Most Attendance, Most Sales: It’s All Good at NHADA Show

August 7th, 2014


Offered by Axtell Antiques, Deposit, New York, a Pennsylvania carved walnut figural watch hutch, circa 1800, with George Washington as subject. It’s 15½" tall and was priced at $15,000.


The yellow-painted dressing table, probably from Portsmouth and 1810-20, is an eye-dazzler. It’s 62" tall overall and about 36" wide. Russ and Karen Goldberger of RJG Antiques, Rye, New Hampshire, asked $9500 for it. The 1940s carved wooden motorcycle on the floor was $2950.


Nathan Liverant and Son, Colchester, Connecticut, showed the amazing New York state, 1805-25, maple and cherry  fall-front desk, with numerous highly individual one-off features. The interior has no fewer than 12 hidden drawers. It was $22,500. The set of nesting Nantucket lightship baskets, 1870-95, by Roland Folger was $12,500.


The Jamestown, New York, paint-decorated blanket chest has decoration on the top that includes the date 1833 and name F. Van Fleck. It’s 36" across and was $17,000 from Paul and Linda DeCoste of West Newbury, Massachusetts.


Kate A. Alex & Co., Warner, New Hampshire, showed for $875 a fun little late 19th-century writing armchair painted red. The Aesthetic Revival fan-shaped metal table was $2600, and it sold very quickly on opening morning.


Stella Rubin of Darnestown, Maryland, showed a wonderful 47" x 36" crib quilt, circa 1860, appliquéd in bright colors. She asked $4500 for the charmer.


Cherry Gallery, Damariscotta, Maine, showed a wicker lounge chair that was custom made in the 1920s for a Maine resort, the Ebb Tide. It looks comfortable at $1250.


Michael and Lucinda Seward of Pittsford, Vermont, showed the 25½" x 47" sight size oil on canvas view of a residence in Burlington, Vermont, inscribed “I.V. Louis Berry 1891,” for $5800.


Jewett-Berdan Antiques, Newcastle, Maine, had a show-stopping booth. The yellow paint-decorated eight-leg bench is 74" long, which indicates the size of the Maine hooked rug shown above it. The circa 1850 rug was priced at $14,500, and the stylish bench, $11,500.

New Hampshire Antiques Show, Manchester, New Hampshire

“That show is very special. There’s nothing in the United States to compare it to. And yes, thanks for asking, I did very, very well. I sold well all three days, in fact.”

That quote came from California dealer Michael Ogle, whom we caught up with at Skinner’s two-day Americana auction a day after the New Hampshire Antiques Dealers Association annual show of August 7-9 closed.

Ogle’s shop, American Garage of Los Angeles, was one of the new dealers exhibiting in Manchester. “I’d have saved more stuff if I’d known I was doing the show,” he noted, “but I only learned that eight weeks ago.”

There was a bit of uneasiness among exhibitors the day before opening. They kept asking visitors what was happening at the other shows: were there a lot of people in line at their openings? Were sales good, or flat?

When the doors were opened at 10 a.m. on Thursday, what other shows had done was immaterial. The lines were fantastic, so long that an hour and 15 minutes after opening people were still coming through the doors. NHADA does not release figures on attendances, but gate-watchers said it was the best ever.

And sales?

“I think it’s the best show we ever had here,” said Betty Berdan of Newsom & Berdan Antiques,  Thomasville, Pennsylvania.

Maybe the best way to describe the show is to tell who sold what. But remember, the sold items listed below were all sold during the first three hours of a three-day show.

Tom Longacre of Marlborough, New Hampshire, sold three signs from his booth walls in the first three minutes of opening.

Gail and Don Piatt of Contoocook, New Hampshire, sold a portrait, a standing lighting device, and a pair of Windsor chairs. Don Piatt said, “It’s been a great opening. We’re very happy.”

Amy Finkel of Philadelphia had at least four red sold stickers on framed samplers by 10:20.

Joshua Steenburgh of Pike, New Hampshire, sold a pretty little maple tapered-leg drop-leaf table with shaped leaves; a Mickey Mouse sign; and a collection of flat irons, all in different paint colors, that he’d assembled over many years. Steenburgh wore a wide grin as he said, “Wow, it’s been a good morning. I’m thrilled.”

Cherry Gallery, Damariscotta, Maine, sold a hooked rug with a big stag and a set of eight various size hooked rugs with ducks on them during the first hour.

Sharon Platt of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, sold two cupboards, a lot of smalls, and a portrait. Hollis Brodrick, also of Portsmouth, sold an early sawbuck table with a scrubbed top, several pairs of brass candlesticks, a creamware platter, and a wall apothecary cupboard in grain paint, all by noon.

Pam and Martha Boynton of Groton, Massachusetts, sold a folk art portrait of a young girl and a very small lift-top William and Mary blanket chest with one drawer in great red-painted surface. The latter item went to a dealer exhibiting at another area show.

Mike Whittemore of Punta Gorda, Florida, sold redware, a carved “Minuteman” trade sign, and two weathervanes.

Axtell Antiques, Deposit, New York, sold a red-painted blanket chest with carved base; Jewett-Berdan, Newcastle, Maine, sold a pair of carved flying ducks; and Bob Withington of York, Maine, sold a big BPOE (Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks) sign.

Jason Samuel Fine Art & Antiques, Milford, Hampshire, sold a carousel wall clock, then sold the carousel horse that was displayed under it. Russ and Karen Goldberger of Rye, New Hampshire, sold a circa 1900 painted gaming wheel and a hooked rug with flower baskets and chickens.

Impressed yet? Well, let’s try some more.

MG Art & Antiques, which sells at group shops in Northwood, New Hampshire, and York, Maine, sold an early walnut gate-leg drop-leaf table and a large oil painting of a deer in a forest setting, the latter to a Colorado buyer.

Judith and James Milne of New York sold a stretcher-base oval-top tea or tap table, a fan-back Windsor armchair, and a large stepback cupboard with arched cutout in the upper section, all with a good red surface.

Brian Cullity of Sagamore, Massachusetts, sold a 39" square carved white cedar sundial of mortise-and-tenon construction, from Gray Gables, the home of Grover Cleveland in Massachusetts. (Cleveland-related question for Jeopardy fans: who was the only U.S. president to serve two nonconsecutive terms?)

Olde Hope Antiques, New Hope, Pennsylvania, sold a big chair table, theorems, watercolors, a stag weathervane, and a large eagle vane attributed to either Jewell or Cushing & White.

Kate A. Alex of Warner, New Hampshire, sold a fan-shape metal table in Aesthetic Revival style, a pair of large cement or stone eagles, and a barn door. Yes, even a barn door will sell quickly at the NHADA show!

Peter Sawyer of Exeter, New Hampshire, sold a Federal mahogany and Boston area or coastal Maine bird’s-eye maple veneer candlestand with octagonal top, several paintings, and a tiger maple tap table with an oval top.

Bob Jessen and Jim Hohnwald of Fitzwilliam, New Hampshire, sold a chair table with nice old surface, a
canted-back cupboard, and lots of smalls. Stephen-Douglas, Rockingham, Vermont, sold a painted table; Pratt’s Antiques, Victor, New York, sold a red-painted dry sink; and the Noordsys of Cornwall, Vermont, sold a horse and rider weathervane.

Mike and Lucinda Seward of Pittsford, Vermont, sold a nice Federal card table, probably from the Salem, Massachusetts, area, and a zinc fountain figure. The Norwoods’ Spirit of America, Timonium, Maryland, sold so well that one wall was almost bare. They put more things on it and were out of backup stock by noon. Doug Norwood said, “It’s been great; I’ve been packing things all morning.”

Betty Berdan called a week after closing to make sure we heard about an incident she wanted reported. “Michael Ogle had a California customer who flew in to shop the show. When it got a little less hectic, Michael took him around to all the dealers and introduced him to us, and they bought from many of the booths.

“It was the first time I’ve ever seen that at a show—someone introducing their customers to other dealers,” she said.

Convinced that the NHADA show is touched with magic?

We’ve said it before, and it’s still true. There is absolutely no better show in this country to both sell and buy fresh Americana than at this one. You have to see it to believe it.

For more information, go to (www.nhada.org).

Joshua Steenburgh of Pike, New Hampshire, said the flat irons in different colors of paint had been picked up over the years while he worked with his auctioneer dad, Archie. They made a neat and unusual collection and were sold for under $2000.


Originally published in the October 2014 issue of Maine Antique Digest. © 2014 Maine Antique Digest

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