Antiques from Two Towns

My recent foray into Wisconsin took me to two antique stores: School House Antique Mall in Hixton, and a new find in the back of the Viroqua Public Market. 

School House is bigger, cheaper, and more out-of-the-way, while the Viroqua store is more curated, expensive, and in a bit of tourist destination. Though it's also out-of-the-way in a different manner, since the Driftless Region isn't exactly in the middle of everything.

I didn't keep great track of which photo is from which place, but I'm pretty sure I have the School House photos first.

I was tempted by this hand-painted ceramic umbrella stand with bas-relief animals all over it, but I talked myself out of it. I don't have enough umbrellas that are that long:

Some very cool hand lettering:

A charmingly ugly pirate. I haven't heard of Shearwater Pottery before, but it looks like this piece is worth $55:

Probably the funniest thing I saw. This is a regular paper coffee cup, with fold-out handles, from McDonald's, I'm not sure how old it is. 20 years? Probably never used. It was either $2 or $3:

 

A very cool fire extinguisher:

Eat your oats, and check out the (probably) asbestos ceiling tiles of the school house's theater stage while you're at it:

Then it's on to the Viroqua Public Market store, which is inside of a large brick building that used to house an auto garage, and more wooden crates.

First there was one for some special corsets that have no brass eyelets:

And then there was a small crate with dove-tailed corners. It made me realize I never thought about how root beer was made:

Last but not least, there was this paperboard box for a toxic product (belladonna!) that I thought would have been left in the dustbin of history:

But I see that belladonna plasters are still sold by quacks to this day, particularly, it appears, in the U.K. Over-the-counter sale of belladonna is illegal in the U.S.