Renninger’s Antiques and Collectors Extravaganza, April 24′6, was expanded by several more rows to accommodate additional dealers. This Kutztown show was very well received, and visitors to this most recent affair were “buying with great gusto” according to a New Jersey exhibitor. She sold furniture and small decorative American antiques to collectors, decorators and other dealers, a crowd described by Jim Renninger as “largest of the past several years.”
Renninger’s is a family business headquartered in St Clair, Penn., with Jim, his two brothers, Ed and Rick, and mother, Joan, all sharing the responsibilities. Annual events include three extravaganzas in Kutztown, several in Mount Dora, Fla., and weekly antiques flea markets in Adamstown, Penn., and Kutztown.
The Kuztown Extravaganza has been the family’s special signature event for many years. It is characterized by many as “The Well,” the place to find Americana.
This most recent event featured an early cherry corner cupboard that Robert Hay brought from his Plainfield, N.H., home to sell. Tom Nagy, Chelsea Hill Antiques in Hampton, Conn., was offering elegant hardwood furniture, which could have graced the halls of an affluent early American home. There was a gentleman’s smoking chair, sometimes called a corner chair, in the front of his collection. It was placed near a large tilt top tea table, and there was a Queen Anne drop leaf table in the center of the tent as well.
Sue and Dave Irons shop near home in Northampton, Penn., for special small antiques. Their collection included an assortment of tramp art picture frames of various shapes; an early salt box in original red paint, a punched tin designed coffeepot from Pennsylvania and various examples of early stoneware and pottery.
Vintage matters when it comes to antiques, and that is especially the case for Al Conti, as he calls his business Vintage Matters. From Mount Bethel, Penn., Conti has an esoteric taste for unusual early items, such as a form for the knitting of long stockings; early objects that show the logos of purveyors, such as the knockout end of a Ballantine Beer barrel, signs offered to retailers by product manufacturers that the store would have carried. In fact, Conti enjoys the joke that he “probably has a whatchamacallit.”
Mary Beach is a dealer from Bryn Mawr, Penn., who has a collection with many different kinds of antiques. There were Leeds featheredge pearl ware platters, Staffordshire and transfer ware sitting on some early quilts and coverlets. She had several early tole trays, in tin and also papier mache; early art included some miniature portraits and prints and even some silver.
The unusual name for antiques dealer Cat Daddy 717 Antiques from Fredericksburg, Penn., stems from the dealer’s desire to make the firm’s online name apparent. Their other names are Paul and Charla Bishop, and their stock was a collection of fine early stoneware and furniture. Silver has become the primary stock for the father and son team of Richard and Kevin Timme from Killingworth, Conn. Also from Connecticut were Pat and Neal Blodgett, with their business, Higganum House Antiques. Pat Blodgett said sales from their collection of small antiques were good. They collect and trade only small things; there was a table full of cast iron doorstops, a collection of small figurines, most likely used as play things; whistles and bells, cookie molds and baskets and even toys and spinning tops.
Mike Gallant, Glenburn, Maine, was offering marbles. He was also busy selling furniture and an early lock box on Friday morning.
Another New Englander, George Browning, brought a large collection of stoneware. Browning exhibits at a variety of shows and only with stoneware, but with all kinds and shapes and sizes. There were several showcases filled with miniature crocks and jugs, as well as many more common sizes. From Swanzey, N.H., he reported good sales for the weekend. Another specialist is Gale Zelnick of Mount Dora, Fla. His inventory will light up any room, for he carries antique lighting, mostly oil, whale oil and kerosene fired fixtures from the Nineteenth Century. For this trip north, he was also offering a collection of earlier Eighteenth Century lighting, including tin and iron whale oil lamps from New England.
A newcomer to the show was Scott’s Antiques of East Coventry, Penn. This collection was Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century furniture. Sales included an early Pennsylvania step back cupboard that had been scraped of paint; bringing it back to its early surface. There was also an unusual countertop or hanging cabinet with two rows of six graduated drawers, in pine and poplar in original surface. A pine dry sink with a high backsplash was available, as well as several other cabinets.
Flemington, N.J., dealer Steve Nees was selling several large pieces in original red milk paint, including a 6-foot-tall cupboard and an early blanket box. Also from New Jersey, Stephanie Chiappa was selling early children’s clothing as part of her inventory. The Sandbrook, N.J., dealer does several shows in the mid-Atlantic states.
This show is conducted with more than 100 exhibitors who participate in the weekly sales. Jim Renninger and his wife Sharon have one of those exhibits, selling some décor items, such as lighting, but also antique dolls and early furniture.
The next Kutztown Extravaganza is June 26′8. Located about 20 miles from the Delaware River crossing at Interstate 78, it is easily accessible from New York and New England. For information, www.renningers.com or 570-385-0104.
