Fryling’s Antiques, Green Lane, Pa.

Salt Box Antiques, Sugarloaf, Pa.

The original 143rd semiannual York Antiques Show & Sale was again conducted at the York Fairgrounds Convention & Expo Center, September 3-5. The show, owned and managed by Melvin Arlon, had 96 exhibitors featuring Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century American, English, primitive and period furniture and accessories. It is considered a collectors and dealers show, due to the very high quality of antiques brought by these selected dealers from more than ten Eastern Seaboard states.

David Pownall Willis, Plainfield, N.J., offered the largest selection of Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century American and English silver for the serious collector seen amongst the dealers. Willis also featured a fine grouping of high-end Meissen that included very rare German porcelain Meissen teapot with a bird spout, baroque period handle with Deutsche blumen decoration, signed by the artists, circa 1740-1750.

Anne Arundel House Antiques, Linthicum Heights, Md., display a 34-star American flag, a Civil War pattern, issue of 1861-63. Also featured were several letters and other memorabilia of the period, including a letter from Brigadier General John H. Winters, CSA, from Maryland, plus an American game table, circa 1760-80, and a worktable, circa 1800.

The Salt Box from Sugarloaf, Penn., offered Eighteenth and early Nineteenth Century American antiques, including early pewter, wrought iron and cast iron. A two-piece Cumberland County corner cupboard with its original paint decoration, made of poplar and pine was an exceptional rdf_Description. Andrea Hollenbaugh Antiques, East Berlin, Penn., displayed a fine over-under Kentucky rifle, circa 1860.

The featured rdf_Descriptions in the booth of Temora Farms, Newtown, Penn., comprised a large grouping of Nineteenth Century brass double lemon top andirons, circa 1810, and a smaller group of iron andirons. In wood was a Pennsylvania Lancaster County two-piece paint decorated desk, along with a painted decorated blanket chest, as well as a two-piece corner cupboard.

For 30 years a purveyor of antiques, “Skip” Harold of Sheppheard’s Antiques, Aiken, S.C., offered a very rare paint decorated Soap Hollow, Penn., miniature blanket chest dated 1867 and initialed SPM. A walnut tinned pie safe with star designed tins plus a rare pantry box were also on display. Probably dating to about 1830, a whale oil lamp made of tin and iron had its original patina and was offered by Cedar House Antiques, Strasburg, Penn. Robert and Doris Haug deal in country furniture, hooked rugs, toys and Gaudy Welsh. On the wall was a large oil on canvas painting of a little girl with a gaggle of ducks in a period frame, plus a good New England small table with its original red finish.

Arlon took time during Friday afternoon to discuss the background of this long-running show. “I purchased this show in 1996 from Paul and Dorothy Attline, York, Penn.,” said Arlon. “[Attline] wanted to retire because of health reasons. We had been friends for 40 years, and I had been an exhibitor. It was organized in 1934 by Mable Renner, and Paul bought it from her in 1958.

“When we moved to the fairgrounds, we were in the old main building with 55 exhibitors. When this building was completed – the same year that I purchased the show – they convinced me to move down here. I had the walls built; we made it a walled show, which increased the exhibitors to 96. And all of us, including the dealers, have been working very hard. People look forward to coming to the York Antiques Show.”

Chuck White, Mercer, Penn., displayed a rare and fine Civil War painted drum found in Bedford County, Penn., and a large gilded copper metal rooster weathervane by J.W. Fiske, circa 1890, plus a two-part paint decorated corner cupboard, circa 1830.

“I have never seen one before, nor has anybody else,” commented first-time exhibitor Jo Calame, Rutabaga Pie Antiques, about the unique “folk art doll” that resembled George Washington.

From Alexandra, Va., came this comment, as a patron was leaving the show Friday afternoon, “Fabulous! I love the early starting time. It is a much nicer starting time.” Asked if she had been to this show before she replied, “Absolutely, come to them all the time.”