The Original Round Top Antiques Festival is the big draw and a large part of why several thousand antiques and collectibles dealers and many more shoppers descended on this area September 30⁏ctober 3 for a week of antiques shows. Susan Franks’ phenomenon in “The Big Red Barn” is the hub of all the activity.
Franks’ show, the original of the Round Top events, is known as the Americana show of Texas, where dealers save their special pieces to offer in their exhibits here. The show incorporates two sites: The Big Red Barn that holds about 130 exhibitors in walled, room-setting booths and the Carmine Dance Hall with more than 20 exhibitors.
Antiques at Historic 1773 Mayo Tavern is one of the many dealers in the Big Red Barn. Patti Walsh named the Chappell Hill, Texas, business for her second home in Massachusetts; collecting antiques she believes would fit that kind of house. At the show, she offered a wall with its fireplace mantel in original blue paint taken from an early New England house. Set away from that was a large settle bench at a very early tap table. A wing chair had an early frame in reproduction fabric with several New England banister back chairs filling the table setting.
For lighting, Walsh was offering an assortment of iron fixtures. Some of the other accessories included an iron toaster that had probably been made in Pennsylvania pre-1800.
Country Accents, Bandera, Texas, was selling all the fixtures from a Nineteenth Century store: cabinets, counters, back shelves and even the small fixtures, such as the paper roll with cutter for wrapping, as well as a cash register and a penny scale.
The Old Store, Phyllis and Jack Wasson’s business from Marble Falls, Texas, was ready to fill all the cupboards and shelves with their collection. They trade in old iron toys and banks, Christmas decorations and small figurines from 150 years ago for children.
For somewhat fancier décor, the English Antiques Company, Jacksonville, Fla., was offering early hardwood furniture and upholstered pieces. From shopping in England, they also had an assortment of wall hangings, including early prints in matched sets, several scenic oil paintings and an assortment of English dishes.
Las Antiques filled a double space in the Continental Tent with continental and English furniture. An Italian rococo banquet table, displaying porcelain epergnes with an oil on canvas mural in the background, gave the appearance of a villa in France or Italy. Also in their offerings was a life-size oil on canvas of James II of England.
Silver, both hollowware and flatware, was available from several specialists. Michael Weaver, Canton, Ga., showed a set of three matching silver epergnes with original bases by Elkinton & Sons for $39,500. His collection for the show was so large it had to be in the tent to show all there was.
Trading in Old Sheffield plate, James Young offered a large collection from his shop in Knoxville, Tenn. There were several pairs of early candlesticks, trays and tea services, selling well throughout the four days of the show.
Folk art, prized for its status as an art object and functional object, is popular with exhibitors and shoppers alike at this show. Exhibitor Faith Viland, now in Phoenix but originally from the Philadelphia area, appreciates both the art and function in her collection. Offerings included a set of paint-decorated plank seat side chairs, set beside a paint-decorated dome top dower chest with a Lancaster, Penn., wrought candlestand. She had smaller objects as well, including a hooked rug in a cat design, several carved birds, a collection of early Betty lamps and a sticking tommie lamp.
Aberdeen & Co., Asheville, N.C., mixed its collection to include some American country-style furniture with English and European accessories. Painted tables and cupboards were in the front of its exhibit with a hardwood shelf filled with copper measures on the back wall.
More folk art was in the Carmine Dance Hall with Ali Rickstrew, the Kentucky Sandpiper, offering a large collection, including some Native American art. Brenda Daniel, Athens, Ala., had an early tack rack, a four-sided, 7-foot-tall stand made to hang the harnesses for draught horses. It was still in its original paint decoration with only minor wear and no apparent damage.
Lynn McClary, another Carmine dealer, was using an early green painted semicircular plant stand to show her selection of very small tools and other antiques. From Manor, Texas, she offered still banks and mechanical banks, nutmeg graters and powder horns and a good deal more.
Hazel Giles was showing her Tidewater, Va., corner cupboard, walnut wood, from the Eighteenth Century. Priced at $22,500, she found it near her home in Glenville, N.C., but had the provenance for the piece.
Pique, Sharpsburg, Ga., exhibited quilts and coverlets, while David Herndon, Atlanta, Ga., had his collection of Rose Medallion, Chinese Export, along with a variety of oil paintings.
Richmond House Antiques, Ashford, Conn., was showing a blue wall with doors and fireplace mantel that sold early in the show. Dealers Karen and Edd Oberg were pleased to also sell some cupboards and more, all in early paint.
The Daigles of Country Squire Antiques, Seekonk, Mass., were selling late Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century furniture.
Susan Franks was very pleased with the show and especially with her staff. On the opening day, her husband, Bo, was ill but the crew carried on with the show’s routine as usual.
The show will be the traditional focus again for all the Round Top, Texas, events March 31⁁pril 3 (Easter week).
For more information, www.roundtoptexasantiques.com or 512-237-4747.
