Everyone Loves a "Comeback Kid"

May 24th, 2015

The booth of Missouri Plain Folk, Sikeston, Missouri. The dealers said that this “Rhinebeck was a show that matters. There is energy and diversity, and it looks great.”

American Spirit Antiques, Shawnee Mission, Kansas, featured formal furniture, such as a $16,000 Connecticut Queen Anne highboy and a $7500 Classical wood and gilt mirror.

Nancy Fishelson shared a booth with Robert Perry of Orchard Park, New York. The 18th-century garden bench (and a chair) were marked “Schinkel” and were $1800. Perry took out his cell phone to show me more about the piece. That’s a nice touch, using new technology to show an old piece and its story.

South Road Antiques, New York City, had a large 23" x 81" architectural element for $875 and many other eye-catching pieces.

Pioneer Folk Antiques, Ellsworth, Maine, had a riverboat model for $525, and lots more.

Dealer Dana Tillou and his wife, Catherine, of Buffalo, New York, were first-timers at Rhinebeck and were pleased with the quality of the show. Dana is often associated with fine art, but he also has a yen for tiger maple pieces like this Hepplewhite stand, circa 1815, priced at $2300. Note the narrow legs, he said. Someone else liked them, too, as the table was gone from his inventory a few weeks later. Tillou did sell several paintings at the show, and although it was not very busy for him, he would give it another chance. He did buy a few things, which always counts in the bottom line.

Antiques at Rhinebeck, New York

Everybody loves a comeback, especially when it’s an old-timer that has drawn large crowds for decades, put on great shows, and grabbed many headlines but recently has been on the ropes, with falling attendance, has had good but not great performances (the fall 2014 version was abruptly canceled), and has been somewhat back-page news. What was needed was a new promoter with confidence, experience, and a following, someone like Frank Gaglio of Barn Star Productions, who could resuscitate the show.

Welcome to the May 23 and 24 Antiques at Rhinebeck! It was on the same stage: Dutchess County Fairgrounds in Rhinebeck, New York, a historic town in the Hudson Valley, about 70 minutes south of Albany and two hours north of Manhattan. The show had different management and old and new participants, but what a comeback.

“Rediscover your antique adventure at Rhinebeck” was the theme, and the audience did. Many of us have been coming twice a year, spring and fall, to Rhinebeck, which has been managed by a series of promoters, none of whom were active in the major antiques marketplaces except for the Rhinebeck shows. For more than two decades the promoters did very well, with great dealers and displays, drawing crowds of designers, dealers, and collectors. But when times changed—not only in the antiques world but in the entire world, in terms of selling objects and products, old and new—Rhinebeck began to slide.

But it came off the ropes and bounced back like a pro, which it is, thanks to a new management team led by Gaglio, who has 42 years in the antiques field, the last 21 of them as a show promoter. The 135-plus exhibitors from the East, Midwest, South, and Canada put on quite a show. There was quality in great displays that were designed with an eye for the effect.

Some of the exhibitors have been there since the beginning, such as Jenkinstown Antiques, New Paltz, New York. Others were recent show dropouts like Missouri Plain Folk, Sikeston, Missouri, who told Gaglio, “You get Rhinebeck, and I am back.” There were some first-timers at Rhinebeck, like Dana Tillou of Buffalo, New York, who had shopped the show in the past but never exhibited. Most all of the newcomers said they came because they had done other Barn Star Productions shows and had confidence in Gaglio and his team.

Barn Star did lots of local advertising including radio and newspapers, even a billboard in town, plus the usual trade papers and the New York Times. Gaglio just happens to have lived in Rhinebeck, in an 1875 house, for the past 16 years, so the transition and logistics were easy, and he jumped on the opportunity to add the show to his busy calendar.

Gaglio was very upbeat when he talked to M.A.D. after the show. “It was a respectable turnout, but we could not have done it without the support of the dealers at the show. For a first-time effort I am ecstatic. It was a vote of confidence. Eighty percent of the May exhibitors signed up for the fall show. I am so grateful for the support of the dealers and the public who again and again were generous with their compliments. Especially at a time when the antiques business needs morale and lifted spirits.”

A nice touch was an appraisal day on May 23, from noon to 2 p.m., with well-respected antiques appraiser and author Helaine Fendelman and her associates handling the job. Show cards were mailed (remember them?) that said, “You may bring three items. No guns.” Donations were accepted to support the Alzheimer’s Association.

What did we see? There were trade signs, garden furniture, folk art, and textiles, many very large pieces of furniture, such as tables and cupboards from various periods, books, some jewelry, and china. And of course lots of one-of-a-kind, what-is-it, what-do-you-do-with-it items, which Rhinebeck has always pushed the envelope for.

Rhinebeck is back and looks like a combination of the best dealers and merchandise you could find in shows from York to Nashville, Philadelphia to the Adirondacks, and of course in Manchester/Concord, New Hampshire.

A great comeback, indeed; a knockout we could say.

Mark your calendar for the fall show, October 10 and 11, and check Barn Star’s website (www.barnstar.com), or call Gaglio at (845) 876-0616.

The Wild Goose Shop trade sign from the 1920s, New Jersey, was $2250 from Victor Weinblatt of South Hadley, Massachusetts.

Hudson Valley Auctioneers, Beacon, New York, featured a $10,500 Adirondack guide boat and a $9250 cast-iron deer.

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