LaGRANGE- Larry Fair has been in the antique business for 55 years and it doesn’t seem like he will be stepping away anytime soon. Fair, the owner of Red Door Antiques at 33 E Lafayette Square, opened his first antique store in 1963 in Columbus. He spent 46 years there and then moved his shop to Valley, Ala., for 10 years. He later moved to LaGrange in early 2015 and opened up the Red Door Antique store.

“We get our antiques from estate sales, auctions all over the country, private collections, a shipper in England who ships to us once a year, antiques from anywhere from 1620 vintage to the current antiques today (things 60 to 70 years ago), and many 18^th Century pieces,” said Fair. “We have everything from very primitive antiques to very elegant, high-end, high-quality antiques.”

Most of the antiques in Red Door Antiques are from the period of 1800 to 1950 and the shop specializes in older pieces like a Georgia primitive cabinet made in North Georgia in 1720, a French cabinet dated in 1740, and a couple of pieces dated between 1810 to 1840.

“We have items from all ages but there all good quality,” said Fair.

Fair has 11 dealers that work with him and many of his customers come from various places to purchase antiques.

“We have a lot of customers that come from Montgomery, Ala., Auburn-Opelika, Ala., Newnan and Atlanta to come and buy our items,” said Fair. “We sell a number of chess sets, dressers, sideboards, tables, things people can use for storage, small tables, banquet size tables, oval paintings, lamps, accessory items of all ages and Japanese antiques from the 1700s. Tables and chess sets are our two most popular items we sell.”

Fair says that the store does not sell or buy any antiques that are chipped, broken or damaged. They invest in nothing but high quality antiques and he thoroughly enjoys that aspect of the job.

“We have a lot of fun here. We have great customers. It’s a great atmosphere,” said Fair. “I like to search out and find old pieces like hand-crafted ones and hand forged hardware. Oval paintings are real fascinating to me especially when it has a subject to it. We try to carry the best quality antiques and a good variety of them.”

 

Shirttail- Reach James Simpson II at 706-884-7311, ext. 2155, or by email at james.simpson@lagrangenews.com