For more than 20 years, Cheryl Gansauer of Homewood has stayed close to home while collecting turn-of-the-century furniture and knickknacks such as her Victorian parlor table and couches, iron bed and array of glass curtain tiebacks.
Antiques lovers may think they have to go over the river and through the woods to find the pieces that someone’s grandmother distressed perfectly. But shoppers like Gansauer–a habitue of annual antiques shows at Balmoral Park racetrack in Crete, Crete-Monee High School and southwest suburban shops–know that doesn’t have to entail a three-hour round-trip northwest to places such as the Kane County Flea Market or the shops of Sandwich or Long Grove.
Collectors of Eastlake, Lalique, Tiffany, Mission or more primitive Americana–even English inlaid or French Empire–can find their heart’s desire in their own back yard. From the Beverly/Morgan Park neighborhood on Chicago’s Southwest Side, stretching southeast through Steger to Crete, west through Evergreen Park and Oak Lawn to Lemont, and southwest to Orland Park, Frankfort and beyond, there are nearly 40 shops and storefronts, including 10 mini-malls that house from 5 to 15 dealers. Most are reachable within a 30- to 45-minute drive from any southwest location.
The quest to serve their customers sends southwest suburban dealers far afield in search of antiques. While the proximity of stores to newly developed farmland gives people the illusion that a pine hutch or oak bench came out of a recently leveled farmhouse, “it’s more rare today,” even in Frankfort, said Jack Simmerling, a Beverly artist, gallery owner, collector and specialist in architectural artifacts and pottery. “Sources are pretty much cleaned out locally.”
“More and more, (merchandise) won’t be coming from original owners or families,” said Edna Mullin, owner of The Now & Then Shops in Steger, just north of Crete, one of Gansauer’s favorite haunts. Mullin pointed out an item she had for sale, a child’s walnut rocker with cane back and seat ($295) that was original to the Green estate in the historic Morgan Park area of Chicago and would be sold with a 1920s photo that showed the rocker under the tree on Christmas Day. She said such direct links between buyer and original owner are dwindling.
“We’ll see these same pieces recycled again (through other dealers),” said Mullin, who started her business 10 years ago after almost a decade brokering antiques at no charge for friends out of her own love of collecting. It continues to carry her up to five states away to replenish her well-appointed shops (her first was so crowded she opened a second next door).
Russ Stephens, who lives with his wife, Barb, in a house connected to Russ & Barb’s Antiques on a quiet residential street in Chesterton, Ind., said his business has thrived for 18 years because he has been able to acquire his collection, mostly glassware and pottery, locally. “It comes to us,” he said, from owners in Kalamazoo, Mich., and South Bend, Portage and Michigan City, Ind. “I’ll go to houses for a free appraisal if someone’s serious.”
His collection includes Steuben, Heisey, Cambridge, Lalique and Moser glassware sets, and numerous Tiffany pieces. A short-stemmed Tiffany milk glass bowl with a mint green rim, 4 inches in diameter, was priced at $775.
“It’s signed,” said Stephens, who added that he didn’t know what it was designed to hold. “It’s whatever you want it to be. You want to put ketchup in it? Go ahead!”
Of Russ & Barb’s, Simmerling said, “They have about the nicest stuff anywhere.” He added that Chesterton and Crete are among the few nearby places where the contents of old farmhouses can still be found.
“But you won’t find a steal,” said Simmerling of the Stephens’ stock. “They’re experts. They know what they have.”
Simmerling said he appreciates those spots in comparison to places like the Kane County Flea Market because “it’s nice not to go through acres of mason jars” in search of quality antiques.
Besides merchandise, Simmerling said the properties of a noteworthy antiquing area include a driveable distance, beautiful town, interesting houses and a nice restaurant. “Chesterton is a good example,” he explained, at 30 to 45 minutes from many southwest areas. Near the concentration of shops in Chesterton, Crete, Orland Park and Lemont, for example, are architecturally interesting 100-year-old commercial buildings and homes with elaborate Victorian detailing.
Not everyone wants to shop in the southwest suburbs, however. “I’m doing less Americana,” said Marty Wendt Doherty, a Beverly interior designer with clients in California as well as on Chicago’s North Side, who said that style is popular at shops on the Southwest Side.
“Antiques I’m buying (for clients) are very high end: the quality–and very unusual–Irish, English and some French imports,” Doherty said, adding she finds them at stores like Vintage Pine on Chicago’s Near North Side or at the Merchandise Mart.
Simmerling noted that as local sources disappear, there has been an increase in English imports, a trend evident at Orland Park’s Cracker Barrel Antiques. The shop has been importing furniture for 20 years, said Joan Curto, co-owner with her husband, Dominick. They head to England to shop four or five times a year. “We buy locally, too, but at any given time our shop is mostly–usually 90 percent–European imports,” she said.
One unusual piece on a recent visit was a Welsh shopkeeper’s lift-top pine desk, with cubbyholes for letters and papers, sale priced at $425. The Curtos specialize in armoires and house them in a separate building.
“Most are 100 years old,” said Dominick Curto of the wardrobes, which range from several hundred dollars to almost $2,000.
When items arrive from Europe, he said, Cracker Barrel’s 3,000 customers are alerted with a postcard. “People from all over–north suburbs, Indiana, the area, individuals, decorators and dealers–come in.”
David McClain, owner of an antiques shop bearing his name in the West Beverly neighborhood, maintains that some North Side dealers and dealers at Kane County Flea Market buy from him at the same prices as retail and turn around and sell it for more. Elsewhere, he said, “they’re getting better than we can retail, which means customers go out there and pay more.”
What do customers say about the southwest suburban antiquing options? Says Karen Grigus of Lemont about the Cracker Barrel, “I find what I’m looking for, and they always come down on the price.” Over the past few years, Grigus said, she has purchased an oak washstand, old mirror and antique typewriter there.
Jody and Rob Powell of Chicago’s Northwest Side often look for antiques in little towns south of the city. After a recent trip to Crete, he said he thought prices were better than at the Kane County Flea Market, while she said it depended on the item.
“We saw a metal bed (at one shop in Crete) for $150–less than we’ve seen anywhere north,” he said. Both Powells agreed it was a real bargain, though it wasn’t an item they were purchasing. However, she thought some of the reproductions mixed among the antiques in a few shops detracted from the experience.
Recognizing quality is something that comes with the trade, dealers agree. “Whether it’s furniture or textiles, you read and study–like anything in life it’s experience and knowledge,” Mullin explained.
She said she learned that leaded glass turns blue as it approaches 100 years old by noticing the color change in something she acquired and then researching it. When it comes to furniture, though, checking for quality for this carpenter’s daughter means to “sit on the floor, get under it and see the craftsmanship.”
Joan Curto agrees. Assessing quality, she said, “becomes second nature after a while,” but she opens and closes drawers, inspects hardware and raps on the top to hear that solid sound. And she stays away from painted, even stripped and refinished, furniture. “Once painted, it’s practically forever,” she said. She’ll deal with minor repairs “if the quality is there.” Mullin advised individuals to be informed shoppers: “Ask and learn as you go along.”
Gansauer used her accumulated knowledge during a recent visit to the Crete Marketplace (in reality a consortium of dealers), when she didn’t bargain for a plate adorned with a scene and quote from a Charles Dickens book.
“Sometimes I’ve seen them for $30. This one is $9.50,” she said. “Someone doesn’t know what they have.”
ON THE ANTIQUE TRAIL
Some finds on a recent fly-by of southwest suburban antique shops:
1. The Antique Emporium, 14320-14324 S. Beacon St., Orland Park, 708-460-5440…pine baker’s hutch, $550.
2. Aunt-Tiquery’s, 3300 W. 95th St., Evergreen Park, 708-422-0677…wooden mohair settee, $895.
3.Bittersweet Antiques & Country Accents, 111 Stephen St., Lemont…pine farm/harvest table, $495.
4. Browsatorium, 9505 S. Cook Ave., Oak Lawn, 708-423-8955…white painted iron double bed, $350.
5. David McClain Antiques, 2716 W. 111th St., Chicago, 312-239-4683…floor lamp, $160.
6. The Now & Then Shops, 3725-29 Chicago Rd., Steger, 708-755-9591…oak bench storage seat, $495.
7. Third Generation Antiques, 500 5th St., Crete, 708-672-3369…Rogers silverplate service for eight, $95. –and 25 miles east of the Indiana border, Russ & Barb’s Antiques, 3rd and Lincoln, Chesterton, Ind., 219-926-4937…two carved wooden faces, $340.
