Antiques in the Smokies, Tennessee

Update (May 2016) : Many readers have asked about the name and location of the antique dealer whose pictures appear below. It’s Chip’s Antiques and Dixie Gas Show on Newport Highway in Sevierville, TN. Leave me a comment and let me know if you visit there and what you think of it.

Last month I told you about the wonderful Sweet P’s Barbeque and Soul House in Knoxville, Tennessee. This week I’m posting some photos from another place on that same trip, an antique dealer near Dandridge, TN.

In Tennessee, you can see wonderful sights like this just driving around:
However, I was spared the trouble because I had a personal guide who escorted our little convoy, a man who loves the area and has lived there all his life. He led us to the mill in the above photo and included a stop at the Busch Bean factory! I saw the secret recipe and almost bought it…
  …but the dog and I couldn’t reach an agreement.
So it was on to the next place, which was a photographer’s dream – an antique dealer with several old houses and barns full of artifacts from almost every period in American history!
 
I spent so much time doing detail photos:

 

My reaction: Is that Wimpy?
No, it’s actually an Odin cigar ad from the 30s. Had to look that one up – I was pretty sure Wimpy never smoked!
 
The whole time I kept thinking of the Beverly Hillbillies. Here’s another of the buildings:
And the stunning scenery all around:
And there’s no shortage of walnut trees around there:
As I wound down my circumnavigation of the property, I had saved the best for last:
 

I did some closeups of the Plymouth insignia – it’s the first time I knew they had used the Mayflower in the design!

Then I shot a Dodge insignia. I noticed there was a six-pointed star in the middle. It looked very much like the Star of David. I did some checking and found that the Dodge brothers, who founded the company, were not Jewish, and they never explained this design.

A website with the clever name of Jewniverse relates one popular belief that the symbol was used as a dig at Henry Ford, who was a notorious anti-Semite, but then quickly discounts that story as untrue. Besides, the Star of David didn’t have the Judaic connotation then that it does today. The symbol was discontinued in the logo in 1939.

As you can see, I had great weather, great light and a wonderful guide to land me at this treasure trove of photographic possibilities! Just as I finished my round of photos, an attendant at the place informed me I could pay $10 and be able to take any pictures I wanted there. So I turned off my camera and said I wouldn’t take any. And I didn’t. After that. Take any.

Photo for No Apparent Reason: