David and Karen Metcalf.
Pie safe in old gray paint, with punched tin panel showing stars.
The booth of Donna Scheerer.
By Tom O’Hara
NORCROSS, GA. — Americana, as it relates to antiques and antique shows, is a combination of style, taste, geography, attitude and, of course, people. It is those things people here in “the colonies” used in their everyday life; furniture, kitchenware, tools, textiles all with an American flair and attitude.
Done Schweikert knows it well. As an Ohio antiques dealer he has specialized in it for years. He has exhibited at shows with it; his Watertown, Ohio shop is full of it. He has wanted to offer it to a targeted audience in Atlanta for years and last month at Pride of Dixie he finally got the chance.
Toiling with Dave Werk, owner of Pride of Dixie Antiques Market and Rhonda Perkins, show manager, for about a year, they gathered about 40 dealers who, like Don, specialize in the Americana style.
Karen and David Metcalf brought furniture, accessories and early American pottery that they collect from their home in South Carolina to their native New York. Jan Rober carries folk art, American country furnishings, eclectic smalls, hooked rugs and “quirky stuff,” according to her business card.
Lawrenceville, Ga., dealer Charles Jackson offered an unusual Southern-made dry sink complete with its original metal lining for $1,295. He sold a reeded legged Sheraton period American Pembroke table for less than $500. The Scheerers have homes in North Carolina and Maine, which gives them great opportunities for collecting. Donna brought to the show a variety of painted furniture and cabin craft or Adirondack furniture.
Mike Biggers, trading as Quaker Farms Antiques, had a wide variety of ivory scrimshaw and other small objects. He is from Cary, N.C., and also carries early English and American pottery.
Pride of Dixie had its regular show at the same time as Americana at Dixie in the North Atlanta Trade Center. Located in Norcross, just north of downtown Atlanta, the site is filled each month with 1,200 booths of antiques, collectibles and decorator rdf_Descriptions.
Among this month’s offerings were a nautical motif booth by Marc Bush, Fort Lauderdale, Fla. He had an antique ship’s binnacle, the stand at the captain’s or pilot’s wheel housing the compass. A vendor offered late transfer ware, while another had a large selection of whisky jugs.
The Atlanta area has a good appetite for antiques, with three big markets every month. Pride of Dixie is the fourth or fifth weekend each month. Scott’s is held on the second weekend southeast of downtown at the intersection of I-285, Atlanta’s circumferential highway, and Jonesboro Road, with 2,400 booths. Lakewood is also the second weekend, at Lakewood Fairgrounds, I75-85, Exit 243 eastbound.
While browsing Pride of Dixie and Americana at Dixie this month it seemed one could furnish an American home in virtually every period from Colonial times to the mid-1900s. Lots of furniture, accessories galore, even toys and tools.
It is worth the stop.
