New Show at Thompson's Point

October 15th, 2017

Maine Antiques Exposition, Portland, Maine

After a false start or two, John and Elizabeth DeSimone of Goosefare Antiques and Promotions, Wells, Maine, finally got the Maine Antiques Exposition at Thompson’s Point in Portland, Maine, up and running on October 14 and 15, 2017. The building wasn’t ready for the first planned show in 2016. This time around, 66 exhibitors participated in the inaugural presentation in the cavernous exhibition hall.

The facility itself drew rave reviews from sellers, citing ample parking, easy packing in and out, profuse natural lighting from windows high up on the walls, and spacious booths with reasonable rents. Outside the huge brick building, cars from all over the Northeast filled the parking lot. But there was just one problem. It was impossible to tell if they were there for the antiques show or the free beer giveaway at the brewery across the lot.

Some exhibitors wondered about the possibility of doing more than one show per year in the same location. But John DeSimone, with decades of show management experience, nixed the idea. “We’ve done that in the past, and it has a tendency to wear out its welcome…. It never works. You’ll always have a good show, then a weak show.” He added, “The other problem is—could we get the same quality dealers for that time?” The answer is very likely not, so the one show per year format is the way it will be for the near future.

Emery Goff and Bill Carhart of The Old Barn Annex Antiques, Farmington, Maine, showed a matching pair of Staffordshire King Charles spaniels, the good, old 19th-century kind of Staffordshire, for $245. “I find that with retail customers especially, they buy towards the end of the day, the first day or the second,” Carhart stated. “They don’t buy right off the bat.”

An elaborately reticulated Gothic wall box in walnut with an arched mirror framed by a series of pointed spires was $385 from Ron and Pat Hodgdon of The 20th Maine, Pownal, Maine.

In their own booth, show managers John and Elizabeth DeSimone of Wells, Maine, offered a large ironstone platter in white, blue, and rust glazes for $375.

With a piercing blank-eyed stare, this late 19th- or early 20th-century carved figurehead peered from the wall in the booth of Phyllis Sommer of Pumpkin Patch Antiques, Searsport, Maine, awaiting $895. It most likely decorated the salon of a large yacht or cruise ship.

There is ample support for an ongoing antiques sales venue in Portland. Although some dealers were less than thrilled with their weekend’s take, nearly all agreed that they would return in the years to come, given that this was only the opening salvo and that the show would build year after year.

According to longtime dealer and exhibitor Wilmont “Bill” Schwind, who lives in Yarmouth, just north of the city, Portland is undergoing a major growth spurt. “I’m kind of excited to have an antiques show in Portland again. We’ve been without one for a decade or more,” he offered. His optimism runs high for the future of the area and the antiques trade. “We’ve seen an influx of young people, retired wealth, and a building boom that the city has never experienced since the Civil War,” he said but cautioned, “We do have an audience, but it might take a while to make it work.”

For more information visit (www.goosefareantiques.com) or call 1-800-641-6908.

Just as I was leaving the show, I spotted this painting by William S. “Bill” Paxton (1930-2009) on the wall outside the booth that Dennis Raleigh of Wiscasset, Maine, shared with his fiancee, Phyllis Sommer. Those who, like me, have been haunting auctions for decades will know that Paxton was prolific and that his artwork shows up regularly. Much of it is amateurish and entirely unsophisticated. But this one of Portland’s Stroudwater streetcar struck me as one of his best works. Raleigh would part with it for $250.

Justin Cobb of Captain’s Quarters Antiques, Amherst, Massachusetts, showed an unusual form of sailor’s valentine in the form of a chip-carved and inlaid chest of drawers and with geometrically arranged shells filling the interior for $1950.

Sears & Tither, Somers, Connecticut, deemphasized their usual array of fine silver just a bit in favor of a varied assortment of accents and highlights. This $1950 Arts and Crafts Shreve & Co. San Francisco serving tray, circa 1910, did have a sterling silver gallery frame and a burl mahogany base with an inlaid oval cartouche.

Here is a strikingly large piece of earthworm mocha, a bowl with applied handles and an ocher field below a green herringbone band, priced at $2250 by Dennis & Dad Antiques, Fitzwilliam, New Hampshire. “It may have had a cover,” Dennis Berard said.

Curly maple and mahogany combined to pleasing effect in this $975 stand with tapered legs and replaced wooden knobs offered by Brian Cullity of Sagamore, Massachusetts.

A simple early 20th-century cutout sheet iron weathervane in the form of a locomotive engine with lots of evidence of outdoor use was $995 from Michelle Genereux of MG Art and Antiques, Merrimack, Massachusetts.

Marshall Johnson (1850-1921) painted and signed this dramatic 24" x 36" ship portrait, A Close Call, Ship “Skylark” off Cape Horn. The ship was built in 1853 in Somerset, Massachusetts. Michael Leslie of Port ’N Starboard Gallery, Durham, Maine, offered the painting for $8500. According to Leslie’s description, at age 18, Johnson was a seaman aboard a ship called the Sunbeam when it caught fire and burned at sea. Johnson was rescued and returned to Boston, where he opened a studio.

This crisply delineated American primitive portrait of a young girl mourning the death of her pet bird is painted on a poplar panel. Unattributed, it dates from the 1830s. Despite its large (33¾" x 27¾") overall size, it suffers from no age cracks or other distractions. Joy Ruskin Hanes and Lee Hanes of Hanes and Ruskin Antiques, Old Lyme, Connecticut, were asking $1675 for it.

Originally published in the January 2018 issue of Maine Antique Digest. © 2017 Maine Antique Digest