By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
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ROCKFORD — A new shop on the outskirts of downtown finds comfort in the creepy and uncovers beauty in what others may deem grotesque.
Scavenged Parts opened Thursday at 1001 Charles St., which is tucked between the city’s downtown and Midtown districts on the south side of East State Street across from Uncle Nick’s. The locally owned shop curates an uncommon collection of antiques and oddities as well as natural art created from mummification, animal bones and wet specimens encased in glass globes.
“We’re well aware of the weirdness it requires to do something like what we’re doing,” co-owner Tim Prince said. “Doing something like this here, I know it’s something that Rockford’s never seen before, and we’re just so excited to be able to open up a shop here.”
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The new brick-and-mortar shop, which operates Thursday through Saturday and by appointment, is a combination of businesses run by Prince and Sarah Thistle. Thistle runs Scavenged Parts while Prince has Forgotten Boneyard.
The local couple has worked out of a warehouse near the Chicago-Rockford International Airport and spent years traveling to antiques and oddities shows around the country. This is their first storefront.
“We’ve been in this business for over a decade, and we’ve been traveling around the country doing oddities and curiosities expos. We literally travel coast to coast,” Prince said. “We’ve been to oddity shops all over the country and we wanted to bring something like this to Rockford.”
Thistle said she grew up with an interest in horror and the occult. That, coupled with a love of antiquing she inherited from her mother, led her into the business.
“Growing up in a flea market wagon at 5 years old, I somehow melded the two of those,” Thistle said. “I like antiques, too, but I don’t like rose dishes. I like this stuff: The old embalming things, the old funeral home things.”
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Some of the rare finds in the shop include Victorian-era hair art and an antique tipping table, a sort of precursor to the Ouija board that was made to communicate with spirits.
There are also Lithuanian devil masks, which is a wood-carved folk art that was traditionally part of Fat Tuesday celebrations.
“They would put these scary masks on to scare winter away in the spring,” Prince said. “They’re really rare pieces to see in this country.”
Thistle has an eye for rare finds that she started selling from her personal collection years ago until building it into the business it is now.
Prince said his art stems from a love of being in nature, and his goal is for the natural beauty of each specimen to shine through what he creates.
“I’ve always had that attraction to the weirder things, when everyone says ‘oh this is gross’ and I’m like, no this is actually really cool or it’s really beautiful,” he said. “We strive to bring unique things here, and there are a lot of very unique items in the shop that you won’t find anywhere else in the city.”
About | Scavenged Parts
Where: 1001 Charles St., Rockford
Hours: noon to 6 p.m. Thursday through Saturday; by appointment Sunday through Wednesday
Contact: 815-904-6743; madamethistle@yahoo.com
Online: ScavengedParts.com; ForgottenBoneyard.com
On social: facebook.com/ScavengedParts; Instagram @scavengedparts and @Forgotten_boneyard
This article is by Kevin Haas. Email him at khaas@rockrivercurrent.com or follow him on X at @KevinMHaas or Instagram @thekevinhaas and Threads @thekevinhaas