Tod Carson opened his first antique and interiors store in Los Angeles over 25 years ago. A native of Phoenix, he decided to return home and open a store in Scottsdale. Tod’s travels and years of experience are culminated into his carefully curated collection of exquisite European antiques from Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. To learn more, visit: todcarson.com.
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00:00 We love giving that special someone something shiny and new for Valentine's Day.
00:06 And how about this year give them a little history for a gift.
00:09 And joining me is Todd Carson of Todd Carson Antiques with some unique Valentine's Day gifts for us.
00:15 And Todd, how are you doing?
00:16 I am fine. Thank you.
00:17 Good.
00:17 Pleasure to be here.
00:18 So, all right, let's talk antiques first because that's what you do.
00:22 That's what I do primarily.
00:23 Yes.
00:23 And so and those are great gifts to get because you're giving a little bit of history to someone you love.
00:29 Well, a piece of history and a little bit of character.
00:31 So not everything is shiny.
00:33 And we do have like an English tea caddy.
00:36 These are some French bronze candlesticks that are little cherubs, which is nice for Valentine's Day.
00:42 And then this is an English biscuit barrel, which you could fill it up with some little hard candy.
00:47 It's a biscuit barrel.
00:48 The British use them for tea time.
00:50 So this is also just this is what I really do most of the time.
00:55 But we also sell design books.
00:58 We sell candles.
01:00 These are little champagne candles that are $17.
01:04 No, they're not little champagnes.
01:05 They're not a split.
01:06 They're seven.
01:07 They're candles.
01:07 They're $17.
01:09 Yeah.
01:09 And then we sell different design books, books about Hermes, blue baton shoes.
01:14 Then we even have things for the gentleman.
01:17 We sell soaps and cologne, picture frames, which kind of appeal to everyone.
01:22 Both of these are under $75.
01:25 And then just simple notepads that are, you know, like $19 for children.
01:30 So even for young people, we have things they can give to their girlfriends, their boyfriends, grandma, grandpa.
01:36 And then we have other things as well.
01:37 Yeah.
01:38 Well, I love that you have the things for those who love books, because that's one thing, especially the fashion design.
01:44 But you call them a special book that people might not understand.
01:47 I love the word.
01:48 It was called shelter books, shelter publication.
01:51 This is anything to do with interior design or design in general is not design.
01:56 Interior design is called the shelter publication.
01:59 Okay.
01:59 I love that.
02:00 As opposed to fashion.
02:01 Right.
02:01 And so that's what's really for those people that are looking for those kind of gifts for the coffee table or for that person loves interior design and looking, which is nice.
02:08 You talked about the men here.
02:10 I like this soap here.
02:11 This is kind of interesting here.
02:12 So where's this soap from?
02:13 This isn't.
02:15 This is it's actually made in the United States.
02:17 But it's it's the sense are really musky and they have a great smell.
02:22 I even have men who've received this as a gift and they've come back in to order it for themselves.
02:27 And it comes in a variety of fragrances and they all smell good and they're very masculine and they're not expensive.
02:34 Yeah.
02:35 All right.
02:35 Let's talk antiques because again, people coming in.
02:37 What do you recommend if someone's coming in maybe for the first time to get their partner into antiquing and they want to start them off with something?
02:44 What would you suggest? What they're interested in but I always say start with something small and and kind of work their way into things that are more important.
02:54 But I have a lot of people who collect certain things and tea caddies is something people tend to collect and also candlesticks.
03:02 There's always room on the table for another candle.
03:04 So this is a great place to start if you want to begin collecting.
03:07 So what about jewelry?
03:08 Do you carry jewelry at all?
03:09 I do not because I don't want it walking out the front door.
03:12 Yeah.
03:12 So I do not carry jewelry and it's a lot of work and I'm a one and a half man operation.
03:18 So I have two people who help me part time and I just I can't do it all.
03:23 Yeah. And that's important too because I know what the people looking for jewelry.
03:26 There's you know, there's a lot goes into finding that and stuff and I don't know anything about jewelry.
03:30 Yeah, this is what I know about and somewhat this but I think it's important to have gifts.
03:36 I mean no one wants not everyone can come in and spend, you know, three or four hundred dollars on an antique.
03:40 I love cabinet or mirror photo.
03:42 Let's take a look at these right here. This is beautiful that we're seeing here.
03:45 What do we have on the screen right there? That is there a pair of cabinets.
03:50 Those are from about 1850 and they belonged to the Stillman family where my store is located in the Seville Shopping Center.
03:59 That used to be the the Stillman's Ranch that that entire shopping mall was their property.
04:06 And there's a pair of these cabinets that came from their house in upstate New York and they brought them
04:11 when they moved to the United States. They brought them with them.
04:14 And when Mr. Stillman died, Mrs. Stillman sold the property and sold the cabinets.
04:19 Yeah. All right. And this piece right here. That was that was here.
04:23 Oh, that was a picture. That was right here. That was the frame. There we go. The mirror.
04:27 There we go. The mirror. There's a pair of those actually.
04:30 They're very late 18th century or early early 19th century.
04:35 Those belong to Charles Keating and they were in the restaurant,
04:39 Mary Elaine's at the Phoenician. Yeah. When he had that restaurant
04:42 and he took his family on a buying trip to France when he was before he opened the restaurant
04:48 and that was a pair of mirrors that he purchased there. Beautiful.
04:52 Todd, I love this. This is awesome. Glad you came by to show us this again.
04:55 Looking for those great Valentine's gift information around the screen,
04:58 how you can find Todd Carson. Also, you can head over to azdailymix.com.
05:03 So, all right, come on back after break. We're giving you a look at what to watch later in the day here on The CW7.
05:09 Thank you.
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