Nashville, Tennessee
With new owners and some tweaks to the event, Fiddlers Antique Show was held February 12-15 in Nashville, Tennessee. An integral part of Nashville's antiques week, the long-running show was one of three antiques-related events held that weekend at The Fairgrounds Nashville.
Jill and Mark Mattingly of MattPro Show Management acquired Fiddlers early last year from Bill and Kay Puchstein, who had been running the event since 2020. The Puchsteins stepped down as owners because of health reasons, and Bill died unexpectedly in April 2024.
Understanding the nuts and bolts of show management is a definite plus when taking the reins of an event with an established reputation as one of the nation’s top antiquing destinations.
The Mattinglys have plenty of experience. When Jill started Country Spirit Antique Show in Arcola, Illinois, it was housed in one building. Then it was two. Now it’s three.
After the couple established the Pure Country Antique Show in Chrisman, Illinois, it became obvious that selling antiques—and promoting the selling of antiques—was their thing. And that was the impetus for founding MattPro. “It was just time,” Jill noted.
Time is something that comes into play with the Mattinglys and Fiddlers. It’s been a long, productive relationship. Jill shopped the show years ago, when that meant room hopping at the Fiddler’s Inn motel. She and Mark were customers at the show right after the COVID-19 pandemic, when the event was held at the Music City Center convention complex. Then they experienced Fiddlers from a different vantage point, setting up as dealers after the show moved to its current location at the fairgrounds.
The change framed one of their guiding management principles. “We try to look at it from the customers’ perspective. If you don’t have customers, then what do you have?”
What they had at Fiddlers in 2025 were 56 dealers from 20 states. Some were longtime sellers at the show. Others had been regulars at MattPro’s Illinois shows. A handful were new to the mix.
Pre-event promotion announced “Fiddlers will be playing a new tune in 2025.” One key change was the addition of a Wednesday-night preview party, where shoppers could get a jump start on the string of shows in Nashville that weekend, as well as two shows in nearby Lebanon.
Another adjustment involved the floor plan. “We shook things up in terms of layout,” Jill said. Short, diagonal center aisles were incorporated, instead of the more familiar grid arrangement of booths. “We wanted to make it more interesting to shop, get people thinking, ‘Hey, something new is going on with Fiddlers. Something’s happening here.’”
Items on offer across the floor also continue to evolve with the show. For the Nashville event, dealers didn’t have to specialize in country, the hallmark of MattPro shows in Illinois. They did have to offer quality merchandise, and they did have to present it well. That’s not a new concept, but it was essential, especially with four competing shows in the area.
Kay Puchstein of American Heritage, Frankfort, Ohio, offered this Alfred Montgomery (1857-1922) oil on canvas painting depicting sheep and chickens inside a barn, with a lone ear of corn in the lower-right corner. Tagged $20,000, the work is signed and dated 1900 and measures 53½" x 79". Titled Down on the Farm, the exhibition-size painting was shown at the Exposition Universelle of 1900 in Paris, according to an April 1922 issue of the journal American Art News.
“People who collect antiques like a good Windsor,” said dealer Robert “Bob” Zollinhofer of Medina, Ohio. This comb-back armchair with carved ears, knuckle handholds, and a shaped saddle seat is certainly a good Windsor. Having a seven-spindle back and long blunt-arrow feet, the chair dates to 1780-90 and is of Maryland origin (thought to have been made between Washington, D.C., and Baltimore). It was offered for $45,000.
The dealers at Fiddlers met the challenge. Examples of head-turning merchandise included an Alfred Montgomery oil on canvas painting depicting sheep and chickens inside a barn, signed and dated 1900, priced at $20,000 by Kay Puchstein of American Heritage, Frankfort, Ohio; a Maryland comb-back Windsor armchair with carved ears and knuckle handholds, 1780-90, $45,000 from Robert Zollinhofer of Medina, Ohio; and a two-drawer Tennessee sugar chest in cherry, 1850s, tagged $5900 by Robert Adams of R. Adams Antiques, Cartersville, Georgia.
This sugar chest in cherry from Williamson County, Tennessee, has two spice drawers and turned legs with ball feet. Of dovetailed and pegged construction and with a green-painted interior, it dates to the 1850s and was out of a collection in Lexington, Kentucky. It measures 35¾" high x 35" wide x 20¾" deep and was priced at $5900 by Robert Adams of R. Adams Antiques, Cartersville, Georgia. The 19th-century copper weathervane in the shape of the archangel Gabriel, 23" long overall, was $795.
Six-year-old Miss Pepper, a basset hound mix, found a comfortable perch from which to watch the goings on at Fiddlers. She often travels with Robert Adams and has been to seven states.
It was a new chapter for a long-running show, a different look, a different feel. But some things remain the same. Over all the iterations, from changes in name to changes in venue to changes in ownership, one thing has remained constant: Fiddlers’ importance in the antiques marketplace.
The Mattinglys were pleased to have MattPro be a part of it all. “This was a good first attempt to build on. We feel really good about next year,” Jill said. “We’re more excited for year two than we were for year one, which is weird to say about a show that’s been in existence since I was in high school.”
Fiddlers Antique Show returns to Nashville February 11-14, 2026. For more information, phone MattPro Show Management at (312) 957-1065 or (217) 264-8146 or visit the website (www.fiddlersatthefairgrounds.com). Social media sites include Facebook and Instagram.
In red and white paint, this large chalkware bulldog stands 17½" high and was priced at $335 by Jacque Bradford of Indianapolis, Indiana.
This early, one-of-a-kind desk/table with a crusty red surface, having a single drawer and worn natural top, 28½" high x 26¼" wide x 17" deep, was tagged $850 by Debbie and Gerald Oyler of D & G Oyler Antiques, Grove City, Ohio. It was the first time out for the piece, which came from the living room of New England antiques dealer John Henry (1920-2009). “That’s what he wrote sales tickets on,” said Gerald. The piece of stone fruit atop the desk is dwarfed in comparison but is actually larger than the norm. The yellow apple with red blush highlights, retaining its wooden stem, measures approximately 4½" high x 5½" diameter and was priced at $875.
Jacob Gredy of Old House Salvage, Seymour, Indiana, offered an eclectic mix of items. The 1930s cast-zinc eagle, salvaged from a building in downtown Chicago, was marked $3200; the trench art shell, $385; and the wooden “Edward B. Mears / Attorney at Law” sign, single sided, signed “Sprague’s Paint Shop,” 13" x 38", was $525.
Humorist and poet Ogden Nash (1902-1971) might have thought there were no rules in the world of mules, but this one certainly commanded the attention of everyone who walked by. Made of papier-mâché with worn gold paint, 1920s-30s, 32" high (including the base) x 39" wide, the show-stopping equine was offered by Tim and Michele Steinman of Brick Farmhouse Antiques, Georgetown, Ohio. It was marked $950 and sold during the show. The southern pie safe in red paint, possibly of West Virginia origin, with tall legs and a shaped interior shelf, the seven punched tins in a diamond pattern, was priced at $2395, and the large rooster windmill weight was $695.
Show promoters Jill and Mark Mattingly of ForeverMore, Chrisman, Illinois, offered this blue-and-white quilt in the Sampler/Wild Goose Chase pattern, circa 1890, 85" x 83", priced at $1200; a two-gallon cobalt-decorated stoneware jug with a freehand floral design, $325; and a 12-tin pie safe in worn blue-gray paint, having a single upper drawer, the tins with a star motif, 56¼" high x 43" wide, for $2800.
Doug Musser of Homestead Antiques, Angola, Indiana, found this tabletop postal cabinet in a Michigan barn that was filled with brown furniture from the 1930s and ’40s. With eight mailboxes, 32 compartments, and a functioning sliding door with frosted glass, the cabinet stands 49" high x 44½" wide x 11¾" deep and was priced at $1295.
Wendy Norman of Pierson Station Homesteaders, Pierson Station, Illinois, has a knack for finding huge pieces of decorated stoneware. This salt-glazed crock by A. P. Donaghho of Parkersburg, West Virginia, with stenciled flourishes and “tire track” designs, 26" high, was offered for $6500. The miniature wringer washer in red paint, 15¾" high (overall), was $745.
This German candy container in the form of a clown on a rabbit, 7½" high x 8" long, was tagged $1250 by Max and Linda Eakin of The Country Bears, Glen Carbon, Illinois.
Described by David Sinclair of David Sinclair Antiques, Momence, Illinois, as “the rarest little piece they made,” the salt-glazed wax sealer canning jar by Hamilton & Jones of Greensboro, Pennsylvania, is decorated with a cobalt stripe and cherries. The 6¾" high jar was tagged $2900. The salt-glazed three-gallon advertising crock with lug handles (back left), stenciled in cobalt “From / Spire & Duff / Nashville, Tenn.,” was $2200. The salt-glazed three-gallon crock with a stenciled cobalt floral design, advertising “Bayless, McCarthy & Co. / Louisville, Ky.,” was $1800. Both businesses dealt in china, queensware, glassware, and stoneware. The Spire and Duff partnership was formed in 1870 and dissolved in 1885; Bayless and McCarthy began operating in 1870, and the company name was changed in 1881.
Possibly a trade stimulator, this German papier-mâché moon features blue clockwork eyes. Dating to the 1920s, measuring 19" high x 15" wide, and in working condition, it was tagged $6500 by Scott Tagliapietra of Scott’s Antiques, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
This double-sided wood sign is lettered “Valley Village / July 4, 1831.” It is painted black and yellow, with a molded frame, 12" x 41¼", and was priced at $1995 by Brent and Joyce Gray of Gray Granite Antiques, North Vernon, Indiana. A post office was established at Valley Village, Worcester County, Massachusetts, in 1835 and closed in 1838, but it is not known if this sign references that town. Likewise, the significance of the date remains lost to time. James Monroe, the fifth president of the United States, died on July 4, 1831, but he was a native Virginian, and his time in state politics was in service to Virginia, so it is unclear why a Massachusetts sign would commemorate his passing.
This folky hooked rug features a central dog and three crows eating berries. Measuring 29½" x 39", it was priced at $750 by Lana Smith of Louisville, Kentucky.
Cory Adams of Holiday Happenings, Tampa, Florida, offered this Santa Claus and reindeer with a loofah sleigh, German, early 1900s, approximately 26" long, marked $6500.
Bradley M. Bloom of The Gryphon’s Nest, Kalamazoo, Michigan, offered this highly detailed pen-and-ink grotesque anatomical drawing of a human body, tagged $1200. Obviously by the hand of a skilled artist, the work dates to the 1960s or ’70s and is signed “Juan Carlos Barberis - Cadiz - 13/11/355.” Measuring 17" x 7" (sight size), the drawing is housed in a wide black frame. “To be fair,” Bloom noted, “in Michigan you just don’t find high-quality macabre these days.”
This oil on canvas portrait of a woman was painted by Russian/American artist Raymond Breinin (1910-2000) and offered by Scott and Leslie Carpenter of Iowa City Art & Antiques, Iowa City, Iowa. Tagged $4750, the 38" x 28" signed painting is housed in a custom Newcomb-Macklin frame.
Joyce and Roy Williams of Hoot and Nana Antiques, Paris, Kentucky, offered this diminutive three-drawer chest (possibly a child’s server) with a scrolled gallery, in mahogany with its original finish, on turned legs with ball feet. Dating to the 1820s and thought to be a salesman’s sample, the chest measures 33½" high x 20¼" wide x 18" deep and was marked $1200.
Originally published in the May 2025 issue of Maine Antique Digest. © 2025 Maine Antique Digest
