Cottage Crafters Can Take You Back In Time

When the HBO hit “Boardwalk Empire” needed to fill a house with 1920s antiques for character Kelly Macdonald’s move to a grand house in Atlantic City, producers turned to , said its owner.

The store specializing in antiques and collectables in the Tilghman Square Shopping Center in South Whitehall offers items that could send a television production researcher back to the days of flappers and Prohibition.

“We have people who come in looking for props for movies and TV shows,” said Cottage Crafters' owner Guy Maake.

"Boardwalk Empire," a drama set in Atlantic City during the Prohibition era, was the latest. “We had a woman from the show, working out of Brooklyn, come here," he said.

Supplying props to a successful TV show isn’t even the most exciting part of the job for the Cottage Crafters' seven part-time employees. It’s the monthly silent auction.

One is slated for 2 to 3 p.m. today, Feb. 19.

“Anyone can bring in an antique or collectable,” said employee Michele Bastian. “The items are put on display for three weeks, and they get a bidder number. Then people can bid until the third Saturday of the month, when the auction closes.”

Maake, who started the silent auction after buying the store in 2002, said the monthly event draws up to 250 people. He said the event creates traffic in the store, and had grown to 6,500 bidder numbers filed over nine years.

“It’s like eBay,” Maake said. “Everyone waits until the end to bid.”

On his way to buying Cottage Crafters nine years ago, Maake, 51, built a history of experiences.

He graduated from Princeton University, Harvard Law School and the Columbia Business School before finding a job with Reader’s Digest. He came to the
Lehigh Valley to run part of the book division at Rodale in Emmaus.

“I was looking to get out of corporate America and buy a small business,” he said. “This happened to be for sale. We loved the store as customers here.

“I live five minutes from here in Lower Macungie. This was a principal store with 20,000 square feet. It has everything. One side is crafts and the other is antiques and collectables. And we have a general store, which I stock, in the middle.”

It’s a perfect position for Maake, who has four children and has the time to coach youth basketball.

“This area reminds me of Long Island, where I grew up,” he said. “There is a lot of development and housing projects overtaking the farm land. We hope that doesn’t happen as much as it did in Long Island.”

Dealers pay about $68 monthly to rent booths to display their items, and then pay the store 10 percent of the sale price for items. There are 250 vendors and 360 booths. Contracts are six months long, Maake said.

While American Doll clothes are big for collectors, some antiques have been surprises.

“One person bought a diamond bracelet and didn’t know it had real diamonds,” Maake said. “They bought it in the silent auction for $20, and had it appraised for $1,000.

“Then there was a pocket watch from the 1800s, and it appeared not to be working. It sold for $13 on the silent auction. It turned out that it was never wound and appraised for $6,000.”

Cottage Crafters
4636 Broadway, South Whitehall Township
Owner Guy Maake
Silent Auction: today, Feb. 19, 2-3 p.m.
Store hours: Monday-Friday 10 a.m.-8 p.m.; Saturday 10 a.m.-6 p.m.; Sunday
noon-5 p.m.