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A New Season Brings New Antiques
Written By: Deena Bouknight | Issue: June 2023
A new season brings a fresh crop of antiques to Vivianne Metzger Antiques, located at 31 Canoe Point off Valley Road in Cashiers. The shop and warehouse are open Tuesday-Saturday, from 10:30 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. For more information, email [email protected] or visit vmantiques.com.
Cherie Tibbetts
While many people might hunker down during the winter months, the staff of Vivianne Metzger Antiques is busy traipsing all over England and other areas to find unique, interesting, and historically significant pieces to bring to shoppers in the Cashiers-Highlands area.
Vivianne Metzger Antiques might be a little shop tucked away on a gravel road in Cashiers, but is full of significant treasures from Europe. And, for the past 26 years, the family-run business has been unloading containers of treasures every May so that the shop can be restocked for a new season.
“It starts with a trip to England, where Bill [Tibbetts] and I spend four weeks in beautiful English villages choosing, wrapping, boxing, and packing goods into an SUV we drive around the countryside, usually over 1,000 miles,” said Cherie Tibbetts, daughter of Vivianne Metzger. “Finding ‘smalls’ is the real hunt. Visiting antique shops, Sunday markets, and large international fairs are just some sources. A good day means buying 50 items of china, silver, cutlery, paintings, needlework, candlesticks, and much more.”
Tibbetts explained that purchasing furnishings requires visits to large warehouses, mostly on dealers’ farm properties. “It can take half a day at each stop, looking through hundreds of items, to find those few special pieces to bring back – often looking for a specific piece for a specific client,” she said.
Tibbetts added, “Once the buying is done, we turn it over to our shipper and packer. They collect all the goods at their warehouse in Nottingham [England] and pack the 40-foot container. Everything is carefully wrapped and strategically placed into the container; heavier items low with lighter items up top.”
“We buy a good bit of English garden stone,” Bill said, “so having an experienced packer that delivers a container with no breakage is huge for us. We always hope it all fits. Definitely a jigsaw puzzle to get over 1,000 items into the container.”
After the items arrive, the Vivianne Metzger Antiques team unpacks, cleans, waxes, polishes, and prices all the items so when shoppers walk into the shop all they see are shiny treasures to choose from.
