Cabin Fever Show a One-Day-Only Hit
February 16th, 2013
|
There were lots of old friends among those who were first to enter the show.
Stone Block Antiques, Vergennes, Vermont, is the shop of Vermont ADA president Greg Hamilton. His 19½" x 23½" (sight size) oil on canvas landscape is signed by Walter Farndon (1876-1964) and tagged $9500.
Colt Barn Antiques, Townshend, Vermont, is Howard Graff. He brought the 6' long wooden fan-shaped louver, painted blue and white, and priced at $1200. The early hay fork was $175.
Shown by the Cargill Collection, White River Junction, Vermont, and Cape Cod, the chip-carved, iron-bound box was 10½" tall and came from an estate in Rutland, Vermont. The price was $350. |
Quechee, Vermont
There were only 29 exhibitors set up in the gym of the Mid Vermont Christian School in Quechee, Vermont, on the morning of February 16 for the 34th annual Cabin Fever Show. Those who had done the show before knew what was about to happen.
Right on the stroke of 10, the gate was opened, and the exhibitors were quickly outnumbered by the customers, who had crowded into the lobby or stood outside.
Would-be buyers kept arriving all morning, and by noon the parking lot was totally full and vehicles were parked along the access road, with showgoers making the trip down the hill to the facility on foot.
It appeared that a full-blown case of cabin fever had struck this central Vermont area. Antiques collectors and dealers can wait only so long for an antiques fix, and this show, with mostly Vermont exhibitors, appeared to offer a cure for the malady.
The fever wasn’t restricted to the inhabitants of this west side of the Connecticut River; several New Hampshire dealers were among the first group into the show.
Few left empty-handed. Danny Wahl, a Richmond, New Hampshire, dealer in American country antiques, said, “I’m a poor show buyer. I have trouble finding stuff that meets my expectations.” Wahl was spotted later leaving with a purchase tucked under his arm.
We witnessed a tavern table being lugged to the parking lot and saw a number of other sales within minutes of opening, including scads of smalls.
When we spoke with Greg Hamilton, the president of the Vermont Antiques Dealers’ Association, two days after the show closed, he said, “Attendance was definitely up from last year’s show, and as for sales, I can report that I had a fabulous show, and I wasn’t alone.”
Robert and Janet Sherwood, who do business at a shop called Antiques at 30B, just over the Vermont line in Cambridge, New York, were among those named by Hamilton as having a very successful show.
We had looked at their circa 1952 metal patio suite in cream white and turquoise blue and thought it very buyable. Then we spotted Maine dealer Jeff Cherry, at over 6' high, standing head and shoulders over the others waiting in the lobby.
Sure enough, Cherry was among the first 20 to hit the floor, and he bought the patio suite in a snap.
Actually, as early as the patio set sold, it wasn’t the first piece to sell when the doors were opened. New Hampshire’s Tommy Thompson sold a sign off a wall within a minute and a half of opening.
Those who took the time to shop this small one-day show were rewarded with some quality merchandise priced to sell. For more information, contact Greg Hamilton at (802) 877-3359 or e-mail<[email protected]>.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Bob and Mary Fraser (right) of Chester, Vermont, were spotlighted in our January edition (
Martha Caverly of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, usually has one-of-a-kind and interesting smalls in her booth, and this year was no exception. This is the bottom of a 15" diameter Iroquois carved pumpkin bowl priced at $235.
West Pelham Antiques, Pelham, Massachusetts, offered these exceptionally nice English teapots from the first half of the 19th century. On the left, circa 1820, $550; on right, circa 1840, $285.
Liberty Hill Antiques, Reading, Vermont, showed the maple tool bench with drawers, which were a bit unusual but very useable in the bench’s small size (33" tall, the top 42" x 21"). It was tagged $650.Originally published in the May 2013 issue of Maine Antique Digest. © 2013 Maine Antique Digest
