“We did not see any signs of a weak economy and things went very, very well for us,” Melvin “Butch” Arion said of his York Antiques Show & Sale on August 29″1. This was the 151st semiannual year for a show that started in 1943. Management of the show was taken over by Butch in 1996, and “we love being at the York Fairgrounds for this show in both January and August,” he said. He said the attendance on Sunday was down a bit, but the gate on both Friday and Saturday more than made up for it and pushed to a new level for the summer show. “Dealers came up to us after the show and reported good to great sales, with a very small percentage doing poorly,” he said.
This show has a very pleasing look, with several dealers set up in the lobby-entrance to Memorial Hall East. For the most part, country and painted furniture rule, but those looking for more formal pieces are not disappointed. There is lots of color from the quilts displayed, and a wide assortment of pottery and other objects come with a Pennsylvania provenance. Holidays are remembered with displays of Halloween pumpkins and rows of Santa figures, and with summer about a memory, one can still find interesting things for the garden.
Temora Farm, Newtown, Penn., offered a Pennsylvania four-drawer chest in mahogany with flame mahogany drawer fronts, circa 1820‱825, with brass pulls, and a Rockingham (near Portsmouth), N.H., sampler by Harriet W. Fabyan, dated 1827, was filled with numbers, the alphabet and flowers. A Twentieth Century still life theorem was signed by Bill Rank.
David Good, Camden, Ohio, and Sam Forsythe, Columbus, Ohio, had a large selection of pottery, including an S. Bell & Son green slip decorated jar with lion head handles and a slip decorated redware plate with “1836” across the entire surface. A Gregg side chair, Boston, had floral decoration on the back splat, and a watercolor showed the bark Smyrnlote , 1861.
Standing in the booth was a black figure, about 3½ feet tall, dressed in black clothing and with movable joints. “We have been told that this figure was originally made in Charlestown, Md., by a black man who played music in the streets,” David said. Sam added, “The tin tray in his right hand was held out straight to collect tips.” The figure was originally shown by the late Chris Machmer many years ago.
A large selection of furniture in the booth of Thomas Brown, McMurray, Penn., included an English secretary, dome top with fitted interior, shaped Hepplewhite feet, mahogany, circa 1820, measuring 7 feet 7 inches, and a Connecticut lowboy in cherrywood with molded top, shell carved in center drawer, shaped apron, cabriole legs, dating circa 1770. A large oil on canvas, “Fish Girl” by Frank Trapp, circa 1940s, was being sold with accompanying study. An hour into the show a sold tag appeared on a tall case clock, George Hoff, Lancaster, Penn., circa 1770, eight-day movement with walnut case.
Fitzwilliam, N.H., dealers Bob Jessen and Jim Hohnwald showed a very nice six-board blanket chest with cut-out ends, thumbnail molded top, and in the original blue painted surface. It was from Norwich, Conn., circa 1750, and retains the original hardware, lock and key. A New England bow back Windsor armchair, circa 1780‱810, was in old black paint. “The show was very good for us and it started right off with the sale of a portrait, oil on board, of a young girl in the original painted frame,” Jim said. He added that “it was the first time we have done this show and by the end of the day Sunday we had sold 31 objects, but no furniture.” They will be returning to York for the January show.
Robert M. Conrad, Yeagertown, Penn., had an attractive Twentieth Century birdtree with eight birds, original paint, and a horse and soldier watercolor, with the likeness to George Washington, was on wove paper with the 1812 watermark. Three colorful game wheels were together in the booth of The Stumps, Sinking Spring, Penn., and a large dollhouse with green roof had a wraparound porch.
A large sign that read “Don’t start vast projects with half vast ideas” hung in the booth of Keith and Diane Fryling, Green Lane, Penn., and Shirley Parmer of Rustic Rooster, Manheim, Penn., had an impressive display of ironstone. “This has been a specialty of mine for many years,” Shirley said, pointing out rows of platters, tea and coffee pots, and pitchers displayed against a dark blue fabric.
Jeff and Kathy Amon, Jamestown, Penn., offered a four-drawer chest, New York or New England, original paint decoration, cutout base and ends, round wooden pulls, and dated 1824 in the top drawer, along with a four-drawer chest from York, Penn., signed “John Rupp” in pencil, circa 1860, untouched paint decoration, on turned bun feet.
“This is one of the nicest sawbuck tables we have owned,” Betty Berdan of Newsom-Berdan, Thomasville, Penn., said of the Pennsylvania example with the original red on the base, scrubbed top that measures 54½ by 35½ inches, rosehead nails and dating from the Eighteenth Century. An early horse weathervane, sheet iron, dated from the last half of the Nineteenth Century and came from the barn of the Quaker Briton/Pusey family of Avondale, Penn.
A tiger maple sugar box, dovetailed with turned feet, circa 1830‱850, Kentucky or Tennessee, was on a table at the front of the booth of SAJE Americana, Short Hills, N.J. A large lithograph, “Washington and His Generals,” was by Ritchie after his painting, 1856.
Salt Box Antiques of Sugarloaf, Penn., displayed one of the largest apothecary chests in the show, 48 drawers and from the stone Shanesville General Store in Oley Valley, Berks County. It was never painted and dated from the mid-Nineteenth Century. A pine dry sink in the original blue paint came from Boiling Springs, Penn., circa 1840‱850, and was unusual with a stack of short drawers built into the right side of the piece.
It is not unusual to find a handsome dressing table in the booth of Jewett-Berdan of Newcastle, Maine, and at York the dealer offered a coastal example in chrome yellow with silver leaf and berry decoration, circa 1830, with a tilting mirror mounted on top. A mariner’s compass star mat was also of Maine origin, circa 1880, and a basket of fruit theorem with pears, grapes, cherries and peaches was in a large column and block frame, circa 1830.
“I have been doing this show for the past 13 years, both January and the late summer, and it is generally very good for me,” Thurston Nichols, American Antiques, Breinigsville, Penn., said. “It all went well, good selling,” he added, listing a number of items he sold, including andirons, an unusual horse weathervane and two pieces of old furniture that had been brought back to life with a new zinc covering.
A life-size cast iron deer stood at the side of the booth of Kemble’s Antiques, Norwich, Ohio, in the company of a number of weathervanes, including a standing dog, large cow, large and small horse and a fish of “good catch” size. Back-to-back swans formed a handsome handle to a Nineteenth Century knife box of Pennsylvania origin.
William and Teresa Kurau of Lampeter, Penn., had an impressive display of Liverpool jugs, a total of 15, and five of them sold the first two days of the show. “York was very good for us,” Bill reported on his cellphone as he roamed the fields at Brimfield. “Friday and Saturday were very strong, good sales across the board, including five Currier & Ives prints, including two large nautical folio prints,” he said.
Pennsylvania furniture, fabrics, pottery and folk art filled the large booth of Raccoon Creek at Oley Forge, Oley, Penn., including a paint decorated step back corner cupboard attributed to Rupp, Hanover, Penn., and a hanging wall cupboard, old red surface, with one long paneled door. R.M. Worth of Chadds Ford, Penn., showed a Chippendale drop leaf table in maple, New England, old red surface, circa 1780, and an American or English Queen Anne settee in mahogany, 64 inches long, circa 1750‱760.
A half-length arrow back decorated settee, Pennsylvania, Windsor legs, in yellow paint with baskets of fruit decoration, took up most of the side wall in the booth of Greg Kramer of Robesonia, Penn. Two carved and paint decorated ornaments, once part of a carousel, hung across the top of the booth, and two carousel figures, a horse and a goat, were at the front of the booth. Country Lane Antiques, Quarryville, Penn., offered a sponge decorated dower chest in brown and blue paint, circa 1800‱820, and a large grain painted corner cupboard, original paint, two parts, circa 1840‱850, 87¼ inches high, 56 inches wide taking a 39-inch corner, was another piece in the show attributed to Rupp.
A rustic tree trunk hitching post, hollow cast in one piece, stood in the booth of American Sampler, Barnesville, Md., and among the collection of original paint doorstops displayed were both large and small baskets of flowers, Old Salty, a lighthouse, cats, ducks and a pheasant. Richard Schneider of Wakefield, R.I., had a model of a stagecoach, circa 1890‱915, wood and iron with red painted wheels. A set of six paint decorated tabletop fancy Windsor side chairs, circa 1840‱850, was from Lancaster County, Penn.
“That entire shelf, 18 pieces, is all Philadelphia pewter,” Melvyn Wolf of Flint, Mich., said. With his wife, Bette, he offered a large collection of tankards, mugs, sugar bowls, creamers and plates, mostly American but with some English examples. A six-board chest in old red with the front decorated with a compote of fruit, Valentine Vodor, Sugar Creek, Ohio, circa 1850, all original, was shown by Kelly Kinzle of New Oxford, Penn. Behind glass, and with an “Ask For Assistance” tag on it was the Travel Journal of Louis Miller, France, 1841, a red book with gold lettering on the front and filled with 36 rare watercolors.
Harry Hartman and Oliver C. Overlander from nearby Marietta, Penn., hung a hooked rug depicting four horses pulling a covered wagon with a red house in the background and a flock of birds in the foreground. A large gathering basket was shown on top of a 9-foot-long table with one-board top, 2½ feet wide, tapered legs and painted base. Harry reported that “the show was fabulous for us and we sold several pieces of furniture, as well as some pottery and folk art.”
In addition to a large selection of Staffordshire figures, Jane McClafferty of New Canaan, Conn., showed an American bowfront four-drawer chest in mahogany with high French feet and line inlay, circa 1810‱815, New Hampshire or Massachusetts, and a Philadelphia card table in mahogany with finely reeded legs, circa 1825. James M. Kilvington, Dover, Del., hung a view of the Proteus off Black Head on the Irish Coast, dated 1861, by Joseph Semple, Belfast, Ireland, and from Chester County, Penn., offered a circa 1760 tea table with walnut reverse dish top, fine pedestal and legs that spread beyond the normal length.
Michael and Sally Whittemore, Washington, Ill., had a large pond boat, one mast with old sail and blue painted hull, 7 feet tall, and a cigar store Indian on pedestal by Samuel Robb. A cast iron male dog was seated on a pedestal, and a set of six rod back Windsor side chairs was in old black paint. Bertolet House Antiques, Oley, Penn., showed a Pennsylvania walnut farm table with three drawers and a three-board top, old red paint, circa 1840, and a Pennsylvania grain-painted step-back cupboard, circa 1840, with eight pane doors above two drawers and two doors. “We got this cupboard right out of an Amish farm house, near the Lincoln airport, and we managed to get it down from the second floor,” Gene Bertolet said.
Irwin and Delores Boyd, Fort Washington, Penn., offered a Hepplewhite sideboard, circa 1775‱800, English, mahogany and mahogany veneer, 65 inches wide, and a two-piece Dutch cupboard, Pennsylvania, circa 1820‱840, with 12-light doors. A ship model, possibly made as a weathervane, dated from the late Nineteenth Century and was of wood and twine with 14 tin sails. Chuck White, Warwick, N.Y., had a Vermont hutch table with two-board top and breadboard ends, turned legs, old red surface, circa 1790‱810, and a two-piece apothecary with 35 drawers, circa 1850, from New York State.
Hillary and Paulette Nolan, Falmouth, Mass., with the help of their 12-year-old lab, Keeper, were offering a country Chippendale card table with scalloped skirt, Rhode Island or eastern Connecticut, circa 1780, old green paint, and an Eighteenth Century Rhode Island Queen Anne tea table, button feet, round top, untouched with red surface. The Fassnachts, Canandaigua, N.Y., had a small stand, salmon paint, with deep apron and turned legs, and a Coastal Maine scene by Prosper Senat (1852‱925), who was born in Germantown, Penn., but worked extensively in Maine.
Hanes & Ruskin, Old Lyme, Conn., hung a pair of portraits painted in Dover, Vt., 1838, according to an inscription on the reverse of the male portrait. He is painted on mattress ticking, 31 by 36 inches, and each is in the original gold frame. A Queen Anne highboy in cherrywood, Connecticut, circa 1760, flat top with fan carved in the lower center drawer, cabriole legs and pad feet, measured 78½ inches high.
A portrait of the bark Earl Cadagon , signed by Reginald Arthur Borstel, Australian, oil on canvas, dated 1910, 39½ by 29½ inches sight, hung in the booth of The Haneberg’s of East Lyme, Conn. The boat was built in 1892 by Russell & Co., Scotland, and was 237 feet long and captained by D. Williams. Furniture in the booth included a Queen Anne drop leaf table in maple, straight legs, some red paint showing, but with scrubbed top.
Butch Arion will be back at the York Fairgrounds on January 30″1 and February 1, again filling Memorial Hall East with a full slate of dealers. For more information, www.theoriginalyorkantiquesshow.com or 302-875-5326.
