There have been busy times at the York Fairgrounds over the years, and to those times we certainly have to add Friday, October 31. Completing the 38th year of showbiz, The Greater York Antiques Show opened to a good gate at 11 am in Memorial Hall East.
At the same time, people began arriving to fill the Expo Center to hear a speech by Sarah Palin, the Republican vice presidential candidate, who was scheduled originally for 2:30 pm, but later changed to 4 pm. Advance sale of tickets numbered 3,000, and there was talk of more seats being made available. A late report gave an estimate of close to 6,000. And across the way, people were drifting in and out of the Old Main Building where Tony Zipp and crew of Crocker Farm, Inc, were setting up a 347-lot auction of stoneware, redware and a number of pieces of Staffordshire.
“All in all, considering the economy and with the election on everybody’s mind, the show went very well,” Donna Burk said. She called the opening gate on Friday “fantastic, and it took close to 25 minutes to get everyone into the show.” Saturday’s gate was also good †not the opening rush of the day before, but steady until closing.
One of the booths in the lobby of Memorial Hall East was filled to capacity by Steve Smoot of Lancaster, Penn. A cupboard was filled with redware and other pieces of pottery, hog scraper candlesticks covered a table top, lighting was displayed everywhere, firkins and other woodenware were stacked at the front of the booth, and handled baskets hung across the front of the booth and from every hook available. “I was in the right place at the right time,” Steve said, indicating, “Ninety-nine percent of what you see here all came from one house and had been collected during the past 50 years.” In total, about 500 objects came from this mid-Atlantic home.
Two sets of toy houses, one of ten German buildings with red and blue roofs and a town hall, the other a set of 14 German putz houses, all with blue roofs and the town hall with a red roof, were in the showcase of Cheryl Mackley of Airville, Penn., and Brant Mackley, Hummelstown, Penn.
Needlework lined the walls in the booth of Van Tassel Bauman, Malvern, Penn., including a Pennsylvania embroidery by Margaret C. Childs, dated 1830, worked in Mrs Bachanan’s School in Marietta, Penn. It showed three female figures standing under a spreading tree. A colorful set of four crewel works, flame stitch table mats, was offered, each signed and dated. A New England tavern table in pine, late Eighteenth Century, two-board top with breadboard ends, single drawer and old red surface, was shown by Pat and Don Clegg of Lampeter, Penn. Other furniture included a red painted dry sink in pine, zinc-lined basin, two recessed panel doors and one small dovetailed drawer, circa 1850, that was from York County, Penn.
Holidays were remembered by Caroline Edleman of Royersford, Penn., with a selection of Santa figures in various sizes and Halloween papier mache pumpkins and a child’s bench supported by black cats. Bertolet House Antiques, Oley, Penn., offered a Pennsylvania wood box settle in yellow paint, circa 1860, and a Pennsylvania jelly cupboard, circa 1850, from Bucks County. In excellent condition was a circa 1840 pierced tin squirrel cage that was found in Lancaster County.
A leaping stag weathervane, full bodied copper with zinc head, old surface, circa 1890, attributed to Fiske, was displayed by Iroquois, Ill., dealer Ben Karr. Also shown was an Eighteenth Century country Queen Anne porringer top tea table, Massachusetts origin, that retained the original ox blood red painted surface. Dennis and Valerie Bakoledis, Rhinebeck, N.Y., were ready to spruce up a yard with a Nineteenth Century cast iron curly coated recumbent retriever, or to outfit a dining room with a set of six circa 1830 paint decorated Sheraton side chairs with rush seats. For the mocha collector, Gregg Ellington, Wilmington, Ohio, offered a selection that included open salts, mugs and a wide variety of pitchers.
A carved carousel horse in original park paint, attributed to Charles Dare, Brooklyn, N.Y., was at the front of the booth of Sharon and Claude Baker, Hamilton, Ohio, shown with several pieces of furniture, including a circa 1760 Queen Anne tea table with porringer top and pad feet. A Chippendale four-drawer bureau with molded top, carved bracket base, cherrywood, from a Woodstock, Conn., estate, was in the display of Derik Pulito of Kensington, Conn. He also had a circa 1725 Connecticut River Valley blanket chest, two drawers with scalloped apron, poplar and pine with the original snipe hinges, in Nineteenth Century cream and blue paint over the original red.
The largest trade sign in the show was in the booth of Otto & Susan Hart, Arlington, Vt., advertising “glasses fitted” with a painted clock in the center. Another trade sign, a large barber pole, red, white and blue, measured 7½ feet tall and about 12 inches in diameter. Another dealer who can be counted on for wooden signs is Jane Wargo of Wallingford, Conn. Her selection included “Strawberries for Sale,” “Rooms,” “General Merchant” and a ladder of ice cream flavors. An interesting stack of eight early Nineteenth Century wallpapered boxes ranged in size from about 18 inches at the bottom to a tiny one at 2½ inches on top.
If it were historical, early and often in as-found condition, then it probably would have made its way to the booth of The Antiquarium of Portsmouth, N.H. Here could be found an early Nineteenth Century farm table with two-board scrubbed top, original salmon-red painted base in untouched condition, and a dry painted one-drawer blanket chest, circa 1800. An Eighteenth Century Revolutionary War canteen was in the original blue painted surface, shown along with some printed material of the same era.
Stephen-Douglas, Rockingham, Vt., offered a large trade sign, “Groceries By Benjamin Folger,” white lettering on a red ground, and a nice set of four circa 1855 New England side chairs, thumb back Windsors with foliage decoration on a yellow ground and the top splat was scalloped. Just across the aisle, Jewett-Berdan of Newcastle, Maine, showed a rare bedcover, yarn hooked on linen, with the name and date, “Sarah Bourne 1857,” in the center. A blue painted storage counter, with two doors, dated circa 1830, and a child’s blanket box, old red with green and yellow decoration, circa 1844, was found in Lancaster County, Penn.
A Shaker tall case clock in cherry, Watervliet, by B.S. Youngs, stood in the booth of Kelly Kinzle, New Oxford, Penn., and against the back wall was a Soap Hollow one-drawer stand with turned legs. A chest on frame in walnut, with reed quarter columns, ball and claw feet, dated circa 1780.
Hilary and Paulette Nolan, Falmouth, Mass., showed a rare cross base candlestand in maple, New England, Eighteenth Century, flanked by a pair of Connecticut block and turned banister back side chairs with reverse banisters. The chairs dated circa 1740 and came from the Noah Webster House in West Hartford, Conn. Keeper, the Nolans’ lovable Chesapeake often seen at the shows, did not make it to York this time, but stayed home with Paulette. However, Keeper’s picture was prominently displayed in the middle of the tavern table at the front of the booth.
Rich and Pat Garthoeffner, Lititz, Penn., showed a child’s Windsor, signed, from Lancaster, Penn., and a New England candlestand, circa 1890, square top and in old blue paint. Contrasting in color was a pair of stone peaches displayed on the stand. A bench table with scrubbed, two-board top, red painted base, 5 feet long, was across the front of the booth of Jim Emele of Dublin, Penn. Surrounding the table was a set of six decorated balloon back side chairs, Lancaster County, Penn., circa 1840, with fruit decoration on a green ground.
A rare weathervane in the form of a woman tennis player, racquet held high in her right hand, was on a table at the front of the booth of Thurston Nichols, Breinigsville, Penn. It was thin, yet full bodied, and retained an old gilt surface. Hanging on the back wall was a large hooked rug with two dogs, the black one lying down and the brown one standing against a blue ground, with colorful swirl decoration and border. A pair of Shaker side chairs, one a tilter, New Lebanon, original condition with replaced rush seats, was offered by Bruce Rigsby, Lancaster, Ky. A small size sawbuck table retained the old red surface.
Lana Smith of Louisville, Ky., showed a cherry lift top desk with the original surface, circa 1850, from western Pennsylvania, and green lettering spelled out “Sweet Onions” on a yellow ground trade sign with green border.
A carving of Adam and Eve seated on rocks dated circa 1910, Montgomery County, Penn., in the booth of Donald and Verna Stump, Sinking Spring, Penn., and a good portion of the booth was taken by a two-piece Dutch cupboard, poplar with old red surface, with 24 lights in the two doors covering the top portion, with three drawers and two doors in the lower section.
Santa figures often show up at the York Show and a 3-foot-tall example was in the corner of the booth of Michael and Sally Whittemore, Washington, Ill. Santa had a Christmas tree in his right hand, and a cone filled with wooden toys in his left. A large, colorful hooked rug had a pattern of stars and circles, while a very nice small-size leaping stag weathervane with good gold leaf surface, zinc head and antlers was shown on the left wall.
From his usual booth at York, Tom Longacre, Marlborough, N.H., offered a tiger maple slant lid desk, original red surface, 37 inches wide and circa 1810, on top of which he showed an Index horse weathervane, middle size, with zinc head and cut tail. A trade sign was in the form of a ship’s anchor with old bittersweet painted surface.
Among the carousel figures in the show was a pink pig with blue painted saddle, an outside figure with mirrors on one side, in the booth of Axtell Antiques, Deposit, N.Y. A basket quilt was colorful in red, yellow and green, and a small workbench held a child’s cast iron stove by Globe, complete with a selection of pots, pans and a covered kettle.
“I am going to keep running the Greater York Show,” Donna Burk said, “and I already have 60 contracts back in hand for the spring show.” The Greater York Antiques Show will begin its 39th year in 2009 on May 29″0 at Memorial Hall East, York Fairgrounds. For information, 717-872-2778 or www.jimburkantiqueshows.net.
