The Original Semi-Annual York Antiques Show and Sale, York, Pennsylvania
A windy morning didn’t detract visitors and buyers alike from attending the opening day of the Original 182nd Semi-Annual York Antiques Show and Sale, held February 2 and 3 in Memorial Hall at the York Expo Center, York, Pennsylvania. The two-day show was packed with curious people rubbing shoulders up and down the aisles to peek at the fine Americana, primitive furniture, accessories, and decorative arts the 60 exhibitors brought to York. The show is known for showcasing fine early china and glassware, early silver, Chinese export porcelain, rugs of all types, antique toys, baskets, Native American pottery and leather goods, and pewter, and numerous dealers brought their best Pennsylvania and mid-Atlantic pieces.
Dealers from Georgia to Vermont and Wisconsin filled their booths with unusual and significant 18th- and 19th-century wares. Interested buyers were seen admiring lusterware presentation cups, old tavern signs, Pennsylvania tall-case clocks, Windsor chairs, and whimsical prints. One object in particular could be found at a number of booths. The swell-bodied weathervane, often in the shape of a horse, cow, or carriage and rider, was seen prominently at the center of many booths, and some of them sold as early as Friday morning.
Steven F. Still filled his booth with locally made objects such as this 1820s double-sided mahogany cake board featuring patriotic themes, 13" x 20½", priced at $6500. The front of the board features an eagle with spread wings over a basket of fruits and vegetables flanked by a Native American and a Lady Liberty figure holding a sheaf of wheat. The reverse side (not shown) depicts American Eclipse, Colonel Pluck, and another eagle. The boards were generally used in large cities, and the motifs indicate it is from Philadelphia. In 1824 Pluck was elected colonel of the 84th Pennsylvania Militia, located in Philadelphia. Pluck was a poor and illiterate stable worker who was considered unqualified for the position, but the rank and file elected him to illustrate their resentment against militia leadership selected from the upper class. The governor of Pennsylvania refused to ratify the election of Pluck, causing a second vote. Pluck won the second election, however, drawing more attention to the organization of the militia. American Eclipse was a thoroughbred race horse famous in the 1820s for his undefeated record.
Another popular motif was seen on many pieces that were commemorative objects made for the 1824-25 farewell tour of the United States by the Marquis de Lafayette (1757-1834). Invited by President James Monroe and Congress, Lafayette, the last surviving major general of the Revolutionary War, did a 24-state tour in just over 13 months. Many of the potteries in England produced various transferware patterns that eager Americans purchased to remember Lafayette’s return and to make a patriotic gesture almost 50 years after America declared its independence from Great Britain in 1776. William R. and Teresa F. Kurau, Lampeter, Pennsylvania, offered a number of Lafayette-themed Staffordshire pieces, including plates with his portrait, small lusterware pitchers with angels crowning Lafayette, and scenes of his ship’s arrival and departure. There is no doubt that Lafayette’s popularity and the material culture produced around his tour will be featured at many other upcoming shows well into 2025.
The patriotic theme continued on many pieces emblazoned with the American flag or other symbols of the burgeoning United States from the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Paintings of boats and gilded eagles could be found as well as a paint-decorated chair offered by Christopher and Bernadette Evans Antiques, Waynesboro, Virginia. The circa 1830 chair, featuring a spread-wing eagle clutching a pair of five-star American flags, was likely made in Pennsylvania and was previously sold by David Schorsch. It was published in Stars and Stripes: Patriotic Motifs in American Folk Art (2002) by Deborah Harding, p. 94.
Lisa Minardi of Philip Bradley Antiques, Sumneytown, Pennsylvania, offered this very fine fraktur tune book cover, circa 1805, by Johann Adam Eyer, featuring exceptionally strong colors and musical notes on the cover, a rare hint of the content of the pages that follow. The complete tune book survives with the bookplate. Priced at $7500, it sold to a young collector of Pennsylvania German folk art.
Because the show took place in Pennsylvania and was surrounded by counties inhabited by the Pennsylvania Germans, a number of dealers brought fraktur and other pieces of ephemera made by the Germanic people of southeastern Pennsylvania. Lisa Minardi of Philip Bradley Antiques, Sumneytown, brought a number of pieces, including a pair of Jacob Maentel portraits of Elisabeth Illig and Jacob Schoch (priced at $25,000), painted in 1833 for their marriage. The couple and subsequent family lived in the Millbach area of Heidelberg Township, Lebanon County. Minardi also offered a very fine fraktur tune book cover featuring exceptionally strong colors and musical notes on the cover. The complete tune book survives with the bookplate. Priced at $7500, it sold to a young collector.
Robert M. Conrad Antiques, Yeagertown, Pennsylvania, offered for $4950 a stunning fraktur watercolor featuring a poem written in red ink within 13 hearts surrounded by stylized tulips and other floral motifs. The watercolor was made by Union Township, Adams County, Pennsylvania, artist George Peter Deisert (1794-1875) and was featured in the publication The Gift Is Small, The Love Is Great: Pennsylvania German Small Presentation Frakturs (1994) by Frederick S. Weiser.
Three more categories were in abundance: chalkware, Windsor chairs (mostly from New England), and family records. Stoneware jugs and Native American artifacts could be found in most aisles. Many people visited Steve Smoot’s booth of antiques and Navajo textiles. Smoot offered a variety of Native American clay pots and Sioux leather goods.
James L. Price of Carlisle, Pennsylvania had various tall-case clocks for sale and was enthusiastically showing off one whose winding holes were flanked by two decorative birds. His son Jay Price, who lives in Colorado but helps his father with shows, said that York was a great show to attend, and he was encouraged by how many younger people were seen going from booth to booth, buying for their own collections, and sometimes pushing a stroller with a new treasure in tow.
York’s central location and easy access from surrounding states like Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, New York, and New Jersey help it remain popular with visitors new and old. Show promoter Melvin L. Arion has continued to assemble a diverse set of dealers who bring something to York for everyone. With free parking, food offerings, and easy payment options, the Original Semi-Annual York Antiques Show and Sale helps to foster collecting antiques among a wide range of buyers.
The show will be back in York this fall for the 183rd show September 20 and 21 with 60 selected exhibitors.
For more information, visit the show website (www.theoriginalyorkantiquesshow.com) or phone (302) 875-5326.
Newsom & Berdan Antiques & Folk Art, Thomasville, Pennsylvania, featured an 1810-30 two-drawer Pennsylvania stand with inlaid urns and foliage on both sides, vine inlay on the legs, and an anchor, fish, and diamond motifs for $12,500. String inlay was used along the edges of the top and drawers.
Christopher and Bernadette Evans Antiques, Waynesboro, Virginia, brought this mid-19th-century heavy sheet-copper and wrought-iron weathervane featuring a leaping fox. The weathervane, priced at $5500, retains an untouched verdigris surface and is an uncommon subject.
Robert M. Conrad of Yeagertown, Pennsylvania, offered for $3600 this 15½" x 12" watercolor of George Washington, inscribed “Washington the Father of his country, Kelleys and Brother, Fulton Street, New York, the workmanship of Henry Denton presented.”
Hilary and Paulette Nolan of Falmouth, Massachusetts, offered for $5800 a rare wooden tiger maple lantern with wavy green-tinted side panels that sits on small squared feet.
Steven F. Still Antiques, Manheim, Pennsylvania, stunned visitors with this unusual New England diminutive pine cupboard, 1760-80, featuring a single door with two raised panels, retaining its original iron H-hinges and an old green-painted surface over original blue paint, 78" x 37"; it was $3500.
John Hunt Marshall of Westhampton, Massachusetts, offered for $3200 this well-done and clear portrait of a young man by Thomas Cummings (1804-1894), 13¾" x 11 1/8", oil on panel, signed lower right. The portrait was previously sold by the Alexandre Gallery, New York City.
William R. and Teresa F. Kurau, Lampeter, Pennsylvania, offered this large toddy cup plate by Enoch Wood & Sons and Ralph and James Clews featuring a portrait of the Marquis de Lafayette for $1450. It was part of the large collection of Lafayette-themed blue-and-white Staffordshire pottery they brought to the show.
Against a deep yellow backdrop, Heller Washam Antiques, Portland, Maine, offered for $8250 this Art Deco sheet- and wrought-iron horse and sleigh weathervane, circa 1925, 16½" x 33¼", attributed to Wilhelm Hunt Diederich (1884-1953). Diederich was a Hungarian-born artist whose mother was the daughter of famed architect William Morris Hunt. He is known for his paper cutouts and metalwork. He exhibited at the Whitney Studio Club (the forerunner to the Whitney Museum of Art) and also won a gold medal in 1922 from the Architectural League.
James Grievo of Stockton, New Jersey, offered for $850 this 1864 folk-art portrait by F. J. Youngman of a bucolic scene with a white house, a painted fence, a large tree in the foreground, planted gardens, and chickens next to a woman in dark red.
Doug and Bev Norwood of The Norwoods’ Spirit of America, Timonium, Maryland, offered for $3800 this small painting of a tugboat flying an American flag and a flag with the initials “HL.” It is lettered with “ST JOHNSON” on the bow and wheelhouse of the boat.
Greg K. Kramer & Co., Robesonia, Pennsylvania, featured this 1851 two-color-ground painted and decorated Soap Hollow chest of drawers for $12,500. The top crest features six stylized floral or pinwheel motifs.
Patricia Clegg Antiques, East Berlin, Pennsylvania, offered this rush-seat Windsor corner chair, with a turned fluted crest, likely made in the Rhode Island and Connecticut border region, circa 1790, for $6750. The chair is made from maple, ash, and poplar. The seat has been replaced.
Blandon M. Cherry of Paris, Kentucky, offered two stoneware water coolers, including this southern cobalt-decorated water cooler, 24" high, signed “John P. Schermerhorn & Co / Makers,” for $40,000. The cooler, made in Richmond, Virginia, was published in the 2013 Ceramics in America, page 207, figure 5.
William Union and Mary Cormier from the Art & Antiques Gallery, Holden, Massachusetts, brought a painting of a winter scene by New Hope Impressionist artist Walter Emerson Baum (1884-1956), priced at $5500. Baum is noted for his scenes in and around the southeastern Pennsylvania region and did many winter scenes in Bucks and Lehigh Counties.
Brian Cullity of Sagamore, Massachusetts, offered for $750 a printed fraktur by G. S. Peters of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, with depictions of Christ’s crucifixion, the New Jerusalem, and hell. Cullity explained that these fraktur are popular based on how the devil is depicted.
Ziebarth’s Gallery, Avoca, Wisconsin, offered an array of Americana and Native American objects, including this bandolier bag, priced at $3700, likely from Minnesota and made by one of the tribes around the Great Lakes. The bag is made with appliquéd bead work and was used for ceremonial purposes or for holding valuables such as tobacco, pipes, medicine, or flint for starting fires.
Steve Smoot Antiques & Navajo Textiles, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, offered this buffalo hide parfleche with blue trade cloth ends, circa 1875, probably pre-reservation Sioux with Cheyenne influences, for $2600.
Rick Fleshman of Fleshman’s Antiques, New Market, Maryland, offered this imposing two-piece burl walnut secretary with rippled trim moldings for $1650. Purchased in Baltimore, this late Empire/early Victorian bookcase has beaded molding and can be transported by lifting the top off the base.
Originally published in the May 2024 issue of Maine Antique Digest. © 2024 Maine Antique Digest
