When the day dawned brisk outside the Elisabeth Adams School, patrons of the Guilford Antiques Show were met at the entrance by friendly greeters, who offered to hang up bulky winter coats in addition to selling colorful harbingers of spring †daffodils, primroses and forced branches of forsythia. The colorful and cheery flats of early blooms at the entrance are a show tradition, but the honors system coatroom was the idea of show manager Frank Gaglio of Barn Star Productions. “In past years, the show was held in April when it’s warmer, so for this show, I thought it would be a good idea to create a coatroom,” said the Rhinebeck, N.Y., show promoter.
Bright blooms and valet coat wrangling were only the beginning, however. On February 21 and 22, three galleries comprising 48 top-shelf antiques dealers were gathered inside the school building and their well-staged displays and merchandise combined to lift visitors’ spirits even more.
“I was delighted with the turnout †and with the buying,” said Gaglio, contacted after the show. “On Sunday at about 11 am there was some rain, but the crowds kept coming and selling was through the roof.”
The show, founded 40 years ago, benefits Hyland House, built in the last half of the Seventeenth Century, rescued from imminent demolition in 1916 and today privately maintained by a committed volunteer staff led by John B. “Jack” Carles. Carles, president of the Dorothy Whitfield Historical Society and show chairman, was on hand as the show opened on Saturday morning, surveying with approval the displays that had been set up the day before, thanks to the school vacation exodus. “The show looks great,” he said. “I am energized to see the dealers’ continuing enthusiasm.”
Such brio stems from the connection most exhibitors have with their merchandise. In an age where some might argue that staying home and combing the Internet is easier than going out to an antiques show, where else could one receive a personal tutorial on a Victorian dentist’s molar extractor? The one-on-one booth chat was delivered with gusto by Ron Pittenger of Dark Moon Antiques, Johnsonburg, N.J., who, as he opened a showcase to reach for the grim tool, admitted, “I don’t know why I love to collect these.” He then went on to point out the extractor’s construction, such as the knurling (an attractive diamond-shaped crisscross pattern) cut into a thumb rest, allowing fingers to get a better grip.
Pittenger and his wife, Sharon, were also showing a large barber’s pole said to have come from Ottumwa, Iowa. The original turn-of-the-century pole mounted on a base was all pine, repaired in a few places with tin strips and exhibiting its weather-checked original red, white and blue striping. Nearby was a New England militia musket, completely untouched, dating from about 1815‱830.
From Wilmington, Del., Joyce and Herb Windle hewed to the show’s traditional flavor by presenting an unusual Connecticut blanket chest from the Queen Anne period, circa 1740‶5, in original paint and likely the original brasses. An early Nineteenth Century jelly cupboard with excellent grained paint and two drawers over a central drawer over a pair of recessed drawers was another highlight, as was a late 1700s or early 1800s tavern table with a shaped top, single drawer and turned legs on button feet.
Folk art enthusiasts could find it aplenty at Quiet Corner Antiques. The Sterling, Conn., dealers Michael and Monique Rouillard populated their booth with gems like a full-bodied Smuggler running horse weathervane, possibly by Harris, Boston, circa 1874‱881, and a large Nineteenth Century sheet iron rooster weathervane from New England with mustard paint and a nicely serrated tail and comb. A green-blue document box missing one of its snipe hinges and a paint and gilt decorated American box from early in the Nineteenth Century with faux tortoiseshell surface and a pair of centered gilt hearts exuded homespun charm. So, too, did a Pennsylvania dry sink in vivid colors with three drawers over the top and dovetail construction.
More traditional early furniture was on display at Marilyn and Ron Saland’s booth. New to the show, they pointed out three Van Briggle pottery pieces, circa 1940s, from Colorado Springs, Colo. Glowing in rich aquamarine hue on a stand in the booth of the Scarsdale, N.Y., couple were a conch vase, a ewer and a crocus vase †all getting an approving eye from showgoers.
Deposit, N.Y., dealer Richard Axtell paired a circa 1840 overmantel painting from New York with a Shaker apple parer and table, circa 1820. Atop the table was a Otsego County flat round basket that carried a Shaker look.
There were two estate and antique jewelry dealers at the show †Koblenz & Co, South Kent, Conn., and Carolyn Yost Estate Jewelry from nearby Stonington. Yost filled her display cases with many vintage sparklers, such as a retro 1930s rubies and diamond ring, an aquamarine ring, a carved lapis ring from the 1920s and a more recent, circa 1970s, turtle pin that gleamed in gold, diamond and emeralds.
From nearby Madison, Conn., Kirtland Crump came with a large selection of antique clocks. He brought many different examples to this show, including, on one wall, a pair of Ansonia Clock Co. mahogany clocks, both circa 1885, two timepieces from Bristol, Conn. †an E. Ingraham & Co. rosewood Venetian clock, circa 1875, and a rosewood veneer globe mantel clock by Welch & Spring Co., circa 1820. The granddaddy in the booth, literally, was a Federal cherry tall case clock with eight-day brass weight powered movement and a painted iron moon dial.
Fine art dealers David and Donna Kmetz, Douglas, Mass., nodded to Guilford’s coastal setting with a sparkling Gloucester scene by Joseph Eliot Enneking (1881‱942), son of John Joseph Enneking. “Ballerinas,” a touching genre painting by American artist Gabriel Spat (1890‱967), who spent most of his time in France perfecting a now sought-after Belle Époque style, and a wonderful still life of “Violets” by Boston artist Frederick M. Fenetti (1854‱915) were additional highlights.
The tang of chimney smoke hung over the stand overseen by Marvin and Barbara Eliot, known in the trade as Pottles and Pannikins, specialists in early hearth tools and fixtures. The Windsor, Conn., dealers had brought an Eighteenth Century pipe kiln of the kind used in inns and taverns to hold the long-stemmed clay pipes when they were not being used. Typically, the tavern guest would break off the stem end of the pipe after using it and place the pipe in the kiln for the next person’s use. The Eliots were also showing an Eighteenth Century broiler and †especially appealing to a coastal crowd †a late Eighteenth/early Nineteenth Century sea captain’s table of English oak with all the implements and a changeable calendar.
Henry Callan of East Sandwich, Mass., has been dealing in early samplers for 35 years. He said that today’s savvy buyers are seeking the best of these, ones that have no holes or significant condition issues. Such collectors could find no better example than a Boston family record Callan had on view, wrought by a 14-year-old girl in 1890 with meticulous craftsmanship and precision. Clearly, while other girls her age were mastering basic alphanumeric needlework, young Louisa Pierce was soaring with silk thread, creating sophisticated freehand floral decoration around the record’s border.
Next up for Barn Star is the 23rd Street Armory Antiques Show, April 17‱9, in Philadelphia. For information, www.barnstar.com or 845-876-0616.
