Julio Caprari, left, his brother Paul Caprari, center, of Antiques and All Furnishings, and Joe McLean of Zoie Jans Antiques & Oddities, have joined forces to produce the 1st Annual Antique Fair at Duchess Outlet on Saturday, Oct. 5. Rain date is Sunday, Oct. 6.
Tony Callaio | For Times Leader
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There will be as many as 75 vendors available at the 1st Annual Antiques Fair at the Duchess Outlet on Saturday, Oct. 5.
Tony Callaio | For Times Leader
For antique collectors, there will be plenty of family and child friendly antiques available as well as entertainment, face painting, food trucks and more at the inaugural Antique Fair at Duchess Outlet.
Tony Callaio | For Times Leader
The Duchess Outlet’s foundry backyard will be the site of the inaugural Antique Fair on Saturday, Oct. 5.
Tony Callaio | For Times Leader
PITTSTON — The Duchess Outlet building on William Street has morphed into many businesses over the years, starting with, most famously, Pittston Stove Works going back to the late 1800s.
Today, the Caprari family has owned the building for three generations and over 65 years, adding several businesses along the way. Now, antiques fill two stories of the building predominantly owned by Julio and Paul Caprari with plenty of other antiques on consignment for sale.
The Caprari brothers, along with fellow Pittston antique dealer, Joe McLean, will host the inaugural Antique Fair at Duchess Outlet from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 5. The rain date is Sunday, Oct. 6, same time.
The antique fair will feature 75 vendors, displayed both indoors and outdoors, in the former foundry’s massive backyard.
There will be food trucks, live entertainment, face painting for the children, and other surprises for the day-long event.
“My brother and I launched Antiques and All Furnishings last May and we have been moving super fast like a train,” Julio said. “We had some work done at our lot and cleared it out and made it conducive to doing something in that lot. We were bouncing some ideas around and, along with Joe [McLean], who also has his antique business, we thought, ‘What could we do out there to promote antiques in Greater Pittston?’”
Julio made it clear, there is no competition between Antiques and All Furnishings and McLean’s Zoie Janes Antiques & Oddities and that’s why both parties decided to join forces to bring antiques front and center in Greater Pittston by creating the antiques fair.
All parties agree there’s never been a real attempt at a true antique fair in the City of Pittston and now is the time to attempt it.
“There’s a lot of history here (Pittston) with the mining, the lanterns, the lunch boxes – it’s history, Pittston history,” McLean added.
Incorporated with all the antiques for sale is Paul’s I Buy Anything Old store, where he looks for any item regarding Pittston history. A lot of what he finds he keeps and puts it on display at the Duchess.
“Every single piece we have in the antique store has a story behind it,” Paul said. “With every single piece, I can tell you where I got it from, how I found it, how I came about finding it and a little bit about its past.”
Julio wanted to stress, this antique fair is strictly antiques and nothing else.
“This fair is truly antique in nature, not crafts, not a flea market, truly antiques,” Julio said. “In addition to the antiques we will have on hand Pittston Popcorn, Mucciolo Family Wines, a woman face painter for children and even a barbershop quartet singing about the property. Along with the antiques, we will be doing some fun fair type things.”
“We want this to be fun, it’s a day out,” McLean said. “We’ll even have a Halloween section for kids to have their photo taken.”
“We envision this to be an annual thing and we want it to be family friendly and children friendly and we don’t want children to be afraid of antiques, and that’s important to everybody,” Paul added.
The Capraris along with McLean not only want to bring antiques to the forefront, but they are hoping the event would promote the City of Pittston.
“All these items we have here, you want to see it, touch it and smell it, you have to be in the same environment with these pieces,” Julio added. “Whatever the item is or category, there’s a collector for it. It could be toys, photo equipment, sporting equipment, trains, household items, there’s someone that would be interested in it.”
For questions on the antique fair, reach out to store manager Jeanette Volche at 570-654-3811, or check out their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/duchessoutlet.