Published: December 04, 2006 11:25 am      

Q & A: James Walaski - Kenmore antique and gift shop owner

A few months ago James Walaski was driving down Delaware Avenue, en route to a wedding for a couple he did not know.

He happened to glance over and saw a vacant shop. Walaski pulled over and looked in the window. He returned Saturday and did the same. After going to a flea market at 4 a.m. Sunday, Walaski took his mother to see the shop. By Monday, Walaski had rented it.

Walaski and his mother, Josie, had been looking for a suitable storefront for over a year. The mother and son were trying to find the perfect space to open their second antique and gift shop.

“It was like it was just meant to be,” Walaski said.

The space was going to be used as a tattoo parlor. However, the village would not allow it, Walaski said. The plan had just fallen through. Walaski called just in time.

Walaski, who is originally from Salamanca, has been collecting and dealing antiques since his childhood. For the past 14 years Walaski has called Tonawanda his home. His mother, also a collector, moved to Tonawanda two years ago after his father died.

Walaski and his mother had talked about opening another shop over the past few years. Their first shop was in Salamanca and closed many years ago.

“My mother and I always said that we had enough to stock a store with, so we decided to take the plunge,” Walaski said.

Two months after Walaski found the empty store, Miss Josies, 2834 Delaware Ave., was open for business.

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QUESTION: How did you get interested in antiques?

ANSWER: I started out collecting small glass animals. My parents would take me to yard sales and estate sales and the local flea market in Salamanca for as long I can remember. At the local flea market there was a dealer who took me under her wing and taught me a lot. I was 12 years old the first time we ran a yard sale. I think we made around $500, which was a lot of money back then, and I was hooked. My mom would get up every Saturday morning and take me to the flea market with my boxes of stuff, help me set up and then she would come back and pick me up in the evening. We would do the same thing on Sunday. One thing lead to another and by the time I was 18, mom and I opened our first shop. I then moved off to spread my wings and mom closed the shop. I have been doing antique shows ever since, up and down the east coast. While mom and dad did local shows and flea markets in the area.

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Q: What is the most unique antique you have found and where here did you find it?

A: The most unique piece I found was a very interesting Petticoat mirror. It was made of chalk ware in the 1890’s and was of a beautiful art nouveau lady that was completely painted and gilded with gold. She had her arms raised and held up a small oval mirror. She was made to sit on the floor of a dressing room and Victorian ladies would use her to make sure their petticoats weren’t showing. Alan Miller (Walaski’s life partner) and I bought it at a flea market in Pennsylvania. She wasn’t the most expensive piece that I ever bought and sold, but she was right up their among my favorites. We sold her in Charlotte, N.C., at a huge antique show. The reason that I thought she was unique is she was in excellent shape. Usually a chalk ware piece has been broken and repaired. She still had her original paint.

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Q: What is the most expensive antique you have found?

A: The most expensive antique that I have found to date is a lace tablecloth that was made in Italy around the turn of the last century. It is all hand done lace, very fine, with lots of figures in the lace like mermaids, mermen, fruit, cherubs, etc. I believe there are over 150 of them worked in the lace. The lace was Point De Venice, which means stitches in air. It probably took the person making it over 10 years to do it. We actually found it at the Expo in Clarence several years ago. We paid $300 for it and in a reference book, we found a very similar one that booked for $20,000. We kept this for several years and then actually sold it. It was a once in a lifetime piece, and it was a great pleasure to be able to say that we owned it.

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Q: Why do you think this area needs an antique store?

A: We actually are more than just an antique store, we are a gift shop and antique store. I feel that we fill a niche that was void in this area. We are a general line shop that carries a little bit of everything, glassware, china, jewelry, vintage clothing, linens, textiles, furniture, and accessories. There are some really great shops in the area, but none that carry the same lines that we do. I wanted to stay in the Kenmore-Tonawanda area because I think we need more small businesses to make the area what it used to be.

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Q: What type of people do you think your store will attract?

A: We have a wide range of customers already. We have been open for less than two weeks and the customer base has been amazing. We have young ladies that are buying vintage dresses for their formal school dances. We have had dealers in that are buying things for resale and collectors looking for that special piece. Because of the wide variety of things that we carry, there is something here for everyone.

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Q: What is it like being business partners with your mother?

A: My mother is my best friend, and everything we have been through with my father’s illness and death made our bond stronger than ever. This is not to say that we do not have our moments when we don’t agree, but we can usually reach a compromise. You would never know that my mother is 81 years old, sometimes her memory is off a bit, but she has forgotten more than I will ever know. I am blessed that she is in such great health and that we have this time together.

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Q: Where do you see your store 10 years from now?

A: Ten years from now I see us right where we are with a shop filled with beautiful things that will still be attracting customers. We are in this for the long haul. This was not a venture that was entered into lightly, but with lots of planning.

Contact Cortney McMahon

at 693-1000, Ext. 158.