New Stock Arrives Daily

This past week we got in in a shipment of the always popular garden gnomes, a photo is below. The butterfly garden benches also showed up, in black and white. As well, a batch of replica metal signs arrived. We restocked some of our out-of-stock best sellers, plus a bunch of fun new signs.

Antique furniture new arrivals included: 2 door pine jam cupboard, nice pair of leather office chairs, cedar cedar chest, steel brass & glass 6’shelf, 1920’s mahogany cedar chest, 3 section oak barrister’s bookcase, and a solid walnut bonnet chest-1880’s.

Non furniture antique new arrivals included: a clarinet, machete in leather case-1942 U.S.A., 2 open crocks, 3 Murano glass vases, a variety of vintage and antique cameras and camera accessories, 5piece silver plate tea set, nice Tiffany shade, large axe, 2-1920’s electric jewelry cleaners, 5′ wood step ladder, 6 silver plated candelabras-a photo is attached, 2 waste baskets, 2 large glass jugs, 2 metal drink pails, pair of bronzed iron photo frames, wooden model touring car, 2 cast iron door stops & boot scraper. vintage rolling pin, portable Singer sewing machine, assorted Asian style wall décor, collection of Picturesque Canada books[Queens University] -late 1800’s, Toronto street light, and more.

We also restocked our flatware cabinets last week. 

Let’s update new arrivals from the last ten days, since we’ve been open for instore shopping again! 

We got in a shipment of reclaimed wood furniture that included: The Irish Coast small coffee tables, media units, and hall tables. Oval standing planters also showed up. 

New antique furniture arrivals included: a terrific British walnut armoire, tufted Victorian accent chair, Eastlake pine washstand, late Victorian platform rocker, 2 pine mirrors, 2 tier bamboo coffee table, Boston rocker, yellow hall mirror, redone living room chair, Duncan Phyfe drum table, 2 oval gilt mirrors, mahogany credenza, refinished Duncan Phyfe dining room table with leaf, high legged Hepplewhite sideboard, pair of French Art Deco single beds, pair of arrow back chairs, pair of press back chairs, iron and wood park bench, Queen Anne footstool, half-moon end table, metal stool, pair of bamboo chairs painted blue, carved mirror painted white, and more.

The non-furniture antique arrivals included: 2 large milk cans, 12piece fish set in a case, free standing patio pot, 5 vintage tennis rackets, Tiffany shade floor lamp, assorted chandeliers and ceiling light fixtures, 2piece painted bamboo swan planter, large terra cotta vase, complete set of 1944 Encyclopedia Britannica, assorted china, assorted silver plate holloware, a batch of miniatures, Spanish bronze chandelier, vintage rocking horse, a few paintings, pair of cast iron planters, adjustable dress form, tool box, and more. 

We also got in a huge batch of cups and saucers; a photo is below. This was not a typical batch, there are some rare ones and lots of demitasse. Some are out on display already. The rest will be put out as we make space. There were so many demitasses that we’ve decided to fill an entire curio with just demitasses.

Also, there is a photo below of a collection of items that came from a production called Slumberland. I few of the smaller items are in already, the rest will be in shortly. We are starting to make some space; with such a long closure we are still tight for space.

Well, it’s already been three days since we reopened for instore shopping. So, let’s update some new arrivals, that we’ve yet to mention. These pieces came in during the last few weeks of lockdown. The film and TV business was operating at full steam during the lockdown. They’ve been buying a great deal lately which gave us some space for new arrivals.

We’ve already included photos of a few of these pieces in previous updates. Due to so many new items arriving and the long lockdown, a few items in these updates may be out of order. To make space for new arrivals some items have come in, and then we’ve had to move them into storage to make room for more new arrivals. These items will be brought in again as we make space, that process has already begun. We will now return to weekly updates on new arrivals. These updates will return to simply an accurate recap of what we brought into The Barn over the past week. Everything should be sorted out and back to normal in a couple of weeks.

First, an unusual piece, there is a photo below of a stone boat or stone sledge. It’s pulled by a horse or tractor and used to pull rocks or logs out of a field. This one is circa 1870’s from Huron Perth. So, if you’ve got some boulders that need moving, we’ve got you covered. Please note that you will need to supply your own horse.  

Antique furniture new arrivals included: 5 section mahogany barrister’s bookcase, marble and brass piano lamp stand, two-piece quarter cut oak hall bench and mirror, pair of tall iron wine racks-a photo is below, electric organ and stool, nice walnut tea wagon, large copper stick stand, Canadian made round mahogany French style curio cabinet, round French pedestal lamp table, set of 4 press back chairs, 3 nice gilt mirrors, and a pine secretary desk with leaded glass design.

More antique arrivals included: a pair of gut snow shoes, full-size cast-iron pot belly stove by Moffat, 2 copper boilers, three wood crates-one Pepsi, large brass planter, assorted oil paintings, original milk crate with 12 milk bottles, 45 horse shoes, five branch silver plated candelabra, assorted garden décor, brass lantern, traffic guard light, large wicker basket, pair of brass oil lights, pair of bedroom lamps, pair of living room lamps, and more.

Friday’s the day, we are reopening for instore shopping, round three. We will be open with very limited capacity to allow for social distancing of course.

For those who feel more comfortable shopping by appointment, we are taking appointments for Mondays and Tuesdays, 10am to 5pm. Appointments are not required, if you show up and we are below capacity we will let you in without an appointment. We will be closed on Wednesdays and open 10am to 5pm, Thursday through Sunday, on a first come first serve basis.

I’m going to keep this update brief, since just about everyone should know the drill by now; social distancing, masks, hand sanitizer, the usual.

The Barn is packed, all our warehouses are overflowing, we’re ready to go!

We recently got in a shipment from our Springwater line that included a bunch of bran new items, and new colours. Normally, we would have brought most of this shipment in the building right away. But given the continued closure and the fact that shipments keep arriving, The Barn in full. So, this shipment all went straight into storage. But we figured we could share some details and photos regardless.

There is a new Springwater green called green, go figure. The old green was, and still is called pear. There is a new white called dove, to go along with cotton white, and the original white.

New pieces include: Mask station, Tremblant nightstands, flip top end table, and the Steadman desk.

We put photos of these and more new pieces available for order on our Reproductions page a while back. But these are the first samples to show up.

Some old favorites from this shipment included: six cube high cubby, foyer tables, ladder shelves, tater bins, milk bench, panel coat hooks, Canada flag in pine, small end tables, and occasional tables.

We got a ladder shelf in antique dove, and a panel coat rack in vintage dove to see the new colours. We found out about the new green after this shipment went into production, so a sample in the new green will have to wait until next time. We of course have wood blocks with all the colours instore, which is more helpful when instore shopping is allowed. The wait is almost over. We also got in sample tables in vintage Algonquin, its not a new colour, but we’ve never carried it before.

We received a huge Springwater shipment during the last lockdown. We were only open with limited capacity for a month between lockdowns, plus this new shipment, so our supply of Springwater products has never been better.

After we reopen for instore shopping and pieces start leaving in greater quantity, we will bring in the new Springwater items.

Quarantine Series: Supply Chain, Shipping & Materials

I’m sure that most people have learned far more about supply chains over the course of the pandemic than they ever wanted to know. Everyone remembers the run on toilette paper at the beginning, and how hard it was to find disinfectant wipes for many months. There are currently shortages of lumber, steel, microchips, and ketchup packets, to name a few.

The Barn has not been immune from supply chain disruptions, as well some other pandemic factors that will cause some noticeable changes at The Barn. So, we thought we would fill everyone in.

The Barn carries both antiques and newly made items. This article only deals with newly made or reproduction items. You will not notice any significant changes to the antiques we carry. The pandemic has not had a significant effect on our supply of antiques.

If you’ve been paying any attention at all to the news over the last few months you’ve probably already heard of the current sky-high demand for consumer goods and the coming inflation. A lot of items are getting harder to come by, and wait time are increasing for just about everything. Prices are going up as well.  

Fortunately, we saw this coming and we started ordering larger quantities and restocking earlier as far back as last summer. And because we have been closed to instore shopping for five of the last six months, this means, that we are massively overstocked. So much so, that we don’t even have samples of all the reproduction items we have in stock at The Barn. There is no room left, so when new shipments arrive, most items are just going straight to storage at this point. In the short term it’s all good news, tons to choose from, and no major price changes. 

The long run is a different story. All furniture factories are working at maximum capacity right now. So, if you want to order something the wait times are quite long. We have already ordered some items that aren’t scheduled to arrive until next year.

Eventually, we will reopen and start to push through our backlog and begin to run out of certain items. Some items always sell faster than expected, the difficult part is predicting what those items will be. We will do our best to keep all our best sellers in stock, but that will probably not be possible given the current business climate.

In addition, the cost of shipping has increased tremendously over the course of the pandemic due to higher demand, container shortages, port congestion, and covid restrictions.

The cost of raw materials like wood, metal, and glass are all up substantially. I don’t know of a single manufacturer that hasn’t had to increase their prices due to the increased cost of raw materials. While there is lag time, those increases will eventually be passed on to consumers.

Some products we may not even continue to carry if the price increases are too extreme. For example, we know the price of the Tiffany style lamps we carry will be going up, due to the increase in raw material prices. We just don’t yet know if the increase will make continuing to carry them possible. Should the current trend of the strengthening Canadian dollar continue that will offset some of the increases on imported items. But things are changing quickly and it’s impossible to predict exactly how this will unfold.

What all this means is that the best time to see the greatest variety of products and get the lowest prices on the reproduction items we carry is when we reopen, and for the rest of the summer. Once we get into autumn, there will unfortunately be some price increases. And the supply chain disruptions will inevitably lead to shortages of certain products.

We just wanted to warn everyone of what was coming because we know customers often look at items for a long time before they decided to purchase. Under normal circumstances we regularly have customers who come in to get an item that is temporarily sold out or permanently discontinued, and are disappointed. And the current circumstances are far from normal, and much more challenging. It’s not all bad news, our current supply is tremendous.

This is of course our first pandemic, but we’ve seen many major market shifts over the years, and they inevitably lead to new suppliers and new products. Who knows, the increased shipping costs and environmental realities might shift some manufacturing back to Canada, which would be fantastic. 

If you had taken a snapshot of The Barn ten years ago and compared it to one today, you would see a lot of the same products, and tons of new lines as well. Things are always changing, and yet some things remain unchanged.

We obliviously aren’t bringing in the same number of antique pieces during lockdown as we do when we are open for instore shopping. But some new antique pieces always seem to find their way into the building somehow. There are photos of some of the items below, more photos were part of the May 3rd update on this page. We will include additional photos of some of these items over the next few weeks. 

New antique furniture arrivals since we last updated them include: large French inlaid armoire-88inches tall, 3 section oak barrister’s bookcase, upholstered footstool, maple swivel office chair, tufted yellow velvet living room chair, outdoor cement pedestal, assorted lamp tables & plant stands, iron and wicker tea trolley, round Duncan Phyfe coffee table, Duncan Phyfe drum table, four leaf clover parlour table, 5 drawer chest painted white, pair of Duncan Phyfe dining chairs, Canadian teak desk chair, and an ornate vintage whitewash coffer.

More antique arrivals include: large china fishbowl and stand, piano rolls, large brass wall tray, collection of 4 cast iron tea light lanterns, 2 brass blowtorches, 2.5′ x 4′ oil painting with overhead light, 2 large milk cans, wooden mailbox, 1950’s golf bag and clubs, 2 large snow globes, 4 light Tiffany style ceiling fixture, floor lamp, copper waste basket, collection of railroad spikes, a batch of assorted tools, and more.

Some sets of dishes that are in, but still boxed include: 51piece Forstenberg West Germany set, 47piece Royal Doulton Albany set, 39piece Seltmann Weiden Bavaria luncheon set, and a 123piece Krautheim Selb Bavaria set. 

We also got in a giant pile of LP records; most went to storage. We sell them in box lots, and we left a couple of boxes of 50 in The Barn.

Reproduction new arrivals that we’ve neglected to mention in previous updates include, the outdoor butterfly bench. First, we had them in yellow and they sold out. Then we couldn’t get them in yellow, so we got them in white, and they sold out. Now we have them in black only, a photo is below.

There is a plant stand in the photo, they showed up in black and white. We also got in a big batch of bobblehead garden gnomes, just in time for warmer weather. It’s almost like we planned it, we did!

We’ve also received a couple of shipments from our Irish Coast line. The small coffee tables, china cabinets, and servers are all back in stock.

We’ve also managed to stock up on most of the line during the lockdowns. The entire line is currently in stock in the African Dusk colour with the exception of the small console tables and the round extension dining tables. Both those pieces will be arriving in June.

Wait times to get out of stock reclaimed wood pieces can be six months or longer at the moment. Supply chain issues seem far from abating. So, if you want to guarantee you will have that dining table for a family reunion this Christmas, get it soon. We can’t guarantee availability this fall, and we are sure to run out of some items.

As always there are lots of photos on our Reproductions page.

For those of you who are regular readers of this page you may remember me mentioning a few times over the last year that we’ve been working to expand our Provence line. It takes a while to expand a line, you have to design new pieces, and develop new colours. There is a lot of trial and error, so it takes time.

We’ve learned that during a pandemic this process seems to take forever. These days, factories are busy keeping up with demand for existing products, so developing new products is not a priority. Plus, shipping times have increased on everything.

But the good news is that a long awaited and long overdue Provence order has finally arrived! This shipment has a new item exclusive to The Barn, the three-foot hall table. You can see photos below in three new colours. We are hoping to have more colours and sizes next year. Yes, that’s right, we’re already ordering for next year.

There was also night stands in four different colour combinations in this shipment. This was done so we could see what all the new colours looked like on some furniture, rather than just wood blocks. We are excited about all the new colours, they turned out better than we expected, which rarely happens. Now we have to decide which colours to carry in the future. If you see a colour, you really like, let us know? We do these sample orders from time to time to gauge reaction to new products, which is a lot harder to do during lockdown when customers aren’t allowed in the building.

Also, just for good measure, the Provence hall seats were in this shipment, a photo is below. You can see photos of the full existing Provence line on our Reproductions page.

Quarantine Series: The Cleveland Bank

If you scroll down this page and click on older entries, you will see previous posts from our Quarantine Series. We posted the first article in the series nearly a year ago on May 12th, 2020. And what a year it has been. This will be the 14th article we have posted in the series, and we’ve covered a lot of different topics, from the history of The Barn, to Film & television production, to antique pricing, and many more. We have told lots of different stories from The Barn’s past, but it occurred to us that we have told several different stories about how things have gone wrong over the years. So, I figured it was time to post an article about a big project that went right. Below is the story of perhaps the best deal in the history of The Barn.

From the early 1970’s through 1987 The Barn imported an enormous quantity of antiques from Cleveland and the surrounding area. Cleveland is a city with a long history and was an affluent city for many decades. However, during this period Cleveland had fallen on hard times. Back then it was known as a poor city and for several years had the highest crime rate of any city in America. However, because of its affluent past there was lots of great antiques in Cleveland that cloud be bought at low prices. We had a 40foot trailer that made so many trips between The Barn and Cleveland that we named it the Cleveland trailer.

The best business partners The Barn has ever had were an antique dealer couple operating in Cleveland Ohio named Jack and Seil Kilbane. They would buy antiques from the public and from other antique dealers throughout Ohio until they had accumulated enough to fill a 40foot trailer, then Frank[the owner of The Barn] would drive down, load up, and drive back.

One of the keys to this relationship was that the Kilbane’s had 30,000 square feet of storage for free. Cleveland was very rundown at this time and there was lots of abandoned buildings and empty warehouses. Companies from all over North America took to buying or renting warehouse space in Cleveland because it was a fraction of the cost of any other city. The only problem was getting robbed, which would happen frequently.

Seil Kilbane’s brother bought a warehouse that had three floors each of which was approximately 30,000 square feet. He planned to just hold on to the building until things had turned around and the area was ready for redevelopment. Believe it or not the top two floors were rented out to the CNE. They used to store all their stuffed animal prises and equipment there between exhibitions. Apparently, it was cheaper to truck everything to Cleveland and back every year than it was to rent storage in Toronto back then. The third floor of the warehouse was used by the Kilbane’s free of charge. So, they had lots of room for storage, which is very important if you are going to deal in antique furniture.

The warehouse was in a particularly rough neighbourhood, and Cleveland had a lot of rough neighbourhoods back then. And back then antiques were extremely valuable. However, the warehouse was never burglarized. How is that possible? The answer is that less than half a block away was a 24-hour restaurant that was owned by a group of cops. It was where all the cops eat during their sifts. Since there was always lots of cops around no one dared to try and rob the place.

You still had to get the trailer loaded and get on the highway before dark, just in case your truck broke down. It was not a place you wanted to be after dark. I remember being at the warehouse as a kid and I was too young to help load. I found a shot gun shell on the ground. I guess I was getting in the way, so to keep me busy Jack gave me the job of going around the warehouse and picking up all the ammunition I could find. By the end of the day, I had a box full. It was a rough neighbourhood.

Somewhere around 1980, we don’t remember the exact year, the Euclid National Bank of Cleveland decided it was time for a major renovation. The bank had two floors above ground with high vaulted ceilings, and three floors below ground with an enormous collection of safety deposit boxes. Things were so bad in Cleveland in those days that no one dared to keep their valuables at home, everyone it seemed had a safety deposit box.

The bank was decorated at a time when banks were designed to look impressive to attract customers. Nothing like today’s banks. This was a large bank packed with Kittinger desks, Baker desks, cabinets, and tables, approximately 140 RomWeber oak upholstered chairs, and five complete RomWeber boardroom sets. There were also large crystal chandeliers that were very high up, and no one seemed to know how to get them down. For those who don’t recognize those names, they are some of the best furniture makers in American history.

The bank management was taking offers on buying the furniture, chandeliers, and all the bank’s fixtures. But they had some very specific requirements. They wanted one company to take everything, and you had to take everything. You were not allowed to leave anything behind. This was part of the contract, and if everything wasn’t out by a certain date there was significant financial penalties in the contract. After all they were a bank, they knew how to write financial penalties into a contract.

The Euclid National Bank of Cleveland was of course located on Euclid Avenue. Yonge street in Toronto is a good comparison for Euclid Avenue. It was a busy two-lane street and you were not allowed to park on Euclid Avenue. Nothing was allowed to go out the front door either.

Because this was such a large and difficult project none of the local antique dealers wanted to bid on the deal. There was a lot of heavy furniture to move which no one wanted to do. Also, no one knew how to get everything out, or how to get the chandeliers down. And It was the equivalent of three 40foot trailers worth of stuff fully packed, most dealers didn’t have that much space. Plus, there was the contract.

Jack brought the deal to Frank and encouraged him to buy it. Jack had connections with just about everyone in Cleveland, including a local construction company. His plan was to get a scissor crane to take the chandeliers down. Also, to park the trailer on a side street. Take out a second story window and use a construction roller ramp from the second story window to the ground. From there the furniture would have to be walked around the corner to the trailer.

Because no one was willing to bid Jack suggested that Frank make a ridiculously low offer. He said they would have to take it because they had no other options. Frank offer $9500, and he thought they would never accept, they did.

Amazingly, everything worked out exactly according to plan. The biggest difficulty was getting everything from the three basement levels up the second story. There were elevators, but it was still a lot of work.

Most items went to the warehouse first, and eventually it took three trips of the Cleveland trailer to get everything back to The Barn. By the end there was no space left in The Barn and there were still 35 large oak office desks left over. Somehow it was decided the best thing to do was to cover them with a tarp and strap them to The Barn. So that’s what they did. The 140 Rom RomWeber chairs went in the basement at The Barn. This was before we built a staircase down to the basement. In those days it was a treacherous dirt sloop down to the basement that was difficult to navigate when it rained or snowed.

Frank remembers the first thing he sold was one of the five boardroom sets. He sold it to Kennedy Galleries for the same amount he paid the bank for everything. Even back then, that was an incredibly low price for such a set. Needless to say, the deal worked out very well.

We’ve never done a rerun on this page before, after all it’s called the What’s New page. But this week we thought we would rerun the “History of The Barn” story originally posted last summer, for anyone who is interested and might have missed it the first time. New posts will return next week.

Quarantine Series: The History Of The Barn

We get asked all the time about the history of the Barn. We usually just tell everyone that the Barn is coming up on its 100th anniversary as an antique store and offer a brief history. But since we have some time we thought we would give a more detailed history. Some dates and facts we know for certain because we have the historical and legal documents as well as old advertisements and newspaper articles to back them up. And some of the history is from stories that have been past down.

The Barn is actually two attached buildings as you can see from the photographs that are at the bottom of this article. The larger two story  building is “The Barn”. The other building was an addition we now call “the front room”. The Barn is believed to have been built in 1827. That is the date attached to the photos in the region of Peel archives. But who built it, its original location and exact age are unknown.

The building was about 90 years old when it was purchased by Sydney Preston in 1917. It was moved to Clarkson road and Lakeshore road and operated as the Clarkson Fruit Market. Fun fact: Clarkson was once known as the strawberry capital of Ontario. The Barn was moved for a second time a few years later, to its current location. About 30 years ago we bought some antiques from an elderly gentleman who told us that when he was a young man he had helped move the Barn to its current location. He said it was pulled by horses and rolled on logs. His job was to take the logs from behind the barn and run them up to the front of the barn so that it could continue to roll. He of course was a part of a team of young men who did this. I’m sure it was quite the undertaking.

Grace Fairbairn began working with Sydney Preston and started using part of the barn to sell antiques. We believe this stared in 1918 as Clarkson Market Antiques. If that date is accurate the Barn has already passed its 100 year anniversary as an antique store. There is an advertisement in the 1923 Highways and Byways of Ontario Automobile Road Guide which states: “This building is now the central clearing house for the antique treasures of rural Ontario, filled with the things that give joy to lovers of the artistic and useful. Mahogany and walnut, from the massive four-poster to the dainty tea-caddies, old china, brass, Sheffield plate; also Canadian handcrafted pottery, metal work, home hand-braided rugs, and original decorative work. Visitors welcomed.”. The amazing thing is that aside from hand-braided rugs we still carry all those items 97 years later. Although I wonder what Grace Fairbairn would think of the bobblehead garden gnomes and pink flamingos which we also sell?

What we know for certain is that the Clarkson market sold fresh fruits and vegetables as well as antiques. The business grew quickly and attracted collectors from across Canada and the United States. Hear is a link to an amazing article about the Clarkson Market and Miss Grace Fairbairn from Maclean’s in 1924.
https://archive.macleans.ca/article/1924/11/1/mixing-human-nature-and-business;-making-a-real-success-of-it

In 1931 Grace Fairbairn purchased the barn from the estate of Sydney Preston. We recently discovered from tax records that the current “front room” was built in 1932. We had long believed that it was built in the 1920’s. Grace and her sister Agnes ran The Clarkson Antique Market into the 1960’s. In their later years the sisters lived across the street and would sit on their porch. If they had a customer they would walk across the street.

Alice Millar bought the building in 1966 and ran the business as Heritage House Antiques. She was not as successful as the Fairbairn sisters. The building was divided up into individual booths and was similar to how many antique markets are laid out today. The business soon closed and had been shuttered for some time when Frank came into the picture in 1969.

Frank is the current owner of The Barn. He goes just by Frank because no one ever pronounced his last name correctly so he just gave up and went with Frank. In 1963, Frank was 20 years old and trying to make money to put himself through university. Having the entrepreneurial spirit he rented out a farm and decided to turn the farmhouse into a rooming house. He figured if he rented rooms by the week he could make more money than if he rented by the month. Two or three extra days every month would make a big difference to the bottom line.

Frank needed cheap furniture to furnish his rooming house and came across a junk store at the corner of George Street and Randal street in Oakville. For reasons that have never been clear the owner of the store asked Frank if he wanted to buy the store. Frank has always liked buying more than selling and he agreed to buy the store. In 1963 “The Nook” of Oakville began. Frank quickly realized that antique dealers, store owners, and auctioneers would buy more product than retail customers. So the business became predominantly wholesale, and Frank quickly developed a large clientele among antique dealers and auctioneers. Frank preferred selling on low margins with high volume, that is still how we do things today. Frank couldn’t find enough antiques locally to keep up with demand, so he began to travel in search of product.

By 1969 Frank had outgrown “The Nook” and it was closed. Because his business was predominantly wholesale he didn’t need a retail location that was open most days. What he needed was a warehouse, and in 1969 Frank began renting the Barn as a warehouse. He travelled as far west as California, as far east as Newfoundland, and he spent about half of 1969 in Texas. If you get him on a good day he will tell stories about cowboy boots and snakes from his Texas days. When he had acquired enough inventory he would call his wholesale clientele and they would come to the Barn to buy.

By some point in 1970 Frank had developed a schedule and a network of suppliers in the United States and began opening up The Barn three days a week, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. The business was called A & A Antiques Fine Furniture and Antiques, to be first in the phone book. That was very important at the time. But everyone just called the place The Barn, for obvious reasons.

Frank’s schedule was brutal. He would hit the road Sunday night around midnight, drive to New York, or Philadelphia, or Cleveland most weeks. He would drive a 40 foot semi truck, and buy enough to fill the trailer. He would pack the trailer himself, he got so much practise over the years that he became the world’s greatest packer. He would drive back, and unload Thursday night. On Friday morning he would meet all the antique dealers and auctioneers for breakfast at a dinner that used to be across the street from The Barn. He would sell as much as possible on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Than hit the road again Sunday at midnight. He did this nearly every week for 19 years. He developed such a good network of buyers in Cleveland that some weeks he would go there twice. The most trips he ever did in a year was 66. This schedule took a tool and after 19 years Frank decided to get off the road. He had had enough of hotel rooms. And to this day he still hates to travel. But it paid off, after many years of renting Frank managed to buy The Barn.

During this time the business did have retail customers and film and television production customers, but the focus was wholesale and volume. The business just wasn’t geared to retail. For one thing there was no price tags on anything, there wasn’t time. The turnover was too quick. Frank would just do the math in his head when someone wanted a price. There was often four to six trucks outside each one belonging to a customer who was buying dozens or hundreds of pieces, so there just wasn’t time to spend on retail customers who only wanted to buy one or a few pieces. The Barn was extremely busy in those days, it was controlled chaos. And like during Grace Fairbairn’s time customers started coming from all over Canada and the United States and even further. We have had customers come from as far as Tokyo Japan and Aqaba Jordan.

It wasn’t just antiques, Frank always sold new items or reproductions as well. I will talk more about reproductions in future posts. After Frank got off the road we started carrying more reproductions. Buying more direct from the public locally. We bought an endless number of estates. Frank always did like buying in quantity. And we started importing containers. Over the years we’ve imported containers of new and antique product from England, Scotland, Romania, Hungary, Vietnam, and China. There may have been more, those are just the one’s we can remember. Over the years we’ve also made deals with lots of different business partners to acquire products and containers from dozens of countries.

Let’s update new arrivals from the last few weeks.

The large totem poles are back, in two different styles. We also got in the multi legged stools in two sizes-a photo is below. There is also a photo of some fun hand carved wooden owls that showed up.

Attached to last week’s update there is a photo of cups and saucers. We got in a couple of batches, about 30 total. Surprisingly, there was seven Paragon which are the most popular these days. There rest were a variety including: Aynsley, Royal Albert, Royal Crown Derby, Royal Winton, Windsor, Rosina, Adderley, Queen Anne, Crafton, Salisbury, Gladstone, Crown Trent Staffordshire, Mentone, and Royal Stafford.

There was also a nice collection of Belleek that arrived. A photo of that collection is part of last week’s update as well.

New antique furniture arrivals include: small 1940’s Art Deco bookcase, set of 4 kitchen chairs painted green, pair of Duncan Phyfe walnut lamp tables, pair of maple night stands, Nectel Duncan Phyfe dining room table, pair of colonial chairs also painted green, a pair of whitewashed open corner cabinets, small thatched wicker table, red velvet living room chair, Bavarian three drawer inlaid dresser, Queen Anne style games table, small plant table, rare nest of five inlaid tables, Queen Anne mahogany night stand, country French carved desk chair, and assorted odd chairs.

Even more new antique arrivals include: a variety of crystal, pair of ginger jars with stands, 2 vintage wall clocks, nice wicker sewing basket, 3 Victorian vases, 34piece set of Diamond china, 2 canes[one with a sterling band], oil lamps, 4foot wooden step ladder, rare harvest stoneware crock with 2 spouts, and assorted china including: lots of plates, Wedgwood, Royal Worcester, Chokin collection-24k gold, Paragon, and Royal Albert.

And a baker’s rack, not antique, showed up.