Small Comforts Antiques (4329 West ioth Avenue, Westside, 604-222-4992) sells “anything truly Canadian and antique,” says owner Robert Reid. That may include a “butter bowl” from Ontario; a maple-sugar mold from Quebec; or a wire-mesh popcorn popper like the one we had at our summer cottage. Serious BC folk art? “It’s a rarity,” Reid admits.
Generic country stuff is the perennial rage, and one of the better outlets is Farmhouse Collections (2915 Granville Street, Central Vancouver, 604-738-0167). Here, alongside the furniture, you’ll find the usual wrought-iron roosters, but also rust-mesh hanging cone baskets and a great selection of rustic pails, bins, and vases.
You’re into a totally other realm at Architectural Antiques (2403 Main Street, East Vancouver, 604-872-3131). Its grandiose pieces appear in movies; the movie stars occasionally shop here for costly eccentricities. The store ceiling drips with antique lamps, the walls with sconces. The large premises also carries over-the-top period furniture, mantelpieces, and larger-than-life stained glass.
Actually, antiques and Main Street are synonymous all the way south to East 33rd Avenue. Baker’s Dozen Antiques (3520 Main Street, East Vancouver, 604-879-3348) carries Western Canadian pioneer and native collectibles, crafts, artwork, and knickknacks. But most of the practical furniture is found in an uneven mixture of ever-evolving stores on Main Street south of King Edward Avenue (technically East 25th Avenue). Vintage pinball machines and jukeboxes are refurbished and sold at John’s Jukes (2343 Main Street, East Vancouver, 604-872-5757).
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