Circa 1857 — Local services in Baton Rouge

My take: It's a cute little shop with some this and that yard art to draw you in from the street. But the anticipation of what we might find inside really was greater than anything we came across. After spending about half an hour wandering through, we were on our way out, disappointed.

The majority of the store is Victorian styled items, many reproductions, but all pretty pricey for what they are. The few items I had some interest in turned out to have been broken (brass casting of elk missing both antlers) and/or overpriced. The maimed elk was still over $30. This kind of thing is fine if you're billing yourselves as a tchotchke shop or vintage second hand store, but not antiques per se.

Sure, the MCM set was in good condition, but it was also missing 3 chairs and still priced at a premium compared to other listings of the same item. The MCM dresser from Basset was cool, but, again, priced as if it were a rare and novel item.

So my 3 stars are just 3, because this place is just okay. If you're already stopping in next door to eat brunch, by all means swing through. It's a nice distraction. But if you're out seeking cool antiques or making a trip of hitting vintage shops in the area, I would not go out of my way...

Circa 1857 offers a vast array of furniture, art, decor, and antiques alike. I chose to spend quite a bit of time in here since I had the time to kill and was incredibly pleased by the atmosphere. It wasn’t cluttered and dirty like a flea market. There’s not 30 vendors with different hodge podge booths claiming 1990s antiques. Each section of the store seemed to be staged with furniture & different treasures from the local community and abroad. Certainly something for every budget as well.

I also had the opportunity to visit in great detail with the owner, Garrett, who spent time explaining how he acquired many of the pieces in the store in his travels. As well as his fascinating story about how Circa 1857 came to be.

The day I was there just happened to also be the day he found out his store won “The Best Antique Store in Baton Rouge” second year running. Absolutely no surprise. I very much look forward to coming back in the...

Be careful some antique dealers are not knowledgeable, people list items as rare and antique when infact a certain item is newer but looks older. One thing about human nature we always hope what we have is valuable, but it takes just one person to hypothesize that it's old and a person runs with that, not knowing its a common item of little value.. This can be attributed to UKNOWLEDGEABLE dealers or simply a shady individual trying to scam a quick buck out of an unsuspecting customer. Being a antique dealer for the last 46 years I've seen nice antiques that are genuine and worthy of their price tag, but I've also seen fakes and falsely represented items listed for a very high mark up .an unknowing customer could easily be deceived .always research what you are about to purchase especially when the item gets into the hundreds. You could end up paying hundreds for an item that is only worth...