Issue link: http://southshoremagazine.uberflip.com/i/205938
Star of Excellence 2013 Very Fine Things: by Maurajane Rogers, Photography by Susan Hagstrom It stands to reason that 44 Main Street Plymouth can be found in the National Registry of Historic Sights. Home to Peter Smith's new venture, The Plymouth Exchange, it is a vault of bona fide objects of interest. Literally. And figuratively too if you account for the fact the building has been a bank for the last 130ish years. 6,400 square feet, built with 18-inch thick brick walls, soaring ceilings, columned spaces and housing original bank vaults, The Plymouth Exchange is indeed a vault with a treasure of a different sort. The Exchange is peppered with everything from the unique (though admittedly a banal term for the inventory on hand) to the idiosyncratic without limitations. Proprietors Peter and Judy Smith are neither rookies nor strangers to the world of eclectic, antique, interesting, even confounding objects that are available for consignment. With their award-winning Sandwich Antiques, just over the bridge and down the canal on 6A, Peter Smith made the decision to venture into the world beyond bygone eras. Finding it refreshing to grasp artistic freedom and acquire objects without censorship, Peter embraces the dichotomy between The Plymouth Exchange and Sandwich Antiques with gusto. Anything goes on 44 Main Street in Plymouth whereas on the Cape it is strictly all things antiquated. The inventory of The Plymouth Exchange is found in the homes and estates of artists in Osterville, Broadway producers in New Seabury, rocket scientists in Duxbury and John Q. Public (if, at the risk of sounding elitist, John Q.'s object is truly of interest). This is no tchotchke trinket dust-covered consortium of stuff. It's the real deal. Where quality is infused into the quantity of objets d'intérêt, there is no better gallery to bring your objects of interest for the discerning 20 buyer to peruse and purchase. If said object is cumbersome in nature, Peter will come to you, without hesitation. In the heart of America's Hometown, amidst purveyors of the same ilk (yet not quite) here is where the discerning decorator, designer and shopper can come in to find the one-of-a-kind that won't be found again, elsewhere, ever. A convivial man, Peter Smith could be described as Walter Sobchak, with a splash of The Dude and a whiff of Chili Palmer thrown in for good measure. His curiosity at what is "out there" is palpable and the farther off the spectrum of cookie cutter, the better. Where else will you walk in and be greeted at the door by a pair of bronze 500 pound Ancient Foo Dogs? If it is an authentic barber's chair you are looking for to round out your man cave perfectly, then head to The Plymouth Exchange—they've got two! For the music aficionado, there's a David Hockney New York Met Opera circa 1981 hanging on the wall to the left. Captaining the ship of high-end consignments and acquisitions keeps Peter busy and his journey to locate unusual artifacts of time gone by has a no holds barred approach. In the years of harvesting a plethora of dynamic inventory, Peter has found that there are people out there looking to liquidate incredible pieces for a variety of reasons. His understanding of the motivations for offloading of objects can be whittled down to "the four D's": Death, Divorce, Downsizing and Disaster. The Plymouth Exchange offers all paths to take when considering options with exclusions being based solely on quality, as his expertise is "knowing where things should go." In the way an adult holds the hand of a child ready to cross the street, the first lesson is look both ways before crossing and Peter does just that. Posing the question, "Is this a worthy