Howdy Folks!

Sharon, Connecticut - At home for the weekend, just running around covering some events and doing a flea market. Now for me that is an easy weekend, but it is also my last weekend off for the calendar year. More on that later.

The Country Living Fair

The Country Living Fair in Cincinnati was our first stop since the last report. Held September 28-30 at the Workshops of David T. Smith in the small Cincinnati suburb of Morrow, Ohio, more than 17,000 visitors paid their way into the Fair. Sales among the 150 exhibitors were outstanding for some and fair for the lowest; that means pretty good overall, and certainly a great improvement from Chicago 2006, when about 6,000 came.

Although there were some furniture sales, (in most cases primitive eighteenth and nineteenth century painted kitchen and pantry pieces), in general, it was the large number of small value transactions that made the show successful for most of the exhibiting dealers. Early porcelain and ironstone were popular as well as many varieties of stoneware.

Many of the dealers were not offering antiques but specialty pieces, crafts and one-of-a-kind designs. In this vein, there was Olde Picket Fence & Too Far Gone from Farina, Illinois, artists/designers of primitive folk art and furnishings. Their refurbished antique pieces included old ladder back chairs that had been transformed into primitive wing back upholstered chairs. Connie Winegar and Debbie Schlichter, business partners from Washington Court House, Ohio sold a set of painted chairs, although the majority of their income came from selling small pantry boxes, baskets and quilts.

As noted, sales for the weekend were for most of the exhibitors excellent. There was a lady who ran out of bags and another dealer was out of packing materials by noon Friday. Bruce Knight, owner of Heart of Ohio, a very large group shop in Springfield, said they sold more than 1,000 green apothecary jars and a good deal of other things. By Saturday morning, many dealers were restocking their booths to fill the empty spaces.

Managing the show for Country Living was Stella Show Management, with Irene Stella at the helm, assisted by most of her key people there. When it became apparent on Friday that first day attendance would eclipse Chicago, the experienced team reacted promptly, ordering more food service and portable sanitation facilities. Unfortunately, nothing could be done about the narrow road for entry into the site, and there were long slow lines getting into the Fair. Come Saturday [attendance 7,500] and Sunday [attendance 4,500], Stella changed the admittance policy, collecting for tickets after the visitors had parked. This improved things greatly.

Nancy Soriano, Editor-in-chief of Country Living, was thrilled with the results of the show, noting that, “Antiques and collectibles are a huge part of the magazine each month and the Fair brought Country Living to life, and allowed the public to experience the magazine.” Soriano was quick to point out the Fair will be back again next year, although the site is yet to be determined. I personally hope to be there again with lots of inventory for the decorators.

Destination: Vermont

Home for a few days and then it was off to New England for several Vermont shows, all held the weekend following the Vermont Antiques Dealers Show. The week began at Riley Rink at Hunter Park September 29-30, the Manchester ice rink, with the dealer’s show. Jim Dunn retired from his “day job” a little more than a year ago, and so has been recruited (or volunteered) to be the President of Vermont Antiques Dealers Association and Chairman of its Show Committee.

The show has a long history but with a variety of changes over the years including in the mid-1990s a major shift in the dates from late July to the weekend before Columbus Day weekend. This was to get it away from the New Hampshire and at that time Maine Dealers Associations’ shows and also to take advantage of the Vermont foliage season and the visitor traffic generated by the visiting leaf peepers. The fall already had five shows in operation on the Columbus Day weekend, so the Association was capitalizing on that group as well.

Their ads call the show “The best antiques Vermont has to offer.” It really is without doubt one of the best shows in the Northeast but there were more. Dunn had a survey circulated Sunday morning which was returned by 51 of the dealers, giving the show very high marks.

The following weekend, October 4-7, there were five shows. Thursday at 5 p.m., Weston opened for its 49th annual show. Held in the Weston Playhouse, your faithful reporter went to this show as a teenager, when it quickly gained its reputation for excellence. It can also be a bit difficult, since the Playhouse is not one giant room, but lots of small and medium rooms - and in a few cases – some cramped spaces. It is a virtual maze of exhibits, but the paying guests know to search out all the nooks and crannies for the great stuff.

Next to open was Okemo, Friday at 3 p.m., for their 14th annual. At 14, it is the youngest of the shows, but very popular for the easy-to-find location on Route 100 in the ski lodge. Dealers come from throughout the east.

At 7 p.m. Friday evening the Ludlow show opened its doors for the 43rd time in the Black River High School. Moving about the school’s various areas, visitors found 40 dealers offering their collections.

Saturday morning at 8 a.m., Bromley Mountain opened for its 30th annual with about 30 dealers, making it the smallest of all the group. This show is owned and managed by Jim Dunn so it was a very busy week for him with the two shows to manage, plus he and his wife exhibited at both shows as Bittersweet Antiques of Springfield, Vermont.

Last but not least, on Sunday morning at 8 a.m. Antiques in Vermont offered for the 23rd time the first look at what its 80 dealers had to offer. Held in the Riley Rink, the same place as the dealer show, it is actually the largest of the group, although it is only open the one day, from 8 a.m. until 4 p.m..

Now if you think that is a busy week, wait one more moment for there was also Marvin Getman’s Burlington show with about 135 dealers for the same two-day weekend, October 6-7. Now Burlington is about 100 miles from Manchester, so it is not easy to run up there while visiting the others in the Manchester area, but some did just that. Held in the Champlain Valley Exposition (which is really in Essex Junction – Champlain is the next town to the east), the show is called the Champlain Valley Antiques Festival.

Getman has been using this facility for several years now, so the customers seem to be getting into the habit of coming to the show to buy. Several exhibiting dealers were offering very positive comments about the crowd and the sales. In fact, one who had exhibited at the Vermont Dealers Show reported more sales and a higher dollar total at Champlain Valley.

For next year, I’m thinking perhaps the better route to take would be Thursday and Friday in the Manchester area; Saturday morning do Bromley then race up to Burlington for the afternoon; Sunday be in Manchester for Riley Rink again. Yeah, that works, right….

Rhinebeck

Next up was Rhinebeck, held on the weekend of October 13-14 at the Dutchess County Fairgrounds. More than 180 dealers were gathered for this popular fall event and while we were there for a brief review, deadlines did not allow us to poll the dealers for their results. We will get some reports for the December issue.

Sunday, October 14, our reporting and dealing took us to Elephant’s Trunk, the big antiques flea market in New Milford, Connecticut. We did it as weather bird, that is, got up at 2:30 a.m., checked the weather for fair, decided it was good, and so, off to the Fair. At $40/space, there were more than 300 vendors to accommodate a crowd that reached 3,000.

A Touch of Texas

These past two weeks were also the Texas shows at Round Top and Warrenton, that wide spot in the road between Houston and Austin. For many years, the two principle shows have been Marburger Farm Antique Show and The Red Barn at Round Top. Red Barn was purchased a few years ago by Susan and Bo Franks, who had been producing other kinds of show for many years. Their transition to antiques has been smooth and successful for the dealers, customers, and we presume for the Franks as well.

Marburger Farm Antiques Show is considerably larger than Red Barn with about 400 dealers versus 150. Its facilities, on the other hand, are mostly in tents and old saved antique buildings which the owner John Sauls has moved onto the property over the last dozen years. Sauls has had the show quietly for sale for a while, wanting to be sure the next owners would keep the show intact for the dealers and customers. His goal was just recently achieved with the sale to the Marsh family of Tyler, Texas.

The Marshes were on site for the show meeting the dealers, listening to their comments and reassuring them of the continuity of the show. Margaret Marsh Mebus, the leader of the family and mother or mother-in-law to the other four co-owners, said her goal was “to have a family business where my children can be involved and we can grow [the business].” With Mebus and Sauls acquainted for many years, there is a friendship and mutual respect which will allow the smooth transition of the business.

Auction Report

Let’s see, what next? The auctions were good this month. We were able to visit several in Vermont which seemed interesting, including two on September 22. The first was Rick Rudd in Poultney. The attraction at this event was a Slave Scale which spent the last 100 years in a barn in Vermont, having been moved there from the Tidewater area of Virginia. According to Rudd, slaves were weighed when being auctioned as a part of determining their value. This scale would have been part of the auctioneer’s paraphernalia. Signed A F and dated 1743 on the iron beam, it sold for $6,050. Rudd was told it is going back to Virginia. Also at the sale were many stoneware pieces which were very good value for the buyers.

That same Saturday there was a William Smith Auction on site in Weathersfield, Vermont. The attraction here was that the real estate was going to be offered for sale. The 40-acre property included a house originally built in 1795, a new nine stall horse barn and riding hall, and several other buildings. The property had been listed with a broker for $1,000,000 plus, but the feeling was it could sell at the auction for considerably less. The bidding started at $11,000 running up to about $520,000 with a pause, then off again an hour later to $660,000. That was not enough for the seller to accept so it did not go.

The antiques at the sale, however, were very popular with the assembled crowd. Good early furniture was selling at attractive prices with many dealers buying for resale. There was a full bodied copper eagle weathervane which went for $253, a collection of eight early Windsor bow backs at $77 each; a good early hutch table was $577 and a Baltimore game table in mahogany was $330.

We also previewed a couple of Chuck Eaton auctions; he’s from West Fairlee, Vermont, and as usual for him his stock was very country. The offering was a mix of furniture and small antiques.

Trends that we are seeing in the business of antiques are generally not bad or maybe even fairly good. An interesting phenomenon is that auctions on site are showing good value, especially for the buyer who wants to resell the auction purchase. Show sales have been up and down for the past six months but generally there have been enough good sales that bills are paid or at least staying current, and dealers have been replenishing their stock at shows and sales.

Coming up in the next month will be Nashville, then Alice Peck Day in Lebanon, New Hampshire on November 4. It is at the High School, just off I-89, and is on for one day only. After that, possibly Scott Atlanta, then we will do the Richmond Spectacular November 17-18, where we seem to sell quite well most of the time. The following weekend is Thanksgiving with the Williamsburg Show and then off to the U.K. for two weeks. We hope to have a few surprises for you out of that trip!

Well, this is all the news this intrepid reporter deems fit to print for another month. We hope you enjoyed reading it as much as we enjoyed writing it. Be sure to say hello if we meet at a show sometime soon.