Peacocks and Antiques

Great buys and a great setting await shoppers in northern Illinois near-ish to my home--and I will share my story about one of the most unusual places I troll around for treasures.

I know YOU know I can’t tell you name and location-and probably you, Dear Reader, already even know who she is and where I am talking about. I am describing a farmette in northern Illinois that is a treasure trove for antiques and a curious and attractive setting at the same time.

I know very little about the seller--other than that she has an eclectic life, and has a great eye for finding the unusual decorative piece and the complete knack for knowing how to price it right. Let’s call her Lady Farmer. I NEVER see something and pass it by because it is priced too high. And I am looking for the wholesale prices because I resell.

Lady Farmer lives on a little island in the middle of madness--surrounded by farm buildings and wild flowers and free range chickens and the odd goat and peacocks. Real peacocks--kind of like one of my new found favourite authors Flannery O’Connor. This dealer is constantly--I mean CONSTANTLY rearranging and moving her inventory and adding to it several times a week. I think she has a couple of friends who also sell in the farmette--as I see a few different names on tags.

The farmette has several buildings--a huge very old dairy barn, a chicken coop, some garden sheds, an old house and another old house all sprinkled on the property. Each building has a theme--garden, men’s things, victorian and just eclectic. Year round--absolutely year round-- our Lady Farmer opens her shops, turns on some calming new age or Native American based music and offers browsers a freshly baked chocolate cookie. Year round. I think when Husbola come with me--he eats two.

Lady Farmer gets it totally right. I don’t know how financially successful she is--but items I saw last week do not last into the following week. She retired a few years ago--but now is back like gangbusters.

Lady Farmer understands the business. Stale merchandise priced like it is still 1995 is the death knell. Collectible do-dads that collect dust are going further and further out of favor with today’s shopper. Her customers are of all ages--a real coup in itself. She puts unusual things in attractive vignettes and shows people how the items will look in their own home. Her prices are great--I never ask for a dealer discount which in most shops amounts to about 10 percent off. She finds it--she sets it out and cleans it up--I make money off everything I buy--somehow it just does not seem right to ask.

Lady Farmer’s customers are very lucky. For a short time we are transported into a different time and place--and most times come away with antique treasure. Do you know who she is? Shhhhhhhhh.