Mini hunt in Maine

Jason and I went on an antiquing trip yesterday in Maine. We started on Route 9 in our town of Somersworth, NH, crossed the Salmon Falls River and went into Berwick, ME. Route 9 goes through Berwick, then cuts over to Wells, joins with US-1, then cuts away again to follow the coast line. We continued up US-1 to Arundel, then turned around when the shops started to close around 5 to follow US-1 South to Kittery and hit some backroads to head home.

During our very pleasant trip, we stopped at quite a few antique shops. The first, Bo-Mar Hall Antiques and Collectibles, didn't have much in the way of dollhouse miniatures, but it had a lot of train goodies. My dad would LOVE this place and I will probably take him to check it out if they come up to visit this summer.

The next stop was at a group of shops further up the road on the right. I believe the group of shops is called Wells Union, and it includes a wonderful shop, that sells items made from recycled materials, named Smith - Zukas. They have small porcelain "water balls" which could be useful for all kinds of non-mini purposes I suppose. :) Also in this group were two smaller shops, names I cannot recall right now, one which had an amazing 1920s antique New England farmhouse and barn. It looked to be about 1/2" scale. And I am kicking myself for not taking a picture. We may have to go back to get dimensions and take some pics. The price was well over a grand, and it probably won't be going into my collection any time in the near or far future, but it's such a lovely piece just to admire.

Further up the road, also on the right was a shop where I hit the mini jackpot. Pay close attention, readers, if you end up in Maine and are hitting the southwest coast antique shops, go to Reed's Antiques and Collectibles. Here's the sign as I took it standing in front of the building:
It had antique dollhouse furniture and accessories in its glass cases, plus TWO dollhouses out on the floor. I was very excited!
The first dollhouse was a model of a home somewhere in Massachusetts, and I am not sure it was exactly to 1/12th scale. The rooms were very deep and the ceilings were somewhat lower than my Glencroft. Yet it looked to have 1" scale doors and windows...
Here's a picture:
I can't remember the price, but I remember it being between 70-100 dollars.

The other dollhouse was a pleasant surprise when I first saw it, because it is one of the dollhouses on my wishlist! A Westville by Greenleaf!
They were asking about 225.00 for the house. Some of the gingerbread was broken off, and whoever put the house together went overboard with the wood glue inside. Unfortunately, I don't have the time to rehab this beautiful little house, or the money to purchase this particular one, but it may be a nice match for someone out there who would like to put the time and energy into taking care of this pretty thing.

But having seen it reinforced that I do indeed want one. :)

I did leave with some lovely items. First, I want to mention that they were having some reasonable discounts on many of their items, including my new-to-me hutch:
It looks GREAT already in the unfinished kitchen of the Glencroft I'm building. :) As you can see I also took home two very lovely little pots, striped with my favorite colors: blue and green.
Here's a better picture of those:
They are going in the herb/world goods shop for a mini person to buy. :)

There were a few other pieces of furniture, some pewter minis and many accessories. It's worth taking a look around the shop. :)

The next, and last, shop we went to, was the HUGE Antiques USA building in Arundel, past Kennebunk, on US-1. We ended up not buying anything here, but my mini-addicted self was enjoying some of the fun finds, including one really old dollhouse and one very detailed little church (probably 1/4" or 1/2" scale - I really need to bring the tape measure along next time...).

Pretty, huh? There were also one or two 1/12th scale mini pieces, lots of 1/6th scale pieces, and plenty of accessories that were quite old in many of the glass cases. It's definitely worth taking a look!

Once we left this store, it was near 5, when all the shops were closing their doors, so we headed back to NH. :)