The Penn Dry Goods Market

May 16th, 2014


The Penn Dry Goods Market was held in the Schwenkfelder Library and Heritage Center, so the collection could be seen by showgoers at no extra charge. Show admission was $6.


Ruth Van Tassel of Van Tassel Baumann American Antiques, Malvern, Pennsylvania, sold this quilt early on Friday morning, right after the show opened. She said she had a good show selling samplers, an embroidered pin ball, and more.


Gene Bertolet of Oley, Pennsylvania, asked $185 for this chintz-lined rye straw sewing basket.


Joyce and William Subjack of Neverbird Antiques, Surry, Virginia, asked $2800 for Frieda Walson’s sampler dated 1898 and stitched in the mountains in Walsenburg, Huerfano County, Colorado.


A pincushion was $45 from Linda Sarubin and Carol Swam of The Gatchellville Store, New Park, Pennsylvania.


Kathleen Staples & Associates, Greenville, South Carolina, asked $1300 for this circa 1710 embroidered English work bag.


An 18th-century American embroidered pot holder or kettle holder with the initials “PW,” wool on linen, was $3995 from Carlson and Stevenson, Manchester Center, Vermont.

Pennsburg, Pennsylvania

Have you ever seen early 18th-century straight pins? Could you date them if you found them? At the Penn Dry Goods Market on May 16 and 17 at the Schwenkfelder Library and Heritage Center in Pennsburg, Pennsylvania, a knowledgeable collector of 17th- and 18th-century antiques bought seven early pins along with three sheaths for laces (the reusable sort that would have been attached to the end of a lace used to tighten a lady’s bodice, long before laces came with permanent hard ends). How did he know the pins were that old? “I have a torn piece of dated currency held together with an old pin that must date close to the date on the currency,” he said. He said he was happy to pay $25 for the lot and pointed out that the pins were gilded.

The Penn Dry Goods Market is a special kind of antiques show and sale. It features antique and vintage textiles plus things that might have been found on the shelves of an old dry goods store. Also, it is more than an antiques show. It is built around two days of lectures on textile history and workshops, attended by people from all parts of the country. They shopped after hearing talks on such subjects as “Quakerism in Elizabeth Marsh School Samplers, 1725-1740” by Dr. Lynn Tinley; “American Sewn Rugs: Their History with Exceptional Examples” by Jan Whitlock; and “Amish Quilts: Crafting an American Icon” by Dr. Janneken Smucker, who wrote the most recent book on the subject. There was standing room only for Linda Eaton’s talk, “Patterns of Their Time: Design in Late 18th and 19th Century Printed Textiles.”Lectures were $25 each. Generally talks of this quality cost hundreds of dollars at textiles conferences.

Candace Perry, curator of collections at the Schwenkfelder Library and Heritage Center, came up with the idea for the show and a gathering of textile enthusiasts. Kathy Lesieur, a textile historian and a Schwenkfelder Library and Heritage Center board member, agreed to be show manager.

“We were in the car and talking about fundraising and agreed that there is an enormous amount of interest in textiles, so important to daily life in southeastern Pennsylvania. Candace came up with the idea and the name Penn Dry Goods Market,” Kathy Lesieur recounted. “Our first Penn Dry Goods Market in 2013 was a grand experiment. Those who came to the lectures were enthusiastic, and the few dealers who took a chance with us sold well, so we tried it again this year, and it’s bigger and better.”

For the second Penn Dry Goods Market, Candace Perry put together an exhibition called Common Threads with items from the Schwenkfelder Library and Heritage Center, the Mennonite Heritage Center in Harleysville, and the Goschenhoppen Historians in Green Lane, all nearby. The patchwork, samplers, costumes, and needlework wallets and pin balls were just a sampling from the holdings of these three museums, which are now in a new collaborative on-line database as a result of a grant from the Council of Library and Information Resources (CLIR) for cataloging hidden special collections. To see the digital catalog of Pennsylvania German textiles, ranging from pieced quilts and embroidered samplers to homespun linen feed bags and petticoats, see the Web site (www.schwenkfelder.com), and a drop-down menu will lead you to all three on-line collections.

The 20 dealers at the show said they sold well. Buyers took home quilts, samplers, hooked rugs, baskets, buttons, rag dolls, baskets, butter prints, and cookie cutters. Dealers presented a broad range of English and American textiles and sewing tools. Kathleen Staples of Greenville, South Carolina, a dealer and needlework specialist, gave a lecture on old needlework of Dublin, Ireland and another on German influences on Mexican samplers. Joyce and William Subjack of Neverbird Antiques, Surry, Virginia, offered samplers from Colorado, South Dakota, and California. The nonagenarian dealer Tex Johnson of Adamstown, Pennsylvania, offered some never-worn late 19th-century fashions she had found in an attic on a house call a week before the show.

“I think small, focused shows are doing well,” said dealer Betty Berdan of Thomasville, Pennsylvania. “There was such a good feeling among the dealers. Everyone who came seemed to be having such a good time. There was so much to discover, it gave me goose bumps.”

For more information, log on to the Web site (www.schwenkfelder.com) or call (215) 679-3103.

Tex Johnson of Adamstown, Pennsylvania, the doyenne of textile dealers in Pennsylvania, brought a full range of sewing tools, costumes, needlework pockets, and show towels and more.


Originally published in the August 2014 issue of Maine Antique Digest. © 2014 Maine Antique Digest

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