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Bedford, New Hampshire

Mid-Week in Manchester Antiques Show

by Lita Solis-Cohen

Americana was hot and so was the temperature. It was hot in the big tent even with the fans whirring and ice water coolers placed strategically in the aisles. The temperature soared to 100° in the parking lot of the Wayfarer Inn in Bedford, New Hampshire (Bedford is actually three miles down the road from Manchester), for the Mid-Week in Manchester Antiques Show on August 8 and 9.

Next year you can bet it will be cool. Promoter Frank Gaglio said he can and will air-condition the tent. The dedicated group of dealers who bring the best antiques they can muster to this show said they would gladly foot the bill for air conditioning. There could well be a cold snap next year, making air conditioning unnecessary, but too much rides on this major show not to have dealers and buyers comfortable. Air conditioning will be the insurance policy, and the bustling Bedford Pickers Market, which follows Mid-Week, will benefit as well and pick up some of the tab.

The gate was down slightly from a record last year because the heat wave kept some people away. Selling was off due to a combination of the heat and the economy, but the array of antiques for sale was as good as it has ever been at this show. Selling was brisk at the opening and continued cautious but steady for two days.

There was a sense of excitement when the crowd streamed into the tent, cruised down and across the wide aisles, and then headed to the convention center to cool off and see those lucky dealers who had staked out space inside.

What is it about the Manchester, New Hampshire, area in August that makes people buy Americana with gusto? Is it the fact that they have traveled so far to get there and buying something is the purpose of their trip?

"It is a good example of crowd behavior," said Barry Perlman, a psychology professor at the University of Wisconsin in Oshkosh and a collector himself. "It is like a fire, when everyone runs. At Manchester the behavior is repeated because people are rewarded every once in a while. The hope of making a find strengthens their behavior," he explained as he joined his wife, Sandy, in the hunt.

"Standing in line is itself a positive experience," he went on to explain. "You see old friends and make new ones. You fantasize about what is there and what you might find. More practically, it's more fun to stand in line than sit in a hotel coffee shop over a cup of coffee."

Whatever it is, the six shows in the Manchester area—beginning with Nan Gurley's at Deerfield on Tuesday at 8 a.m., Puchstein's Start of Manchester opening on Tuesday at noon at the skating rink on Beech Street, Forbes & Turner's Riverside at the armory opening on Tuesday at 6 p.m., Mid-Week in Manchester at the Bedford Wayfarer Inn opening on Wednesday at 9 a.m., the New Hampshire Antiques Dealers Association show at the Holiday Inn opening on Thursday at 10 a.m., and finally the Bedford Pickers Market, the one-day quick-turnaround show at the Wayfarer Inn tent and convention center, on Friday at 9 a.m.—fill four days of stalking mainly country Americana. Fancy formal furniture does not sell well here.

It is like no other gathering of antiquers anywhere. Like a college reunion, it brings people of like interests to Manchester from near and far.

Each show has its own character, fresh material, and some great finds. Mid-Week in the middle of it all is a very active bazaar from the moment the dealers set up until they pack out. The show has enough depth that it should be visited more than once. Good things can be discovered, and when it is all over, enough good things are left for the shows in the fall.

Did the heat and the economy affect the show? Sure it did. "It slows me down, but it doesn't stop me," said a collector from Washington, D.C., who asked for anonymity. New York City dealer Susan Parrish, shopping, not showing, said she bought more than in other years but more carefully. Cautious and informed buying was the way it went. Plenty of business was done.

It is hard to believe that in eight years the Manchester shows have become an established institution in the Americana marketplace, like the Antiques Weeks in New York City in January and in Philadelphia in April. Manchester is a lot of fun. Those who congregate every year look forward to dinner with friends at very good restaurants and the exchange of tales over mediocre lunches at the shows.

For more information, contact Frank Gaglio at (845) 876-0616; Web site (www.barnstar.com).