The Antiques in the Valley Show
June 20th, 2015
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Farmer David Tuttle of Oley, Pennsylvania, said he bought these mittens in Vermont—“I like textiles”—and asked $335 for them. He sold a woolwork picture, six pieces of redware, and a sculpture of a train wreck made from wooden patterns from an iron-molding shop.
David Tuttle asked $625 for this dollhouse. The sides open, the roof comes off, and it has gutters built to the roof, plus downspouts.
Wonder what was selling? Gene Bertolet of Oley, Pennsylvania, one of the five founders of this show who have kept it running for 11 years, sold this miniature dry sink. The tape loom was $285.
All of these framed trade cards, interspersed with red and blue hearts, advertise Philadelphia businesses in the 1870s, such as “Best Clothing to order Wanamaker’s & Brown Philadelphia, J.T. Foley sales agent North Platte, Neb.,” an oyster house on Spring Garden Street, and a hatter on Ridge Avenue. Carlson & Stevenson, Manchester Center, Vermont, asked $900 for the framed display. |
Oley, Pennsylvania
The locals turned out in full force for the 2015 Antiques in the Valley show, held June 19 and 20 in the air-conditioned Oley Valley Middle School in Oley, Pennsylvania. The line was long; it was 11:20 before everyone got in for the 11 o’clock opening. Half a dozen collectors and dealers lined up more than an hour ahead of time, while tailgate business was going on in the parking lot, and others were shopping at the plant sale. The crowd did not thin out until midafternoon.
This show, beginning its second decade, has become an early summer tradition and an important fundraiser for the Oley Valley Community Education Foundation scholarships. Antiques in the Valley was founded by five Oley couples who take their civic responsibility seriously, Harry and Audrey Moseley, Gene Bertolet and Chris Mabry, Peggy and John Bartley, Sue and Brian Hart, and Kelli and Mark Saylor, all dealers who exhibit at the show. They were not the only Oley dealers with stands. G. Martin Sutton said he is an Oley collector who decided he had to sell some things to make room for more and signed up for a stand. This was his first show, and he said he sold well. “I was the new boy on the block,” he remarked.
There were more dealers from Pennsylvania than from other states, but a dozen came from as far away as Vermont and Ohio. Oley is a great part of the world to visit in June. The peas, strawberries, and rhubarb are still in season at the farm stands, and the corn was more than knee high before the Fourth of July.
The crowds came early and bought quickly. By the early afternoon there were red sold tags on two iron silhouette weathervanes: a galloping horse on the stand of Steve Sherhag of Timeless Restoration, Canfield, Ohio, and a goat from Ruth Rogers of School House Farm Antiques, New Holland, Pennsylvania. Tex Johnson took down her quilt made in Oley as soon as it sold and put up another, and Richard Axtell took down a marriage board carved with Pennsylvania German names and the date of the bride’s birth in 1848. David Tuttle, a farmer in Oley, had the first booth nearest the entrance, and he made multiple sales, among them a woolwork picture with lots of roses and a sculpture made of parts found in a junkyard and inspired by a train wreck in Sidney, New York. A photo of the train wreck accompanied the sculpture.
Corner cupboards and dry sinks found buyers, and fraktur, needleworks, and ceramics were carried out. The show was smaller this year, and business wasn’t booming. Some dealers sold better than others, as at all shows these days, but everyone wants this show to continue. It doesn’t matter whether there are 50 dealers instead of 60 when there is still a chance of finding a treasure.
The most talked-about stand was the exhibit of make-do work by tinker David Woodward of East Berlin, Pennsylvania, who continues the tradition of waste not. His tin lids, handles, bases, rims, and crisscross supports make antique redware and stoneware pitchers and flowerpots, and pearlware teapots, jugs, and mugs usable again. Nothing was for sale at the Hoffman & Woodward stand. Jan Hoffman, David Woodward’s wife and a fiddler, played Civil War tunes with young fiddler Maisy Funk and fiddler and guitarist Paul Lameraux to liven up the cafeteria during lunch. Jan Hoffman said she and Woodward will hold an open house for their topiary, watering cans, pots, tools, and make-dos for cooks and gardeners during the Greater York Antiques Show, November 13 and 14. They generally show at Trade Secrets, the mid-May Women’s Support Services garden show fundraiser in Sharon, Connecticut, but may return to Oley next June to accept make-do candidates to be rehabilitated with tin.
The pictures and captions show a sampling of the offerings. For more information, contact John Bartley at (610) 779-0705; website (www.oleyvalleyantiqueshow.org).
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This cast-iron and zinc washing machine, dated 1935, made in the Midwest and found in Florida, was $325 from Carlson & Stevenson.
Keith and Diane Fryling of Green Lane, Pennsylvania, asked $135 for the square oak-leaf butter stamp, $2500 for the Baltimore stoneware pitcher, $395 for the chip-carved pineapple-shaped box, and $750 for the rustic table.
Jim Emele asked $1450 for this 38" x 63" Turkey Tracks pattern hooked rug.
The make-do exhibit by tinker David Woodward was a show-stopper, and nothing was for sale! The make-do ceramics will be for sale next fall when Hoffman & Woodward (412 West King Street, East Berlin, Pennsylvania) holds a selling exhibition. For a price, depending on design, David Woodward will turn your broken ceramics into a make-do of great artistry.
Fiddlers Jan Hoffman and young Maisy Funk and fiddler and guitarist Paul Lameraux played the “Battle Hymn of the Republic” at lunchtime.
Ayscough Antiques, Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, asked $1200 for the tenth-anniversary tin hat in green paint; $89 for the ball of twine, an objet trouvé; $450 for the slide-lid spice box in red paint; and only $295 for the bride’s box (at the back) painted with flowers because the bottom part was reduced in size.Originally published in the September 2015 issue of Maine Antique Digest. © 2015 Maine Antique Digest
