The Pickers Market 2014

August 7th, 2014


The Pickers Market filled the Everett Arena and was open for shopping from 2 to 7 p.m. on Thursday, August 7.


The pond boat was $825, and the Adelphi Hotel sign was $3995 from Antiques at 30B, Cambridge, New York.


The shelf was $300, the books ranged from $100 to $425 and dated 1669-1803, and the horn cups were $60 to $110. They were sold by Matthew Ehresman of Wadsworth, Ohio.


Mary Ross of Great Neck, New York, has done every Pickers Market for the last 20 years. She offered Christmas decorations, early balls for $5, die cuts for $35, and Santas for $20.


Roberta Paul of Millcreek Antiques, Geneseo, New York, asked $4500 for this mid-19th-century set of painted Hitchcock-type furniture: an armchair, a side chair, and a settee with stenciled decoration.


There was an under $200 booth. The salesperson was Kristin Grievo of Whitehouse Station, New Jersey.


Cat pipsqueaks, late 19th-century German toys, were $1100 to $1500 from Anne Bedics of The Cat Lady Antiques, Bangor, Pennsylvania, who shared a stand with Lisa Breish of Anderson-Breish, Fort Washington, Pennsylvania.


Cheryl York-Cail of Cail’s Country Cottage Antiques, Amherst, New Hampshire, asked $350 for this menu.

Concord, New Hampshire

The Pickers Market is a great idea. Since 1994 it has been an incubator for emerging dealers. It is the perfect vehicle for the lawyer, veterinarian, schoolteacher, banker, stockbroker, mother, grandfather, or anyone who wants to deal in antiques when he or she retires, or a young person who wants to try something new.

In 1994 when Frank Gaglio came up with the idea to reuse the walls from his successful Midweek show for a five-hour show, it was an immediate success. Trucks and vans lined up, and move-in went on into the night and early morning, and the show opened by 10 a.m. the next morning with 100 stands.

Dealers say most of their selling is in the first five hours of any show. Why not hold a five-hour show? It seems so obvious. Pickers Market used to be on the Friday of Antiques Week in New Hampshire. Then five years ago it was the only show on Monday, and it worked great, according to some dealers, but the Midweek dealers objected—they wanted the first clean walls. Deerfield had always been the first show of the week; it is a one-day show on Tuesday. Change was hard to accept.

This year Pickers Market was held on Thursday, August 7, from 2 until 7 p.m. At least ten Deerfield dealers hung around and set up again at Pickers on Thursday with fresh stuff. Four Midweek dealers set up at Pickers as well. Frank Gaglio said he scheduled the Pickers show on Thursday because “I figured those who came for the dealers show in Manchester would come to Concord afterwards.” The only problem was that some of those day-trippers were also lured to Karen DiSaia’s Antiques in Manchester: The Collector’s Fair at the JFK Memorial Coliseum, conveniently located in Manchester, and never got to Concord, not realizing they could have come in the late afternoon because the Pickers Market stayed open until 7 p.m. (the Collector’s Fair closed at 6 p.m.).

As for buying tickets to one more show, members of the American Folk Art Museum in New York City could get into all the shows at half price. It was a deal the promoters all agreed to do, but the museum and the show promoters did not publicize it. Gaglio said only two people took advantage of the deal. DiSaia said very few cashed in. What a good idea it was to increase membership, but it needed to be better implemented, either by an e-mail blast or a small ad or poster or a sign-up table at the shows.

It was also unfortunate that the dealers who set up at the New Hampshire Antiques Show and at the Collector’s Fair could not leave their stands to shop at Pickers Market, and some of them said they were really sorry to miss it, especially with money in their pockets after having a good show.

Pickers dealers said they thought their gate was down, but those who sold well said they liked the Thursday date. “When the show was on Friday people told us they had spent their money, and they were tired,” said one dealer. Moreover, they pointed out that attendance at the New Hampshire Antiques Show is not robust on Friday and Saturday, and an overflow crowd is more likely on Thursday. Customer fatigue sets in by Thursday afternoon.

Collectors who came to Pickers enjoyed the hunt. There seemed to be plenty for those who live in old houses. Matthew Ehresman of Wadsworth, Ohio, was one of four Midweek dealers who kept their stand for a second appearance at Pickers. (Stephen Score of Boston; Jim and Toni Stoma of Latcham House Antiques, Waterville, Ohio; and AJ Warren of Peter and Maria Warren, Wilton, Connecticut, all added some new stock and moved things around and remained at Pickers.) Ehresman’s stand was filled with painted cupboards and shelves filled with old leather books, and he sold as much at Pickers Market as he did at Midweek. One young woman who had just moved into a mid-18th-century house found the red-painted cupboard she dreamed of owning. A man bought an old shelf and then wanted all the leather-bound books on it and found himself with a new collection. Ehresman has a following. So does Mary Elliott of Pepperell, Massachusetts. She offered accessories for an old New England dwelling—brooms, treen, hornbeam log barrels, iron candleholders, and cornhusk mats. She usually sells well but said business was soft this year.

Not everything was country. One sophisticated collector said he found a pair of fire tools that matched his lemon-top andirons. Chris and Karen Doscher of Witt’s End Antiques, Wallkill, New York, sold a cherry tea table made either in Massachusetts or Connecticut. A New Hampshire card table, circa 1820, left the floor, but a cherrywood Connecticut highboy was left behind.

Folk art sold. The Doschers sold three carved whales. David and Jane Steele from Middletown, Rhode Island, sold a washerwoman whirligig. Signs and broadsides of all kinds sold. One was an electric sign from a courthouse reading “EXECUTION IN PROGRESS WHEN LIT.” It was sold by the Doschers.

The pictures and captions show a sampling of what was there. Sales were generally soft; the bell curve was steep. A few dealers sold very well, some did just OK, some said they did not make expenses, and some said they sold nothing at all. Frank Gaglio did all he could to make the 20th Pickers Market a celebration. At 4 p.m. he offered gourmet ice cream to all shoppers, a party for a milestone.

For more information, see (www.barnstar.com).


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

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