“It’s the same old story; some of the dealers did very well, others did not have good shows,” Greg Hamilton, show director, said a few days after Antiques In Woodstock, the 37th annual show sponsored by the Vermont Antiques Dealers’ Association, ended its two-day run on July 31. Sixty-four dealers took part in the show, 12 of them new this year, and presented an attractive show filled with lots of painted furniture, some formal pieces and smalls ranging from soup to nuts.
Greg noted that many of the people who came spent lots of time at the show, looking things over and visiting with the dealers, and that attendance on Saturday was better than last year. Sunday’s gate was not strong, however, and the two-day total was below 2010.
One of the front booths at the show was held down by Gronning American Antiques, Shaftsbury, Vt., offering a Vermont bird’s-eye maple veneer and mahogany and mahogany veneer Federal chest, circa 1815, with Seymour internal construction, and an Eighteenth Century eastern Connecticut one-drawer blanket chest in pine, with high bootjack ends and the original wooden pulls. “Furniture was not good for us this year, but we did all right with smalls and some paintings,” Mary Gronning said.
A New England harvest table in old red with pin top, one drawer, dating circa 1830‱840 and measuring 6 feet long, 35 inches wide and 29 inches high, was across the front of the booth of Pewter and Wood, Enfield, N.H. An interesting early handmade “ride on” train of Maine origin was in the original painted surface.
“I really love that three-legged, cast iron lidded pot; I’ve had it at home for years,” Howard Graff of Colt Barn Antiques, Townshend, Vt., said of the handsome cooking pot displayed at the back of his booth. In the center of the booth was a set of six thumb back Windsor side chairs, grain painted in red and black, and on his table of smalls were two large brass letters, an H and a G, which made it look as if Howard had dug a few more things out of the house.
A continuous arm Windsor, attributed to E.B. Tracy, Lisbon, Conn., who worked from 1764 to 1803, original condition and never painted, was shown by Hanes and Ruskin of Old Lyme, Conn. A chair table, maple with pine seat and two-board top, New England, circa 1695‱740, retained the original button feet. In the center of the table was a very large stone apple, about 5 inches in diameter, with good coloring.
A selection of early signs covered the greater part of one of the walls in the booth of George B. Johnson Antiques, Montpelier, Vt., including “Drink Hires It’s Pure,” “Town Talk Bread,” “Caution Barbwire” and “Warden’s Post III.” Brookside Antiques, Bridport, Vt., offered a slip decorated redware mutton dish, circa 1830, and a selection of smalls was shown on a canted bucket bench in the original red wash, circa 1840, New Hampshire, measuring 3 feet wide, 4 feet high and 15 inches deep.
Brian Cullity Antiques of Sagamore, Mass., brought a selection of early glass, including two blown pitchers, Pittsburgh, circa 1830, one with ribbed decoration, and among the redware was a large slip decorated plate “Lucy,” from Norwalk, Conn. A service for four pony dishes was displayed in a shoe-foot open cupboard in the booth of Dog & Pony Show, Walpole, N.H. The set consisted of four each of dinner plates, soups, salads and cup and saucers. Each depicted a horse-drawn coach with colorfully dressed driver.
About three dozen quilts were either stacked on the floor or on racks in the booth of Marie Miller Antique Quilts, Dorset, Vt., and a 26-by-34-inch hooked rug, mounted, had the diamond in a square pattern. Mallards in summer was the subject of a 40-by-54-inch Grenfell mat, circa 1930s.
Two wood cutout and painted figures of Mickey Mouse appeared to be supporting a clothes or hat rack, with a scared cat in top, in the booth of Mario Polo, Bearsville, N.Y. A decorated barber pole, with a ball on each end, was painted and measured about 15 inches long, and weathervanes included a small eagle on ball and an arrow. An interesting blanket box of small size in the original red with black daubs, half moon cutout feet, was shown by Paula Patterson Antiques, Westfield, Mass. The box came out of the Vaughn Taylor House in Bridgewater, Vt.
Three portraits †a couple, a child in a chair and two young girls †by Sarah Berman (1895‱957), hung in the booth of Lucinda and Michael Seward, Pittsford, Vt. The “paintings were awkward, they were imaginative, and they had a hallucinatory quality” art critic Joseph Mitchell wrote of these paintings. Among the folk art in the booth was a large tavern trade sign, “The Clermont Hotel,” H.I. Row, with an eagle decorating the center of the piece.
Things came in groups at Missouri Plain Folk, Sikeston, Mo., such as trade signs including a large ice cream cone, five boat hulls in different colors and sizes, all missing masts, a village of small wooden painted houses in bright colors, and about two dozen pantry boxes in yellow, gray, blue, olive and natural, mostly displayed in a one-door country cupboard.
A large produce sorting tray, in the shape of a boat, stood in the corner of the booth of Back Door Antiques, East Middlebury, Vt., and two pairs of snow shoes hung on the back wall. One was the conventional kind, for deep snow, the other was of metal. “My best bet is that pair was used for walking on ice, since it has small, sharp spikes on the bottom which would keep you from slipping,” Jean Tudhope said.
A Nineteenth Century tapered leg tavern table with one drawer, off-set top with breadboard ends, was in the booth of West Pelham Antiques, Pelham, Mass., and surrounded by four from a set of six Windsor side chairs. These chairs, thumb backs, retained the original painted surface. Derik Pulito, Kensington, Conn., showed a rare Queen Anne three-drawer (simulated five-drawer) blanket chest in old red with cutout bracket feet, heavy single-arch molding and the original snipe hinges. It came from Simsbury, Conn., and measures 41 inches high and 37¼ inches wide.
DBR Antiques, Hadley, Mass., had a portrait of an unknown sitter, an oil on canvas by Zedekiah Belknap, Wethersfield, Conn., circa 1830, and a two-door cupboard, Maine origin but bought in Vermont, dating circa 1840‱850. “The cupboard came with a coat of dirty white paint and I was able to remove it and brought it back to the original blue surface,” Doug Ramsay said.
Gloria Lonergan of Mendham, N.J., displayed a large geometric hooked rug with log cabin squares on the back wall of her booth, with a good portion of this rug, 5 feet 6 inches by 9 feet 5 inches, hanging over the top rail. Below it was a large blanket box, six boards, in the original blue. A tilt-top candlestand, Nineteenth Century, was of New England origin and was birch with a painted surface.
Stephen-Douglas of Rockingham, Vt., had a 6-foot-long New England harvest table with one drop leaf, in the original painted surface, and a dollhouse with a brick painted front, two stories, with steps leading up to the front door.
Rutland, Vt., dealers John and Eileen Smart had a couple of interesting trade signs, including one for a decoy maker from Chincoteague, Va., depicting a carved mallard in the center and measuring about 2 by 4 feet. Another sign was for “New †Used Watches,” featuring the head of a large stag in the center. A bowfront chest, four drawers, was from Albany, N.Y.
As usual, the walls in the booth of Henry T. Callan, East Sandwich, Mass., were covered with samplers representing many different areas of origin and dates. One in the center was done by Mary Augusta Ladd, born November 24, 1816, in New Market, Rockingham, N.H., while another with an elaborate border of roses and vines was from Mount Vernon and dated 1824.
A large urn of flowers was the subject of a theorem on early wove paper, circa 1815, in the booth of The Norwoods’ Spirit of America, Timonium, Md., a piece that came out of a private collection. From a Cape Cod collection, the Norwoods offered a seven-drawer spice chest, and among a selection of paint decorated wooden boxes was a slide lid keeping box with the initials W.C.S. on top.
Kocian DePasqua, Woodbury, Conn., offered a salesman’s sample of a Hepplewhite drop leaf table in mahogany, and against a side wall was a double rod back and bamboo turned Windsor settee, circa 1820, in the original blue paint and the original cane seat. It was of Maine origin.
Otto and Susan Hart, Arlington, Vt., had a 6-foot-long hickory bench across the front of their booth, a piece that was prison-made in LaPorte, Ind., circa 1930s. A shooting gallery target in the form of a clown, paint decorated, stood in one corner, and a complete dog hitching post had a coat of old black paint.
The Red Horse, Bridgewater, Vt., showed a three-drawer server in cherry with turned legs, French, circa 1840, and displayed on top was a pair of composite stone urns of English origin. A team of horses and a large coach were depicted on a pub sign, painted on canvas, circa 1900. A painted gaming wheel on stand, red, white and blue with mostly red numbers, American and dating from the early Twentieth Century, was shown by The Rathbun Gallery, Wakefield, R.I. A set of six paint decorated, tablet-top fancy Windsor side chairs, circa 1840‱850, were from Lancaster County, Penn.
“The construction of the back of this Chippendale six-drawer chest is unusual, the first I have seen of its kind,” Bob Fraser said, noting the two wide boards and a single narrow board that had been dovetailed into the case. It was all original, including the base. Fraser’s Antiques is located in Chester, Vt., and other furniture shown included a pine slant lid desk, one drawer, lift top, with a Cornish, N.H., history. A dentist trade sign in the shape of a shield was for F.R. Jewett.
Nautical buffs headed right for the Captain’s Quarters, Amherst, Mass., where a large ship portrait by S.F.M. Badger of the windjammer Brynhilder hung. The ship was built in 1885 by Stevens & Sons, Glasgow, and this oil on canvas measured 22 by 36 inches. It was signed lower left and verso. A large model of a five masted sailing vessel was shown at full sail and in a case.
Lots of plants could have been displayed on a four-tier stand, mustard painted wood, in the booth of Antiques at 30B, Cambridge, N.Y. Or it could have held many of the cast iron objects for sale, including a large steel windmill weight, a clown doorstop in the original paint, an alligator sprinkler or a frog doorstop.
Three of the 14 hooked rugs made by the same lady, circa 1940, hung on the back wall in the booth of American Classics, Canaan, N.H. The rest, both round and oval and all wool, were ready to roll out for inspection. Flanking a tester bed was a pair of demilune tables, circa 1890‱910, in yellow paint. Put together they measured 43 inches in diameter.
The Cold Spring, N.Y., home of General P. Morris was the work of Vermont painter Elisa Thomson of West Poultney, dated May 1853, that hung in the booth of Susan Gault, Thetford Center, Vt.
Rob Kowalski of Halliday House Antiques came the farthest to do the show, traveling from Napa Valley, Calif., and mentioned, “I am happy to be here representing the West Coast.” His stock included a Rhode Island fanback Windsor rocker on old green paint, circa 1790, a mini blanket box in the original red paint; and a round chair table, pine and maple, circa 1820, New England, measuring 45 inches in diameter. While in New England, he did lots of shopping and also exhibited at the Pickers Market in Manchester, N.H.
Greg Hamilton of Stone Block Antiques, Vergennes, Vt., said the show went “very well” for him, selling several Indian objects, an export platter, a couple of pieces of small furniture and a “hutch table that was not even in my booth. It was being used for a flower display at the entrance of the show.”
The Vermont Antiques Dealers Association has a contract with the high school for one more year, so Antiques in Woodstock will be at the Union Arena Community Center, Route 4, again in 2012, same location and time frame.
