Photos by R. Scudder Smith

They came. They saw. They bought. And bought and bought and bought.

Mid*Week in Manchester got off to a roaring start on Wednesday, August 10, at the Quality Inn & Wayfarer Conference Center in Bedford. Droves of dealers and collectors from around the country pressed their ways through opening morning crowds, snapping up American country furniture and folk art by the truck load.

Scattered through the conference center and adjacent tent were dozens of five-figure trophies, a measure of Barn Star Productions’ success at recruiting some of the best dealers in the business for its flagship show. Most of what was for sale was well under $10,000, a welcome reminder that collecting American antiques remains an egalitarian pursuit.

“I don’t have attendance figures yet but my instinct is that the show was as strong as last year,” promoter Frank Gaglio said from the Wayfarer Inn on Friday morning, where his Bedford Pickers Market was in full swing after Mid*Week’s close at 4 pm on Thursday. The promoter had been chauffeuring patrons in a golf cart from the parking lot to the conference center and tent, where 110 exhibitors set up for what was Mid*Week’s 12th year.

“I didn’t tell them I was the owner. Hearing their candid compliments was thrilling,” said Frank, whose ratings are likely to increase if he gets a liquor permit next year. “I want to be able to serve mimosas under the tent,” he explained.

Sales were robust across the board. One shopper even wanted to buy Hilary and Paulette Nolan’s pet Labradors, featured in the Cape Cod dealers’ show advertisement under the playful headline, “Ati and Hannah have been fishing for ‘keepers.’ Come see the catch.”

“I politely said no but the caller was very persistent,” said Paulette. The Nolans kept their pets, parting instead with a wing chair, a couple of tavern tables, paintings and a glazed four door cupboard in white paint that is on its way to Florida where it will house a shell collection.

“It was an easy set up and we had a good preshow. Wonderful things are turning up on the floor,” Boston dealer Stephen Score said, writing up a sheet iron weathervane.

“I looked at my watch and, given all that I had sold, couldn’t believe it was only noon,” said Ellington, Conn., dealer Karen Wendhiser, who quickly dispensed with a large pair of wrought iron fire tongs, an Eighteenth Century Connecticut Queen Anne tea table, several Native American pieces including bead ware and painted baskets, an English chest, a late Nineteenth Century barber pole in five colors and an eagle wall plaque.

David Wheatcroft Antiques, Westborough, Mass.

“I have been doing Mid*Week for 11 years and this is the bestone and probably my second best show ever,” Karen said. “I likebeing in the tent, despite the heat, and this time I ran out ofreceipts before the show was over,” she added.

“We’ve sold two weathervanes, a Boston mirror, an expensive piece of stone fruit, some good glass, a toy elephant and a marble lamb,” said Ohio dealer Sam Forsythe, looking around at walls that had been picked half clean.

“It’s my best Mid*Week yet,” said Westborough, Mass., dealer David Wheatcroft, who sold a carved swan confidence decoy, a Pennsylvania dower chest, a hooked rug of a dog, a Jacob Mantel watercolor, a J. Bard fraktur and two pieces of stoneware. An engraved busk inscribed Nancy Coffin was headed for California with the customer who bought it.

“People are really reacting to decorated surfaces today,” said an elated Grace Snyder, a South Egremont, Mass., dealer whose many sales included two decorated dome top boxes and a painted slant front desk. “We sold six items in the last 45 minutes of the show,” Elliott Snyder reported.

Other big-ticket sales included Fred Giampietro’s carved and painted penguin by Gloucester, Mass., craftsman Charles Hart, circa 1935 and a 1925 trade sign advertising the Central Sign Co. of Point Murray, N.J.

Another drop-dead trade sign turned up at Allan and Penny Katz of Woodbridge, Conn. Advertising the Allen Franck Ornamental Iron Co., Sarasota, Fla., it depicted two ironworkers with an anvil. The dealers’ many sales included the painted lid of a carpenter’s tool chest, a carved desk, a heart in hand and a windmill weight.

Olde Hope Antiques of New Hope, Penn., sold a painted corner cupboard and painted blue wall box with decorative iron strap hinges. Another great folk art wall ornament was a little hanging spoon cupboard at Raccoon Creek Antiques at Oley Forge. Inscribed “Catherine Staufer 1800” and decorated with fraktur-like motifs, the cupboard was attributed to Bucks County, Penn., artist John Drissel, whose work is at Winterthur and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Fans of Pennsylvania folk art and painted furniture had a field day in Greg Kramer’s double booth. Highlights there included a Berks or Lebanon County, Penn., painted dower chest once in the Titus Geesey Collection.

Bailey Island, Maine, dealers Jim and Nancy Glazer sold a best-of-kind Bucks County “cat’s eye” decorated blanket chest, a doll, a sailor’s work rope planter, four decorated bellows and a Soap Hollow stool. A center table in bold mustard and ochre paint was on hold.

Two other pieces of rare Soap Hollow furniture also turned up at Mid*Week: a miniature sewing stand inscribed “Lizzie,” $8,400 at Charles Muller Antiques, Groveport, Ohio; and a blanket chest inscribed “C.W. 1864,” $17,500 at Don and Kay Buck Antiques, Chester, N.J.

Buckley & Buckley, Salisbury, Conn.

An exceptional painted hutch table, probably made inMassachusetts around 1780, was $19,500 at Sam Herrup Antiques. TheMassachusetts dealer paired it with a bold, circa 1900 armchair,$5,800, fashioned as an eagle supported by a lion and serpent base.

Maine dealers Marie Plummer and John Philbrick featured a circa 1680 pine tavern table, $8,600 and a pair of New Hampshire banister back side chairs, $5,900.

Country furniture in old surface was abundant. A diminutive fireplace settle, only 52 by 52 inches, was $9,200 at Marjorie Staufer, Medina, Ohio.

David Schorsch/Eileen Smiles presented a Concord, N.H., school desk in luscious salmon paint. One of its drawers was signed with the student’s names and their dates.

Salt Box Antiques of Westborough, Mass., was a blur of sold stickers, having parted with everything from a primitive country settee to a lift top blanket chest.

New England furniture included a bow front New Hampshire tiger and bird’s-eye maple desk and bookcase with a bow front tambour upper case, $65,000 at Guy Bush Antiques, Nantucket, Mass., and New York City.

A grain-painted maple desk and bookcase, circa 1815, was $32,000 at Susie and Richard Burmann, New London, N.H.

Shawnee Mission, Kan., dealer Ted Fuehr sold a North Shore Massachusetts painting, a Vermont half sideboard in figured maple and a set of eight tiger maple chairs.

South Salem, N.Y., dealer John Keith Russell parted with a folky fall front desk fitted with a clock by an unknown Newburgh, N.Y., craftsman.

Breinigsville, Penn., dealer Thurston Nichols wrote up a circa 1770 Philadelphia Chippendale mahogany dressing table, proof that formal furniture can sell at Mid*Week, as well.

“We think of it as country Dada,” New York dealer Michael Malce said of a tiger maple Grecian couch, $14,500, painted, curiously enough, to resemble tiger maple.

At Joan Brownstein, Newbury, Mass., a trio of watercolor and ink on paper family records offered tantalizing evidence of a body of work yet to be thoroughly explored. The records were made decades apart but each one is similarly illustrated with birds hovering over a nest.

“All three records appear to be from the Amenia Academy in Amenia, N.Y.,” said Brownstein, who plans to spend more time researching them. She bought the records separately but offered as a group for $48,000.

“Her father wrote ‘Amazing Grace,'” Old Saybrook, Conn., needlework specialist Carol Huber said of a large, colorful embroidered family record made by Susan Elliott Newton of Roxbury, Mass. The Hubers were also offering a group of rare Eighteenth Century Boston band samplers.

“Summer is very busy. We’ve been buying a ton,” said Philadelphia dealer Amy Finkel, who featured documented pieces from Boxford, Mass., and Winthrop, Maine, along with a charming Scottish sampler employing figures of a pea hen and peacock in lieu of Adam and Eve.

Jackie Radwin sold her star piece, a large, graphic Pennsylvania hooked rug, maybe a marriage piece, dated 1887 in two places and decorated with bright red and blue tulips.

Jan Whitlock’s best shirred rug was an early, very folky example on linen, circa 1830, $46,000. A wild, zigzag border enclosed a spray of flowers.

“It was meant to communicate that a union job equaled good wages and thus a happy home life,” said Asheville, N.C., dealer Charlton Bradsher, who sold his hand painted muslin union organizing banner attributed to Eastlack.

A nautical theme emerged at James Grievo of Stockton, N.J., where Antonio Jacobsen’s portrait of the ship Adelaide Barbour, $29,000, was matched with Harry Booth, an anonymous Nineteenth Century ship’s portrait, $12,500.

James & Nancy Glazer Antiques, Bailey’s Island, Me.

Ex-collection of Vose Galleries in Boston, a NineteenthCentury watercolor on paper of the sailing ship Concordie,signed G.W. Lundstom, complemented Pennsylvania dealer JulieLindberg’s superb collection of watery blue Canton.

George and Debbie Spiecker paired three half-hull ship’s models with a Chippendale birch chest-on-chest, 61 inches tall, $11,500.

“It looks like Mohawk Valley to me,” Sanford Levy of Jenkinstown Antiques in New Paltz, N.Y., said of an overmantel portrait, $5,800, prominently displayed in his booth.

A prize painting of a bull monopolized Cherry Gallery’s back wall. The $8,500 picture advertised the Robart Farm in Tolland, Conn.

“It must have been made by a stone mason,” Aarne Anton said of a crisply angular Tennessee jardiniere of carved limestone. The square, turreted basin was carved on four sides with a cow, a horse, a rooster and the date 1929. Its rustic pedestal base resembled a log.

Great weathervanes included a classic Index horse, $52,000 at Richard Rasso, Hudson, N.Y.; a rare small size Cushing & White leaping stag weathervane, $28,500 at Jeffrey Tillou, Litchfield, Conn.; and a Rochester Iron Works rooster, $38,000 at Chuck White, Mercer, Penn.

“It was a decoy carver’s trade sign,” Leon Weiss of Gemini Antiques said of a large, weathered flying goose trade figure sporting a prominent red sold tag.

Iron dealers Pottles & Pannikins of Windsor, Conn., sold a small six arm chandelier. Red Griffin Antiques of Georgetown, Conn., featured Kentucky flintlock rifles, $2,250 to $7,000. The best lawn sprinkler on the floor, possibly by Bradley & Hubbard, was a $1,400 cast iron alligator at Costa & Currier, Portsmouth, N.H.

“We’ve moved into a three-story 1850 brick building in Alexandria, Va., three blocks from where we were before,” said Sumpter Priddy. The Virginia dealer was a welcome addition to Mid*Week with a tempting mix of New England and Southern artifacts, from a French painting of Mount Vernon, $24,500, attributed to Victor de Grailly, to an Eastern Shore, Va., blanket chest, $32,000 and a perfect paint decorated New England dome top blanket chest, $12,500.

Despite a lull in the middle of the day on Thursday, Mid*Week in Manchester bounced back in hours before it closed.

“About 20 minutes before the show ended we sold a shirred wool on linen rug,” said Vermont dealer Michael Seward, who priced the circa 1820 textile at $29,000. “I owned it five years ago and just recently bought it back.”

Barn Star Productions’ next stop is Salisbury, Conn., where it hosts Antiques in a Cow Pasture on Saturday, September 10.