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The Lily Cat: North Woods Antiques and Buttons

The Lily Cat: North Woods Antiques and Buttons
Categories

SHOPPINGGift Shops, Novelty Items & Antiques

Hours:

May 15-31, OCT. 1-31, Fri, Sat 11-4
June1-Sept. 30, Wed-Sat, 11-5
Anytime by chance or appt.

Driving Directions:

We are located on Route 15 in Monson, right next to town hall and the fire department. Big, blue barn-shaped building.

About Us

The Lily Cat: North Woods Antiques & Buttons (aka Lily Cat Antiques) offers more than 2,000 square feet of antiques, collectibles and useful old stuff for upta camp. Browse a mix of traditional vintage decorative items such as figurines, lamps, painting and prints, and less traditional decor such as old sleds, snowshoes, skis, fishing fear, traps or old tools. We also offer jewelry, kitchenware including cast iron, clocks, jewelry, knives, lighting and hardware as well as vintage toys and games.

Our specialties include a huge paper department full of books, magazines, advertising and ephemera including lots from local stuff, tons of Maine memorabilia from all over the state and the largest selection of vintage and antique buttons in the state.

Looking to settle an estate or clean out a house? We also buy!

Highlights

Images

Lily Cat Antiques opened June 1, 2021 after a winter of preparation. Our story is one of transformation. Read on!
It all started with the December 2020 purchase of this building in Monson. It needed a lot of work, both inside and out.
Six months later, what a change! We replaced the roof and the interior lighting, added exterior lighting and a staircase railing, painted and installed our new business signs.
Inside, the building was filled to the gills. It had been an antique shop previously, so there was a lot of good stuff mixed in with bad and marginal stuff. We spent the winter of 2021 cleaning and organizing everything.
This is the same showcase as in the photo above, six months later!
While the downstairs was cluttered, you could still walk through it. Upstairs? Not so much.
This same corner upstairs now houses our extensive paper department, where you'll find books, magazines, maps, advertising and other ephemera.
Oh, and about the name ... We bandied about many different ideas before settling on a name honoring one of our cats, Lily. She did visit the store once for a special event but usually stays home.
Cleaning out the building was like a treasure hunt. Things were piled in so tightly, we didn't know what we had until we uncovered it. This is one of those items. Sorry, it's sold! But you never know what we're going to find.
This old cash register also came with the building. Yes, it's for sale.
These Mount Kineo Beverage bottle labels also came with the building. We've sold quite a few but there's still a big pile left.
This piece of local memorabilia also came with the building.
Once we got the contents of the building organized, it was time to go buy. The building contained mostly furniture, tools, hardware, oil cans and tins. We wanted to add pretties such as dishware, figurines, textiles and decorative items and expand the variety of what was already there. Our ally in this endeavor was our little green car, nicknamed the trucklet, because it can hold a surprising amount of merchandise.
A lot of milk bottles came with the building but we specifically sought to expand the selection to include as many local dairies as possible.
Monson milk bottles are especially hard to find.
In addition to milk bottles, we've got many soda and other types of bottles, including many local.
We've worked to get more local items. This souvenir of Lake Hebron glows under black light because the glass contains uranium, which was added as a colorant. th uranium as a colorant.
This is a fantastic piece! We bought several of these framed Maine game commission signs at auction during the summer of 2022.
Here's another high quality item from auction. Old Coke coolers are not terribly uncommon but this one is in exceptional condition.
Odd and unusual items include glass electrical insulators in unusual colors such as purplel. Sean is an electrical engineer so these relics of his industry have a special appeal.
Of course, we had to add buttons to our inventory. Buttons are even part of the shop name. Here's a piece of Maine history in button form. Many police departments used to use buttons with their department names on them as part of their uniforms. nating pieces of history. Many police departments, such as the one in Bangor, Maine, used to incorporate custom buttons into their uniforms.
Another type of button is the paperweight. It's much smaller than the glass paperweights you'll find on your desk. But they are made the same way.
Railroad buttons like these are highly collectible. We have about 150,000 buttons in stock.
We're always on the lookout for blow molds.
Anyone who travels Route 15 from Abbot to Greenville knows the road needs more than the topcoat MDOT laid down last fall. We've sent these bumper stickers to politicians and state officials. Extras are available at the store.

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