Fierce Storm Hammers Maine Show

June 28th, 2015

It poured. It blew. The sides of the 120' tent kept flying up. It was a losing battle; the tent came down later in the day.

The New England maple and pine chest with a secret molding drawer, circa 1780, was $1750 from Martin Ferrick of Lincolnville, Maine. The miniature chests on top were $250 for the circa 1850 example, left, and $395 for the example on the right. “I did OK. The big issue was the weather. But I thought it had a good crowd and good quality dealers. I like the show. I think the combination of antiques and conservation is a really good match,” Ferrick said. His sales were off a little from last year, “but that was to be expected.” Ferrick usually sets up in the tent but this year opted for the barn.

The copper weathervane with an iron arrow has a weathered surface and an interesting finial. James Lawrence of Little Compton, Rhode Island, thought it might be by Fiske. It was from Lawrence’s own collection. This was the first time it had been out. He was asking $2150. “I didn’t do very well,” said Lawrence, who showed at Wells for the first time. “The weather just didn’t cooperate.... The show had promise; I’ll go back.”

John Smart of Mendon, Vermont, showed a $285 copper hatrack with “Our Boys from Maine,” a tribute to the lost sailors killed in the U.S.S. Maine explosion in Havana harbor. It also included portraits of Admirals George Dewey and Winfield Scott Schley.

From front: the Hummer windmill weight was $1800; the gamecock vane, $4200; rooster weathervane, $4200; and the horse and sulky vane, $2500, all from Harold Cole and Bettina Krainin of Woodbury, Connecticut, and Wiscasset, Maine.

Wells Antiques Show & Sale, Wells, Maine

Goosefare Antiques & Promotions’ annual one-day antiques show on the stunning grounds of Laudholm Farm in Wells, Maine, on June 28 was the 15th version of the event—and probably the wettest. It rained heavily, and the wind gusted. According to National Weather Service data, Wells saw 1.19" of rain, wind gusts of 38 miles per hour, and a high temperature of 55 degrees on that Sunday. It was a raw, ugly day, much better suited for a yellow slicker and boots than sandals and shorts. The weather was so bad that the show hours were cut in half; the promoters decided to close at 1 p.m. instead of 4 p.m. The weather took down the largest tent late in the day, but according to promoter John DeSimone, most of the dealers were already out of the 120' long tent. There were no injuries and no damage.

After reading the weather forecasts, DeSimone arranged to have the tent company send an employee to be sure the sides of the tent were properly staked. “As the wind picked up, the side stakes started coming out. A group of us took the stakes out, and I got a sledgehammer and pounded them back in a new location. That helped save the tent for as long as it did.”

The storm, however, took its toll, and the side poles started coming out. “Some of them were flying in the air. The three center poles stayed, but they leaned over. They didn’t go down; the rest of the tent was all a wreck,” said DeSimone.

“All the dealers got out. We let them go early, which was a blessing. If we hadn’t, there would have been a real
problem. There were still three or four under there. A bunch of us grabbed side ropes and just held them until the dealers got out of there. Stuff got wet, but the only one who got hurt was me.

“Next year, we’ll put up two 40' x 60' tents instead of one 40' x 120', and we’ll turn them the other way so the biggest exposure to the wind will only be 40'. That will be better. It will change the look of the show, but we’ll have the same amount of space.

“It’s just a horror to go through,” said DeSimone.

Triple-staking the tent wasn’t the only preparation DeSi-mone did in anticipation of the coming storm. Two days before opening, he arranged to have another smaller tent erected, giving shelter—at a slightly higher cost—to dealers who usually exhibit under their own pop-up tents.

Despite the forecast, there was almost a full house for the vendors. “We have fabulous dealers—they almost all came,” DeSimone said, noting that only five of the 76 dealers canceled because of the weather. “They are professionals.”

The day before the show, DeSimone was up on a ladder, applying duct tape to holes in the main tent. For the most part, it worked. There were still some leaks, but under the tent was mostly dry.

The site, a 1600-acre National Estuarine Research Reserve with its headquarters listed on the National Register of Historic Places, leads down to the ocean and is magnificent. On a better summer day, it would have been a stunning venue.

Attendance was down—the rain and early closing time being the culprits. “Still we were actually pleased; we got about 400 people in, and the people who came were serious buyers,” said DeSimone.

Dealer Karen Wendhiser of Ellington, Connecticut, was scheduled to exhibit outside. “I was ever so grateful that John and Elizabeth put up the large tent for us. We had taken an outside spot, but with the weather a pop-up was not going to suffice…. Without it, it would have been horrific.

“Everybody was concerned about whether customers would come…. They did come, and believe it or not, they bought to the very end. They closed the show early, but they were buying in our tent to the very end. We were loading our van, and people were still buying. It was amazing.

“We sold a punched tin candlebox, a burl card case, Civil War memorabilia, a Michigan watercolor, an inlaid box with stars, diamonds, and hearts, and a very ornate wicker corner chair with a serpentine back.” That last item was a photographer’s chair; it sold to professional photographers who didn’t know its role in early photography—until Wendhiser told them.

Wendhiser said her sales were up—way up—over last year, despite the weather.

“I’ll go back. They run a good show, and they try hard. The location is fabulous. I’m just hoping for better weather next year.”

She and everybody else.

For more information, contact John and Elizabeth DeSimone of Goosefare Antiques & Promotions at (800) 641-6908, or check the website (www.goosefareantiques.com).

The late 19th-/early 20th-century table rug or wall hanging had a painting of a caribou and was $350 from Tom and Jan Newcomer of Horsefeathers Antiques, Delhi, New York.

Ron Bassin of A Bird in Hand Antiques, Florham Park, New Jersey, asked $1200 for the 1940-50s signed carving in original paint by Carl Malmstrom of Long Cove, Maine. It included a drake, hen, and two ducklings.

The small chopping block started out life as something else—possibly from a ship—but was transformed into a diminutive chopping block on three legs. It was $875 from MG Art & Antiques, Merrimac, Massachusetts. The dough scraper on top, early 19th century, was $145. “I had a few sales, so the day wasn’t a total loss,” said Michelle Genereux of MG Art & Antiques. “It was a surprisingly robust crowd, given the conditions.”

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