Dude.
Anthony's Fine Art and Antiques
This place is absolutely incredible.
I'm slightly obsessed with old houses and I drove by this awesome looking old mansion in downtown Salt Lake City.
Winters in Utah can get tedious and I don't do well sitting at home all day doing kid crafts. I jump at any opportunity to do something different as long as it doesn't involve the police or stripping. Anyway, I drove past the mansion and saw it was an antique shop so I immediately parked and skipped up to the door with my two kids in tow.
You have to ring the doorbell to get in. A portly yet distinguished looking man answers the door.
I pretended to be interested in antiques and asked him if he had any early American double-handed saw blades.
He said the shop carried much higher end pieces, not poor people saw blades.
I asked if I could creep around anyway. He looked at me a little weird and told me to watch my kids carefully.
The older man and another staff guy were actually amazingly nice, answered Ryan's questions and showed us some of the more interesting things they had in stock.
I will say that my kids are actually awesome in public. Ryan didn't touch anything and I hog-tied Tyler to my hip.
I had to sneak and take pictures since no photography was allowed.
Initially I just wanted to see the inside of the mansion but THIS SHOP HAD SOME OF THE MOST AMAZING ANTIQUES I HAVE EVER SEEN. Real suits of armor, a gigantic wooden telescope, hand-carved grandfather clocks, real fossils from Morocco, and a lot of naked people statues.
And if there is one thing I love, it's naked people statues.
It's like porn for classy people.
It was like walking through a museum of amazing things you could get up close to, touch, and dream of being able to afford one day never.
Only a few pieces had price tags, and those that did were crazy. There was a $125,000.00 Louis XV Style Piano from 1883. A silent film star's diamond earrings for $18,500.
They had huge stained glass windows made for a chapel in Belgium in 1850 for $400,000.
After seeing how expensive everything was I couldn't believe they let my kids in there.
I actually wrote them a Thank You card afterwards, because I'm sure they knew my tacky self would never buy something there, and it was a huge liability to let two runny nosed kids walk around.
Seriously though, if you live in Utah and you like free museums, you HAVE to go here..... and totally bring your kids.
