A magical, eclectic mix of oddities
Curiosa features the quirky and the playful, and its products are flying off the shelves
Every family creates its own little subculture of interests, pastimes and possessions. The Sauer family — who love board games, vintage toys, quirky memorabilia and Harry Potter (lots of Harry Potter) — has done just that with Curiosa.
This roomy storefront on Queen St. W. at Brock Ave. features all things quirky, playful and magically inspired. And while it’s not a Harry Potter store, it sells numerous products inspired by the books and movies.
And a lot of other things you’d expect to see in, say, Dumbledore’s office.
Heather and Stephen Sauer say their house is decorated with quirky lightswitch plates, vintage prints, wax seals and tin toys, the likes of which they now sell in their store.
Growing up, Heather always coveted the vintage tin duck toy at her aunt’s house. “She was in love with everything weird,” Heather says of her aunt, who recently passed away and left her the toy duck. He sits atop a high shelf in the store near the replica vintage toys for sale, which include a tin circus elephant and a carnival ride ($24.95 and $34.95, respectively).
Also on hand at Curiosa are journals, stationery and prints by MinaLima, the U.K. design firm that worked on the Potter movies.
The prints are gorgeous: there’s one of the magical product labels used in the film Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and a magical alphabet poster hung over the crib of a young Harry Potter in the films. They sell for $90-$300. Stephen’s favourite products include the wooden canes — the one that holds a secret vial of “poison” is sold out. Also selling like mad are the reproduction vintage scientific instruments, including stereoscopes and compasses.
“We wanted to have a space where it’s a must to be here,” Stephen says of the store’s eclectic stock. Some of it, such as numerous editions of Harry Potter books, you could probably find elsewhere or buy online. But you’ve got to see, touch and smell the literary-inspired journals and apothecary candles before buying.
The duo has a long history in retail. Heather, who studied anthropology and museum management, considered the Japanese Paper Place on Queen St. W., her “favourite store in the world.” In 2003, her sister tipped her off that they had posted a job there.
She got hired, and by 2005, the owner decided to spin off her retail and wholesale business, so she sold the store to Heather and a business partner. They rebranded it the Paper Place, and Heather later bought that partner out.
Spouse Stephen had worked at Corus Entertainment, but eventually began working in the store, juggling that with some time as a stay-athome dad to the couple’s two daugh- ters, and designing board games.
Then, last fall, the two began talking about a store for all their favourite stuff as “a bit of a joke,” Heather says.
Offhand talk got serious over the winter, and by the spring they’d rent- ed this space. They did most of the redecorating work themselves, including hand-gilding the ceiling with gold leaf — they created a lunar clock using a stencil in the front of the store — and opened in mid-August.
While Heather says she loves hunting down new items for the store, already she’s got issues with keeping her finds on the shelves. Customers are coming from far and wide.
In today’s bricks-and-mortar retail environment, it’s a good problem to have. The duo just need time to up their ordering, and keep going with the magical recipe of eclectic merchandise that seems to fly off the shelves.