Camden-Rockport Antiques Show and Sale, Rockport, Maine
John and Elizabeth DeSimone of Goosefare Antiques and Promotions, Saco, Maine, have been presenting the Camden-Rockport Antiques Show and Sale for 44 years. This year it was held once again at the Mid-Coast Recreation Center in Rockport, Maine, on July 18 and 19. When I arrived about half an hour after opening time, the main parking lot and the overflow lot were filled to near capacity, and I managed to grab the very last spot available. Those who arrived after me had to park along the available roadsides and walk a longer distance.
Mercifully this time around, the show wasn’t bedeviled by scorching heat or troublesome air conditioning. Dealers from all over New England set up, with a small handful of outliers from as far away as New York and Kansas. Like a well-tended garden in full summer bloom, the show has blossomed to the point where exhibitors bring their top-flight best offerings and leave the flea market fodder in the barn. Viewers have come to expect the best, and they find it here. Along with the regulars who return year after year, some of whom have been with the show for decades, a small contingent of new exhibitors, including David Thompson Antiques and Art, South Dennis, Massachusetts, and Red Rover Works, Cherryfield, Maine, helped keep things fresh.
For more information, visit the website (www.goosefareantiques.com) or call (800) 641-6908.
It’s too late to buy this continuous-arm Windsor chair from Mary Kay Felton of Pond Crossers Antiques, Camden,Maine. Her asking price was $3750, and it was already sold when I got there. But it’s not too late to admire it. On the seat are scratched-in inscriptions around the spindles andarm posts representing the 13 original Colonies, along with a map of Kentucky, a drawing of the USS Constitution, and other images. It had been previously owned by Cyrus Eaton (1784-1875), author of the History of Thomaston, Rockland, and South Thomaston, Maine, From Their First Exploration, A.D. 1605. It had once been in the collection of the General Henry Knox Museum, Thomaston, Maine.
Greg Hamilton of Stone Block Antiques, Vergennes, Vermont, had a booth accented by both Mexican and Native American pottery. “I have two collections that I just bought recently,” he noted. This highly polished olla with inlaid turquoise and a sgraffito eagle, signed illegibly on the bottom,was $1100.
Joe Genereux of MG Art and Antiques, Merrimac, Massachusetts, offered this two-sided 19th-century jeweler’s trade sign in the form of a wooden pocket watch, for $1095.
Deirdre O’Callaghan of Partridge Hill Antiques, Georgetown, Maine, had a limited-edition dry point etching titled The Cape Horner, 1932, signed in pencil by Canada-born artist Frederick L. Owen (1869-1959), up for sale for $195. “I sold a bunch of stuff, four paintings, and a print,” she related. And at that point, the two-day show wasn’t even two hours old.
Marvin Wies of Baltimore, Maryland, has been doing this and other Maine shows for decades, and this time he came with bells on. Functional and attractive, the rack of brass bells on their leather and iron mountings would have been attached to a horse’s harness to announce the approach of a wagon or sleigh, particularly on snowy roads when the runners were nearly silent. Here, they sounded a clear clarion call for $295.
Native Maine artist Edythe Laws (1922-1984) painted this 24" x 36" oil on board scene titled Popham Colony Beach from Bay Point, a scene not far from where she lived in Harpswell and Brunswick, Maine. Susanna J. Fichera Fine Art, Bowdoinham, Maine, showed it for $2800.
In the early 1930s, the French aviation firm Latécoère completed construction of the enormous passenger seaplane Lieutenantde Vaisseau Paris, named for record-setting French pilot Paulin Louis de Vaisseau Paris (1898-1934). The plane was designed to carry up to 72 passengers and a crew of eight in trans-Mediterranean service, and she first took flight in 1935. Michael Westman Fine Arts, Peace Dale, Rhode Island, related that this large carved wall panel came directly from one of her luxurious cabins, and was offering it for $7500.
In the booth of show owners and managers John and Elizabeth DeSimone of Goosefare Antiques and Promotions, Saco, Maine, was an unsigned late 19th-century oil on canvas primitive view of Rocky Neck from across Gloucester Harbor, in Massachusetts, showing Banner Hill on the left, for $1150.
It’s probably an early 20th-century creation. A large wooden hand-painted alehouse sign reads “COMTE DE TOULOUSE / FINEST ALES.” It appears to be a comment on the famous drinking habits of artist Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Montfa (1864-1901). Bruce Emond of Village Braider Antiques, Plymouth, Massachusetts, had it for $900. “We’ve been selling all morning,” he noted happily.
Uncle Sam may want you, and Jim Luskay of DocEngine Antiques, Holliston and South Dennis, Massachusetts, wanted $1650 for Uncle Sam, here in the form of a standing whirligig or weathervane figure atop a turned wooden post.
Elizabeth Murphy of Windy Hill Antiques, Topsfield, Massachusetts, offered this framed oil on board shoreline seascape for $355. Neither one of us could find out anything about the artist “H. O’Rourke,” who signed it lower left. Murphy was confident that it represented the Acadia region of Maine.
Here’s a tall 1920s or 1930s Arts and Crafts “peacock feather” pitcher from David Weidner of Dark Flowers Antiques, Haverhill, Massachusetts. Priced at $395, it was probably made in France, then shipped here for decoration, Weidner explained, adding that the design came from Keramic Studio magazine of Syracuse, New York.
Peter Murphy of P.D. Murphy Antiques, Bath, Maine, offered a 19th-century Wedgwood cheese dome in high relief with a matching underplate, marked with a date code indicating 1864, for $550.
The time shown – 10:06 a.m. – would have been a good time to buy this iron 19th-century Boston clock tower face for $4200 from Seth Duston of Red Rover Works, Cherryfield, Maine.
Joni Lima and Joe Spaider of Round Pond, Maine, are both on the rebound from serious bouts with illness. “It’s all behind us now,” Joni said. “We haven’t done a show in a whole year.” But now they’re back, with Joni relaxing on a white painted cast-iron garden bench by Molla in Georgian style, dating from the mid- 20th century. The asking price was $2800, and it was already sold when I took the shot.
Among Martin Ferrick’s assortment of elegant furniture was this New England Chippendale chest with five graduated drawers in figural maple, standing on a short, scroll-cut base. The Lincolnville, Maine, dealer and furniture restorer was looking for $1950 for it.
The tag on this 19th-century copper weathervane with a robust gold leaf surface proclaims, “This Dog Can Hunt.” Nancy Douglass of Willow Springs Perennial Antiques, Rexford, New York, was hunting $3200 for it. As I was leaving the booth, my eyes fell upon this elaborately carved bed warmer, earlier and fancier than any I’d ever seen. “I don’t think it was used in a while,” Nancy smiled. She wasn’t sure if it is American or European, but $950 looked like a fair price.
David Thompson Antiques and Art, South Dennis, Massachusetts, brought this all-original Metropolitan Casualty Insurance Company sign, probably dating from the 1920s. Note how the company brags about their $200,000 capitalization. That amount of jack would barely pay for a single claim these days. It was tagged $450.
Frequently I include a measuring object as a size indicator in photographs. In this case, Dave White himself, of White’s Nautical Antiques, North Yarmouth, Maine, served the function quite well. This $1650 pond model, made by William Wadsworth of Camden, Maine, stands about seven feet tall. Wadsworth built about seven of them, and this is the only one built as a double ender with a vane steering gear.
Bethany Kelly (right) and Jennifer Scott of BDK Antiques, Limington, Maine, showed a lovely and lissome lady in solid bronze, seated beneath a tree for $1250. The sculptor is unknown, but the lady was discovered in Florida.
Robert Foley of Gray, Maine, had a pair (one shown) of tall mid-20th-century bamboo lamp stands or end tables. Dramatic and exotic, they awaited $1350 for the pair.
According to Don Heller of Heller Washam Antiques, Portland, Maine, this enormous copper vessel, braised and dovetailed, with a 42" diameter at the equator, was used by a chocolate candy company. It could be a sweet deal for someone at $2900.
Here’s a full-bodied copper merino sheep weathervane with well-textured fleece and an untouched variegated verdigris, all for $7900 from American Spirit Antiques, Shawnee Mission, Kansas.
Harry Hepburn of Harrison, Maine, offered a brass Seth Thomas eight-day ship’s bell clock for $595.
It’s not fancy, but this small Queen Anne period storage chest has a lot going for it: large hand-cut dovetails, original hand-forged wrought-iron snipe hinges, lots of old rosehead nails, and plenty of the original very dry red and green paint remaining, along with faint traces of painted initials on top. For $475 you could take it from Carl Goveia of Nauset Antiques, Eastham, Massachusetts.
Originally published in the November 2026 issue of Maine Antique Digest. © 2026 Maine Antique Digest
