The new guy in town is the outdoor antiques market at SoWa in Boston’s trendy South End. The market joins the five-year-old SoWa Open Market where a sparkling (and rotating) mix of 600 artists, artisans and dealers in arts and crafts, accessories, fresh produce and plants, and even furniture, trade beneath a sea of crisp white tents.
Art galleries and artists’ studios fill the surrounding buildings, only enhancing the mix. It is a new concept for Boston and continues to expand. A Parisian bookstall market will open in July. Consistent and eager traffic energizes the marketplace, rendering the area a major destination in the city.
The SoWa Antiques Market opened May 16 with 40 dealers spread around the interior of the preserved remains of the massive 1899 power station built for the old West End Street Railway. The building, which is open on all sides, affords shelter from rain and excessive heat throughout the season.
Dealers and their wares were met with curiosity and lively interest; many were fresh from the markets in Brimfield. Plenty of area dealers and collectors were seen buying and selling, and plenty of new faces appeared, drawn by the variety of the markets. They came for produce and bought a picture, they looked for plants and ended up with scarves; they looked for flowers and they bought antiques instead. Sales were good on the opening day, and the mood was festive.
Show manager Marvin Getman of New England Antiques Shows moves with the times. He has created an informal and fluid antiques market, a moveable feast for which dealers can commit to one market day, two, three or the entire season, as space permits. He has also initiated a series of “booth chats” by a dealer on his or her respective specialty.
Dealers brought along the quirky and the traditional, both of which met with enthusiasm among the disparate visitors. A case in point was the 1918 Harley-Davidson military motorcycle that South Boston dealer David O’Dowd showed. He said he has the sidecar and the military saddlebags. He juxtaposed that with an 1887 Columbia “Volunteer” boneshaker and a restored 1922 Evinrude Elto twin-cylinder engine.
Tyler Doran of Heir Antiques of Providence, R.I., attracted visitors to his booth with a large papier maché Hessian soldier carnival ball toss figure made in Boston around 1870 to 1890. He showed a set of four stylish French iron chairs with mahogany seats, made around 1940 in the style of Jacques Adnet, along with an industrial steel link coffee table, bonnets, bottles and busts, and was rewarded with sales, including several late on the second day from suburban buyers.
Kingston Bay Antiques of Kingston, Mass., offered fine contemporary art pottery from the Stanley Hagler Studio and an array of Scandinavian ware.
Bruce Block of Antique Underground in Syracuse, N.Y., came to SoWa straight from Brimfield, where he reported good results. His SoWa sales were equally strong, with a globe on stand, a pair of bookends and an array of smalls that sold easily. His booth also displayed bird cages, Japanese prints and paintings and prints, along with a fine array of blue and white. He said he was pleased with the new audience provided by SoWa, and benefited from an encouraging rate of spending.
Ephemera dealer Charles Wibel of Farmington, N.H., enjoyed plentiful sales of his maps, prints and books. He will appear several times at SoWa this season.
Robin Berg of Swampscott, Mass., sells art pottery, particularly Belgian; she has recently expanded her repertoire to include pieces from Muncie Pottery, which she explains was in operation for a very short period in the 1920s.
Colorful majolica was on tap in the booth of Yarmouth Port, Mass., dealer John Weld, and Worcester, Mass., dealer Chester Urban showed old photography and books on photography, along with a nice selection of daguerreotypes.
Bert Rosengarten of Medfield, Mass., mixed a French iron garden armchair with a sophisticated Lucite towel rack, a pair of Ionic columns, paintings and prints. He made several sales early in the day, including a Japanese mixed metal bowl that he sold to Cambridge auctioneer Carl Nordblom.
Dealer, designer and artist John Maciejowski of John Maciejowski Interiors of Melrose, Mass., was in two places at once. His wife, Adele Maciejowski, exhibited the tasteful (and flamboyant) decorative objects and accessories for which they both are known at the SoWa antiques market, and his evocative paintings were on view at the open studios event in an adjacent building.
Heritage Antiques of Harrison, Maine, had pewter and brass, a fine 6½-foot flame cherry Pennsylvania tall clock signed by David Sipe of Doylestown and a corner cupboard from Ellsworth, Maine, that attracted attention.
The SoWa Antiques Market on Harrison Avenue was created by Marvin Getman and will operate weekly on Sundays (except on holiday weekends July 4 and September 6 when it will be open on Saturdays) through October 25.
For more information, www.sowaantiquesmarket.com or 781-862-4039.
