'It's never the same'
Weekend passion for antiques turns into new career
Owning and operating the area's first antiques mall never gets old for Camille Wish.
Wish first dabbled in antiques in 1980 after earning a business administration degree at the College of Charleston. While working full time at a bank, she spent her weekends buying and selling antiques and learning all she could about the trade.
She put some of her antiques on display at the Terrace Oaks Antiques Mall in Riverland Terrace and, in 1991, left her banking job to buy and sell antiques full time. In 2005, she bought the antiques mall.
Edward Fennell
The Post and Courier
Camille Wish (right) owner of Terrace Oaks Antique Mall, and her mother, mall manager Grace Wish, hold an Imari oval platter from about 1870. The antiques dealership on Maybank Highway features wares from 40 dealers.
Located on Maybank Highway, Terrace Oaks, a row of small stores recarved into one big one, dates to 1988. In November, the facility will celebrate its 20th birthday. Forty antiques dealers, including Wish, now display their wares there.
Wish said dealing in antiques is far from static and always provides new challenges.
"It's never the same," Wish said. "There is so much to learn about the business, and there are so many interesting factors and items out there. It truly fascinates me."
Wish said changing home decor trends affect the antiques market. Right now, blues, browns and whites are "in" colors, and home decorators seek out antiques, including platters and dishes, to fit the color scheme.
A stroll through the mall is like a walk back in time. The site is frequented by seekers of yesterday's kitchenware, silver, jewelry, pottery, figurines, lamps, furniture and other household goods. It's popular with collectors of all sorts of paraphernalia from old pocket knives and ink pens to medical items from bygone eras.
The mall has plenty that appeals to men, added mall manager Grace Wish, Camille's mother, as she pointed out old fishing lures, duck hunting decoys and military and Scouting patches.
On Aug. 25, in a New York Times story called "Doing Charleston on the cheap," writer Chris Dixon said the site is loaded with "attic treasures" and located in a "hip little terrace shopping center" in "an eclectic small neighborhood."
"We were really thrilled with that," Grace Wish said of the Times exposure.
The mall also was featured in an August edition of Antique Week magazine's Eastern edition, where the business was described as having "all the charm of a true Southern belle."
Camille Wish said the 40 dealers working under one roof get along well, and that helps make her job all the better.
"I love everything about it. For me, there's nothing not to like," she said about her six-day-a-week job. "It's really fun to come to work."
Wish said she doesn't foresee herself ever wanting to go into any other trade. "Antiques will always have a future because they are the perfect way of recycling," she said.
Reach Edward C. Fennell at 745-5560.
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