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King City Show Ups the Ante with CADA Participation

by John Norris

All prices in Canadian funds

"We're having more formal this year," said promoter Sam Halpern of his King City Antiques Fair held at the King City Arena, April 25-27. His ad for the show had appeared in the March/April 2003 edition of the Upper Canadian, where he'd lauded it as "the premiere antique show & sale of the spring."

Indeed, it may well have been, but Halpern can thank the participation of some of the members of the Canadian Antique Dealers Association for introducing the formal ambiance into the show. The formal furnishings of the CADA members helped balance the show, which is already overcrowded with dealers of country furnishings.

According to Halpern, nine of the CADA members who had exhibited at his November 2002 Downtown show had signed up to exhibit at his King City show. They included P. Murray, David Brown, Gerard Bourguet, Blemora Heritage, J.W. Humphries, Peter Baker, John Mills, Sharon McLean, and Staffordshire House.

The 50 dealers present had obviously spent a lot of time, money, and hard work to set up neat, attractive booths with what Winnipeg, Manitoba, dealer John Cooper calls "hooks"—that is, items specifically chosen to draw attention and encourage patrons to enter. In Cooper's case, his booth had two large furry animals atop his storage box at the front, their noses poking into the aisles.

CADA member Paul Murray of Kitchener, Ontario, has always drawn patrons into his booth with his high-quality mix of nautical material and other smalls. He brought at least two large telescopes to the show and two great paintings of ships. The larger depicted a three-masted sailing vessel on green waters tagged $12,000. The smaller depicted the steamer U.S.S. Solace by American artist F.B. Holden, priced at $1800.

CADA member David Brown of Montreal had a booth neatly laid out with high-quality formal furnishings and accessories that dazzled the eye. At the front of his booth he'd placed his circa 1735 English fold-over walnut games table priced at $26,000. Behind it stood a circa 1785 English mahogany sideboard tagged $9500.

CADA member Gerard Bourguet of Quebec City brought high-priced Quebec country formal furnishings in original paint and accessories.

Steven Blevins and Sonja Morawetz of Blemora Heritage, Utterson, Ontario, outdid themselves by bringing practical furnishings in dark rich woods such as mahogany. Centered at the back of their booth stood a circa 1830 New Brunswick flame birch and mahogany four-drawer chest tagged $7200. It was flanked by a pair of circa 1820 mahogany Hepplewhite-style Nova Scotia side chairs priced at $2250. Shortly after the 1 p.m. opening on April 25, they sold a Navaho-style hooked rug from Nova Scotia for $1200. It was a beaut!

Blemora Heritage had shared space at the prestigious Bowmanville show the weekend previous with fellow CADA member Peter Baker of Athelstan, Quebec. To the King City show he brought high-quality country furnishings in original paint, including a circa 1840 Quebec harvest table in creamy yellow with a nice overlap all the way around and tapered legs priced at a very reasonable $2200. Baker was visited by Bowmanville show dealer Clay Benson of Port Hope, Ontario, himself a CADA member. Benson had shown at Halpern's Downtown show, but had chosen not to exhibit at King City.

It was hard not to notice the booth of Jennifer Dattels of Staffordshire House, Toronto. She'd set up a dazzling impressionistic display of mostly blue and white antique English pottery, including platters, plates, and dishes by Spode, Wedgwood, Davenport, Mason, and Ridgway.

The non-CADA member dealers at the show were not at all intimidated by the formal furnishings of the CADA members. Barry and Karen Ezrin of The Joinery, Moffat, Ontario, brought a circa 1820 formal mahogany Sheraton sewing stand for $750 and a circa 1820 formal Federal cherry fold-over table from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for $2850. Behind their refinished harvest table stood a small Victorian bird's-eye maple and walnut two-tiered jewelry box from Ontario tagged $395.

Otherwise, the Ezrins' booth was filled with country furnishings and smalls in original paint and some refinished items. They had a circa 1820 Nova Scotia pine seaman's chest with rope pulls in original green at a very reasonable $525 and a small but plain Waterloo County, Ontario, bucket bench in original yellow graining at $750. The pi<138>ce de résistance was a circa 1840 pine two-drawer blanket chest from Chester City, Pennsylvania, with luscious feather graining in brown and black for $3950.

Opposite the Ezrins, Henry and Carol Milberg of Elginburg, Ontario, offered an early 19th-century formal Sheraton lamp table of cherry with figured maple on the drawer front. Carol Milberg explained that its low $395 price tag resulted from the need to replace the drawer front. Apparently, over the years, the previous owners had pried open the drawer with a screwdriver (the drawer was missing its pull) and damaged the maple.

The Milbergs also offered low prices for refinished furniture, including just $265 for a large circa 1900 poplar storage box. The walls of their booth featured two colorful quilts, both of which sold, and they had laid four small circular hooked rugs for chair seats priced at $65 each on a table at the front. Carol sold three by the end of opening night.

Phil and Jeanine Ross of Old Church Trading, now of Port Dover, Ontario, had placed a formal circa 1820 Nova Scotia cherry gate-leg table with birch legs priced at $2800 at one side of their booth filled, otherwise, with high-quality multicolored folk art. Centered at the front of their booth was a magnificent Edmond Chatigny, Quebec, mother bird with her offspring in large green and red dots on a white background. It was tagged $4500. It had failed to sell at the Bowmanville show, but just wait.

Next to the Rosses, Sally Tuer of Lowlynds Antiques, Stratford, Ontario, had set up a rare circa 1860 Waterloo County sawbuck table with a two-board top, in red and gray, priced at just $1100. Nearby in a corner stood a set of Uxbridge, Ontario, shelves in old yellow over brown tagged $1300. In the opposite corner, Tuer had placed a refinished four-drawer chest atop another. The top chest had sold for $985 to a man who bought it because the chest's serpentine top drawer was like the chest his wife had brought into the marriage. Now they had a "his and hers." The bottom, plainer refinished chest was a very fair $795.

"If I can sell one piece Friday night, it's a good omen," said Tuer. After all, she and the other dealers had two more days to go—that's quite a stretch. Attendance on opening day was fairly low and sales concomitant.

Dave Stewart of Brooklin Antiquarian, Brooklin, Ontario, who sells only refinished furniture, claimed he sells at King City mostly on the weekend. Carol Telfer of Stratford, Ontario, an exhibitor of textiles for 17 years straight at King City, said the show was "hit and miss." That is, "something can sell at any time." After all, the affluent King City locals can afford to buy leisurely, and the show is out in the country, so many people wait till the weekend to drive there. It's an outing for them.

Unfortunately, John Cooper of Abbey Antiques & Art, Winnipeg, Manitoba, felt differently. He had sold nothing on opening Friday and believed that foreshadowed little, if any, sales for the remainder of the show. He wasn't even sure he'd be back in 2004. "I can sell all this on eBay," he insisted, his arm sweeping in the high-quality ceramics, etc. in his booth. He'd brought a large Manitoba storage box in original orange to the show, but even at a low $425 it hadn't sold. He was returning in late May to exhibit at the Christie Classic show. There, over the past two years, he's had mixed sales.

The King City show was a joy to attend. It had the same consistent high-quality items that characterized the Bowmanville show of the previous weekend, but the King City show simply offered more of a variety. It returns April 23-25, 2004.

For further information, contact Sam Halpern at (416) 498-8613 or e-mail (antiqueshows@rogers.com).