GENEVA – Dozens of dealers at Geneva Antique Market offer a diverse and eclectic inventory, everything from books and magazines to toys, cameras, vintage jewelry, American folk art, glassware – you name it.
Readers of "West Suburban Living" have voted them "Best Antique Market in the Western Suburbs" for three years.
Now marking its 20th anniversary in the lower level of the Berry House, 227 S. Third St., the dealers are hosting an anniversary open house from 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Sept. 9 during the Festival of the Vine. Refreshments will be served, and nonperishable food items will be accepted for donation to a local food pantry.
The 12 dealers who comprise the Geneva Antique Market co-op have grown into a family, said Kaye Siblik, 70, who with her husband Joseph, 71, have been a part of the group for 18 years.
"Each one is a separate business," Siblik, of St. Charles, said. "We come together to create a business and pay rent to one landlord. We take turns at the store, and there's always two dealers there. We have grown like Topsy, starting out in one room, then three, then the hallway, landing and cases out in the hallway."
Siblik said she specializes in vintage jewelry and postcards, her husband in antique toys, trains and trucks. Together, they sell Flow Blue China, dishes from the late 1800s with cobalt blue coloring that bleeds a little.
"That's what they love – the blur," Siblik said.
Most dealers get into antique sales "by the back door of collecting," taking the things they like and turning it into a business, Siblik said.
That certainly was true for Bobbi Schoenenberger, 75, of Geneva, who has been a dealer there for 19 years.
"It was just like fortune smiled on me when I found that place," Schoenenberger said.
"We moved into my family home here in Geneva. I had six storage units of stuff that I could not fit into my house," Schoenenberger said. "My husband said, 'Wouldn't it be better to pay rent on a place where you could see it?' And it was as simple as that."
She hauled most of her antique furniture into the Geneva Antique Market. After that sold, she got more into smaller items. Her specialty is books, magazines and postcards.
"We were able to take new people in and keep the camaraderie," Schoenenberger said of the co-op. "It's fun being on Third Street. You get all kinds of people shopping and a lot see things they like and did not plan to buy."
Siblik said the co-op keeps the membership at 12 and has a waiting list. Some stay long; others leave or go out of business.
"Some have disappeared from the scene in this economy," Siblik said.
That is why it is unusual, she said, to find an antique market in business for 20 years in the same location and rare for the core dealer group to remain nearly unchanged.
The market offers an electronic newsletter called "Vintage Voice" by free subscription, carrying shop news, promotions, tips on antique care and information on Geneva events.
In addition to its own website, www.genevaantiquemarket.com, dealers host an online antique store on Ruby Lane, www.rubylane.com/shop/genevaan tiquemkt and they're also on Facebook.
Other dealers and their specialties are: Ron and Pam Amato (toys and cameras), Carol VandenBrook (paintings, prints and textiles), Stanley Vanthournout (vintage Christmas), Jim and Becky Decker (American folk art), Susan Cincinelli (Teddy bears, primitives, cloth dolls), Kathy Garrett (mid-century kitchenware), Janice Weller (jewelry, buttons), Betse and Richard Malkowski (books), Dee Hii ( jewelry, China and glassware), and Donna Soderquist (ironstone and lighting).
