IN Toronto magazine

IN SPOT:

A small but perfectly curated selection of art and objets with just the right amount of eccentricity

More sophisticated than the hipster-infested vintage shops of Kensington Market, less stuffy than high-end antique shops, Eclectisaurus boasts a small but perfectly curated selection of art and objets with just the right amount of eccentricity. Nestled away in Cabbagetown, the shop offers items from bygone eras including turn-of-the-century telegraph keys and retro lamps (most perusable online).

Store owner Leslie Zysman gets most of the pieces from auctions or private individuals but she has been known to pilfer soon-to-be-demolished houses. “There I was with my miner’s light on my head,” she reminisces of one home in Cobourg. “Crews were ripping out the piping. And I’m rummaging around in this absolutely terrifying house. But there was some terrific stuff in it.”

One of the store’s biggest draws is its old typewriter collection. “When I started, I was selling typewriters and ‘real’ antique dealers thought I was bananas,” says Zysman. “And now there’s a resurgence of interest. There’s a sort of romanticism, I guess, and they’re very well built.”

Eclectisaurus’s assortment ranges from elegant to bizarre, with Chinese jade brooches from the 1920s found only feet away from 1950s industrial porcelain glove forms that double as art work. There is even an original Exercycle. “The benefit of this is questionable because you plug it in and it pedals for you and the handle bars go back and forth,” says Zysman. But hey, at least it still works, like many appliances in the store. “I’ve had 90-year-old coffee makers that I can plug in and they still work,” says Zysman. “There’s a certain level of quality that seems to have disappeared. You can tell the difference between a new and an old item, a lot of the time, by weight.”

Though Zysman boasts an impressive knowledge of yesteryear’s designs, she doesn’t claim to know everything. It’s discovery that keeps her going. “Anything that I’ve learned about art, design and antiques is self-taught,” she says. “If I were selling jeans or T-shirts, I wouldn’t be in retail. I couldn’t take it. But there’s a lot to keep one interested in this business.” A good sign the Eclectisaurus will never go extinct.

ECLECTISAURUS 249 Gerrard St E. (416) 934-9009. eclectisaurus.com.