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New England Antiques Festival, Manchester, New Hampshire

More Is Not Always Merrier

by Lita Solis-Cohen

Over more than a decade, a belief in the shopping center dictum prevailed: if two or three major department stores anchor a mall, then all the smaller stores in between prosper. This encouraged a lot of antiques show promoters to move summer shows into Manchester, New Hampshire, and the surrounding towns to ride the coattails of the long-established show sponsored by the New Hampshire Antiques Dealers Association.

Initially, the new shows met with some success. More shoppers came. More dealers shopped each other's shows. It seemed to work. This year, the third year of a market downturn, the shows seemed less robust, and many asked if there were just too many.

Tina and John Bruno of Flamingo Promotions were the last promoters to jump onto the New Hampshire bandwagon. Three years ago, they bought Start of Manchester from Kay and Bill Puchstein and kept it going at the ice rink, known as the JFK Coliseum, on Beech Street in downtown Manchester. The Puchsteins created Start of Manchester the same year Frank Gaglio created his popular Bedford Pickers Market in Bedford.

Start of Manchester survived several hot summers at the skating rink before the Brunos looked for air-conditioned space. They found it at the Event Center at C.R. Sparks in Bedford, though the space was too small to accommodate all 42 of their dealers for the Start of Manchester show. So this year, they planned two back-to-back shows at C.R. Sparks and came up with a plan to use the JFK Coliseum for their New England Antiques Festival, a failing show formerly held at the fairgrounds in Hopkinton, New Hampshire, which they bought from Cathy Sykes three years ago, combined with the Granite State Antiquarian Book & Ephemera Fair. They scheduled this book and antiques event on August 7 and 8, the weekend before the other New Hampshire shows began.

"We figured that Ron Bourgeault had his auction in Manchester that weekend, and the auction-goers would like to have a show to visit," said Tina Bruno. The combined shows might have been a good idea, but the auction crowd largely ignored it. Furthermore, the antiquers who came at 10 a.m. went back to the auction with poor reviews for a show without a list of dealers or a floor plan. For this show the Brunos had to depend on the local gentry. The gate was disappointing.

Perhaps the Brunos were targeting the wrong audience. Traditionally, three quarters of those who attend Northeast Auctions sales do not stay for any shows. As the auction group leaves, the show group arrives. The collectors of formal furnishings make way for the country crowd. Even this year, when Ronald Bourgeault offered more country fare than usual in his general sale and a private collection of folk art in a separate catalog, relatively few people stayed for another week of shopping the shows.

The group of antiquarian book dealers at the JFK Coliseum attracted their own customers. Some of them said they sold well.

"I enjoy spending quality time with my colleagues. It beats buying on eBay," said Gregory Gibson, an antiquarian book dealer and author who lives in Gloucester, Massachusetts. He was shopping for nautical books. "I'm not finding on eBay what I am finding here. There is no substitute for seeing the material."

eBay has changed the antiquarian book business. Even though the major antiquarian book fair in New York City in April is still successful, many smaller antiquarian book fairs have fallen by the wayside. When one comes along, bibliophiles will travel some distance to spend a day there.

At this fair only 20 book dealers set up on one side of the skating rink, and 20 antiques dealers set up on the other side, many of them sharing stands. A few booths with pottery and linens were mixed into the book aisles, but by and large the shoppers who lingered could be found perusing books and ephemera offered by some first-rate full-time professional dealers. The antiques aisles were empty.

At what other show in Manchester could you find a first edition of Winnie the Pooh in Latin for $75 or an autographed first edition of Harry Potter for less than $1500 or microscopes and scientific treatises, travel books, and trade cards? There was no other show for vintage Pyrex. (The hottest pattern is Gooseberry. A set of Gooseberry Pyrex bowls costs $45. One large rare pink Pyrex bowl was $110.)

There was some iron, copper, and brass mixed in with linens and pottery. A few sales were made, but the antiques show was not what they hoped it would be. John Bruno said they will not do it again but might try a New England antiques festival in the fall at another venue.

The book dealers talked of moving their show a week later next year and making it a one-day show, possibly at the air-conditioned Event Center at C.R. Sparks. "Then we could go on to the Vermont booksellers show at the Union Arena in Woodstock [Vermont] the following week," suggested Bill Hutchinson, a dealer from Cochranville, Pennsylvania.

Like the bands of performers who traveled the countryside in earlier times, the book dealers seem to enjoy packing up and moving on to the next venue. Even with eBay taking its toll, it appears that the small book fair might survive even as the small antiques show withers.

To contact Flamingo Promotions, call (631) 261-4590 or visit (www.flamingoshows.com).