Review and Photos by Tom O’Hara

ATLANTA, GA. — Early signs of spring were evident at the March 10–13 edition of Scott Antiques Market in the Atlanta Expo Centers, North and South, with balmy weather and the season’s first introductions of outdoor antiques. A total of 2,500 dealer spaces inside and more outside were filled with the inventories of a couple thousand exhibitors, and the weekend saw many thousands of visiting shoppers.

Outside dealers were offering Nineteenth Century garden furniture and even some of the inside dealers were doing the same. Nancy LaRoque, an Atlanta dealer who normally is all jewelry and silver, found a cast iron garden bench dating to about 1865 by J.W. Fiske of Newburgh, N.Y. She gave it prime space in her exhibit and sold it early into the show.

Whipsaw Antiques, Middleburg, Fla.

Not a regular but an occasional visitor to the show with usually a large load of New England-found treasures, Greg Hamilton of Stone Block Antiques in Vergennes, Vt., reported that he was pleased with his trip. Traveling about 1,300 miles over two days to get here, he sold well in the first day, “breaking into five figures with the large furniture alone.” He said he also sold a fair amount of Eighteenth Century English silver, both hollowware and flatware.

Ann Gronewald is an Atlanta dealer who does the show on an infrequent basis, about two or three times a year when her sister can come from Cincinnati to add inventory and join the fun. Together their collection is American country furniture from the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries featuring painted pieces and textiles. Ann’s best sales included a set of six fiddle back chairs in highly decorative paint, very good condition, as well as several late Nineteenth Century quilts.

Amber Waller, Pinehurst, N.C., sold clocks and furniture. The clocks were, for the most part, several varieties of Nineteenth Century wall clocks. There was a French brass piece and also several American banjo-style examples in her collection. Among the pieces from her furniture collection that sold was an American wrought iron table from the first part of the Twentieth Century.

Len Harmon, Vilas, N.C., has been a regular in the South Building for many years with a collection primarily of small glass and silver antiques. However, this month he also brought some furniture and paintings, which contributed to his sales total. The furniture sale was a dining room set, and he sold an oil on canvas scenic painting from the turn of the century.

Pete Turner, Concord, N.C.

Many dealers offer a mixture of antiques and art. Larry Thompson from nearby Stone Mountain, Ga., has been offering a large collection of Southern furniture at this show for many years, but in the recent past his collection has included American paintings. He finds them as works both signed and unsigned from the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, usually in their original frames and large enough to be significant wall hangings in a room. At this most recent show, he sold three on the first two days, along with an early Georgia side table.

Another regular-every-month-dealer at the show is Tom Nagy of Chelsea Hill Antiques from Hampton, Conn. Tom has a passion for early furniture, especially from Jacobean and Elizabethan periods and also the earliest American styles he can find. This month, for example, he sold a Dutch-influenced Hudson Valley side chair on the first day, while offering a similar style armchair. His sales also included a Nineteenth Century large folio winter scene oil on canvas, which resembled a Currier & Ives print in its subject matter, several smaller paintings, a small sewing stand with basket and a selection of Oriental rugs.

More English furniture was available from Kim Douglas Baye at Whipsaw Antiques from Middleburg, Fla. The collection there included a Georgian period butler’s desk, crotch grained mahogany in excellent condition, and several chests, both Sheraton and Chippendale styles, along with an assortment of Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century hardwood stands.

Collectibles were available at the show. John Satterfield, trading as Antique Artifacts from Arab, Ala., was there for the first time. In his collection were several early Twentieth Century Coca-Cola push toy wagons, cast iron and in original paint.

Pete Turner, Concord, N.C., trades in early advertising. His exhibit this month featured a life-size mannequin of a traffic cop attempting to stop traffic for school children with a Coca-Cola logo on its base. Another of his pieces was a large roadside Coca-Cola circle sign, and there were more; Pepsi was not left out and there were some lesser-known brands, too.

Tomberlin Antiques, Macon, Ga.

Ginger ale and gasoline were featured signs by the Vintage Vixens, exhibiting dealers from Norris, Tenn. They had a display of old road signs, porcelain or enamel on metal along with midcentury toys and some small advertising handbills.

Norman Weingarden, an Atlanta-area exhibitor, arrives each month with an eclectic mix of antiques, Nineteenth Century jewelry, small silver and whatever strikes his fancy. This time he arrived with a collection typical of his style, but also he had a pair of Nineteenth Century oil on canvas portraits, assumed to have been husband and wife, painted by Orlando Rouland. He sold a collection of East Indian jewelry and a good quantity of small silver pieces.

Historical Americana Company is the collection based upon American flags and similar patriotic themes from Steve Winters of Acworth, Ga. His sales this month were good, with several American flags from the Nineteenth Century finding new homes, as did eagles used as American national symbols and some historic prints. Steve came across a supply of gauges from World War II American war planes and has had good luck with them, too.

Maria Cohen, Charlotte, N.C., specializes in Nineteenth Century woodenware. She offered a tinkers pack filled with objects made into various decorator forms; there were lamps shaped like wheel hubs, ice buckets and cookie bins lathe-turned from tree trunks, treen ware canisters and tea caddies.

Across the aisles from Maria, Scott Goldsmith, also from Charlotte, was showing objects made of glass and earthenware. His assorted collection was expanded to include a large assortment of crystal goblets from Waterford and others, small silver flatware and more.

Sandy Luther, Greensboro, N.C.

Attending nearly every month, Mary Jane Harris of Benton Hayden & Associates said she was pleased with the March results. Sales included a pair of oversize doors with ornamental iron grillwork in them, an oval acid washed dining table, a pair of concrete planters in decorative iron stands and a tall pair of Nineteenth Century shutters. Harris said she shops for much of her inventory outside the United States and will miss the April show while shopping in France.

Thomas Hoke, Salisbury, N.C,. might as well be from Salisbury, England, as his collection of furniture seems to be primarily early English. This month his sales included a Queen Anne oak side table with traces of William and Mary design, a painting from the Marble Arch area of London, circa 1700, and a buffet, probably French, also early Eighteenth Century in walnut with metal wire mesh doors. Other sales included an American walnut worktable, circa 1750, and a decorative tall porcelain dog, probably used as a doorstop. Hoke said at this show he “consistently does pretty well bringing ‘the real things.’” He added that the prior month’s show was “a record-breaking total for me after 17 years at this show.”

Helen Deasy said she was equally pleased with her weekend results at the show. Trading as Turnage Place, her business specializes in estate liquidations using the Scott show as her principal marketing medium. This month the style was primarily Louis XV, with the result, she said, “that we didn’t bring back much at all!” She will be there again in April.

The April show will be the second Saturday weekend, April 7–10, with the new early opening Thursday at 10:45 am, Friday and Saturday at 9 am, closing those days at 6 pm, and Sunday hours are 10 am to 4 pm.

For additional information, www.scottantiquemarket.com or 740-569-2800.