Trip Report- Missouri Antiquing

We’re back from a family visit to Missouri! Most of the time was spent visiting, but I did snap some photos of antiquing adventures. I didn’t bring any of this home with me. My new favorite thing, other than shopping, is sort of “photo shopping”, to take photos of cool finds. Then I don’t need to store them, but I still get the satisfaction of the treasure hunt!

We went from the very top of Missouri to the very bottom, all in the same trip. Lots of driving, but not as much antiquing as in time past. We were at the top of the state on a Sunday, so no antiquing up that way- but I have gone in the past and found it pretty fun and reasonable.

First stop on the way down to the bottom of the state- Brass Armadillo in Grain Valley. This is sort of in the greater Kansas City area. This store is open until 9pm every day, which is how we happened to stop in. I was so tired by the end, but there were still more hours of driving to be done!

The prices were comparable to online and California prices, so we didn’t really get much. I thought I didn’t get anything, but I did adopt a few patterns. Perhaps I’ll share photos later. I loved this general store style setup of one booth.

The store was so big there’s literally shopping carts. And there’s vending machines and tables for if you get hungry mid-way through shopping.

Not much in the way of hats on this trip, which is shocking, since I usually come home with a sizable pile of hats. These were the best 40s hats I saw the whole trip, but they were priced $75+. Most hats I saw were late 50s and 60s.

There was this 20s hat, which is undoubtedly the strangest accordion-like thing I’ve ever tried on from the era.

This head form was neat to see.

A few rather nice Edwardian/1910s baby clothes were there.

And this very narrow petticoat, which I suspect may have been made-over from a christening gown. I love the diagonal insertion. Some of the motifs looked hand embroidered, while some looked machine-done. I probably should have adopted this, but at 8pm I wasn’t making the best choices! It was only $15.

Later, we went to an antique store in Rogersville, which I have no photos of, and then we went to Ozark, there there’s probably about four giant antique malls in the same spot. Each is like grocery store/walmart size. No joke. We didn’t get to go to all, but we did go to a few over the course of the trip.

This squirrel looked like he was up to something naughty. I believe this was at Camp Flea in Ozark.

Then down to Branson, where there was a sort of flea market/antique store. About half new/half used/antique. I basically went because I knew there was homemade jam and I wanted some for breakfast. I believe it was called AppleTree Mall.

I found the construction of this 40s apron to be quite inspiring. The pockets and top portion are made of strips of fabric on the straight of grain, that are then woven to create the shape.

Then final stop on the way back up to the airport was Country Classics Antiques in Bolivar, where we just had a short time to jet through since we were running quite late!

I love the old General Store-style setups in the antique malls out here. Love the advertising art!

This is the number one thing I wish I could have brought home. This stamping powder was for industrial sewing. Kansas City had one of the largest garment districts in the unites states, so this was really cool to see. It was still full!

A giant spool cabinet.

And a very 20s/30s wash basin and pitchers. I usually think of these as being much earlier, and forget there’s farms out this way that would not have had running water until later than cities.

That’s about it! Hope you enjoyed this antique roundup.

Oh, and P.S. I have decided to continue my social media hiatus, so don’t expect me back on there for fall. School has started now, and I’ve decided I rather like the quiet and don’t feel as visually/mentally overstimulated, so I’ll be sticking to the blog for now. xoxo.