Richmond, Indiana
Six days before the Heartland Antique Show opened under new management, seasoned promoter Steve Sherhag had nearly had enough. Sherhag acquired Heartland and the Ohio Country Antiques Show in October 2023 from Jennifer Sabin. While the semiannual Ohio Country fared well the following spring under Sherhag’s control, things went bump in the night leading up to Heartland on June 1. There were six dealer cancellations in the ten days before the show. There was grousing about, well, whatever it was people felt compelled to complain about. And through it all, there was Sherhag just trying to keep air in a longtime, much-valued antiques show that had been leaking through small holes for years.
Less than a week to go before the doors opened, Sherhag hit a limit. “Last Sunday, I was one phone call away from pulling the plug,” he said. He meant it. He was one gripe, one final dealer dropout from shutting down the new Heartland before it even opened.
Luckily, the call never came.
Sherhag did what good promoters do; he worked with what he had. Which, it should be noted, still counted for a lot. That’s the way Heartland has been from the start—a great show strong on Americana. This wasn’t the Heartland of decades gone by, when a hundred-plus dealers set up shop at the Wayne County Fairgrounds. But then, what well-established show features the high number of merchants it did in decades past? Sherhag put together the best show available for now, pulling together 29 dealers, even though he had hoped for 40.
“Transition year is rough,” he said. “I’m not disappointed. The show looks good.” And, it did. It really did.
“I want it to be bigger. The show has been doing this,” he said, making a downward motion with one hand. In his mind, the sought-after “bigger” isn’t a hundred dealers. The current building can house 40 to 45 booths. “I’m good with that,” he said.
One option to help grow Heartland—bringing in more buyers and sellers—is tied to another area event, A Gathering on the Olde National Road, a show held the same weekend as Heartland in nearby Lewisville, Indiana. Only two years old, A Gathering on the Olde National Road is held semiannually, with the summer show slated for the Friday and Saturday of Heartland, to give customers added incentive to visit the region. The shows are about 20 miles apart, an easy drive on U.S. 40 (also known as Old National Road).
“I do think the show down the street has the potential to make us get better,” Sherhag said.
Child’s slant-lid desk in pine, 23¼" high x 22" wide, $1400; cast-brass bookends, each depicting a Conestoga wagon and figures, 1920-30, $135 the pair from Ray and Kathy Mongenas of Mongenas Antiques, Loveland, Ohio.
The merchandise at Heartland continued to impress, thanks to a solid lineup of veteran dealers. On the floor, comments about the show were positive. “We’ll keep doing it as long as they hang a sign out,” said Ray Mongenas of Mongenas Antiques, Loveland, Ohio.
Slant-lid bin in blue paint, cutout feet, from a northeast Iowa farmstead, 32¼" high x 39" wide, $495; quilt, $795; ironstone bowl, $225; painted wood “Fresh EGGS” sign, $290; horse windmill weight, $595; cutting boards, $40 to $80 from Daryl and Colleen Alpers of Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Ditto for Colleen and Daryl Alpers of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. “We’ve done Heartland since 1998, and I can’t imagine being anywhere else the first Saturday of June,” said Colleen.
Locking in those types of dealers is one thing. Attracting buyers is something altogether different, in part because the folks browsing the booths aren’t necessarily shopping with the same set of eyes that propelled the antiques industry in the past.
“Ninety percent of the people walking through the door are buying a look,” Sherhag said. “They couldn’t tell you if it was Chippendale or Hepplewhite or whatever.” What they know is what they like. But sometimes, they don’t know what they’ll like until they see it.
Foil art of a shield-breasted eagle, 17¼" x 22½" (sight size), $495 from Steve Sherhag of Hartford House.
Slide-lid box with painted fish decoration, 6" high x 15½" wide x 9½" deep, $675 from Steve Sherhag of Hartford House.
Helping those buyers raise their standard of appreciation from good to better to best takes more than luck. “My best customer, I cultivated him,” said Sherhag, speaking of a friend in his 40s. “He’s my age. I spent hours with him, talking. He helped me load and unload. This whole thing is relational.”
No doubt, that’s part of the reason Sherhag didn’t walk away from Heartland during that fortnight when dealers were griping and canceling and whatever else they did to cause a promoter to reach for a bottle of aspirin. It has to do with what Heartland has always been known for: great Americana, great antiques.
“I love this stuff. That’s why I kept this alive,” Sherhag said.
Sherhag is fully committed to the show’s continued existence. The 2025 edition is slated for June 7. For more information, phone Sherhag at (330) 207-2196, or search for “Heartland Antique Shows” on Facebook.
Oil on canvas portrait of two children, the older one holding a crop, 33" x 26¾" (sight size), $1550 from Suzanne Baker of Westville, Indiana.
Shaker cupboard with a gallery top, two doors, and five graduated drawers, red over mustard paint, 61¾" high x 30" wide, $1985; painted pantry boxes, $325 to $545 from Suzanne Baker. The dealer said she sold a lot of toleware last year and that demand for quilts has picked up.
Exceptionally detailed Santa store display, with mica flakes on the beard, scattered light toning, approximately 22" high, $895 and sold during the show by Cory Adams of Holiday Happenings, Tampa, Florida.
Primitive octagonal candlestand, $495; beehive wooden bowl in gray paint, $695; eight pieces of velvet fruit, $1995 the set from Cory Adams of Holiday Happenings.
“FOR / SALE / BROWN / EGGS” sign noting “NO SUNDAY SALES,” painted wood, 14" x 14¼", $295 from Linda Roggow.
Hooked rug depicting a bulldog on a variegated ground, 1930-40, 19½" x 19¾", $295 from Jim and Toni Stoma of Latcham House Antiques, Waterville, Ohio.
Carved wood eagle, signed “J. A. Whiteman” and dated 1976, honoring the American bicentennial, $895 from Scott J. Lippert of Dexter, Michigan.
Painted wood sign lettered “BROILERS / FOR SALE” on one side and “FRESH EGGS” on the other, 11½" x 36¾", $338; circa 1930 hooked rug featuring chickens, 18½" x 39½" plus mount, $395 from Linda Roggow of Rockford, Michigan.
Carved wood eagle, signed “J. A. Whiteman” and dated 1976, honoring the American bicentennial, $895 from Scott J. Lippert of Dexter, Michigan.
National League Ball Game from Yankee Novelty Company, Chicago, circa 1890, the box 5½" x 4½", $495; Parlor Base Ball game from American Parlor Base Ball Company, New York City, patented 1903, the box 12" x 10¾", $195 from Brent and Joyce Gray of Gray Granite Antiques, North Vernon, Indiana. The Grays said they were having a good show, with sales that included a bucket bench and “a lot of smalls.”
Native American baskets. Top, left to right: Apache, 9" x 7½", $695; Apache with a star center, $360; and Cahuilla, $1450. Bottom, left to right: Pima (Akimel O’odham), 13" diameter, $525; Nez Perce, $850; and Chemehuevi, 11" diameter, the brass tack at the center a later addition, $625 from R. Stephen Johns of Grosbeak Antiques, Bloomington, Indiana.
Spoon rack in red paint, with a slant lid, from a private New Hampshire collection, with nine spoons that had been in place more than 40 years, $8500 from Brendan Edgerton of Country Cupboard Antiques.
Cobalt-decorated salt-glazed stoneware: three-gallon crock with a freehand design of a bird on a stump, the unmarked work of Jacob Caire of Poughkeepsie, New York, $750; four-gallon crock by J. Norton of Bennington, Vermont, a with double-bird design, $2400; four-gallon crock by F. B. Norton of Bennington, Vermont, decorated with a parrot on a plume, $995 from Duane Watson of Doc’s Crocks, Ashland, Ohio. “People in their twenties and thirties are buying stoneware very avidly,” said Watson.
Red grouse hand-colored lithograph, “Drawn from Nature & on stone” by John and Elizabeth Gould, 14" x 21", from John Gould’s The Birds of Europe, $350 from Wesley C. Williams of Cleveland, Ohio.
Native American burl bowl, 5¾" high x 17¾" wide x 16¾" deep, $4200 from Sharon Severt, Diane Stafford, and Scherre Mumpower of Patriot Antique Shoppe, Tipp City, Ohio.
Squirrel needlework on silk, 10¾" x 9¾" (sight size), $425 from Steve Sherhag of Hartford House, Burghill, Ohio.
Originally published in the October 2024 issue of Maine Antique Digest. © 2024 Maine Antique Digest
