The Round Lake Antiques Festival

Betty Flood | September 4th, 2012

Paula Sophoclides of Recollections, Canandaigua, New York, specializes in decorative quilts, English porcelains, and early furniture. She showed a pink circled quilt for $275 and a navy blue garland of flowers quilt for $235.

Michael Albanese of Kendall, New York, specializes in baskets from Peru and the Southwest, priced from $200 to $500; Civil War items; and Canadian birch bark baskets, priced from $400 to $500.

Mary Ann Flewelling of Colliersville Cottage Antiques, Colliersville, New York, had a Bennington pitcher for $225; a Corning preserves jar for $275; and several molds priced from $150 to $325.

Grey Barn Antiques, Rome, New York, squeezed every bit of furniture they could into their booth, including this circa 1890 Eastlake high-back bed and chest of drawers and small matching dresser complete with marble tops for $1995.

Mairinger's Antiques, Altamont, New York, specializes in linens and restoring small trunks. The "Brookside Stores" wagon was priced at $375, and the delightful small trunk was $225.

A 1936 Carlton House desk was $675 in the booth of Salisbury, Vermont, dealer Jeffrey Andrews.

The mahogany buffet, 1930-40, was priced at $675 by Jeffrey Andrews. The James Tufts silver-plated tea service from Boston, which included seven pieces and a butter dish, was $265.

Buzz and Barb Ashenburg of Pittsford, New York, exhibited a wonderful variety of early 1900's American grain sacks priced at $28 each and several Eastern European grain sacks imported from the Ukraine at $57 each.

Round Lake, New York

by Betty Flood

The 40th anniversary of the Round Lake Antiques Festival in Round Lake, New York, on June 23 and 24 was filled with some 200 dealers with goods ranging from furniture, garden decorations, fabrics, and linens to Civil War relics that could fit nicely in a museum. Promoter Steve Allman of Allman Promotions, who does shows in New York state and in Florida, was pleased with the more than 7000 people who came to the show, free of charge.

Two things that never fail at Round Lake are return customers and changes in the weather. On Saturday morning when I arrived, it was a delightful 67Âº, and the dealers were set up from the night before when most of them pulled in with their trailers and sleeping arrangements.

As buyers nudged each other out of the way in some booths, other dealers stood with their arms crossed and hoped for a sale. Things changed rapidly around 11:30 a.m. when the atmospheric pressure changed and waves of humidity and baking sun poured over the field. Sensing a coming storm, I left the field and headed to safety about 20 miles away.

At about 2:30 I called Steve Allman's cell phone and found that the storm had lasted about one hour and 45 minutes with blasts of rain, thunder, lightning, and strong wind. Most dealers buttoned down their tents and moved furniture to higher ground. On Sunday morning one dealer showed me that her booth was near the town drain, and there was 6" of water rushing through. The show closed at 5 p.m., and very few dealers made many sales after the storm.

I returned on Sunday to finish photographing and interviewing the dealers. At 8 a.m. Sunday, the weather was delightful with a cool breeze. Parishioners of the local church offered breakfast and a wonderful outdoor chorus of songs throughout the morning.

Back to business: most of the regulars did well, including Grey Barn Antiques, Rome, New York. The booth was stuffed with furniture. First to go was a magnificent 1890 Eastlake walnut bedroom set consisting of a high-back bed and a high dresser with mirror and side dresser with marble tops. The set went at a bargain price of $1995.

Marilyn Mullen of Grey Barn Antiques said she also sold a china cabinet for $799; an oak table with six chairs for $2400; two oak dressers; and 12 other pieces of furniture. "I was blown away, but I do not know what the deal was. Maybe there was not a lot of refinished furniture there, or maybe it was just my turn."

John and Dannette Darrow of Binghamton, New York, said the rain "hurt us a bit, but we still ended up beautiful; I had seven pieces of furniture and sold all but one. I had a cottage bedroom set and sold it for four hundred fifty dollars, which was a good deal, but I had to unload my trailer, so I was motivated to empty it because I had to deliver it to Elmira. An oak dresser went for two hundred; a desk from the old IBM factory brought two hundred fifty; and a couple of candlestands went for one hundred dollars each. I also had a pretty iron kitchen table, which went for two hundred ninety. I basically emptied my whole trailer."

The Darrows also sold quite a few pieces of Oriental porcelain, Chinese and Japanese. "We sold seven pieces of Rose Medallion and about twelve pieces of Imari. The largest piece I sold was an Imari vase for four hundred dollars. We basically had a wonderful show despite the storm, which was so isolating and so frightening."

Jim Johannes of Berks County, Pennsylvania, was a first-timer at Round Lake, and he said it was his best show in 23 years. A dealer in 17th-, 18th-, and early 19th-century furniture, he sold a paint-decorated kitchen cupboard with glass doors and a pierced tin pie safe bottom. "It was seven-and-a-half feet, a monstrous thing, but it went to a young couple not far outside of town," explained Johannes. "I sold a fair amount of decorated stoneware, but people at this show or any of these shows do not buy real special stoneware because, to me, special stoneware starts at about fifty thousand dollars." When asked the price range of his stoneware sales, Johannes said, "I would not begin to know."

Johannes also sold a stretcher-base two-drawer farm table in salmon paint and a "real super-nice flat hanging cupboard from the eighteenth century with red paint, medicine cabinet size, real early."

"I sold some graniteware for five hundred dollars and up apiece, but I only sell good graniteware. I brought some green and white swirl, which most of the people who came to my booth said, 'My gosh! I never saw that before,'" Johannes said.

Matthew Gosch of North Tonawanda, New York, sold a cherry high chest, circa 1950, for $695; a really big square oak table for $775; a marble-top stand for $175; four brass sconces for $200; and a funky elephant telephone for $75.

Gosch said he sold a lot of smalls on Saturday and thinks he would have done better on Saturday had there been no storm. "I give the crowd credit. They tried to hang around for a light shower, but then the sky darkened, and it just washed everybody out."

Gosch also commented on Allman's almost selling out the entire field. "If there were a few dealers missing, it is not the promoter's fault. I do not think there is a promoter around who can sell out a big show anymore. Times are changing, and there are not as many young people coming in to replace the dealers who are retiring. They realize that doing a show is a lot of hard work, and it does not always pay off. They are more willing to do it on line. It cost me almost thirty dollars in tolls one way, and the Thruway authority is going to raise commercial fares by forty percent. I have to suck it up and pay."

Michael Albanese of Kendall, New York, said that for the first time he did not sell many of his Civil War items. "I did sell several photo 1860 CDVs, Civil War vintage, and quite a bit of Indian and turquoise jewelry. I do not think my usual military or Civil War collectors came through the show. But I cannot complain because I bought a great deal of generic military items from World War One, and World War Two Marine items."

Ken Woodbury of Nipper's Choice, Keene, New Hampshire, said he sold a couple of phonographs for $500 each, some cabinets for sheet music for $200 apiece, and some Edison phonographs for $700. "It was not wonderful, but I did a lot better than a lot of people did because of the storm. We were going gangbusters on Saturday morning and then bang! It rained, and there was thunder and lightning and high winds, and that killed the rest of the day.

"On Sunday, I sold a lot of smalls, nothing to do with phonographs but some lamps. Ice tongs. Isn't that funny? I go to auctions, and if I see it selling cheap, I buy it, and it gives me something else to sell."

Woodbury had a dreadful time going home. "From Troy [New York], I go right over the mountains into Vermont. Almost as soon as I left, it started raining. Then I got up into those mountains, and the road was hot, and it created fog, so I could not see through the windshield. Finally, it cleared up with the window washer. I got home about midnight."

Lisa Mayakis of Flamingos, Albany, New York, sold a Mission oak bookcase for $250; a Bradley and Hubbard brass plant stand decorated with cherubs for $350; a Donald Duck windup toy for $350; an antique gold ring for $550; and three slag lamps from the Arts and Crafts period for $350, $400, and $450.

Cathy Freyee of Auburn Antiques, Auburn, New York, said she thought the show went very well. "I sold a lot of silver, sterling, a lot of my outdoor stuff, garden benches and country benches, plus a period fireplace mantel, a wicker couch, an Empire chest of drawers, and several small sterling bowls."

Diane DeVolder of Syracuse, New York, did "very well." She sold a huge copper tray for $200; a Dresden violin Christmas ornament for $225; five fish decoys measuring 6" for $150 each; a small 1920 electric stove for $80; a miniature lamp for $200; several antique rings for $425 each; and a rare blonde 14k gold memorial pin for $600.

If you like pottery you could not have missed the display in Mary Ann Flewelling's booth. Flewelling of Colliersville Cottage Antiques, Colliersville, New York, had a wonderful early spongeware creamer, a very large yellowware mixing bowl, and several molds in addition to a Bennington pitcher. Surprisingly, instead she sold a wicker settee, a cream and green enamel kitchen table with four chairs, and a bronze statue of a horse. When asked about prices and other sold items, Flewelling said, "You know what Thomas Edison said, that he never tried to remember anything that he could write down. I would like a copy of that paper!"

Perhaps the greatest laugh of the show was when a young man purchased a swimsuit mannequin who was reclining in a beach pose because he needed a date to take to a Fourth of July picnic! Never lose your sense of humor when you visit an antiques show.

Allman Promotions may be contacted at (315) 686-5789; Web at (www.allmanpromotions.com).

Cathy Freyee of Auburn Antiques, Auburn, New York, had a wonderful dresser set, including the box, priced at a low $55.