Elephant’s Trunk manager Greg Baecker said, “I’ve opened on Easter Sunday before, but this year rumors were flying that I am selling the ‘Trunk’ †guess this puts those rumors to rest!” As he opened the gates for the 34th year to more than 200 vendors who had lined up before 4 am, Baecker, a middle school principal by week and a flea market manager/fan by weekend, greeted many of the returning vendors by name and welcomed them back.
Eager to be on the field for the grand opening of the long-running antiques flea market, vendors and buyers were just as excited, “We live through the winter just to get here,” said Dale Haverstraw, veteran vendor. After the record rains of the week before, it was touch and go if Baecker would open on April 4, but with a hot sun and good drying weather, he had more than two-thirds of the field ready to go.
The flea market, a fixture on these fields since 1976, attracts a wide range of shoppers, from dealers looking to scoop up a good buy they can flip to bargain hunters and every manner of collector in between.
Chris Raink from Point Pleasant, N.J., said he started the day at about 1:30 am. “We bring all the good stuff I’ve saved all winter, just for the ‘Trunk.'” He brought out a polychrome cat and placed it on a wooden barrel near a Victorian mahogany corner plant stand; an old fire extinguisher, a wooden planked bucket and an antique level followed.
Baecker worked the fields and the crowd as dealers made their way from their homes in the dark to set up on the fields before early buying began at 5:45 am. A Westchester County, N.Y., dealer said he woke up at 2 am, but others who trekked here from Maine, New Hampshire, upstate New York and even Delaware were already on the road by then.
By 7 am, as the regular admission buyers poured through the gate, the parking fields were filling up and dealers were busy making deals.
“Hey guys, everything’s cheap, just ask,” one dealer said to a group of men that crowded around his commercial-size buckets that were filled with all manner of tools †small and large wrenches, drill bits, measuring devices and the like.
Greg Renshaw had an eclectic mix that defines the Elephant’s Trunk †from a wonderful pair of Odd-Fellows chairs to several Federal period stands to a pair of cherubs in gold, one with hands poised to hold a flute that Renshaw said was still in his truck.
From Webster, Mass., Adam Theodores and Tony DiBonventura brought Star Wars memorabilia and a large theater prop, a yellow Star Fighter about 4 feet long.
On Kurt Barrett’s near-empty table an ovoid handled crock sat in lonely splendor as he rummaged through his van. A splendid piece, it was dated 1810 and marked Hartford, Conn. The Portland, Maine, dealer said the thumb mark where a hand would grasp the crock was darkened by the many thumbs that had held it over the years. “That’s the only mark on it,” he said.
While guns are not allowed at the ‘Trunk,’ Richard Morin brought many rare and unusual BB guns, which are allowed. Wearing a cap saying “USS Yorktown CB-48,” the Bath, Maine, vendor showed off a rare double-barrel Daisy BB gun. “You don’t find these very often,” he said. Also being offered was a Civil War drum from Albany, N.Y., a John Deere cap, crocks and several other BB guns.
Also from Maine, Biddeford in this case, Francine and Charles Dorion were busy selling an ornate craved and gilt frame to a man who was searching the field, flashlight in hand, long before the sun came up. He bought the frame, in which the Dorions had put a black and white print of George Washington, for $175.
Harry Rosenblum was buying Pyrex: bowls, coffeepots, tea kettles and storage bowls in a variety of primary colors at Marlene Bloomer’s Brooklyn Kitchen. “Hey, Harry,” another longtime vendor yelled to him, “saw a great [fire] chief’s hat two aisles over,” and Rosenblum took off with a purposeful stride.
At such a market, one expects to find everything here but the proverbial kitchen sink. Actually, there was an early copper sink offered by one dealer. Also seen was a silver painted plastic elephant, 3 feet high, with the trunk upraised, signifying good luck, according to the dealer who placed it at the edge of his area.
From a Nineteenth Century apothecary with its original tin back plate for “Munyon’s Homeopathic Remedies” with a price list of “cures,” marked at $1,500 to a friction tin trolley for $175 to a pair of calf-high black laced lady’s boots (size 3) for $45 to mounted butterflies and other insects like the banjo beetle, at less than $20 each, there was something here to suit all tastes.
A publicity-shy dealer was strumming a guitar he had brought for sale, old, but not too valuable, he said, unlike another guitar carefully brought out from his station wagon, which he said had been signed by three of the four Beatles.
The Elephant’s Trunk will return here every Sunday until November 29. For more information, www.etflea.com or 508-265-9911.
