Pilgrims Antiques. West Street Dorking. Room 1 Bill's corner.

This week we will have a look at the final area in Room 1, the room you enter as you come through the door.

Bill has a small corner, crammed full of what we seem to call "boy's toys".
This label can cover many items - and lots of them actually many women would also be interested in.
He has vehicles of all kinds, soldiers, farms, binoculars and all sorts of odds and ends.
I notice that just at the moment he has no old cameras.
Things come and they go.
It is never possible to know what items of interest will turn up each week.


Bill is my husband. We do a lot together, including the buying and selling.
He is in the shop with me on on Mondays. Do come and see him or phone him if there is anything you would like to discuss or show him in his line.

The pictures tell their own stories really.
We both took these photographs; photography is another hobby that we share.

I do know that those dear little eggcups with 1950s motor cars on have already been sold.

Oh dear - can you imagine one of the men referring to them as "dear little egg cups?"

Last week the typewriter got moved to my area at the back of the shop.

Sometimes Bill looks after things that I am selling because I don't use a lockable cabinet.

Come on you men - there must be something here for your collection - or maybe drop a few hints at home so that the gift you get on your next birthday is something you really want!

Next week we will move up the few steps to Room 2.

Pilgrims Antiques Centre West Street Dorking cabinets in Room 1.

At the moment there are 15 of us in Pilgrim's Antiques.
Each of us rents space - and spaces come in various shapes and sizes. Some people rent 2 spaces.
And some people rent one single cabinet.
The rent includes an obligation to look after the shop for an appropriate amount of time.

There are 3 single cabinets in Room 1, just inside the entrance.


Mick joined us comparatively recently.
He sells china and glass of the most collectable and sought after kind.
At the moment he has a lot of Poole Pottery. He has had Clarice Cliffe china in the cabinet.
If it is a 20th century well known make you are after then Mick is your man.

The time given for the rent of one cabinet need not be more than one day a month - so you may not have met Mick. He is normally in the shop on a Tuesday - but I am not sure which Tuesday in the month is his day and it does rather depend on his other commitments.
If you are seeking china of the kind Mick sells, please phone the shop
and one of us will contact him.
01306 875028 is the number.

Just now you can find a silver plated cocktail shaker in his cabinet.

I assumed that the silver goblet items by the shaker were indeed containers for cocktails.

But I am not a cocktail drinker.

Mick has described them as vases.


Examples of 1960s Poole Pottery.

Various bits of china and pottery on the top shelf of Mick's cabinet.

The jug is Radford Pottery.


Judy and Hilary have cabinets side by side, facing the door.
Judy sells cutlery and other silver or silver plated items of table ware.

Hilary sells wonderful jewellery - all old and beautiful.

Judy's ladles and spoons.

One of the shelves in Judy's cabinet, which shows the kind of things she has to offer.

Judy is in the shop on a Saturday afternoon.

A blue selection from Hilary's cabinet.

The bracelet on the right is actually a deep turquoise colour and is made of bakelite or plastic and wood.

It probably dates from the 1950s.

Lovely necklaces, bracelets and a brooch. I am always entranced by the fresh stock that appears in Hilary's cabinet each week.

Sometimes she displays art deco styles, sometimes it is glitzy and diamante, and at other times she has Victorian pieces.

Do come and enjoy the quality and variety. And when you need a gift or want to treat yourself, then come in and buy.

A selection of jewellery in the cabinet.

I do love it when people ask to see rings - it gives me a chance to try them too!

1930s butterfly brooch.

Orchid brooch.

This dates from a time when it was not a problem to use ivory. This orchid is made of ivory and has been tinted.

The number you see on the label is to enable Hilary to keep a record of her stock. We nearly all have our own system for giving each item for sale its own number.

Hilary very generously gives more time than her one cabinet specifies. She is in the shop almost every Thursday.

We have almost finished a detailed look at Room 1. Next week will be a total contrast as we discover the treasures that Bill has in his corner - the boy's toys corner!

Pilgrim's Antiques centre West Street, Dorking Jill's glass and things

This week we will browse through Jill's shelves.

She could almost be known as Mrs Pilgrim Antiques, because I think she had been selling there for longer than anybody else.

Her specialist knowledge is glass.

But, like the rest of us, acquires all sorts of lovely and interesting things to sell.

If you are interested in fine glass or have any that you would like to part with, do come and talk to Jill on a Thursday.Or perhaps phone her at the shop on a Thursday at 01306 875028.

This wide view of Jill's are shows a wide range of glass - decanters, glasses, bowls, jugs etc from many eras.

I have tried to show with the following pictures the range of stock that Jill has.

Glass, pottery, jewellery, dressing table bowls with enamel lids.

Carnival glass and Bristol blue glass.


Decanter, soup bowls, pretty floral china, cutlery.

A giant Chines egg ornament. It stands about 2 feet high. I love it! I think it is quite modern, reflected in the price of about £25.


Modern glass.

Two decanters chosen at random. The one on the right is early 1800s.

Beautiful lustres to make a fine adornment to a dinner table.

Assorted glasses for wine, spirits, liqueurs etc. Buy them singly or in sets.

Jill has some ornaments too.

Etcehd glass and all sorts in her cabinet.

The finer glasses are also in the cabinet.

A present for a christening maybe.

There are always gifts to be found in Pilgrim's Antiques.

Pilgrim'sAntiques Centre West Street Dorking Telephones and things.

Pilgrim's Antiques, West Street, Dorking.
Having taken you on a tour of the shop last week, we will now concentrate on each person's area in turn.
I will start with Stephen.
It is Stephen who holds the shop together - he is in charge of the business side of things, electricity, insurance, phone and all that sort of thing.
We are very much a community and each of us will do what we can to help with the smooth running of the shop.
But, Stephen takes the final responsibility.

Stephen sells telephones - and all sorts of other things too.
In the 21st century people carry around their tiny mobile phones and very useful they are too. But there is nostalgia for the age when phones had style. Stephen makes sure all the phones are working and adapts them to current use in the home.

If you are interested in his stock and would like to chat with him, Tuesday is the best day.
You could phone him at the shop on that day on 01306 875028.

At the moment Stephen is using 2 areas. But we tend to be flexible and if somebody came along asking to join us, then I feel sure he would vacate the space in the 3rd room so that a new range of stock could be displayed.


This is Stephen's main selling space, just inside the door.
The leather topped knee hole desk is part of his stock. Stephen has small items of furniture and is good with wood, bringing items up to a fine finish - without ruining the patina that age and use naturally brings.

A phone to make you feel like a 1920s or 30s film star in Hollywood!

But its not all phones.

This copper funnel would enhance kitchen shelves.

Telephones in the window. We often see people stop and point and chat to each other about old fashioned phones.

Another technical device - it would have been found in the servants' quarters.

This one has local interest being manufactured (or was it installed by?) a Reigate company.

Stephen also loves gramophones and has paraphernalia for old fashioned record playing.

You might recall seeing the lovely juke box that he had in his space at one time - gone to a new home now, of course.

And there are scientific instruments.

This is a Chinese Victorian mahjong set. Stephen has this in his cabinet for somebody else for safe keeping.

Up the few steps and into Room 3 you will find more of Stephen's things on your left.

I love the handles on this dressing table.

Yes - a basket of rusty keys! People can spend a long time sorting through Stephen's keys to find one for a particular lock.

Old telephones on an occasional side table, with barley twist legs.

Next week I will feature another of our dealers and show the sort of things you would find in their area or cabinet.