Heartland Antique Show, Fall Edition
November 15th, 2014
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Six flow blue bowls in the Conway pattern by New Wharf Pottery, $45 each from John Wanat of Indianapolis, Indiana.
English watercolor of a gentleman and a dog, $795 from Inez Allen and Nan Donovan of City Mouse Country Mouse Antiques, Cincinnati, Ohio.
Eight-gallon crock, Albany slip, stenciled in yellow with “S. Weiss, General Merchandise, Lamar, Ind.,” $850; one-drawer table in four colors of paint, from a stable in Kentucky, $2500 from Bob Zordani and Heidi Kellner of Z & K Antiques, Urbana, Illinois.
This painting of a woman with cows is by Fred Capps, who is said to have been a sign and house painter from Lancaster, Pennsylvania; the subject of the oil on canvas is believed to be his wife.It was $4200. Chippendale chest, New York origin, 1770-90, mahogany, $6800; Woodlands burl bowl with carved handles and an early repair, late 18th or early 19th century, $5800; pearlware sugar bowl and milk keeler, $750 each from Sharon and Claude Baker of Hamilton, Ohio.
Pig weathervane, $16,500 from Dennis Raleigh Antiques & Folk Art, Wiscasset, Maine.
Skater’s sled, $250; two children’s sleds, $135 and $245; cart believed to be from a carnival, $895 from Shane Hawkins of The Log House, Cambridge City, Indiana.
Two-sided trade sign, painted wood, “Plumbing/ Tinning &c.,” $1900; 19th-century farm painting, oil on canvas, found in New England, $2200; 1860s Pennsylvania dry sink, red over mustard paint, $1050 from Dan Freeburg of Wilcox, Pennsylvania.
Empire sofa, the crest having a detailed basket flanked by grapevines, $5900; 19th-century Masonic ledger with member signatures and two original keystones, Illinois origin, $595 from Hannah Humes Antiques. |
Richmond, Indiana
It wasn’t the problem, just a problem.
“Reduce 14 5/4, 6 3/8 and 5 1/2 to thier [sic] least common denominator.”
That mathematical challenge was included in a 19th-century school workbook that turned up at the fall edition of the Heartland Antique Show, held November 15, 2014, in Richmond, Indiana. The arithmetic ledger, with calligraphy headings at the top of the pages, covered a variety of problem sets.
Included were “Examples in Reduction of Fractions.” Thanks to the flowing penmanship, it looked a little sexier than it sounded. There was “Reduce 1429/2858 to its lowest tirms [sic].” The answer: 1/2. OK, so it wasn’t all rocket science. And, at times, the spelling proved more of a challenge than the math to the student.
There were tougher questions elsewhere, like “Reduce 3 gallons 2 quarts to a fraction of a hogs head.” The answer: “1/18 hhd.” Or, maybe that was an easy question in America at the time when Franklin Pierce was the president and the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis was graduating its first class.
Dated 1854 and inscribed with the name of the student, Lydia Wiedman, the workbook was incomplete but had 26 pages filled top to bottom with questions, answers, and solutions—even then, students had to show their work. Three colors of ink were used on some of the headers. The piece was offered for $150 by Hannah Humes Antiques, Mt. Vernon, Ohio.
The math book wasn’t the piece of the show, just a piece.
Humes had finer antiques in her booth, including an Empire sofa, the mahogany frame heavily carved with a basket, grapevines, and rope-twist ornamentation. Priced at $5900, the sofa fit in well with the show, which is strongly known for its country antiques and Americana.
There was no single item that waved its arms over its head in an attempt to attract attention and define what Heartland has become.
That’s not a problem.
Promoter Jennifer Sabin continues to find success with Heartland, regardless of the season or the venue. There’s the original Richmond show held the first Saturday of June, the annual November show at the same location, and the March edition at Howard County, in West Friendship, Maryland.
For the fall show, this was possibly as good as it gets.
That was certainly not a problem.
About 90 dealers set up at the fall Heartland, and many expressed the same opinion of the show—that this was the best fall Heartland. The merchandise was here. And even with near-record cold weather, customers came. More than just that, they hung around.
“I was real pleased,” said Sabin. “The crowd usually dies at noon. This time they stayed until the afternoon.”
She spoke from a paved fairgrounds drive just outside the show building about half an hour from wrapping up. Her stadium-length coat, in the design of an Indian blanket, was pulled tight, keeping out the cold. In jeans and boots, she looked as if she could manhandle someone if she needed to. Not that she did. But she might. Sabin has a soft edge that’s part of her management style, but she also has a determination that makes a good swift kick possible when necessary, whatever the problem.
There have been problems.
Nothing nasty. Sometimes it has been the weather. At the 2014 summer show, it was construction on the road outside the main gate of the fairgrounds, as well as an unexpected exit closing on nearby Interstate 70. All thoroughfares were open for the fall event, even if they were a bit frosty. This time around, the worst thing Sabin seemed to be watching for was dealers wanting to pack up before the allotted time. She had the boots, if she needed to use them.
For the most part, things went smoothly, with good merchandise offered to a buying crowd that was spending some money.
“This is the best fall show I’ve ever had here,” said Tim Chambers of Missouri Plain Folk, Sikeston, Missouri. By midday he was staring into a booth that had largely been cleaned out, having sold two cupboards, a table, and two game boards.
Still on his wall was a lid to a meal bin, the top having a printed design of a pig, the swine’s body lettered, “George Watson,/ Dealer In/ Fresh and Salt Meats,/ Poultry, &c./ Binghamton, N.Y.” It was priced at $695.
“Truth of the matter is, I don’t know why it’s here, why someone didn’t throw it away,” said Chambers. He added his own personal take on the piece. “If Andy Warhol painted pigs, he would have painted this one.”
The folky charm of that lid could be seen in other items across the floor. There was the oversized Ford hubcap having religious overtones. Lettered “Jesus Is Our Best Friend/ ‘We Are Happy In His Service’/ Leader’s/ Laketon ~ Ind./ It Pays To Serve Him/ He Is Worthy Of Our Best,” the piece was priced at $895 by David Cotton and Heather Malott of Cotton’s Antiques, Wabash, Indiana. It was from their collection.
A veteran of Heartland, Cotton was pleased with the day. “I thought there was more energy this time than in June,” he said.
It’s possible that energy fed off the merchandise offered. Pick a booth, any booth, and it likely had good stuff. Neil and Barb Finbloom of Schoolhouse Antiques, Kirkwood, Missouri, showed a hooked rug with an unusual design of a bird among seven cattails, while upside down in an upper corner was a dog gripping a basket of flowers in its jaws. The rug was $495. In the same space was a circa 1880 miniature one-door cupboard in its original slate-blue paint, priced at $3300, and a tole-decorated hanging organizer, its seven compartments marked for each day of the week, at $425.
Elsewhere the mix ranged from furniture to weathervanes and from coverlets to kitchen items—a little bit of everything.
Sabin had tinkered with the show’s promotions, hoping to drive more traffic to the event. She sent fliers to two local colleges, Indiana University East and Earlham College, offering free show passes to professors and students in history, art, and ethnic studies. Two professors came, but there were no takers among the students.
Not a problem. Sabin will try the idea again at Howard County.
At Heartland, she also placed an emphasis on social media, with a Facebook promotion offering half-off admission that was used by upward of 70 people.
Getting folks in the door and reaching for their checkbooks isn’t as black and white as other problems, such as “Reduce 149 113/167 to an improper fraction.” But at the end of the day, Sabin was encouraged, not just with the numbers, but also with who was shopping at Heartland. “I think the business is picking up, at least in some areas,” she said. “The dealers are coming in to buy.”
For more information, phone Sabin at (843) 812-0282 or visit (www.heartlandantiqueshow.com).
Originally published in the February 2015 issue of Maine Antique Digest. © 2015 Maine Antique Digest
