Trash to Treasure

SARATOGA SPRINGS - Eight steps down the concrete stairwell, Stuart Armstrong stands behind a waist-high glass counter.

Displayed inside the case is an assortment of silver and gold-covered trinkets. A large framed picture depicting an oil-painted Jesus leans crooked against the counter, framed by a large pair of red stenciled placards that warn “Keep OFF The Grass.”
Immediately above, the image of a bear looms on a lapel-sized pin that reads: “I help Smokey fight forest fires.”

“The worse possible thing that something could be is dull - and that I won’t take,” Armstrong says, from behind the counter of his shop at 1 Phila St. in Saratoga Springs.
A visual inspection proves this true. From dozens of funky lamps with gold-leaf, white-beveled and green globe shades to a red rocking horse, a gun-metal gray scooter, and a collection of scarves in every color of the rainbow, Reruns Consignment Shop is anything but dull.

Armstrong started the business more than a decade ago. His merchandise is sold on a consignment basis, meaning the things on display are one-of-a-kind items. When they’re bought, they’re gone for good. It also guarantees a steady and ever-changing stock.

“The sheer variety of the things that come in is amazing,” Armstrong says. “I have a number of steady consignors that come in every week and bring things down. They are well-tuned to what people are looking for.”
Judging by the items on display, people are looking for a lot of different things. There are old 78 rpm records and world-weary trunks with their time-telling stitching of greens, burgundies and grays.
A colorful and youthful Marlene Dietrich stares back from a magazine cover dated 1953. The center of the main room area is designated for tree-carved rockers and chairs, vintage desks and drawer-lined bureaus. The smell of old wood is everywhere.
Just how many antiques Armstrong stocks at any given time is anyone’s guess.
“I don’t even want to think about it,” he says with a chuckle, framing the period from the Victorian era to the 1970s.

“Probably the oldest thing here is this chest from the early 19th century, done in the style of William IV,” Armstrong says. It carries a price tag of $495. “The modern vintage 1960s and ‘70s is very popular right now,” he says, pointing out a six-foot long black cushioned sofa from the era. “The biggest influence is what people see on TV and in the movies - that’s what dictates what people want -- it’s that Austin Powers/James Bond style of things.”
An adjoining side room filled with vintage clothing marks a distant era, from the bygone days of old Saratoga ballrooms to more contemporary everyday wear.

“The Skidmore kids tend to like the clothes from the 1960s and ‘70s - that pop- or mod-style clothing,” Armstrong says. Right on cue, a pair of 20 somethings enter the shop and head directly for the vintage clothes room.
The young man with a lime-green mohawk tries on suit jackets over his “Rancid” band T-shirt. He picks through a hat rack filled with straw hats, fedoras, peach-colored hat boxes, bonnets, flapper-style and gangster-looking headgear.
Behind a pair of Ashleigh Banfield glasses, his Kelly Osbourne look-alike companion eyes a leopard-print belt and moccasin vest. A matching two-piece red leather jacket and pants set, with a Calvin Klein label is a bargain at $75.
Nearby, a free-standing rack is draped with a visually jarring collection of some of the most unusual looking ties ever created.

“You can have all of these different things. To someone, some may look hideous,” Armstrong says, “But beauty really is in the eye of the beholder.”
And many of the items are beautiful, or at the very least, at one time cherished parts, of people’s lives.

There are old elf ornaments that once lit up a child’s Christmas morning, and an assortment of ceramic tchotchkes of every kind: dogs and cats, ponies and teddy bears, and one particularly striking pair of green-faced demonic cherubs that double as salt-and-pepper shakers.
There is regional history to be discovered here, as well. Portraits of faces, families and group gatherings, virtually anonymous in sepia-tone, hand-colorized and vintage black and white poses, sit in a bucket.

Armstrong does have his personal favorites. “I have a very strong pull toward Art Deco styling,” the Spa City native says, standing beneath a trio of wall clocks that each read a different hour. “I also collect things from the Saratoga Lake houses.”
From his perch behind the counter, Armstrong’s view is of a painting of an old blue-dusk Manhattan sunset that runs four-feet across the back wall. With a slight tilt of the head, portraits of rural country roads, barns and lakes come into view.

The longer you spend inside Reruns, the more things seem to magically appear out of nowhere. Just when you think you’ve seen it all, something like a vintage bottle of “Matinee Idol Hair Dressing” is spotted. With some tonic still in the bottle, the $14 price tag for matinee idol looks seems like a steal.

by Thomas Dimopoulos
The Saratogian