Antique festival offers unique gifts away fromholiday crowds

Myra Standford left the after-Thanksgiving lines and crowds on Saturday to die-hard mall shoppers.

The Pembroke Pines woman kicked off the holiday shopping season by hunting for antiques under a canopy of oak trees in Hollywood.

''It's too crowded,'' she said, referring to heavy mall traffic. ``You need a bulldozer to get through a store.''

Standford, 61, was among the casual shoppers and avid collectors who visited Topeekeegee Yugnee Park in Hollywood Saturday for the Antique Festival Under the Oaks. The two-day festival, which began on Saturday, continues today.

''It's laid-back shopping,'' said Pauline Axile, vice president of festival producer A & W Productions, adding that about 600 people are expected to attend the festival across both days. ``No long lines.''

Once through the gate, festival-goers can browse more than 200 tables of antique and vintage items.

Wind-up trucks, tin lunch boxes and Raggedy Ann dolls conjure up childhood memories.

Glass goblets, vases and paperweights thrill collectors of household items, while broaches, bangles and beads in almost every color greet bargain hunters.

Some pieces, such as 1830s photographs and Victorian-era picture frames, have well more than a century behind them. Other items, like campaign buttons for Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton, are a little newer.

Many antique dealers boast their own discounts.

At Sawgrass Mills mall in Sunrise, shoppers might find a discount Kate Spade purse or Coach tote bag for $100 or $200.

But at festival vendor Suzanne Alvarez's table, jewelry cases hold replica Chanel, Tiffany and Louis Vuitton jewelry, most of it for less than $30.

''Most people can't tell the difference,'' she said.

And, like the mall, Alvarez accepts credit cards.

Antique dealer Susan Nightingale said she also thinks some of the antique items tend to last much longer, especially wooden furniture.

''I always tell my kids to buy old furniture,'' said Nightingale, 58, who spends half the year in Pompano Beach and the other half in New Hampshire. ``The old stuff will last forever. It's solid.''

Other shoppers like Christian Schneider came to the festival not for shorter lines or better bargains, but for the chance to find something unique. Schneider bought a two-foot-tall wooden trebuchet, which is a medieval catapult.

He said he plans to show it to his middle school students at Pembroke Pines Charter Middle School, where he includes lessons about the history of technology in his reading and computer science classes.

Tiffany was founded in 1837 when Charles Lewis Tiffany opened a store in downtown Manhattan. Today, more than 150 TIFFANY & CO. stores and boutiques serve customers in U.S. and international markets.

The Company's channels of distribution are as follows: U.S. Retail (51% of fiscal 2005 sales) consists of retail sales transacted in Tiffany-operated stores in the United States and non-Internet, business-to-business sales within the United States; International Retail (38% of fiscal 2005 sales) consists of both retail and wholesale sales of TIFFANY & CO. merchandise to customers located outside the United States, as well as a limited amount of business-to-business and Internet sales; Direct Marketing (6% of fiscal 2005 sales) consists of U.S. Internet, direct mail catalog and business-to-business Internet sales transacted by Tiffany; and Other (5% of fiscal 2005 sales) consists of sales transacted under trademarks and tradenames other than TIFFANY & CO. (i.e., LITTLE SWITZERLAND and IRIDESSE). Other also includes wholesale sales of diamonds that were found unsuitable for Tiffany's production by Tiffany's diamond sourcing and manufacturing operations.

The Company's key growth strategies are: to selectively expand its channels of distribution in important markets around the world without compromising the long-term value of the TIFFANY & CO. trademark; to increase sales in existing stores by developing new products; to increase its control over product supply and achieve improved profit margins through direct diamond sourcing and internal jewelry manufacturing; to enhance customer awareness through marketing and public relations programs; and to provide customer service that ensures a superior shopping experience.

The Company's shares are traded on The New York Stock Exchange with the symbol TIF. Headquartered at 727 Fifth Avenue in New York, Tiffany has more than 8,000 employees around the world.