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Atlantique City Tries a Country Antiques Fair

by Dorothy S. Gelatt

The ad blitz for Atlantique City's annual mammoth spring show promised collectors a new feature this year—Americana. Big banner headlines pitched a "country antiques fair" complete with pie and pickle judging contests, quilting and craft demonstrations, a live barbershop quartet, and free furniture delivery within 200 miles during the March 24-25 weekend.

Impresario Norman Schaut had canvassed fine antiques shows around the country last year and offered free booth space to a selection of first-rate dealers to start up his new Atlantique City enterprise. Thirty-eight dealers took him up on it, according to Atlantique City spokeswoman Alyce Benham.

The idea sounded great, but there were two major glitches: the fair was hidden all the way in the rear of the show, and, to the dealers' dismay, it did not seem to draw country antiques collectors. In the huge 10½-acre Atlantic City Convention Center, with a reported 1600 regular collectible booths, the new dealers bemoaned the fact that there was no sign, banner, or arrows directing showgoers to the country antiques fair. Show staff, when asked, waved vaguely toward the back of the humongous hall, a good ten-minute walk for some collectors.

Once they got to the back of the building, people were still flummoxed. Instead of seeing a country antiques fair, they faced what appeared to be a double barrier that seemed to fence off the back of the hall, making it a no-man's land. First there was a 3' high railing hung with cloth, and behind that a wall of high cabinets with a bunch of American flags. Although there was a small gap in the middle, there wasn't any sort of sign, and few people took it to be an entrance to the country antiques fair. The unspoken message many people got was "keep out."

Numerous shoppers told us they did not have a clue that anything was behind the barriers. Most spectators did not even get a hint from the tall cases of American flags. Without some sort of sign saying "Welcome to the Country Antiques Fair," most people just did not catch on, especially on opening day.

Hidden behind the barriers were 38 terrific American country antiques dealers who came from Maine to Minnesota and beyond. Their booths were winners, with a wide assortment of country furniture and decorations, silver, quilts, clocks, clothing, and the wonderful early hooked rugs that are so hot right now. Rare to the East Coast market were some hauntingly simple regional Midwestern wood cabinets and cupboards that practically cried out "Little House on the Prairie."

By noon on the opening day of the show, dealers were already stunned that there was so little traffic to their booths, so little understanding of what they brought, such an absence of Americana collectors, and so little buying.

The free booth rent was no consolation. By the end of the show many of the Americana country dealers complained of additional expenses like booth walls, display cases, lighting, and the like, plus at least four days of travel and hotel costs in addition to all the work involved, for practically no return. Dealer parking is a good three miles from the show, which also rankled.

The primary dealer gripes were that the show was not only invisible, but that it failed to attract Americana collectors. Only a few dealers reported actual sales. Most did not want to be quoted directly, but they all sang pretty much the same song—they did not plan to come back.

Few dealers realized the Atlantique City show tends to draw lower-end shoppers these days. "They had sticker shock at my booth," a New England dealer said. "They never heard of `original paint.' I wish Norman had told me about it before. I would have brought an entirely different mix. I kept asking myself, `What am I doing here?'"

William and Ruth Garland of Garland's Antiques, Jefferson, Maine, were almost the only dealers we met who sized the show up right. They brought nothing over $1000 and sold a lot of it. "I had a gut feeling from the D'Amore's D.C. Big Flea show in Chantilly, Virginia, recently that it would be a refinished furniture crowd," Bill said. "These people don't want old paint. They want neat and clean, so we brought refinished cottage pine, and it sold."

Bill's wife, Ruth, said, "We didn't sell a single piece of anything in old paint. This is a collectibles show, and these people want a stained-glass lamp or a refinished table. We did sell a refinished country pine table, but we took home a really good set of table and chairs in nice original blue paint."

Nevertheless, the Garland booth sported a lot of red sold signs. "We did okay," Bill said, "but we wouldn't if we'd had to pay booth rent plus four days on the road. The show's two-hundred-mile free furniture delivery also helped. Some people only bought when they heard about that. We sold a cottage pine refinished four-drawer chest, 1870's-90's, for four hundred dollars, and a refinished cottage pine tall two-door cabinet with one drawer, 1870's-90's, for one thousand and fifty dollars. Also other furniture and decorations, but nothing really big, except a Stubbs painting to another dealer. The stock market and the economy are an influence now. People who used to spend five thousand dollars are now settling for five hundred dollars."

The remote location was a big disappointment to the Garlands too. "I was really disillusioned to see thousands of people up front in the collectibles show and ten people in our aisle," Bill said. "People just didn't get it. The rear segregation was bad. I wish it had been in the middle. By the time people got to the back, they were too tired to shop. And there should have been at least one hundred Americana dealers for a feature. Atlantique City is really a collectibles show. It always has been, and that's his crowd."

Boylston, Massachusetts, dealer Ken Ware of Ware House Antiques had a booth of beautiful higher-priced items and also managed to sell a few pieces. In his case, the free furniture delivery did not help. "I was surprised," Ken said. "The free delivery had no impact for me. I sold a cupboard, a three-drawer blanket chest, and a table to buyers who lived close by and picked up themselves."

Like the Garlands and many others, Ware faulted the country feature despite the free booth rent. "It had logistics problems," he said. "The aisles in the country space ran opposite to the direction of the aisles in the huge collectibles hall, so people could not even look up the aisles and see that we were there.

"On Saturday dealers started hearing that customers didn't think they were entitled to go behind the barriers," Ken reported. "We asked the management to take down the barriers, but they didn't, so some dealers took down sections of the curtain railing themselves to make it look more approachable. On Sunday the show finally took down the rest of the railing, but it was poor planning. It was isolated and a hostile environment," Ware said.

Richard Schneider of The Rathbun Gallery, Wakefield, Rhode Island, said, "Getting in and out, it's the best managed show I've ever done, and Norman does a great job. But the parking is impossible. As a dealer, it was not a successful show for me. My things are not compatible with Norman's crowd, and this is the first show I did this year that bombed. Most people come to this show for collectibles, not antiques, but I don't think you can fault Norman for not having the right buyers. Although he didn't have any signage for the country feature, and nobody knew it was there, it was an experiment, and I don't think it worked. Not all shows can work," Schneider said.

"Norman has such a successful collectibles show that I don't know why he wanted to do this," Schneider mused. "He did not bring the furniture-buying crowd. They just don't come to this show. He didn't have the right kind of advertising, and he needed more big-time dealers and the right kind of buyers. Nobody was interested in original condition, and nobody understood what I brought. I sold a good painting to a dealer and a couple of smalls, but that's all. I would not go back," Schneider concluded.

One rumor making the country dealer rounds was that Norman Schaut was selling the Atlantique City show to some British promoters, but show spokeswoman Alyce Benham said that was not true. She chalked it up as a retread of an episode a few years ago when some British promoters were thinking about a show in the United States, but she said there was nothing current as far as she knew.

In general, the collectibles and toy dealers did better than the country antiques fair. A regular participant, Joshua Evans, chairman of Leland's sports and pop culture auctions in New York City, summed up his view of Atlantique City by saying, "It's important for the market to have this trade show where buyers and sellers can get together and see real things, as opposed to the Internet. And the two setup days give dealers a chance to find stock they can use."

For more information, call (800) 526-2724 or visit the Web site (www.atlantiquecity.com).