The Heartland Antique Show, Fall Edition
November 16th, 2013
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Make-do Windsor armchair with a galvanized metal backrest, $450 from Sharon and Claude Baker of Hamilton, Ohio.
Child’s sack-back Windsor highchair, 1790-1805, Connecticut/Rhode Island border, $2900 from Halsey Munson of Decatur, Illinois.
Millinery sign, $1150; seven-color Parcheesi game board with stenciled stags, $2500; framed oilcloth checkerboard in black and gold, $595; Chinese checkers board on birch, $1450; rectangular checkerboard in black and red, $895—all from Dennis Raleigh Antiques & Folk Art, Wiscasset, Maine.
Lighted American flag, 1930’s, believed to have come from a Broadway theater in New York City, $29,500 from Don Orwig of Corunna, Indiana.
Henley Roll About, made in Richmond, Indiana, 1913 patent date, painted metal and wood with wire-spoke wheels, $495; mohair teddy bear, $195; canted cupboard, $635—all from Brent and Joyce Gray of Gray Granite Antiques, Edinburgh, Indiana.
Homemade elephant marionette, $595 from Cindy Adams of Mountain Lodge Antiques, Littleton, Colorado.
High-back dry sink in old green paint, $2195 from Inez Allen and Nan Donovan of City Mouse Country Mouse, Cincinnati, Ohio.
Redware by William C. Cline, Hartford City, Indiana: small mug, 1906, $495; pitcher with molded heart on both sides, 1904, $2250; footed salt, 1903, $77—all from Greg K. Kramer & Co., Robesonia, Pennsylvania. |
Richmond, Indiana
Two intriguing but wildly different Windsor chairs said a lot about the fall edition of the Heartland Antique Show, held November 16, 2013, at the Wayne County Fairgrounds on the outskirts of Richmond, Indiana. Those two chairs were as distinctive as they were dissimilar.
Found in Maine, one was a make-do Windsor armchair, similar to a sack-back but without the crest rail. Six spindles were wired to an arched piece of galvanized metal that served as a backrest. The chair had flat arms, a slightly shaped seat, and a double-H stretcher. Sharon and Claude Baker of Hamilton, Ohio, had it priced at $450.
“It’s so comfortable,” said Mrs. Baker. “It’s the first true make-do Windsor I’ve seen.”
A customer agreed. “It’s not a butcher-shop job,” he said.
The other Windsor was a child’s sack-back highchair, 1790-1805, from the Connecticut/Rhode Island border, offered at $2900 by Halsey Munson of Decatur, Illinois. He described the chair as having “super form, outrageous splay.”
“It’s just so delicate, so airy. In my opinion it’s the best Windsor in the show,” said Munson. “Surface you can put on and take off. Form is built in.”
Despite their differences, the two Windsors had several similarities. Both turned heads, and both were purchased off the floor from other Heartland dealers during the setup. The latter indicated that the dealers at Heartland still get excited about what’s found there.
Of course, there was more than just interesting furniture on the floor. In only its second showing was a large, metal light-up American flag from the 1930’s. Said to have come out of a Broadway theater in New York City, it was offered at $29,500 by Don Orwig of Corunna, Indiana. Orwig said the flag, with 20 stars in the canton, all designed to be lighted, and another 65 or so sockets across the piece, had come out of a New York collection, where it had been for the past 27 years.
Patriotic motifs were also part of a blue-and-white Ohio coverlet shown by Gary Promey of Atwater, Ohio. Having a corner block lettered “Daniel Bury. / Corners / Burgh / Ohio.1851,” it had a border that included an American flag and an eagle clutching arrows, both under the legend “E Pluribus Unum.” The bedcover was tagged $585.
Halfway across the hall, two matching red-and-white Michigan coverlets also incorporated patriotic symbols. Each bedcover had a central floral medallion with a shield-breasted eagle in each of the four corners, and the border had the name Philip Allabach. Offered by Bob Zordani and Heidi Kellner of Z&K Antiques, Urbana, Illinois, the coverlets were priced at $2250 the pair. Z&K had acquired the bedcovers a week before the show, and Zordani speculated that they might have been made for the centennial.
Zordani reported that textiles, stoneware, game boards, and mechanical banks had been selling well recently. “It looks like this is picking up, at least for us,” he said. “They still want good stuff. They’re being very picky, and they should be.”
The good stuff found at Heartland ranged from medals to marionettes. Offered in two Riker mounts were 61 track-and-field medals—31 in one set, 30 in the other—priced at $180 per set. Wayne and Madeleine Powell of Bellbrook, Ohio, said the awards were identified to a father and son who had been athletes, with some of the awards dating to the early 20th century. The medals included examples from Rutgers College, Barringer High School, Harlem YMCA, Hawaii AAU, Newark Athletic Association, University of Pennsylvania Athletic Association, and Pingry School Athletic Association.
The marionette was in the form of a homemade elephant constructed of gray cloth, priced at $595 by Cindy Adams of Mountain Lodge Antiques, Littleton, Colorado. “He’s folk art,” she said. “He’s definitely one-of-a-kind.”
That kind of variety continues to define Heartland, which attracts a crowd looking for country items, Americana, and original paint. Yet the November show isn’t quite the same as the summer Heartland, held the first Saturday of June.
The fall event remains smaller, with 85 spaces in one building, compared to 140 dealers in two buildings in June 2013. The autumn crowd is also somewhat smaller, with buyers in November being a bit more laid back, hitting the show with enthusiasm but not with quite the same sense of urgency.
During the most recent fall Heartland, the biggest problem for promoter Jennifer Sabin might have been getting people inside the fairgrounds where the event was held. A few weeks before the show, barricades were erected on Salisbury Road, which goes past the venue. Drivers simply had to go through the construction zone, but the formidable orange-and-white barricades likely sent some potential customers looking for another route.
Heartland returns to Richmond on June 7. Construction on Salisbury Road is likely to be ongoing at that time, so alternative routes will be outlined on the show’s Web site and in its advertising. For more information, contact Jennifer Sabin at (843) 812-0282; Web site (www.heartlandantiqueshow.com).
Originally published in the February 2014 issue of Maine Antique Digest. © 2014 Maine Antique Digest
