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           LaGare  GALLERY

                            The Founder and the Collections 

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                                                         OUR STORY             

   Gary D McDaniel opened The Attic Antiques in 1961, and shortly after, was a purchase of an important collection of master artworks. LaGare, my father's artist name, quickly expanded to a riverboat guiding lighthouse, establishing The Lighthouse Antiques, Iowa Silver Plating Works, and LaGare Gallery, all nicely showcased on a historic property in Davenport, Iowa. Seems LaGare's vision quickly resonated throughout the Midwest and the Southwest, drawing some well-known customers, including the very famous concert pianist, Liberace, the world's highest-paid entertainer of that time. And there's Ike and TinaTurner, who traveled often from Chicago to negotiate the 'Art of the Deal,' and sometimes customers went barefoot on board LaGare's thirty-six-foot antique yacht.

   Expanding in the early 1970s, LaGare opened The Old Goldmine gallery in Searchlight, Nevada, and just down the road, he operated a turquoise mine. Then along came the 80s and three more galleries, the Fountain Hills and Scottsdale, Arizona, locations, opening the latter store within a prestigious new art district. But cherished more than any was the Sonoita, Arizona, gallery. This secluded community was just a stop sign and several buildings, a place LaGare enjoyed curating the yearly wine festival, and a monthly auction for the ranch owners of that southernmost border.

   LaGare was quite the businessman and the father of five. As a promoter, he established the Quad Cities Antique show, and those Dealers flocked from across the nation, a yearly event held in Rock Island, Illinois. From prestigious Chicago, Illinois, estate sales to caring for three hundred Racing Pigeons, and a night-club owner, remember Disco in the late 1970s. And Lagare's father, David McDaniel, was a WWII Navy ship mechanic who, surprisingly, became a pocket watch mechanic and avid collector, living a lifetime in the suburbs of Joliet, Illinois.

                  

   I'm Terry D McDaniel, an historian and a life-long Antiquarian, writing two very important books, with others on the way, including THE LAST BIRDMAN  and                                                       THE GREAT LIFE of LaGare.

   My father promoted an incredible life for our family. His oldest son had a complete line of cars, beginning with an amazing canary yellow '56 Chevy, a '70 Barracuda, a '79 Chevy van, a '75 Harley, and before he went on his own, a new Jeep with big tires. 

   Then LaGare's daughters had closets filled with the latest fashion, and one seemed to use her wardrobe as carpeting (and love her independence, so much like our father). And the youngest boy was doted on by our mother and sisters, yet he hardly ever smiled, even if I took him to the Rock River fishing or to the drag races in Cordova, Ill.

   For me, I liked the slow pace of living on the Mississippi, and really didn't care for the latest fashion, and when it came to cars, LaGare had a parking lot full of antiques that needed a battery charge. And then my art collection, something I started while working LaGare estate sales. And I loved art class, especially around the house. Thankfully, Dad was always down in his workshop, and if he wasn't carving a decoy for the Quad City fair, he was sculpting a fishing lure. And whenever LaGare was creating, then so was I.

​   And who wouldn't want to live on Lake Davenport, a wide section of the Mississippi River, with a sailboat club a block downriver, and the Davenport Yacht Club just a half mile upriver. And what a view of the Rock Island Arsenal, a 946-acre island, where President Abraham Lincoln once commanded a post.

   And just one more thing, the Greatest Salesman in the World, my mother, who never let grass grow under her toes, driving a 77 black Trans Am, and a 78 Gold Edition. While driving around town with her oldest daughter, they were known as 'sisters.' 

   

   I say, while driving one of those quite popular T-Top Pontiacs, you gotta go topless!   

                               

  Two legendary Pontiac cruising, 'Topless Bandits,' emulating 'Smokey and the Bandit.'                              

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