Ten rows of dealers, most back-to-back, loaded into the cavernous Royal Plaza Trade Center for the annual Gurley Thanksgiving Sunday Antiques Show. Though this photo was taken a few moments before the floor opened up to buyers, it was busy until well after noon.

Review & Onsite Photos by Madelia Hickman Ring

MARLBOROUGH, MASS. — For longer than Rachel Gurley can remember, her Thanksgiving weekends have included the annual Gurley Thanksgiving Sunday Antique Show, which her mother Nan started sometime in the 1980s. Carrying her mother’s torch with the help of her brother, Josh, Rachel has remained in the same place the show has always been the Sunday immediately following Thanksgiving: the Royal Plaza Trade Center, from 10 am to 3 pm. With the holiday coming later than usual this year, the show took place on November 30, with nearly 100 dealers; all know the drill: bring good saleable stuff.

This is a show where shoppers can find things sold by some of the best dealers in the business — ones who participate at the largest and most prestigious shows in the country: The Delaware Antiques Show, The Philadelphia Show and The Washington Winter Show, among others. Other dealers do smaller, regional shows and some have storefronts, participating in just the occasional event. Americana is the usual bill of fare, from furniture and paintings to “smalls,” holiday collectibles and ephemera. And among the shoppers, those in the know will recognize dealers and collectors who come just to shop. The atmosphere is fun, welcoming and convivial, where everyone is part of the larger antiques family, whether shopper or seller.

Butler, on the western side of Pennsylvania, is a several hour drive from Marlborough but Brien and Karla Meals “liked it so much last year [they] had to come back.” Folky dolls, antique clothing, stoneware and small textiles were among their wares.

Brien Meals, center answering questions about some of the coverlets he brought with him. Butler, Penn.

Another dealer from Pennsylvania is Thurston Nichols, who is based in Wayne, on the eastern side of the state. He’d done Gurley’s Boxborough (Mass.) shows before, but this was his first time doing the Thanksgiving weekend event. He noted sales of “a lot of smalls: frames, folk art and little painted things.” Though they weren’t old, we liked a pair of Twentieth Century cast cement or composition dogs he’d picked up from an estate in Philadelphia. His back table was topped by a yellow-painted bench, upon which he’d placed a small gilt running deer weathervane and a Nantucket basket purse. Redware dishes, brass lighting and painted cast iron were beneath it.

Another comparatively new vendor was Tom Goddard, who didn’t have nearly such a long drive: about two hours from Acton, Maine. He had a good selection of mochaware, painted wooden bowls and boxes, a chip-carved box, some gameboards, early lighting, a pair of early side chairs with rush seats, a portrait of a young woman and a running horse sheet weathervane.

Joe and Leslie Ebert, from nearby Norwood, Mass., have an even shorter trek to Marlborough. They have done “very well” at the Dover, N.H., shows and were giving the holiday show a try. Like many other dealers, they put small pieces of furniture on their tabletops, to give them a bit more presence. The child’s highchair they offered had beautiful patina and front stretchers well-worn with use.

Waiting until a potential buyer has questions is part of the process. Here, a young woman was busy perusing Daniel Stezko’s (center) pieces. The Picking Fields, Springfield, Mass.

Returning for a second year, from Springfield, Mass., Daniel Stezko said he used to do a lot of paper shows, including Papermania, as well as shows in Boxborough, Mass., and Allentown, Penn., but has scaled back. He noted a brisk business in Christmas collectibles, flags and smalls.

Three booths on one row, towards the back of the show, were each staffed by first-time dealers from Maine: Gayle Garber (Maine Cottage Antiques), Helen Robinson (Trifles) and Deirdre O’Callaghan (Partridge Hill Antiques). Garber had a set of Bohemian glassware she’d recently acquired from local musician Dan Crewe. She thought they were made by Moser, and it was the first time she’d had them out at a show.

In addition to showing at Brimfield in May and September, Robinson does all of the Gurley shows in Bath, Maine, and recently showed at Boxborough for the first time. A pair of French chairs she said dated to the 1910s or 1920s were “a pair of nice bergeres” and looked great flanked by two watercolor landscapes, each signed “Santini,” and a pair of terracotta reliefs.

Next to Robinson, O’Callaghan had several small framed paintings and portrait miniatures, wooden boxes, some Toby jugs and lusterware on a small shelf and silver, gleaming on one side of her booth, but our eye was drawn to a four-piece porcelain tea service.

Eric Schultz, Foxglove Antiques, Somers, Conn.

Around the corner, Nicole Vachon and Eric Schultz were two more exhibitors who were new to the tradition. Connecticut dealer Bob Haneberg had Schultz deep in conversation over a few things as we cruised through, so we examined a painted chest and a cast iron plaque that commemorated the 1886 completion of a construction project by the Berlin Iron Bridge Company in East Berlin, Conn.; the names of the town’s mayor, highway committee and councilors, the superintendent of streets and the city’s engineer were also included.

Longtime show exhibitor Sandy Jacobs was wearing a necklace with an 18K gold heart-shaped pendant that had a silhouette in the center and hair in the back. The quality was exceptional, and she thought it might have been made in Scandinavia.

“It’s been a very good show for us so far,” Jane Thompson told Antiques and The Arts Weekly. Antiques show circuit regulars David and Jane Thompson are tireless when it comes to doing shows and still maintain a regular presence at several throughout the year, from the NHADA dealer show in Manchester, N.H., in August to smaller regional events throughout New England. We went through their booth as New Jersey dealer Joyce Bassin was putting away her checkbook. The Bassins are experts and specialize in Grenfell Mission mats, but a 1950s example left behind — presumably because it was not early enough for their tastes — showed several Eskimos.

David Thompson with a circa 1950s Grenfell Mission banner. David Thompson Antiques & Art, South Dennis, Mass.

Falmouth, Mass., dealer, Oliver Garland is a relatively new face on the antiques show circuit, but he has proven himself and now shows at many of the country’s top shows, including the Delaware Show and the NHADA dealer show. He specializes in early works, from furniture to paintings, baskets and carvings, and had a good selection on hand. Among his standout pieces at a booth in the center of the show were a Continental genre scene, three reversepainted pictures, one of a dog on a pillow, the other of two of the Four Seasons; a pair of carved and polychromed figures, a powder horn and a framed needlework picture.

Though he is also from Falmouth, Jim Gahan was not next to Garland but closer to the front of the venue. An early carved six-board chest with lovely dark patina was at one front corner while the table next to it was a bronze relief by Augustus Saint-Gaudens. On the back wall, the table was dominated by a giltwood framed painting of the ship Hondo by Antonio Jacobsen, that was next to portraits of a young woman and her husband by Frederic Somerby.

Carved and painted horses large enough to ride on were spotted in a few booths but the one with the most character was “Margaret,” so named by Allan Klein of Yankee Clipper Specialties. There was no indication she’d ever worn rockers but had a charming presence despite lacking her mane and tail. In addition to Margaret, Klein had books on Harley-Davidsons and still banks, and he pointed out his most expensive item: a French gentleman’s sword with a snakeskin sheath.

Allan Klein with “Margaret,” a late Nineteenth Century horse — never mounted on rockers — that he’d had for a few decades. Yankee Clipper Specialties, Exeter, N.H.

One of the things we liked most in Adam Irish’s booth — behind that of Klein — was a mourning theorem that he said was unusual in the disheveled way the cemetery (which he thought may have been in Stoughton, Mass.) was depicted. He had acquired it only just recently and had not yet had the time to chase down its genealogy.

Don Heller and Kim Washburn had a large booth in the center of the floor and brought several high style. We spotted red “sold” tags on a hooked rug that showed a house in a landscape and hung above a painted fireplace surround and on a large two-handled basket. One of their exceptional pieces was a New England Pilgrim Century red-painted chest of drawers that came from the Newbury, Mass., collection of John and Marie-Teresa Vander Sande and was published in volume five of American Antiques from the Israel Sack Collection.

“We love this show,” Tom Jewett told us. “People linger all day long, it’s great.” He and Butch Berdan noted quite a few sales, “mostly holiday,including Santas, Belsnickels, a Halloween pumpkin and a large oval Shaker pantry box.”

When we called the Gurleys’ Scarborough, Maine, shop a few days after the show, Josh Gurley told us, “I thought it was a fantastic show. Each year, we usually get between 300 and 400 people. Last year, 350 people showed up; this year, we had at least 450. Our shows have just been doing very well these days, and this show has gotten bigger and better, which is rare these days.”

The 2026 Gurley Thanksgiving Sunday Antique Show will take place on Sunday, November 29, but for those who don’t want to wait so long to see Josh, Rachel and their devoted family of dealers, look for them in Boxborough, Mass. (January 4), Dover, N.H. (January 7) or Bath, Maine (January 11). For more information, www.gurleyantiqueshows.com.