The formula for an appealing antiques show presentation at Nan Gurley’s Sturbridge Antiques Show was country, country and more country. Conducted at the Sturbridge Host Hotel during Brimfield Week, Thursday, May 14, the show offered a pleasing and refined alternative to the outdoor action 15 minutes down the road. The show was heavy on country Americana, with lots of quilts, baskets and stoneware in sight.
At Rustic Accents, Nashua, N.H., a radiating star hooked rug was a standout, while smalls were big at Louise D. Hardie, Falmouth, Maine, including a santos, circa 1880‱890, a thimble holder and thimble, and other sewing accoutrements.
A pair of mustard yellow chairs with Pennsylvania Dutch-style tulip decoration flanked a bright blue dry sink with an open scalloped shelf at Patricia Stauble, Wiscasset, Maine, but the star of her booth was a grouping of small silhouettes, including a rare example of an attorney silhouette dated 1834.
Ron Chambers Antiques, Higganum, Conn., showed a standish or desk tray, circa 1900, and a wooden staved tankard, circa 1750‸0, from New England, while Mary de Buhr Antiques, Downers Grove, Ill., offered a doorway salesman’s sample.
A large, arch-form architectural window took pride of place at Nan Gurley and Peter Mavris, Cornish Maine. The dealers offered it along with an Eighteenth Century miniature blanket chest in original paint.
Jewett & Berdan, Newcastle, Maine, offered several items from its home state, including a York apothecary and a bright yellow arrow weathervane.
Brown wood was mostly out of sight at this show, but John Melby Antiques, Eastport, Maine, offered a few fine examples in his compact and unfettered booth, which also showed several landscapes on the walls.
New exhibitor Griffith’s Antiques, Forestport, N.Y., showed a Hepplewhite tap table with cur corners and a single-board top on tapered legs, circa 1780‱810, and a Morris Sled Works bobsled that was found in a barn. In original paint and hardware, the sled is labeled on top in yellow-gold stenciling, “Lewis Adams, Morris, N.Y.,” probably for the original owner.
Known for clocks and yellowware, Rona Andrews, Weston, Mass., showed an ornate Civil War emblem clock and a Seth Thomas mantel clock with a reverse painted floral glass pane.
A display case at Sandy Elliott, Brentwood, N.H., was filled with vintage and collectible Christmas items, while Michael Sylvia, Rochester, Mass., offered a diverse booth, rich in textiles and china and accented with a charming checkerboard.
Highlights in the booth of Susan H. Wirth, Union, Conn., were an H-hinged cupboard, an American tavern-sized canteen in original paint, circa 1785‱820, and an attractive display of a trio of hog scrapers in blue, yellow and beige.
It was all country at Betty Anne Lavalle, Hampton, N.H., whose booth was resplendent in calico and floral fabrics with an early American flag’s stars peeking out the back of a display vignette.
Bob and Tina Mortimer, Falmouth, Maine, showed a hand sewn bed coverlet, an Indian basket in the form of a purse and an early Twentieth Century pond boat with fine paint on the hull; Susan Gault, Thetford Center, Vt., offered a lovely wagon seat in green paint.
Brett Cabral, Derry, N.H., showed a charming child’s tea set, bright yellow with depictions of farm animals, while his booth partner, Colleen Nordengren of Pepperell, Mass., favored muted colors in the way of a wall hanging knitted with circles of creams, pinks and browns.
A fine Parcheesi board, art pottery, a pair of decoys and smalls were highlights at Ken and Susan Scott, Malone, N.Y., while a smoke decorated seed box was a small standout at Mike and Lucinda Seward, Pittsford, Vt.
James LeFurgy, Wiscasset, Maine, showed an early Nineteenth Century six-board blanket box from Maine in original red paint, an early Nineteenth Century dome top box with original paint and hardware and a fine watercolor of a ship signed E.B. Rich, circa 1890‱910.
A hoard of attractive old tools was striking up interest at Glenn and Jennie Rice, Higganum, Conn., and at Hart’s Country Antiques, New Oxford, Penn., a grouping of African American cloth dolls with sewn and button eyes paired with a tower of colorful Shaker boxes were drawing people into the booth.
A grouping of Peaseware made by David M. Pease of Ohio, circa 1850s, from the Kangas Collection, occupied a prominent shelf at Helen and Larry Bryan, Princeton, N.J., including a covered sugar in maple with an acorn/vase finial, circa 1855, and an early straight-sided covered urn/sugar bowl with an urn finial. The dealers also showed a Nineteenth Century campaign or field desk.
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