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Fire Hazard No More

by Don Johnson

This was a case where John Trook's dog, Mozart, couldn't help him.

John Trook is a Huntington, Indiana, antiques dealer, and Mozart is Trook's guitar-playing dog. Mozart performs the music of Kenny Rogers, Merle Haggard, and Charlie Pride. It takes the right ear to hear the tunes. Actually, it takes a lot of imagination, but Mozart plays nonetheless.

Still, Mozart's talent was of no help in wowing the fire marshal when he stopped at Trook's antiques shop earlier this year. Anyone who has been in Trook's shop can guess the results. With a narrow path carved through the mountainous piles of merchandise, the outcome was inevitable. Trook was ordered to bring his shop up to code.

He recalls the fire marshal saying, "John, I can't even turn around in this place. We've got to do something about this."

How bad was it? "There was a lady in there one day, in the back with her husband," Trook said. "When some other people came in, she said, <096>I have claustrophobia, and I'm coming through if I have to walk on your head.'"

The main aisle through the shop, which is located in a long, rectangular room in an old downtown building, was only about 15 inches wide. "You couldn't pass another person. If you wanted to go out, everybody had to go out in shifts, change, and everybody come back in."

The entryway to the shop was so full that just to get into the front door was an accomplishment, and goods were stacked almost to the ceiling.

Although officials could have taken an iron-fisted approach regarding violations, they didn't. "The fire marshal has been so nice to me. We have had a wonderful relationship," Trook said.

He worked with the fire marshal to widen the aisles to the 44 inches required by the state, clean out the entryway, and take down anything within two feet of the ceiling. As a result, Trook was left with a considerable amount of merchandise that needed a new home. He consigned it to a Doug Davies auction in Delphi, Indiana, on May 18.

Among the items consigned were several pieces from New Wilmington, Pennsylvania, including a small open-front Amish cupboard in old red paint that sold for $3000 (no buyer's premium charged), and a small red slat-back rocker with mushroom knobs that brought $600.

The sale featured a strong mix of country antiques and Americana, Davies' specialty, with about half the items coming from other consignors. Highlighting the day was a Centre County, Pennsylvania, fraktur that had been found in Benton County, Indiana. Dated 1812 and 1832, the watercolor work had a large central heart surrounded by tulips. Showing some stains, it sold for $5200.

Other top lots included an unframed oil portrait of a man, about 9 inches x 12 inches, said to have been painted by John Rawlings, that realized $1600, and a pair of small early oval watercolor portraits of a man and a woman that brought $800.

A cherry two-piece 12-pane Dutch cupboard topped at $1900, while a Sheraton cherry four-drawer chest with a single small drawer at top was $1600.

The variety ranged from a push sleigh in old red paint with decoration at $500 to a hand-forged iron bear trap at $120, and from a parade-size silk 36-star American flag at $325 to a copper minnow bucket at $250. A circa 1920 Toledo, Ohio, high wire-wheel tricycle with its original leather seat and red paint sold for $450.

Among the textiles, an 1839 Joseph Gilmour blue and white coverlet with sailboat corner blocks sold for $2200, an 1847 blue and white coverlet "Made by D.L. Myers, Bethel Twp. For Joseph Black" was $700, and a hooked rug showing a blue cat on a brown rug, about 20 inches x 30 inches with wear, was $450.

Odds and ends included a trencher in old dark blue-gray paint, about 20 inches long, that made $700; a palm-sized miniature basket in green paint, $250; a round burl snuffbox, $425; a burl master salt, $200; a round wrought-iron rotary fireplace grill with willow decoration and three penny feet, $250; a clear glass Shakespeare minnow trap, $225; a Bennington inkwell in the form of a reclining man, $295; an apple basket with double wooden handles, possibly Shaker, signed Emma Herts Seaborn and dated 1882 on the bottom, $375; a Shaker cape hanger, $190; and a tiger maple bowl, about 18 inches in diameter, $275.

Several weeks after the auction, Trook was still at work cleaning up his shop. He said he's gained a good friendship with the fire marshal and that the whole experience has been positive.

"It was a catalyst for me to be able to make a lot of changes and to redo my shop. It was the best thing to happen to me because I couldn't even get in the door myself. I couldn't even find a place to sit down."

As for Mozart, the guitar-playing dog, well, that's a story for another day.

For more information, call (765) 449-4515; Web site (www.daviesauctions.com).