Pastimes Antiques was founded in 1983 by Robert and Wanda Bell. They started in a small 900 square foot boutique located in Murfreesboro, Tennessee just off of the historic square. Their love of antiques forced expansion into a 100,000 square foot antique mall which she managed for several years.

The mall was discontinued by the property owner which provided even more opportunity to buy and sell antiques. There was more time for antique hunting, touring museums, and building handmade heirloom quality antique reproduction furniture. Bob has been asked on numerous occasions to build custom pieces for others but his reply never falters:

“I only build furniture for family because it takes me a long time to handcraft each piece so I could not build to a schedule or a reasonable price.”

Now they have space in other malls and spend most of their time with family, working in the wood shop, and scouring the country looking for vintage treasure.

Over the years they have found some spectacular items. One of which landed them in New York City at Sotheby’s Auction House. Wanda had purchased a painting at a local auction because she liked the frame. The painting hung in their home for many years.

One day Bob was going to do some repair to the frame and noticed that the canvas painting was stretched over a wooden board. He carefully removed the canvas which revealed yet another perfectly preserved painting underneath.

This was a previously undiscovered work from Sheldon Peck. Wanda revealed her find on the Antique’s Roadshow when it came to Nashville and was taken completely off guard by what the experts had to say.

This was one of, if not the most, well preserved Peck ever recorded and could have been worth up to $250,000. Well, off to Sotheby’s they went! You can read more about this in this People Magazine article.