Mary de Buhr, Downers Grove, Ill.

N.E. South, Roswell, Ga.

The Sturbridge Host Hotel was the setting for the first of this year’s series of Nan Gurley Antiques Shows conducted during Brimfield Week. Last year Gurley began the Thursday afternoon series of shows as an indoor venue for dealers, collectors and customers to shop while visiting the world famous outdoor antiques flea market five miles down the road, a place to exhibit without fear of weather problems.

Dealers moved in their antique merchandise and props for comfortably furnished room settings or full shops of early household accessories. Newsome and Berdan, Hallowell, Maine, dealers of early American folk art and home furnishings, created in their space a country kitchen, circa 1800, with a dry sink in light blue milk paint, a stretcher based small tap table in red milk wash and period accessories. Dealer Betty Berdan has a reputation for finding art in some typical and useful house-hold rdf_Descriptions including a corn straw broom with a bowed arm that she offered.

A quilt offered by Ken Pike, Rustic Accents, was one such object. The Nashua, N.H., dealer hung the piece to show the detail of its diamond pattern and carefully worked repeat of the patterned fabrics used. As the piece was smaller than a full-size bed, one could imagine a mother or grandmother making the treasure to keep her beloved child warm.

Earlier in the week Dunbarton, N.H., dealer Michael Malloy was exhibiting at one of Brimfield’s outdoor markets but he had sufficient inventory to display a different collection here. The centerpiece was a green painted dry sink in excellent condition. There were several game boards and a large collection of useful things from early American households.

Sandy Hart of Hart’s Country Antiques, New Oxford, Penn., had a collection of “Mammie Dolls” recalling an image from our past, not politically correct today, of African American housekeepers and nannies. She also had a large collection of primitive early garments and kitchen tools.

Tom Joseph Limington, Maine, brought an early shoe sign in the shape of a shoe advertising “Casper’s Shoes” that was about six feet tall and made of two-inch-thick boards. He priced it at $2,800.

Cat Lady Antiques, Ackermanville, Penn., is mostly antiques from textiles including hooked and braided rugs, and vintage clothing. Tina Mortimer, Falmouth, Maine, offered head masks of Mickey and Minnie Mouse. Falcon’s Roost Antiques, Grantham N.H., was showing a large corner cupboard, refinished.

Gurley felt the show is gaining the strength necessary for it to continue. “The gate was much better than last year, up 30 percent, and for May we filled all the spaces with about 90 dealers.”

The Sturbridge show will take place again on Thursday, July 8, with the opening at 2 pm, early buying at 1 pm. For further information call 207-625-3577.