A sad loss for Kalama

The historic Heritage Square building in Kalama was destroyed by fire June 10

Owners of Heritage Square Antiques in downtown Kalama, WA called us this morning to report that their historic 113-year-old wood-frame building burned down June 10. What a sad loss! It was reported that the cause of the fire was next-door neighbors tossing an ashtray out their window. The store and its contents, a fine collection of antiques, was totally destroyed.

The fire was filmed and made available on YouTube.

Superb style in the genes

When exquisite taste is genetic, why not partner-up in antiques? Arlyne Meyer and Michelle Cardwell, the mother-and-daughter team at A Moment in Time have opened a second antiques store in the Niles District of Fremont, CA, where they'll feature fine furniture, pictures and mirrors. The new store, A Moment in Time Too is at 37312 Niles Blvd, and the phone number is 510-790-6300.

They'll also continue with their original location at 37396 Niles Blvd, where the emphasis is on exquisite hand-painted porcelains—the largest collection on the West Coast!

Quilts, Crafts and Old Radios in Aurora

"If there are no quilting bees in heaven, I'm not going."

from Jean Kirkpatrick's Aurora: An American Experience in Quilt, Community and Craft

If you're in Oregon and you love quilts and early crafts, don't miss the current exhibit at the Aurora Colony Museum which brings to life settings from popular author Jean Kirkpatrick's full-color book, "Aurora: An American Experience in Quilt, Community and Craft." Displayed are not only handmade quilts but artifacts contributed by a number of Aurora families, creating vignettes of home life in the Aurora colony of the 1800s, which lived communally and developed skills in a number of crafts. The exhibit continues through June 6. Shown here is one of the settings illustrated in the book and recreated in the exhibit.

Tomorrow the last Flea Market of the season will be held in Aurora, in the American Legion Hall at 3rd and Main, 9am-4pm.

And radio aficionados should stop in Aurora next weekend, when the Antique Radio Show and Sale will take place, also at the American Legion Hall, 9am-3pm. The Northwest Vintage Radio Society will present a big display of vintage radios.

Blunders and Absurdities

At last it can be told: the new edition of Cochran's Collector's Guide has been uploaded and is ready for your perusal. The paper version was distributed about six weeks ago, and can now be found in any of our advertisers' stores, from Washington State to Arizona.

The new cover is pictured here on our home page, at upper left. Please keep in mind that the cover is green this year; it's important that you make this distinction because the previous edition, with a cinnamon brown cover, has the same year imprinted on it. Yes, we made a big mistake, and will be living with it for the next year. Endless phone calls and emails: "Um, did you know the new book has the same date on it as last years?" One shop in Washington actually dumped all their new books at the Palmer-Wirfs Show, thinking they were the old edition. (sigh...)

I've taken to reading this quote every so often just to remember that life goes on, even after the most egregious of errors. And will get better, if we don't dwell on the past.

"Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense."
Ralph Waldo Emerson

So take a look at the Guide's online version by clicking on the Contents button above. We still have a little tweaking to do, and the links have not yet been activated, but I'll have them done before the New Year. And may your holiday season be serene and joyful, and take you into the New Year in high spirits.

Window Shopping

With Thanksgiving only a couple of weeks away, antique stores are decorating for Christmas and planning big open house festivities for that weekend. Windows are being dressed in their holiday finery, and while it's too early to bring on live Christmas trees, the artificial trees are turning up everywhere.

Niles Antiques on Niles Blvd. in Fremont, CA has one of the most beautiful window displays I've ever seen: uncluttered, dramatic and with penguins and a polar bear instead of the usual reindeer and elves. Well done, Ron and Madeline!

By the way, Thanksgiving weekend marks the Niles Merchants' Open House, followed by their Christmas Tea and Tour the first Saturday in December, both sponsored by the Niles Merchants' Association. And on December 12, Niles Main Street is planning a Holiday Home Tour.

It's a Wrap!

...well, just about, anyway. The 20th Annual Cochran's Collector's Guide is going to press, and within a couple of weeks it'll be available in all the stores listed, as well as the shows in our 24-page Events section. Here's the cover, so you'll know what you're looking for.
All my favorite colors. Inside are some new towns that haven't appeared in the Guide before, such as Coburg, OR and Templeton, CA. A large number of individual dealers in malls decided this year to strut their stuff with Associate Listings, so not only do you get an overview of a store's merchandise, you get an idea of some of the specialties you'll find there. Many stores submitted photos, so when you're driving around looking for them, you already know what they look like, saving yourself time and gas.

By January 1, our webmaster Jim will have the entire edition uploaded on this website, so it can be viewed by anyone with Internet access.

It's a big job, but after 20 years, we think we've got a handle on it.

Rumors of My Demise are Greatly Exaggerated

It's been two weeks plus since I posted here last, and everyone may be thinking I'm dead, and they're not far wrong: it's deadline for our 20th annual Cochran's Collector's Guide. This means 18-hour days on the computer and the telephone, leaving little time for luxuries like blogging. But I've printed out our first draft, we go to press early next week and there's a bright and steady light at the end of the tunnel that is NOT an oncoming train.

I've been in phone contact with hundreds of people from Washington to Arizona, helping them update their information, welcoming dozens of new stores and a couple of new shows. I've also been hearing sad stories about people I've gotten to know over the years who have retired, lost their lease, lost dear family members. Some antique shops that have been in business for decades have closed their doors. "The economy" was cited as the reason many stores are closing, although in some areas I'm hearing that business is better than ever.

One of the best responses I've seen to lagging business is the shop that decided to send out cards to everyone on their mailing list and host a tea party. Special events require some planning and enthusiasm, demand a fresh look at one's surroundings and how they might be presented at their best.

The warm, inviting Victoria Rose tea room in Clovis was the scene for a recent very successful auction dinner

Speaking of tea, the Victoria Rose Tea Room in Clovis, CA, which also has antiques, just put on its first Auction Dinner, which was such a success it's going to be a regular event. Items in the auction came from many of the stores in Clovis's very active antique row, so everyone was pleased with its success.

Another shop owner reports that every time she gets busy...cleaning, dusting, unpacking or doing research on her computer, customers wander in.

I'm hoping many of the store owners who participate in the Collector's Guide will take their digital cameras to work and spend an hour or two taking photos for the free web pages we offer. When the hardcopy Guide has gone to press, I plan to spend a lot of time building new web pages, which offer dealers a chance to display their merchandise on the Internet, even if they don't own a computer or do email (yes, I can scan photos, too). Want to see what I'm talking about? Click on Store Pages to go to the Index, listed by locations. I'm no webmaster, but I'm hoping the photos speak for themselves.

Stores that have active web pages can inject a little excitement into their presentations with new photos, too. I can't tell you how many people I've talked to who say, "Well, yes, we have a website but we haven't done anything with it in a looooong time." Meanwhile, they're paying for a service they're not getting full use of, to be ungrammatical about it.

I love colorful kitchenalia that's also useful. So this hutchfull of goodies photographed at Antique Legacy in Sacramento's 57th St. Antique Row really grabbed my attention.

Blogs are a stupendous way to show the world what you have to offer, and I'm always adding blogs from dealers to my bloglist (hoping, of course, that they'll reciprocate). My latest addition, Antique Legacy at the 57th Street Antique Row in Sacramento. Monica, the blogger, really knows how to beguile with photos of her latest acquisitions. Like me, she blogs at Blogspot, a free service. If you're going to have internet access, why not make the most of it?

Kovels Komments addressed the issue of collectors and the economy this week, with an optimistic view backed by some sound reasons, that "Collectors should be able to survive a bad economy better than most." Read it for if you're looking for a little attitude adjustment.