(From left) The Veiled Mirror co-founders Kathryn Parker and Olivia Lloyd in their new space at 209 N. Third St.
For Olivia Lloyd and Kathryn Parker, antiquing is “like a treasure hunt ... you never know what you’re going to find until you find it,” Lloyd says. The pair have owned and operated a vintage decor business, The Veiled Mirror, for five years online and as a pop-up in the Richmond region. This spring, the duo landed their biggest find yet: a permanent home at 209 N. Third St. in the Arts District.
The Veiled Mirror specializes in antiques and jewelry made from the 1600s to the 1940s, a niche inspired by the owners’ passion for history. Emphasizing the quirky and macabre, the store’s carefully selected antiques and oddities include vintage medical equipment, religious iconography, secret society regalia and more, with a focus on items from the art nouveau and art deco periods.
“We’re two history nerds, so if it’s got a good story or comes with a really interesting letter from somebody who owned it, we’re into it,” Lloyd says.
This affinity for seeking out unique objects leads to some memorable discoveries, as illustrated in one of their recent finds: a daguerreotype (an early form of photography) that turned out to be a post-mortem. Although they may seem morbid today, Parker explains, postmortems were common in the Victorian era; people took photos of their loved ones after they died as a keepsake to remember them by.
Wares at the shop include medical devices, family heirlooms, religious paraphernalia and more.
Parker, who discovered the postmortem in a box of items she had gathered while cleaning out an attic on the hunt for antiques, notes that the find was meaningful enough to cause an emotional reaction. “It gave me chills, and I started tearing up a little bit,” she says.
Finds like those are at the heart of The Veiled Mirror, which was named for the Victorian mourning practice of covering the mirrors in a home after a death. The tradition was based on the superstition that the soul of the deceased would otherwise become trapped in a mirror.
With the new space, Lloyd and Parker plan to add a host of events and social gatherings, including craft nights and a speaker series on historical subjects and artifacts. In May, the store invited historian and author Sarah Nehama to launch the series with a lecture on mourning and sentimental jewelry.
Beyond their commercial efforts, Lloyd hopes the store sparks curiosity in those who wander in. “We also have this saying where the antiques pick their people, too, so we don’t ever really try to push sales on people,” she says. “I think it’s more about people coming in here and discovering things and feeling as passionate about the objects in here as we feel.”
