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 Antique China Porcelain & Collectibles is a working site of Nacq Partners, Ltd., now located in Georgetown, Texas. We are successor to a business
in Dallas, Texas named "The China Cupboard"
Dating back to the late
1960's, MayRee Bell and husband,
Merton Bell began a journey that took
them from their former careers--hers as a teacher, and his as an
insurance executive. Together they developed a very successful business in
antique porcelain and cut glass.
Mrs.
Bell began by frequenting garage and estate sales, eventually focusing
on dishes and glass. With her teaching background, she read voraciously
from many volumes on antique china and crystal. Along with her husband,
the 1970's found the two dealing in china on weekends in an early
version of an antique mall, in a converted church building on
 Maple
Avenue in Dallas. In 1972, a group from California purchased their
entire inventory. This allowed the Bells to retire from their "day
jobs" and open a full-time shop. They leased storefronts in two areas
near The Park Cities in Dallas until the late 1980's, and then
purchased a large older home adjacent to The Lakewood Shopping Village.
They succeeded in getting the property zoned commercial, and operated
The China Cupboard there until its close in July of 2002. A Dallas magazine wrote an article about the Lakewood era.
Mrs.
Bell died in October of 2002, followed by the death of Mr. Bell in
April of 2003. During their 35-year career in the china business, they
had made many buying trips around the United States, and had developed
a long list of repeat customers.
In the second half of
2002, the next generation began working on the business.
Lawrence R.
(Larry) Bell, son of Merton and MayRee Bell, and his wife Anne moved
the entire inventory of the shop (over 500 boxes plus furniture!) to
Georgetown, Texas. Larry and Anne have a 3,000 square-foot storage
facility behind their own residence which now contains the entire
shop's merchandise. |
