,000-plus volumes of the equine-themed National Sporting Library, the Chronicle of the Horse (a weekly magazine that dutifully reports in agate a blinding number of horse show results from around the world), three tack shops, a custom chap maker and a heavily medaled assortment of Olympic riders and trainers. The town’s yearly calendar of events lists fox hunting, stable tours, polo matches, steeplechases and horse shows. Pedestrians here wear britches and boots; horse trailers crowd the roads; and the local newspaper even has an editor just for horse sports.

Middleburg to Upperville

We drove west the next morning on U.S. Route 50, officially named the John S. Mosby Highway, after the Confederate raider. We were headed toward Upperville, about nine miles west through open rolling hills.

We stopped for brunch at Hunter’s Head Tavern, built in 1793 by John Carr, the founder of Upperville. It has three cozy dining rooms and an English theme.

The food, which ranged from bubble and squeak to portabello burgers, is better than most of what you’ll find in Middleburg.

The English theme of Hunter’s Head continues down the street at Yesterday’s Riches, housed in a building that, more than 100 years ago, was the Upperville Town Hall. Owner Carol Sherman, who lived in England, stocks her place with 18th and 19th century English furniture and a bewildering assortment of wooden boxes: sewing boxes, glove boxes, tea boxes, writing boxes. If it’s an old box from England, she has it. Prices ranged from $385 for an 1860 rosewood glove box with satinwood inlay to $850 for an 1870 walnut tea caddy with mother-of-pearl inlay.

Upperville to Paris

Our next stop was Paris, just three miles west on Route 50. Founded in 1786, Paris is a handful of restored buildings nestled in a postcard-pretty setting that bumps up against the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

We visited the town’s new American in Paris antiques shop, which I’d never been to. This two-story building sits on the site of what was once Ashby’s Tavern, first visited by George Washington in 1759.

The shop occupies two snug rooms downstairs; owners Carol and Gary Konkel live above. American in Paris features mostly American pieces from the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

Hanging on one wall were 150-year-old kitchen implements, including an iron strainer for $125 and a copper ladle for $75. On another wall hung a 1920s child’s wicker chair from Maine ($320) above a green child’s twig chair ($95).

Nearby was an 1830 needlepoint Empire stool for $550 and an 1840 mahogany Empire chest from Baltimore priced at $3,900.

Paris is known for the gracious Ashby Inn. Begun as a residence in 1829, the inn and its adjunct “School House” have 10 guest rooms, lovely gardens, a respected restaurant and a deserved national reputation.

For this trip, though, we stayed at the Red Fox Inn and Tavern in downtown Middleburg. Established in 1728, the Red Fox bills itself as the “oldest original inn in America.” It’s steeped in history and looks the part--original fieldstone facade, worn wood floors, low ceilings, fireplaces--but the main building is noisy and a bit rundown. The rooms needed updating. Upholstery was threadbare, paint was chipped, the bathrooms were gloomy and some of the furnishings looked as if they had come from a thrift store. Dinner was a little better than routine, but there was no buffet breakfast as promised. After we reminded the hostess, she brought us a couple of stale Danish.

The Ashby Inn is a better bet. The rooms, appointed with antiques, look like something out of a magazine. The walls are painted in deep, rich reds, yellows and browns (it works), and the planked floors are painted with colorful diamonds. I’ve eaten at the inn’s restaurant numerous times, and it’s been consistently terrific.

Paris to Millwood

From Paris we continued west on Route 50 down through the 1,100-foot Ashby Gap and across the Shenandoah River, its banks flanked by stands of white-barked sycamores looking like ghost trees against the stark winter landscape. We turned north on Virginia Route 723 to the village of Millwood.

The town is accented with Victorian homes, white churches and, of course, antiques shops. The most impressive of these is Red Schoolhouse Antiques, which occupies a cavernous 10-room building that was most recently a private school.

Red Schoolhouse features half a dozen dealers specializing in antiques from the U.S. and the British Isles. A butcher-block table on the front brick steps carried a tag that said “wonderful old butcher block table, $698.”

John asked Priscilla Miller, the dealer on duty, how old it was, and she said, “You have to look it over carefully and come to your own conclusions.”

This isn’t as cagey as it sounds. Age, origin and method of manufacture are not always certain when you’re treasure hunting. Ask questions; be skeptical. One thing is fairly certain, however: Most antiques dealers are willing to come down at least 10% on price. But don’t stop there, and never pay what’s on the tag. (Just be careful not to offend with an offer that’s too low.)

Red Schoolhouse has a large selection of furniture and accessories. I was particularly taken with an 1890 child’s horse, with original paint, for $165; an 1840 French chestnut armoire from Brittany, with original hardware, for $3,895; and a gym-size room full of farm tables.

Millwood to Boyce

Our next stop was just three miles up Route 723. Boyce is not as much a town as a small collection of nondescript buildings. Among them is another new find for me: the General Store Antiques at Boyce, whose interior is anything but nondescript.

Much of the General Store’s charm comes from owner Emile Borel. A tall, exuberant Frenchman with a small gray ponytail and a quick smile, Borel, 70, speaks with an accent as thick as goose pate. Every fifth word is French. When I asked him whether a set of wooden garden tools was old, he answered, “Ooh la, la! Of course!”

The General Store, which opened in November, features a potpourri of antiques: furniture, toys, tools, commercial culinary and wine equipment, knickknacks. A child’s wooden rocking horse was selling for $295; an 1890 butcher’s table for $5,400; a charcuterie sign for $800; a 1930 Paya red race car for $2,350.

Most everything is from southern France. As it says on the business card, “Un Petit Air de Provence”--a little breath of Provence. As Borel walked us around telling stories about every item, French sidewalk music played in the background.

Boyce to Purcellville

The next stop was Purcellville, a town of pre-Revolutionary history and Victorian homes. In 1874 a railroad line connected Purcellville and Washington, D.C. But in 1968 the trains stopped running (the rail bed is now a 45-mile linear park), and until recently the town kept its remote, country flavor.

Purcellville is barely hanging onto its charm. The area has boomed in recent years, and D.C. sprawl has brought fast-food outlets and cookie-cutter developments.

The town has several antiques shops, including half a dozen within a block of the central crossroads of Virginia routes 690 and 7, which is called “The Colonial Highway” for its historic antecedents.

Most of the shops house a mishmash of furniture, china, dolls and colored glass bottles of dubious antiquity. Rich Bottom Antiques offers an upscale and high-dollar collection of 18th and 19th century American furniture and accessories. An 1810 painted pine cupboard was selling for $7,450; a New England painted pine chest from 1800 for $985; an 1890 hardware store sign for $1,250.

When we stopped by, it had been open only six months, but owner Art Richmond, a commercial property developer by trade, said he had been collecting all his life. His Rich Bottom farm is crammed with antiques, including 39 clocks made before 1840, all in working order.

Purcellville to Hamilton

By the time we left Rich Bottom it was nearly 5 p.m., so we hustled east on Route 7 to the village of Hamilton, our last stop of the day.

Our main goal was John Ware Jr.’s Hamilton Antiques Inc. Ware’s original place was about 10 miles away at Hillsboro (where his parents live and where he still has a workshop), but last fall he moved to this former 1930 car shop, and we wanted to see what his new place looked like.

That afternoon Ware’s inventory included his usual assortment of handsome Mission and Arts and Crafts pieces he has restored. This is the kind of furniture that has good bones. A Gustav Stickley H-back rocker was selling for $900, a cottage washstand from the 1880s for $165.

Part of the show is Ware himself. He loves to talk about the ups and downs and ins and outs of the antique treasure hunt, and he has plenty of stories to tell. Like the one about the Steuben Arts and Crafts bowl.

He saw it in a cluttered antiques store. He thought the tag said $300. Ware knew the piece was worth at least $1,100, and he was more than willing to pay the asking price, but because antiquing is as much about bargaining as buying, he asked the store owner if she couldn’t do better. “Sir,” the woman said, “it’s only $3. I can’t do much better than that.”

When I laughed at the punch line, it was without regret. Chances are I’ll never find a deal like that, but I’ve already found my treasure just by traveling around the countryside and being on the hunt.

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Guidebook: On View in Hunt Country

Getting there: The nearest airport is Washington Dulles. Nonstop service from LAX is available on American and United, and connecting service (change of planes) on Delta, Northwest, Continental, Midwest Express and US Airways. Restricted round-trip fares begin at $319.

Where to shop: The Powder Horn Gunshop Inc., 200 W. Washington St., Middleburg, VA 20118; (540) 687-6628, www.phgsinc.com. Antique firearms, military memorabilia.

Skandina, 8 S. Madison St., Middleburg, VA 20118; (540) 687-3730. Scandinavian antique furniture and modern accessories.

Hastening Antiques Ltd., 1 W. Washington St., Middleburg, VA 20118, (540) 687-5664; and 7 E. Washington St., (540) 687-5077; www.hasteningantiques.com. 17th-19th century Continental furniture.

Yesterday’s Riches, 9151 John Mosby Highway, Upperville, VA 20185; (540) 592-3301. 18th and 19th century English furniture, boxes, prints, mirrors, brass, cutlery and modern gifts for gardeners.

American in Paris, 694 Federal St., Paris, VA 20130; (540) 592-9008, cmkonkel@cross

link.net. Late 18th and early 19th century American furniture.

Red Schoolhouse Antiques, Route 255 North, Millwood, VA 22646; (540) 837-3033. Six dealers with various specialties, including 19th century American furniture and accessories, British antiques.

The General Store Antiques at Boyce, 104 E. Main St., Boyce, VA 22620; (540) 837-9199. Provencal furniture, toys, tools, knickknacks.

Rich Bottom Antiques, 108 N. 21st St., Purcellville, VA 20132; (540) 751-0004. 18th and 19th century furniture and accessories.

Hamilton Station Antiques, 55 E. Colonial Highway, Hamilton, VA 20158; (540) 338-4575. Nine dealers; mostly 19th century pieces.

Hamilton Antiques Inc., 39026 E. Colonial Highway, Hamilton, VA 20158; (540) 338-0522. Mission, Arts and Crafts furniture.

Where to stay: The Ashby Inn, 692 Federal St., Paris, VA 20130; (540) 592-3900, fax (540) 592-3781, www.ashbyinn.com. Six rooms, all with private bath (for one room, bath is down the hall). Doubles $155-$180. The adjacent School House facility has four suites, each with fireplace and private porch. Rate: $250, based on double occupancy. Full breakfast included; 20% surcharge for all October reservations (peak leaf season).

The Red Fox Inn, 2 E. Washington St., Middleburg, VA 20118; (800) 223-1728, fax (540) 687-6053, www.redfox.com. The inn has 23 rooms in the original building and four adjacent buildings. Rates range from $170 (for a room with private bath down the hall) to $325 for a large garden suite, double occupancy, with continental breakfast.

Where to eat: Hunter’s Head Tavern, 9048 John Mosby Highway, Upperville; (540) 592-9020. Inviting historic tavern with three dining rooms. Specializing in English pub fare. Menu changes daily. Dinner entrees $12-$25.

The Ashby Inn (see above). Menu changes daily. Entrees $18-$32.

Fran’s Place, 110 W. Main St., Purcellville; (540) 338-3200. Family restaurant; basic American breakfast, lunch, dinner. Sandwiches $2-5; fried chicken dinner $4.95.

For more information: Virginia Tourism Corp., 901 E. Byrd St., Richmond, VA 23219- 4048; (800) 932-5827 or (804) 786-4484, fax (804) 786-1919, www.virginia.org.

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Jody Jaffe is the author of three equine mysteries, one of which is set in Middleburg. Her fourth book, “Thief of Words,” will be published next year. She lives in Silver Spring, Md.