Ralph Willard opened Rifle Hall Americana Antiques Show with a fresh sparkle and Americana antiques March 31 through April 4. The show was a success, according to the producer and owner. In a postshow interview, Willard said, “It worked! We had over 60 dealers in the hall, dining room and the big top tent in the yard; [there were] great crowds, and my dealers were generally satisfied with their sales.”
Rifle Hall is an old clubhouse and dance hall rented to organizations for events in this tiny Texas town, population 77, as it boasts. It is an area of second homes for Houston, Dallas and Austin residents, where they can be part-time farmers or ranchers; where oil derricks are scattered in the pastures alongside longhorn cattle in the blue bonnet covered Brazos Hills. In that atmosphere the show began in 1967 and has been ongoing twice a year ever since.
Willard has been working diligently with his group of existing dealers and some new ones to emphasize the Americana aspect and focus of the show, with good success.
Karen Buckingham is a Massachusetts native who buys and sells at Brimfield three times each year, in part to have the kind of antiques collection she offers at this show. Now residing in Burleson, Texas, she was selling well with a corner cupboard, a blanket chest, furniture and many small antiques finding new homes.
Woody and Nancy Straub have been in the show for more than 20 years with a mixed inventory of art, folk art and country furnishings. Woody was pleased with sales at the show, which he said were dominated by art. His favorite piece was an oil on canvas by Adam Lehr, dated 1882, titled “Georgia Bell Peach” and priced at $9,500.
Newcomers were Rick and Dwan Mabrey, of Raleigh, N.C., who also had a good show. Sales were so good that on the second day, Rick had to add a bed to fill the space, and once he put it out, it was sold almost immediately.
Also residing in North Carolina, Don Schweikert was showing a cherry stepback cupboard, circa 1860, for $2,600. A New England tambour desk, in mahogany plank and veneer, was offered by Paul and Shirley Cox, Salado, Texas, for $3,800. A New England highboy was front and center in the exhibit jointly managed by Boulting House Antiques and Hall Antiques, both from Midway, Ky. Made of tiger maple, the Eighteenth Century piece was priced at $18,500.
Oklahoman’s Louis and Yvonne McGee trade in silver, most from early American makers. TNT Antiques is the Fort Worth business of Teresa and Tom Dixon, specializing in quilts and coverlets.
The show has variety, but, as Willard likes to say, it is Americana. He promotes it as a fun event, with the crowning of the Queen of Round Top Spring Jubilee Antiques Fair just before she cuts the ribbon to open the show. The waiting customers were cheering as the ribbon dropped so they could begin their semiannual buying spree.
Like all the Round Top shows, Rifle Hall will run again in early fall, ending on the first Saturday of October. For information, www.ralphwillard.com or 214-826-2584.
