Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Photograph by George Sakkestad

Deborah Armstrong takes a break while minding Maria's Antiques in Los Gatos.

Maria's Antiques expands to add French and Italian rooms

By Shari Kaplan

From its narrow doorway facing N. Santa Cruz Avenue, Maria's Antiques of Los Gatos looks like a small venue for hunting old treasures. Its modest exterior belies an interior filled with rambling rooms and alcoves, an upstairs apartment and a separate European-style guest cottage across a quaint back yard.

The shop, which has recently expanded to include additional French and Italian rooms, specializes in European furniture, dinnerware, collectibles, jewelry, books and other relics from the 17th through 19th centuries. France, Italy and England are the principal countries of origin.

"What we do is like bringing history home. Every home should have some history in it. People want to have some warmth in their house," says Deborah Armstrong, proprietor of the Los Gatos store. Her sister, Rita, is responsible for the family's two Los Altos stores, which is where their mother Maria began the business 25 years ago.

A native of Naples, Italy, Maria studied law before immigrating to the United States with her husband and children in the mid-1960s. She decided to continue her lifelong love of history and antiques on this side of the Atlantic.

"It started out as a hobby, and my dad let her continue," Rita recalls with a smile. "She's always done a lot of research behind the pieces. It was good to start out as a hobby because there was no pressure to make a sale."

"We try to do a lot of research, too, to make sure the customer is getting a good price," Deborah adds. "We try to treat customers like friends and make them feel like they're coming into a country French home."

Between the Los Gatos and Los Altos stores, Deborah says, Maria's Antiques houses the United States' largest collections of antique (as well as some contemporary) French china dinnerware and collectibles, including Gien, Haviland, Limoges and the folk art-bedecked Quimper (pronounced "com-pare").

Inside the shop's French Quarters, colorful and detailed cups, saucers and other pieces cover antique tables. The place settings intentionally do not match each other, the sisters explain, in appreciation of the old French tradition of joyeux de tableau--"table games"--in which people mixed and matched dinnerware for the novelty of it.

Other French accents include bolts of imported fabrics, tables, benches, jewelry and a sizable 18th-century armoire of aged pine, deep enough to hide a 20th-century television and stereo.

"Some people are afraid to place a huge piece in their homes, but we'll go out and help them," Rita says, adding that free home consultations are part of the bargain. The shops also take some items on consignment.

"We have to make sure they love it before we part with it," Deborah says, explaining that sometimes customers return to share photographs of an item in its new home. "It's like they've adopted it," she adds.

The Italian items include large urns, oil jugs, vases and furniture as well as hand-painted wall plaques. England's representation comes through classic blue and white china produced by Staffordshire, Wedgwood and Adams, among others. Among the English furniture is a 19th-century apothecary's chest made of pine, with more than 40 small square drawers.

"You can't know everything, so we've tried to specialize in the things we love to surround ourselves with," Rita says.

Regarding the lure antiquing holds for customers, Deborah says the reasons are fourfold: People like bringing a piece of history home; they seek good-quality old items; they appreciate having originals rather than modern-day reproductions; and they see antiques as a good investment.

Maria's Antiques of Los Gatos is located at 112 N. Santa Cruz Ave. For more information, call 395-5933.