The Americana Celebration Antiques Show
August 8th, 2017
Concord, New Hampshire
The atmosphere was buoyant from the very beginning at the Americana Celebration antiques show on August 8 in the Douglas Everett Arena in Concord, New Hampshire. Early buyers with their arms full streamed toward the exit. Some went right back for another round of shopping after depositing their goods in their cars. Inside, sold stickers were everywhere. Buyers were eager, the gate was 800—a lot for a one-day show—and a crowd arrived early, queuing up at the door.
Shoppers pursued their antiques in a leisurely fashion and had the opportunity to examine the goods, speak with the dealers, and learn more about their purchases.
The show was a pretty one, with flowers among the booths, paper walls in the booths, and soft blue runners on the concrete floor, creating a harmonious setting for antiques and providing a pleasant place to shop. Smalls flew out the door, but larger goods took slightly longer to sell.
Show manager Peter Mavris worked hard to put it all together, and the results showed it. Mavris and his wife, Nan Gurley (1943-2016), had long dreamed about relocating their New Hampshire Antiques Week show from Deerfield, New Hampshire, so when the Everett Arena became available last year, they jumped at the chance. Gurley died before the show opened.
Chris Considine of Foreside Antiques, Falmouth, Maine, shared a booth with Richard Kenney of New Castle, New Hampshire. Kenney is pictured with the booth’s pièce de résistance, a cast-iron hitching post by J.L. Mott in the form of an Asian man holding a fan; it was priced at $14,500. Other items (not shown) included a mahogany cheese wheel on recessed casters, priced at $750; a pie safe in mulberry paint with punched tin sides, tagged $475; and an 18th-century Connecticut table for $4250. The two dealers enjoyed sales of a butter churn, silver, smalls, and painted country objects. Later in the day, Considine was observed helping a client carry a dry sink to his car.
Glenmont, New York, dealer J.S. Cocoman offered this double-sided octagonal game board for $850.
Pillars Antiques, Freeport, Maine, asked $1100 for this folk art lighthouse and $695 for a handsome wall cabinet (not shown).
In previous years, there was no air conditioning in the Everett Arena, and the space was simply sweltering. This year, Mavris and the 80 dealers shared the cost of making the arena a supremely shoppable site. That enhancement allowed dealers and show visitors alike to take time to enjoy their search for antiques. A completely unscientific poll turned up only one dealer who said that last year was stronger.
For more information, call (207) 608-3086 or check the website (www.petermavrisantiqueshows.com).
H & L Antiques, Princeton, New Jersey, still had plenty to buy, including this 18th-century tulipwood spoon rack, made in New Jersey, circa 1750, priced at $1350. Also available but not shown were a large desk ($950) and a circa 1820 dry sink in original red paint that retained an old drain, the original bucket knob, and square nails ($4500). H & L had a very good show, having sold early lighting, a chimney cupboard, a whirligig, spoons, irons, and sconces.
Carl and Mary Lou Peterson of Sherman Alden Antiques, East Falmouth, Massachusetts, offered a set of six circa 1820 Windsor chairs with bamboo turnings for $1350 (four shown), and the circa 1875 two-drawer tavern table with a birch top and maple base from the Catskill Mountains of New York was priced at $1125. Not shown, a Christmas rug by Danny McCarthy, who lived in Pembroke, Massachusetts, sported a sold sticker early in the show; all the yarn was hand dyed, and the detail in the images was impressive. They also sold a sawbuck table, a sturdy three-drawer chest, and some smalls.
Mary de Buhr of Downers Grove, Illinois, had a rack for hanging quilts in the corner of her stand. The ten-arm chandelier with finely threaded bobèches was $1400, and the Windsor armchair at front and center was $750. De Buhr, who had sold a hutch table, a demilune table, and smalls, experienced good follow-up sales as well.
Charlie Guinipero of Pantry Box Antiques, Stafford Springs, Connecticut, had good things such as the nest of tin tart pans, priced at $110, and the rare Connecticut stoneware. From left were a two-handled crock from Goodwin & Webster, Hartford; a jug from Swan & States, Stonington; and a jug from Absalom Stedman of New Haven, each priced at $295. Items (not shown) among the many sales earlier that morning: a tape loom, stoneware, an early chip-carved cricket, and a nice apple drying rack.
The double-basin copper sink set on slabs for height (at lower right) was a standout in the stand of Dave and Bonnie Ferriss of Lake Luzerne, New York; it was tagged $1450. From left: the figure of Uncle Sam from the 1960s was priced at $950; the double-sided Parcheesi board, $1800; the New York state temperance sign, $2500; and the door on which a cat had been drawn, $1650. The Ferrisses’ sales were robust.
Early American Antiques, Canfield, Ohio, brought a group of boxes (on the two-drawer table), including a hand-planed example with a heart (right), from Pennsylvania, priced at $595, and a box with strap hinges, found in Ohio, priced at $675. The miniature dry sink in blue paint (against the wall) was tagged $2250. Good sales already completed included a tin chandelier, redware, a cupboard, and a miniature dovetailed box.
Kyle Hedrick and Pat Hatch, both of Harvard, Massachusetts, were having “a really good show.” The miniature 19th-century settee of pegged construction was tagged $310, the man was $175, and the sleeping cat was $145. The circa 1840 cased doll is probably German, and her dress is not removable. Hedrick offered a device (not shown) that was either a barrel maker’s caliper or, as Hedrick suggested, a customs officer’s gauge made by Joseph Watts, a 19th-century Charlestown, Massachusetts, tool and rule maker. Sales included a shirred rug, a painted box, Shaker textiles, a half-hull, two cloth cats, and a strawberry-form needle emery. For Hedrick and Hatch, the show was “two steps above” last year’s event.
Colleen Kinloch came from Laurel, Maryland, with the geometric hooked rug that was $595 and the circa 1860 ladder-back armchair that was $425. The black glass Dutch onion-form spirits bottle, 1700-25, has a deep kick-up base and was priced at $150, while an untouched circa 1880 blanket chest (not shown) was tagged $1250. Kinloch was busy wrapping up purchases for happy customers.
Originally published in the October 2017 issue of Maine Antique Digest. © 2017 Maine Antique Digest
