Antique Cowboy lassoes vintage toys

The location of David Den-ton's new store, The Antique Cowboy, at 330 South Ave., is a familiar one for him his family once operated a pharmacy there.

"The space we're in (is where) my parents opened a drug store (called Denton's Pharmacy) in 1948. I was driving down the street, noticed it was for rent, called the guy, and came in and took a look, and it was just about the right size to do something with just myself," he said.

While he had been talking with friends about opening an antique shop on a larger scale, for several years, he felt that limiting the focus to one sort of merchandise would be something he could handle alone.

The Antique Cowboy, appropriately, specializes in antique cowboy toys and memorabilia, which Denton calls "western hero memorabilia."

"It's all cowboy toys. It's Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Hopalong Cassidy all the toys from the late 40s and the 50s that went with the cowboy craze," he said.

But Denton said the customers of the store that opened for business in June, aren't children. And since his wares aren't exactly meant to be played with anymore, that's not such a bad thing.

"We've made some sales to some western collectors and we've made some sales to people looking for gifts for spouses," Denton said.

He does, however, remember a sale to a customer who wasn't planning on putting her purchases up just for show.

Roy's suede jacket

"It's funny. I had a real nice Roy Rogers suede jacket, with fringes, and I had a seamstress from Arkansas come in and she bought a holster and the suede jacket to put her scissors in the holster and she was going to wear the jacket," he said.

"I said, isn't that going to be a little short for you?' but she said, Oh no, three-quarter length is in now,'" he added.

Denton himself wasn't much into cowboys as a child, but he said his store is the result of a hobby that began about 10 years ago, when he gathered some Hopalong Cassidy items to give as a gift. It was about six years ago that he began collecting cowboy toys more seriously.

"I bought a couple things, then I bought a couple more. Then I started looking and going to places ... I was not intending on it being a business. It was just a hobby. From a hobby it grew ... to collecting everybody from that same era," Denton said, noting that The Antique Cowboy is his first retail venture.

In the relatively short time the store's been open, Denton said there's been a good amount of traffic in The Antique Cowboy, but not all the visitors are necessarily buying, and "there are a lot of people who like to come in and look," he said.

Store items

The items at The Antique Cowboy include cap guns, rocking horses, lunchboxes, movie posters, stagecoaches, plastic miniature cowboys with horses and Hopalong Cassidy and Roy Rogers apparel.

Denton said if customers want an item that he doesn't have, he will help them look for it. Denton said he finds the merchandise he stocks in the store at estate auctions, on the Internet and at antique shops.

"I look everywhere. I look on all the Internet sites ... there are a couple of big antique shop search engines that different antique shops join, and they actually put their goods online," Denton said.

Of all the items he's found, he said a 24-karate, gold-plated Hopalong Cassidy cap gun made in California is probably his most unique find.

"I found it at an auction ... about four years ago. They were auctioning a bunch of cap guns and toys, BB guns, and it's a really nice, hard-to-find item," Denton said.

Another uncommon item in the store, he added, is a Hopalong Cassidy fishing rod. "You don't ever see them. I don't know anything about the history, all I know is that they're very unusual."

Other items, such as Hopalong Cassidy milk-glass mugs, are more common and easier to find.

Denton does a little bit of refurbishing at The Antique Cowboy when he has time, and he said the store's Web page, www.theantiquecowboy.com, offers a free evaluation service for people who have old cowboy toys and don't know how much they're worth.

"We provide information, and it's probably not more than four or five times a week right now, but the Web is a pretty big place. If you're just looking for cowboy information and you type in Roy Rogers,' you get a lot of Web sites," he said.

Denton said he doesn't know if The Antique Cowboy will ever grow to the point that he'll have to add employees, but he said in the meantime, he's really enjoying what he does.

"I've met a lot of real interesting people people that collect a wide variety of stuff because everybody comes in to look."