What are the strangest things ever sold at an antiques store? One owner explains
As anyone knows who has visited our gallery, we like weird stuff. In fact, the weirder the better. At the moment, we have such treasures as disco balls, shrunken heads and even a giant angler fish costume that once headed a Chinese New Year's parade. Who wouldn't want to own that?
All the same, we are regularly asked about the strangest things we've ever had, so this column is a departure from the usual to give you a flavor of what makes this business so interesting. Without a doubt, we get some pretty bizarre items.
Under the category of aviation, we've had airport runway lights, Russian console clocks deployed in MiG-29s and Soyuz space capsules, and an entire B-24 instrument panel. Of special note was our purchase from a legitimate U.S. government auction of several F-16 warning light panels. Each was about the size of a 35mm camera and featured 60 individually activated lights, including "friend or foe" and "nuclear."
We converted them to nightlights and sold them quickly, only to be contacted a year later by military authorities anxious to know how we had obtained such highly restricted items. After explaining ourselves and presenting the proper receipts, we never heard from them again.
On the more clandestine side, one of our favorite finds of all time was a handful of CIA (?) lie detectors. They were of an old analog type with lots of straps and gauges and each was housed in a nondescript Samsonite briefcase. Rather remarkably, they were largely in working order, and one or two included instructions tucked into a flap, allowing us to have a wonderful time grilling our fellow workers.
Sadly, we missed out on a large quantity of lifelike human skulls used in medical training, the offering of which would have made us forever legendary in Halloween circles.
We've also had some wonderful garments pass through our gallery, including bulky Russian-made sheepskin jackets used by Ural mountain troops, a series of beautiful French and Italian naval peacoats undoubtedly from a couture house looking for extra work, and a complete Canadian prison warden uniform. This last, exceedingly well made, was accompanied by a beautifully lined Canadian greatcoat that we still have as of this writing. The fabric and stitching are absolutely top quality and it only lacks a high-end label that would have propelled its price into the stratosphere.
If any of you readers out there are extra-large and in need of premium outerwear, you need to see this thing. It's really special.
On the more domestic front, we've had antique butter molds, egg scales and an assortment of foot warmers that once would have been filled with hot water or oil. These were often fabricated from tooled copper or bronze that when polished make for beautiful household accents. All kinds of handmade lace have come and gone, and we've had flatware and tableware with markings from legendary hotels, mothballed ocean liners and the Italian air force.
Busts and statuary from famous and not-so-famous artists are also on the shelves, including a pair of giant cranes made entirely of jade. You definitely won't find those at IKEA.
And since Palm Springs is a celebrity-heavy town, we've had a pair of custom lamps from a Larry Hagman party, a wide array of original movie props and posters and a pair of bejeweled handcuffs used by Zsa Zsa Gabor in her nightclub act from the 1990s. The handcuffs stemmed from a famous incident in which Zsa Zsa slapped a police officer for stopping her for what she viewed as a petty traffic violation.
Finally, let's not forget the Swiss army bikes, the antique French lottery machine and a vast array of unusual clocks and watches. So, you can see that if we're always hard-pressed to name a favorite, there are many great ones here that come and go.
Mike Rivkin and his wife, Linda, are longtime residents of Rancho Mirage. For many years, he was an award-winning catalogue publisher and has authored seven books, along with countless articles. Now, he's the owner of Antique Galleries of Palm Springs. His antiques column appears Sundays in The Desert Sun. Want to send Mike a question about antiques? Drop him a line at info@silverfishpress.com
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: What are the strangest things ever sold at an antiques store?
