Return to Transcripts main page
American Morning
Gifts at Chi-town Antique Shop
Aired December 19, 2001 - 09:42 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Still looking for the perfect Christmas gift in the six shopping days you have left? Time to panic.
Jeff Flock comes to us from the Windy City with some unique gift ideas that may work out for you.
Good morning, Jeff.
What do you have there?
JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Paula, good morning to you. The things that I love. What do I love? I love history, and I love not throwing things away, which means I am completely in my glory this morning. I am surrounded by antiquities. Those were juggling pins from the Victorian Era. These are, for $2 each, crystals from an old crystal chandelier. Take a look at this: These are fossils dug from the ground in Morocco; those are $5 each. Across the room there, I think there is the clock from the train station in Buffalo, New York: $38,000.
This is a place called Architectural Artifacts.
Stewart Granan (ph), what are you holding in your hand there? It looks like somebody's head.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A French enamel doll head from the 1900s.
FLOCK: Wow! These are stocking stuffers, I suppose.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
FLOCK: Look at this guy. He's got the Christmas ribbon on. What is this guy?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Carved limestone gargoyle, one of the pair off a big building.
FLOCK: How much?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: $5,900 each.
FLOCK: Super.
You specialize in saving old things. I just love all this stuff. I want to look at everything that you've got in here. A lot of people are very interested in this sort of thing for Christmas gifts because it is something distinctive.
What are we looking at here?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Victorian tiles from England depicting Aesop's Fables. That one's "The Wolf and the Lion."
FLOCK: I know have you got a lot of things. Again, pieces of buildings.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Louis Sullivan.
FLOCK: Is this Louis Sullivan here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: From the Chicago Stock Exchange -- terra cotta.
FLOCK: This is from the old Chicago Stock Exchange. How much do you pay for one of these?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: About $800 for a piece of history.
FLOCK: Is that right? Amazing.
You talk about these tiles. These are things you can get and give for a reasonable price. What is this -- about $75. What are these from?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: From a high school over in Michigan. A lot of them depict nursery rhymes; there's Humpty Dumpty over there. From the 1930s.
FLOCK: Do you detect -- and you have a whole room. I am going to ask Rick (ph) to go over there, if he doesn't fall over his cable -- a whole room of fireplace mantles. You have detected a lot more interest in things old. It's just a growing interest.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As we grow older, we appreciate things more and more.
It's all American.
FLOCK: What is this? This is a whole box of -- what do I have here?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Printing blocks. It came out of a college print department. We sell them for $3. You spell out your kids' names, your girlfriend's name, make art projects with them. It's just fun.
A little pricier. You've got in the mantel room. What is that one off to the right? What is that big one there?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A giant fireplace around oak and copper from a big mansion in England. FLOCK: That was from England. You go all around the country, all around the world to pull these things out.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
FLOCK: What about here? This look like I'm in a church.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Churches in Chicago. When the churches close or relocation, we buy out their stock and sell them to other churches.
FLOCK: I'm surrounded by all this lighting and all this. You pulled these out of old buildings too?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, a lot of it American, a lot of it European, every house needs a good light. It's the jewel of the home.
FLOCK: I could go on forever. After we're done here, I am going to go back and hopefully not spend too much money.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I hope you do.
FLOCK: Stewart Granan (ph), I appreciate it.
Paula, the assignment was distinctive Christmas gifts. Works for me, I don't know about you.
ZAHN: Do you know what my favorite thing was? The clock from the Buffalo train station. What a beauty. Wanted to know do you get a discount for each bird dropping on the clock, Jeff? We just wanted to know if there is any discount.
FLOCK: It's clean, it's ready for you.
(CROSSTALK)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
