Crowds Everywhere for Vermont Antiques Week Shows

November 17th, 2014

Weston Antiques Show, Okemo Antiques Show, Ludlow Antiques Show, Magic Mountain Antiques Show, and Antiques in Vermont

The managers and organizations running the five shows held during Vermont Antiques Week, October 2-5, had to be satisfied with the attendance this year. The selling floors of all were filled within minutes of opening. Just as at New Hampshire’s Antiques Week in August, there were thousands of antiques and collectibles offered at these southern Vermont venues on those four days in October.

The search began on Thursday evening at the gala opening of the three-day Weston Antiques Show, then led to both of the two-day shows held in Ludlow, and ended with the one-day-only events in Londonderry and Manchester Center. There was an impressive amount of activity at all of the venues this year.

Most of the dealers and collectors appeared to be searching for those golden oldies that regularly top the selling list: New England country furniture and accessories in good paint, unusual and/or artistic smalls, colorful well-executed fabrics, and folk art.

One category of collectibles we hadn’t seen offered before was fossils. Karen Wendhiser of Ellington, Connecticut, and her husband, Paul, offered several of them in the foyer just outside the dressing rooms on the upper floor of the playhouse in Weston.

“Fossils are very hot right now,” she told us before the preview party opened on Thursday.

When we spotted her among the crowd at the Okemo Mountain Resort on Friday afternoon, she said the fossils had sold well on the previous evening and during the regular show hours, along with other objects.

If there was any one form of furniture that showed up at most of the shows, it had to be chair-tables, but country cupboards tied for a close second.

We’ll keep our comments short and leave room for lots of photos and captions.

Lori Frandino of Frandino Antique & Vintage Oriental Rugs, Walpole, New Hampshire, replaced longtime exhibitor Peter Pap. Frandino has sold mostly to the trade in the past and does very few shows a year. She priced the 9'6½" x 12'7" Tabriz at $2500. Weston.

The circa 1820 English two-part pine cupboard, with worn creamy white-painted exterior and soft blue interior, was offered by The Red Horse Antiques, Bridgewater, Vermont. It’s 84" tall x 48" wide and priced at $6000. Weston.

The 56th Annual Weston Antiques Show, Weston Playhouse on the Village Green, Weston

The exhibit layout of the Weston Playhouse on the Village Green was tinkered with somewhat this year, all for the good. Show chairs Bob Brandt and David Raymond deserve applause for their handling of this year’s show.

Somehow Brandt and Raymond managed to find the space to fit 33 exhibitors in various spaces throughout the theater.

The problems voiced by exhibitors last year concerning the upstairs dressing rooms were eliminated, and this year all the dressing rooms were used. There were also large signs directing visitors to the upstairs exhibitors placed at strategic points throughout the theater.

Bob Brandt said he was happy he’d been able to attract some very good new exhibitors to the Weston roster. He mentioned Neverbird Antiques, Surry, Virginia; Lana Smith of Louisville, Kentucky; and Lori Frandino of Walpole, New Hampshire.

One exhibitor was notably missing from this year’s roster. Longtime seller of high-end Oriental rugs and carpets Peter Pap of Dublin, New Hampshire, has left the show. He recommended that Lori Frandino of Frandino Antique & Vintage Oriental Rugs be his replacement.

It was a wise choice. She filled the playhouse seats with rolled rugs and carpets and hung others from the walls. Frandino had been operating as a source selling primarily to the trade. She said she hadn’t marked her offerings up for the retail customers, and the price tags validated that statement.

Barbara and Charles Adams of South Yarmouth, Massachusetts, are veteran Weston exhibitors with a specialty in Bennington and Rockingham-glazed pottery. We ran into Barbara at the Okemo show on Friday afternoon, and she said they’d had very strong evening and morning sales, up to that point.

John Forster of Barometer Fair, Sarasota, Florida, was at Carlson and Stevenson’s Antiques in Vermont show in Manchester Center on Sunday morning (after Weston had ended), and he said he’d sold well all three days at Weston.

Henry Callan of East Sandwich, Massachusetts, also seen on Sunday morning, said he had sold samplers to buyers from California and Texas, and that a woman from Texas had told him that coming to Vermont to shop that show was the highlight of her year.

As one of the exhibitors noted to us at the $75-per-person gala preview on Thursday, “Most of those paying that price aren’t here to buy antiques; they think of it as a contribution to the theater, with the open bar and hors d’oeuvres just icing on the cake.”

“Tomorrow morning, that’s when dealers pay ten dollars to come and shop the show. That’s when the real selling starts,” he said.

One exception to that observation came from dealers Stephen Corrigan and Douglas Jackman (Stephen-Douglas) of Rockingham, Vermont, who had been longtime exhibitors up to last year when other activities forced them to relinquish their booth in the lower level.

When we caught up with the dynamic duo on Sunday morning in Manchester Center, Corrigan readily confessed to paying the $150 for admittance for both of them but said it had been money well spent as he’d made several good purchases that evening and had already sold some of them. (Lesson number one: Sometimes the early bird really does get the worm.)

Exhibiting at Okemo for the first time, Garthoeffner Gallery Antiques, Lititz, Pennsylvania, brought the circa 1870 shoofly rocking horse in black paint with gold decoration, 45" long, and tagged a reasonable $775. What makes it a shoofly horse? It has a seat rather than a saddle. Okemo.

The 21st Annual Okemo Antiques Show, Okemo Mountain Resort, Ludlow

This event was held up at the Okemo Mountain Resort ski lodge and center, on the outskirts of Ludlow. The show is owned and run by husband and wife Pat and Don Clegg of East Berlin, Pennsylvania. The Cleggs have working antiques shop experience and run a no-frills show with 31 exhibitors.

Okemo opened on Friday, October 3, with a 3-6 p.m. preview party with a $15 per-person admission fee. There were trays of hors d’oeuvres strategically situated throughout both rooms of exhibitors, with wine also available. The show continued on Saturday, October 4, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., with admission a very reasonable $8.

The exhibitor list contains a number of savvy national dealers who can spot an underpriced treasure a mile away. That usually means setup buying between dealers can be fierce.

As dealer Tim Chambers of Missouri Plain Folk told us a few minutes before the show opened, “I had a great show here last year, and if I don’t write another ticket today, I’ll have had a great show this year.”

Quite often those sold pieces stay on the floor because experienced dealers know there are lines of would-be customers outside waiting for the opening bell, and only a fool would ignore the chance of a quick resale.

If there is any drawback to this show, it comes with the location. The parking areas around the building fill up quickly, leaving visitors to park in a field down the mountain and across the road from the lower ski lodge.

It’s a fairly stout uphill walk for the fit, and when we looked for the handicapped parking area, a wise lady observed, “Handicapped? It’s a ski lodge the rest of the year, remember?” You can get dropped off nearer the selling floors from a road that’s not well marked, though.

Exhibitors Lucinda Seward of Pittsford, Vermont, Melissa Bourque of Garrison, New York, and Meryl Weiss of Canaan, New Hampshire, among others, reported having very successful shows at Okemo. Ayscough Antiques, Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, sold a laptop desk, a peel, several butter pats, and a candle sconce within the first hour the show was open.

The Cleggs have fellow Pennsylvania dealers exhibiting, along with others from Midwest states that offer merchandise not often seen by New Englanders, which is a definite plus for this show. (Lesson number two: Search in unfamiliar places, and you might find treasures.)

Beverly Norwood held a very well-made copper downspout dating from 1870-80 and priced at $1600. The Norwoods’ Spirit of America is located in Timonium, Maryland. Okemo.

A really wild and colorful Pineapple pattern quilt, 1870s, about 82" square, was priced at $1400 by Janice Goodwin of Hinesburg, Vermont. Ludlow.

The 50th Annual Ludlow Antiques Show, Ludlow Community Center, Ludlow

This show is managed by two Ludlow ladies, Ann Firkey and Carol Baranowski. It has 40 exhibitors, and many are longtime veteran exhibitors at the event. It opened on Friday evening, October 3 at 7 p.m., an hour after the Okemo show closed, and ran until 9 p.m.

Many of the Okemo exhibitors come down off the mountain to shop this show. It only costs $12 to attend the preview, and the price from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday is $5.

The big draw for exhibitors is the full-course home-cooked sit-down dinner served up by the local ladies. Some say it’s an antiques show that’s frozen in time, somewhere between 1960 and 1990; others find it a charming taste of what was once commonplace in the antiques world.

Yes, there may be a reproduction or two on the floor or a piece with questionable paint, and more than a few items bear sun-faded price tags, but the admission cost is not prohibitive, and if you’re already committed to trying to hit all the shows, this show is a way to spend a few hours between the close of Okemo on Friday and the opening of Magic Mountain the next morning.

There’s an Irish pub at the foot of the access road up the mountain to Okemo, less than two miles away, which doesn’t take American Express but serves up great, albeit a tad pricey, cheeseburgers and has a variety of cold beer and ale on tap.

Kill an hour or so there, and then head down the road to the community center. You just might find a treasure hiding out in some exhibitor’s booth.

(Lesson number three: A little oil often makes the voyage easier.)

The tin and wood “Acme Milk Co.” toy wagon is 17" long including the whiffletree, painted blue and red, and came with four tin milk cans. It was priced at $690 from Robin Stephens of Richmond, Massachusetts. Ludlow.

The wonderful carved wood rooster didn’t spend much time in the booth of Gail and Don Piatt of Contoocook, New Hampshire. It sold right away and appeared to have been bought by yet another customer later. Magic Mountain.

Magic Mountain Antiques Show, Route 11, Londonderry

Magic Mountain is a one-day-only show, opening at 8 a.m. and closing at 4 p.m. The breakfast preview costs $15 and ends at 10 a.m. Entrance the rest of the day costs $7, but you should go for the $15 fee, which includes coffee and homemade donuts, and stand in line to get first crack at the other goodies being offered.

Magic Mountain is run by veteran Vermont dealers Mary and Bob Fraser. They choose exhibitors who have reputations for bringing choice offerings that sell fast. You want to be in the group that gets to that stuff as soon as possible.

For example, there was a wooden and iron rooster weathervane that we shot in one exhibitor’s booth before opening. At just after opening it had moved to another exhibitor’s booth, and when we took a break an hour later, it was on a table outside the cafeteria waiting to leave with a new owner.

Like Okemo, it’s in a ski lodge, and handicapped parking is very tight, if nonexistent. The big problem is that the exhibitors are on two floors and there is no elevator (“Elevator? It’s ski lodge, remember?”). There are stairs.

You have to hit both floors of Magic Mountain, though, even if the stairs are difficult. There’s treasure there, and a little strain is a cheap price to pay for the opportunity of finding gold.

(Lesson number four: The race goes to those who are fleet of foot.)

Thomas Thompson of Pembroke, New Hampshire, brought a colorful grouping of velvet and stone fruits and vegetables. The prices of the velvet ones ran from $295 to $395; the large stone pear half (only one-half visible) was $485, and the smaller stone pieces were priced from $45 to $110. Magic Mountain.

Gary Promey of Atwater, Ohio, offered this nice tramp art wall box, 20" high x 9" wide, for $750. Antiques in Vermont.

The 30th Annual Antiques in Vermont, Riley Rink at Hunter Park, Route 7A North, Manchester Center

Last in the lineup is Antiques in Vermont, held at the big concrete-floored Riley Rink in Hunter Park. Veteran exhibitors Phyllis Carlson and Tim Stevenson run this event, and it features the largest exhibitor list of the litter, with 80 claimed.

Exhibitors love the show because it’s easy to drive in and unload and drive in and pack out. It seems there are always deals being made somewhere on the floor.

The 8 a.m. admission is $15. You can wait for the price to come down to $10 at 10 a.m., but why take the chance? Spring for the $15 and be a player.

(Lesson number five: Penny-wise is often pound-foolish.)

Dianne Halpern of Townsend, Massachusetts, offered the very early red-painted child’s ladder-back armchair for $1450. Antiques in Vermont.

comments powered by Disqus

Maine Web Design