“We had our best opening with over 300 in line, more than double last year,” John Bruno of Flamingo Promotions said following the close of his Start of Manchester Antiques Show, August 9-10. His wife Tina added, “We planned on five years to really get the show up and running, and we are about there, having just closed our fourth year.” According to management, over 50 percent of the dealers were well pleased with the show and “we expect most everyone to return next year.”

Liberty Tree, Rockland, Me.

The show, 35 dealers strong, is staged in the air-conditionedEvent Center at C.R. Sparks, with all of the exhibitors on onelevel. Presenting a nice selection of early advertising items wasSheppheard’s Antiques of Bedford, Penn. In near mint condition wasa De Laval Cream separators sign from the Chicago-based company,and a country store hardware cupboard measured 71 inches high, 12inches wide and 4 inches deep. A wood rocking horse with theoriginal paint and red decorated rockers, leather saddle, was welltreated by its owners and in perfect condition.

A grained chest, two short drawers over two long, in pine with turned feet, dated circa 1875 and was shown in the booth of Aberdeen & Co., Asheville, N.C. A German bee skep was circa 1900.

West Lebanon, N.H., dealer Dog Gone Antiques offered a child’s Adirondack settee and pair of chairs, a barrel butter churn on stand in blue paint, and a large carpenter’s work bench complete with holes for tools and vice.

A red-painted cupboard with raised panels, circa 1830, was roost for 13 wood carved decoys in the display of Miller-Robinson Antiques, Ashville, Mass., along with a two-board top tavern table, scrubbed surface.

William & Teresa Kurau, Lampeter, Pa.

One of the best quilts in the show was a child’s album quiltwith eagle, flags, birds, heart in hand and flowers in the booth ofAmerican Heritage Antiques of Frankfort, Ohio. A buttery, taking upall of one wall, was from an 1820 cape in Vermont.

Nutmeg Treasures of Glastonbury, Conn., showed a large sawbuck table, two-board top, with a set of four ladder back side chairs with tall finials and splint seats. A Pennsylvania pie safe in old blue paint and a black decorated pie safe, found in Connecticut, were among the other pieces of country furniture.

Paint was the standard for The American Collection, East Hartford, Conn., with a selection of firkins, pantry boxes, large wooden bowls, yellow dry sink, green sawbuck table and blue dry sink with zinc liner.

Shelton Galleries & Fine Silver from Nashville, Tenn., lined the walls with paintings and covered every inch of the tables with silver. A portrait of a young boy seated on a log and holding his cap, in a mountain landscape, American School oil on canvas, was signed and dated lower right, F.H. Keeley, 1856.

An English School portrait of a race horse in its stable, oil on canvas, was signed lower left by the late Nineteenth Century painter E. Millard. One silver tray was filled with sterling silver presidential julep cups, JFK and Eisenhower.

Century House Antiques, Alfred, N.Y., showed a New England, Worcester County, dome top box painted with swags and dated November 1837. A Diamond Dyes cabinet was in perfect condition, and a child’s sled was painted red with deer head decoration.

Platypus Antiques, Dix Hills, N.Y.

“Coke, six bottles for 25 cents,” was on an advertising signin the booth of Cotton’s Pickin’s, Indianapolis, Ind., over aneight panel pie safe with punched tin panels with eagle decoration.

Of New England origin was a two-drawer blanket chest with red and black swirl decoration, circa 1820, shown by Period Antiques, Scottsburg, Ind. A sign in the form of a goose advertised “Goose decoys, $8 Per Dozen,” and seven large carved and painted wooden bowls just fit inside the top of a dry sink. “Van Heusen & Charles, Albany, N.Y.” was marked on a kerosene lantern in mustard paint with red and blue striping, circa 1860.

Filling both sides of the entrance way to the show, as well as the booth of a person who had to cancel at the last minute, were Don and Marta Orwig of Corunna, Ind. Their booth is crammed with advertising pieces and childhood objects, such as a pig carousel figure by Hein in the original park paint, and “Charger,” a child’s sled decorated with a house and landscape. Trade signs advertised just about everything, including “Rochester Root Beer,” “Winchesters,” “Taxidermist,” “Rich’s Ice Cream,” “Coke,” “Haircuts at 25 cents,” “Sweet Spanish Onions,” “Woolsey’s Mixed Paints,” stoves and ranges and tricycles.

“We hope to make Start even better next year, continuing with a two-day run,” John Bruno said. There are some changes, however, in the wind. The second Flamingo show, The Granite State Antiques Show, will now be only one day, Thursday, and The Granite State Book and Ephemera Fair will move from the JFK Coliseum in Manchester to the Sparks facility. That show will also be cut to one day, Friday. “We like the Sparks Center and will now have all three of our New Hampshire shows at one location in 2006,” Tina said.