Waukesha Wisconsin Antique Malls

This Saturday I visited Waukesha with the idea to go to the Fox Riverwalk Antique Mall. The mall's website pictures looked nice, and it has been on my list for awhile now. Once in Waukesha, of course, I did not print out any directions so I drove around aimlessly for about 10 minutes until I saw my favorite sign - the wonderful sidewalk antique mall sign with an arrow. I pulled into the parking lot and it turns out I had stumbled upon a newly opened antique mall. Great! Love it when that happens. Right off the bat, free coffee and the mayor was even there taking pictures with the owners. Overall impression was a nice mall, little bit of everything, but not over the top with post-1950s stuff - I call these Collectible Malls. Not a lot of paper at this mall unfortunately. I did however buy a reprint of Amos Dolittle's Battle of Lexington. I think the print might be by RR Donnelley, but it was trimmed so the identifying marks are gone. I will be putting the print on ebay in the next few weeks. There was one booth that had lots of postcards, tons of matchbooks, stereoviews and old photographs. Another both had a lot of nice Wisconsin books and an 1895 tax roll for a county in Wisconsin that I now can't remember. The mall just opened in August and I hope it does well!

As I was buying the print, I asked the employee where the Fox mall was. He pointed across the parking lot and said walk across the bridge and there it is. My first impression of the mall was depressing. Lots of dealers had defected to the new mall and most of the items in the mall were crap - - stuff I see over and over and over again. Do any of these dealers ever so to other malls? Most of the booths should be liquidated in garage sales. I felt like I had been the doop of a bait and switch - pretty pics on a website - not so pretty up close and personal. After a 10 min walk through of the upstairs, I noticed a sign for the lower level, what the hell, it couldn't be worse! I walked in and instantly though - "Oh, yes it could." Then I turned left and Hallelujah! I saw paper and lots of it! Yippee, this outing would not be a bust and waste of gas. I started to sift through what the dealer had, and lots and lots of goodies. A couple of pictures, I have posted below. By far the most interesting is the Great Roll from Surrey for King George the Third.

A neat woodblock folded advertisement of the goods of Nagoya Japan

A letter regarding the play King John by Shakespeare performed in 1804 in England.


All of the above are going to be put on ebay tomorrow.

One final note, had a great ebay sale two weeks ago. At the Tomah Antique Mall, I passed a basket on a chair in a booth. I looked through it, mainly postcards and greeting cards, but I did find one little gem a Blackwell's Bull Durham tobacco card - cost $2.00. I wasn't exactly sure if the card was authentic, as it was larger than the other tobacco cards I have sold. I got home, looked it up in the American Tobacco Cards - great reference - and it was a N565 Illustrated Song Card. Card ended up selling for $275.00. This is why I love ebay! Picture of it below.