Panoply is an antique store full of unusual and carefully preserved period pieces of times long gone, with all of the items coming right from a 30-year-old personal collection.

The store on Dupont near Bathurst welcomes you with a musky, yet undeniably comforting smell similar to a bookstore and is arranged with curious items each vying for your attention.

Window displays are changed each month to showcase a different theme of items and the impressive collection fills both a lower and upper level.

Shopping is an experience here, entirely done by appointment and with owner Bill Fussner around to answer any questions about the merchandise.

The charming space comes as Fussner's retirement project after a 30-something career in the stain glass business. Even when he was creating stained glass windows and dome ceilings for high-end homes and commercial buildings, Fussner was building his collection at large antique markets across Canada and the States.

Putting years of experience working with his hands to use, Fussner transforms old clock cases, shadow boxes and oval antique mirrors into displays for his smaller trinkets. 

Plenty of other items are paired and placed into handcrafted glass domes creating small worlds of various sizes. This makes perusing the store that much more beguiling and also turns one single item into an entire arrangement that could complete a room. 

Fussner, who started in the window business by repairing old broken ones from an antique store in his hometown of Dayton, Ohio, certainly has a knack for transforming something broken or unfinished. 

The glass horse in a rotating wheel at the front of the store was handmade by a friend and mounted by Fussner with a pair of skateboard wheels and a circular frame. It's the store's most expensive item at $9,500. 

The antique automaton dolls are $5,500. Fussner says these types of mechanical dolls, which date back more than a hundred years, were typically made by clockmakers during the 1800s. 

Pre-dating the dolls are the fabrics and pieces of clothing from the 1700s, which feature intricate designs popular during that time period. 

There's also an extremely rare Heinrich-Grossman millinery sewing machine ($425) that Fussner tells me was used to make straw hats back in the early 1900s. This specific sewing machine was only manufactured for about five years before it was traded out for a newer model. 

Another tool that's since been traded in for a newer model is the typewriter, and there are a couple here. Although it's usually bought as a collector's item, Fussner says the ribbon could be replaced ($125). 

First introduced by Thomas Edison in the 1870s, a 1903 Edison gem cylindrical record player ($850) is another interesting find. 

Another interesting find that'll be especially exciting if you've ever seen the TV show American Gods, are the two Victorian chairs and jars of "specimens" ($425 - $850) used in the show. The jars sit next to a floor-to-wall painting by a Toronto artist. 

Furniture, including chairs, couches, vanities and desks which are sure to make great conversation pieces, are also on sale. One particular tromp l'oeil cabinet was made and hand-painted in Italy ($3,500). 

You don't have to be a history buff or avid collector of antiques in order to enjoy a walk through Panoply where every item on display comes with a story, best told by Fussner.