Arts Agenda - Happy hunting

The Scott Antique Market comes to town the second weekend of every month, bringing everything from Tiffany to tikki to just plain tacky to the Atlanta Expo.

Whether searching for something specific or trying in vain to see everything in every booth, the sheer size of the event is enough to wear anyone out. Dealers and shoppers come from all over the Southeast, taking over both massive buildings and the surrounding parking lots.

Among the more unusual items at the April show: a coffee table that looked like a pair of giant bellows, a cookie jar in the shape of a half-Chinese half-Roman charioteer, and a 12-by- 4-foot bronze relief of horses that looked like it should hang above Tony Montana’s bed.

“I guess the weirdest thing we ever sold would’ve been the large wicker toilet cover that made the toilet look like a king’s throne,” says Keith Plese, a dealer from Gainesville, Fla. “This came out of an estate in Palm Beach, Fla. What makes it even stranger is the amount it sold for — $8,000! You never know what someone may want, so we try to find the unusual, tasteful, sometimes tacky and the most practical of collectibles.”

Plese and his wife Nancy sell antiques for a living and travel to Atlanta every month for the show. “It is a lot fun and we really meet some interesting people, and best of all we get to travel and shop.”

A lot of the goods for sale are considerably classier than wicker accessories for your porcelain throne, but you may suffer sticker shock at some of the upscale prices. For instance, last month there was a 4-foot wooden sculpture of a man playing a fiddle from the late 1800s priced at $19,500. But it’s worth the trip to the Perimeter, the $3 entrance fee, and the tired feet just to look around.

The Scott Antique Market is held the second weekend of every month at The Atlanta Expo, 3650 Jonesboro Road at I-285, one exit east of I-75. $3. 740-569-2800. www.scottantiquemarket.com.??