We started up our business as an Antique Mall the week end of the 4th of July 2003. We had both art and antiques in our background. My father, Donald Sykes Lewis Sr., started Auslew Gallery in Norfolk Va. in 1952. He was in the business until he retired to the Northern Neck of Virginia. Retirement was not as much fun as he had anticipated so he started to look into business locations. He found our current location 15 North Main Street, Kilmarnock, Va. and bought the building. There are 8,400 square feet of space in our building so to begin we needed more merchandise than we had to fill the area. An Antique Mall seemed a reasonable idea.We had a great experience with a lot of wonderful people who became our dealers. Life always changes, and with the economy we realized we had the opportunity to realize our dream of becoming a large single shop. My father lived to see the mall blossom and do well. I can only imagine how proud he would be now of all of us. He passed away just after his 85th birthday in July 2003. That last year of his life he came to the shop almost daily. It gave him a new zest for living.
We want to celebrate our new beginning by offering a free gift to our followers and customers. Check out the mirror above this paragraph. The internet has let us become a shop that sells nationally and even internationally. We have a mirror used by Dorothy Draper in her design of the Greenbrier Hotel in Lewisburg West Virginia. One from the Greenbrier sold at Potomack Company Auction House for $1,200. More than likely the one sold through the auction house went to a dealer or a collector. We will give this away the weekend of July 4th to fans of Lewis Trimble Decorative Arts and Antiques on Facebook.
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