Artique will offer something new and something old for this month’s First Friday Artist opening on March 1.

The local creatives boutique, located at 283 N. Main St., in Kamas, will present a new local business owner Marilee Ward, who will showcase and sell some old items — antiques.

“I have been in the antique business for over 30 years,” she said. “I have a shop in Pennsylvania, and my partners are running it now. But I also have a shop in the back of Artique that I’ve been stocking. And our grand opening is Friday.”

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Some of the items Ward will feature include antique lamps, which she had rewired for safety.

When I look at these things I wonder about their history.” Marilee Ward, antique collector

“I love old lamps,” she said. “They are all so individual, and the fittings were all solid brass, instead of this brass plated.”

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Ward also has an antique dry sink, and an old Pennsylvania corner cover, which is called a blind cupboard.

“A lot of corner cupboards have glass windows on top and cabinets on the bottom, but this one has a cabinet on top and cabinet on the bottom, which is why they call it a blind cupboard,” she said. “I also have a leather chair, a lot of antique copper — old dovetailed pots and molds — and a step-back cupboard.”

A step-back cupboard is a cupboard where the top part sits back and isn’t flush with the bottom part, Ward said.

“I also have a lot of old plates,” she said. “Right now I have Audubon Bird Plates, and I have a hickory table.”

The Audubon plates feature artwork from French-American artist and naturalist John James Audubon‘s “The Birds of America,” a book that was published in series form from 1827 and 1838.

“Many of the items came from Pennsylvania, and the others are things I found out here,” Ward said. “I go out and roam around, and since I know what old stuff looks like, I see a lot of items that are newer than what I have,” she said. “I really wanted (this showcase) to be some of the stuff that the pioneers may have brought with them when they came to Utah. So these all are nice pieces, and not thrift store items.”

Ward has always loved the quality and look of classic, old items.

“I think those things were made so beautifully,” she said. “You look at the way whoever made the pieces has cut the dovetails by hand on old pieces of furniture, and when I look at these things I wonder about their history.”

Ward’s grandmothers also collected antiques, which fed her desire to start gathering a collection of her own.

“One of my grandmothers was an antique collector, and she probably had one of the finest collections of old cut glass in the country,” Ward said. 

Ward has many of her grandmother’s items, including a plate that has a horse on it.

“I love horses, and if I liked something, my grandmother would say, ‘Take it home, but don’t ever sell it, or I’ll come down and get you,'” Ward said with a laugh. “I still have that plate, by the way.”

Even the homes Ward has lived in reflect her love of antiques.

“The farm we lived on in Pennsylvania that we just sold was 250 years old,” she said. “I used to say to my son, who is now a realtor for Sothebys, ‘Look outside the window, and then close your eyes and imagine what it looked like when this house was new.'”

The home Ward and her husband lives in now in Kamas was modeled after a log cabin.

“It was the model home for High Star Ranch, and it was built to look like a log house,” she said. “I remember when we first looked at the house, and now it’s full of antiques.”

Ward remembers when there were a couple of antique shops in Park City.

“They’ve just all kind of disappeared, but I think they are starting to come back,” she said. “We didn’t see any young people in our store in Pennsylvania for quite a long period of time, but over the past two years we are seeing more young people come in.”

Many times these young people would see items and tell Ward their stories, because antiques can be a “tag to emotional memories,” according to Ward.

“We had this young girl come in, pick up these plates I had and said ‘My mother had these,'” Ward said. 

Ward’s showcase at Artique began to take root a few months ago.

“I’ve been shopping in Artique for ages,” she said. “I always send my kids there when they need to buy a gift for someone, because all the things in Artique are handmade. Everything in there is locally made, which is just wonderful.”

One day, Ward asked Artique owner Katie Stellpflug if she would be interested in showing some antiques.

“I’m not a creator, but I talked with Katie months ago about this back room she wasn’t using, and I asked how it would be to put some antiques in there,” Ward said. “Katie said it may work, because a lot of people come into Artique, thinking it is called Antique. So she said ‘Let’s try.'”

Ward looks forward to introducing her antiques to Park City and Summit County.

“I hope people at least come to the opening and enjoy some refreshments and take a look around, and maybe learn something, too,” she said. “I used to be an educator, and the teaching button never turns off.”