Country Leads York County Classic Antiques Show

YORK, PENN.

: "It was nice to see our early gate get back to what it was several years ago," Barry Cohen said after his York County Classic Antiques Show opened at Memorial Hall West on November 4. This two-day show, with 85 exhibitors, opened at 8:30 am, two and a half hours before Jim Burk opened his show across the lobby. "We closed two hours before Jim and the staggered times gave the exhibitors in both shows a chance to visit across the hall," Barry said. As it turned out, the majority of the dealers took the time to shop the neighboring show.

"The gate was pretty much predictable, people did go back and forth between the shows, and many strangers came up to me and complimented me on the look of our show," Barry said. Lots of country was available, and, as seems to be the trend in Pennsylvania, paint sells.

David and Bonnie Ferriss of Lake Luzerne, N.Y., were set up just inside the main entrance and a large portion of their back wall was taken by a 15-foot-long decorated and painted wood piece from the top of a house, triangular shaped where it met the roof line. An early nanny's bench was grain painted, and one table was covered with pictures of flowers, fruit, birds and animals, all mounted in gold leaf frames.

Brasseur Fine Art of Prospect, Penn., showed two framed flags, one with 13 stars and the other with the stars in a circle, while a circa 1840 Berks County, Penn., blanket chest with turned feet, original grain paint with green trim, was offered from the booth of Dark Moon Antiques, Johnsonburg, N.J. Also shown was a large pond boat, with full sails and black painted hull.

Gregg Ellington of Wilmington, Ohio, had his large collection of mocha ware and spatter, including large and small pitchers, mugs and cups, many with seaweed decoration. A Leeds eagle plate featured a sepia eagle with shield and blue trim on the rim.

Old Farm Antiques of Reading, Penn., had a large bowtie arrow weathervane, circa 1880, with lightening rod, as well as a pig lightening rod vane with glass ball. Philip and Kathleen Seibel, Catskill, N.Y., had an Eighteenth Century apothecary with 14 drawers in the original red paint, and an early Nineteenth Century tap table with two-board top, breadboard ends, scrubbed top and square tapered legs.

Brian Cullity of Sagamore, Mass., had a hold on his North Shore dresser, circa 1720, and on a table was an Eighteenth Century carved New England Indian burl bowl.

Lana Smith of Louisville, Ky., is among the last to be set up, and "I am generally close to being the last to leave," Lana said. However, when done her attractive booth is inviting and filled with interesting things, among them this time a scrubbed top drop leaf table in tiger maple, with a cherrywood base and turned poplar legs. Shooting gallery figures were in the form of ducks and chickens, a Nineteenth Century fireplace mantel in blue paint was detailed with a scalloped boards across the front, and a penny rug lent color to the booth.

From nearby New Oxford, Penn., Hunt's Country Antiques showed a Lancaster County bucket bench in old salmon paint, a Pennsylvania dry sink in mustard paint with two shelves and two doors, and a two-door cupboard from Leigh County, red surface, square nails, dating from the early Nineteenth Century.

Windle's Antiques, Wilmington, Del., had a nice chair table in red, maple and poplar with two-board top, New England, early 1800s, and a bow front Sheraton chest on high turned legs, Massachusetts origin, circa 1820.

Gene and Jo Sue Coppa of Avon, Conn., offered a 74-by-24-inch kitchen table, one board top, with green surface, and a corner cupboard from the Eighteenth Century was filled with blue and white sponge pitchers of various sizes, butter bowls and custard cups.

From York, Maine, to York, Penn., came Manchester Antiques with an early Nineteenth Century New Hampshire two-drawer blanket chest in the original red, large wooden knobs, turned feet, measuring 39 inches wide, 37 inches high and 17 inches deep. An interesting collection of eight violin backs dating from the late Nineteenth to early Twentieth Century, all made by one man, a Elmer Ham, hung on one wall. The carver worked in Boston and moved to Eliot, Maine, where he died around 1950. The man's trademark was a pig's ass, and it appeared on the inside of one of the pieces.

Miller-Robinson Antiques of Ashfield, Mass., showed a two piece corner cupboard from South Carolina, three shelves in the top section and a drawer and two doors in the lower. It retained the original green painted surface. A goose weathervane was of wood, and a Pennsylvania bucket bench was in white paint.

Two dry sinks, one in green paint and the other in red, were in the booth of Spotlight Antiques, Lincoln University, Penn. Also with a green painted surface was a large step back cupboard, three doors on top and three doors plus three drawers in the lower section. It was one of three step back cupboard filling the booth.

Among the Maine dealers in the show was Colleen Kinloch of Bristol with a New England Nineteenth Century hutch table with five-board top and drawer in the base. The top measured 45 inches in diameter. An Eighteenth Century Chippendale dresser with bracket base, circa 1780, had a black painted surface, and a New England portrait, 1820-30, showed a lady dressed with white collar and probably her favorite brooch.

A number of powder horns in the booth of Nancy Fulton of Point Pleasant, Penn., included a rhyme horn, Jesters, Indiana, 1780; an E.D. Mooers Lake George horn, one of five; the Seward family horn, Indiana, 1784; and a Plains brass pipe ax, circa 1870.

A large papier mache polar bear, the logo of Consolidated Ice of Pittsburgh, stood in the booth of Swala's Antiques warehouse, Washington, Penn. A Hamilton & Jones crock, capable of holding 12 gallons, was cobalt blue decorated and a blind door cupboard with mustard graining over old red was of dovetail construction from top to bottom.

Cat lovers should have found their way to the booth of Mary Elliott of Pepperell, Mass., where a hooked rug depicted a pair of seated cats, while another showed cats playing, one with a red ball. A large wooden bowl was displayed on a tavern table with one board top and stretcher base. The table was further decorated with a large red sold ticket.

American Indian material was shown in the booth of Joan Wenger Antiques of Philadelphia, including several rugs that brightened the walls of the booth. A Navajo Germantown weaving, circa 1885, was bright red with fringe and diamond pattern, and another Navajo Moki Manta, Germantown, was of wool, circa 1890, woman's chief design, measuring 3 feet 9 inches by 4 feet 2 inches.

David M. Evans Antiques of Cincinnati, Ohio, filled a large end booth with furniture and accessories, including a Chippendale slant front desk in tiger maple. A watercolor memorial (sold) was for Mr Anthony B. Patt, 32 years of age when he died April 4, 1827, and a pair of Prior-Hamblin School portraits, possibly brother and sister, 19 by 151/4 inches, each with a red swag in the background and in matching frames, hung on the back wall. The portraits retained the Kennedy Galleries label.

"Everything is blue in our house," Glen Rice of Higganum, Conn., said, "and my wife Jenni is starting to sell some of the things, especially from her collection of fabrics." Offered were some baby bibs, bonnets and other clothing items, as well as some early fabric squares and aprons, all in blue. A narrow step back cupboard with one door on the bottom was in blue paint, a butter churn was blue painted as was a spinning wheel, and even the lamp shade on a converted whale oil lamp was blue.

A nice mahogany blocked and serpentine Chippendale chest from Boston, 1770, 331/2 inches wide, 311/2 inches high and 211/2 inches deep, was in the booth manned by Hanes and Ruskin, Old Lyme, Conn. The original butterfly hinges, all four, were on a circa 1760 drop leaf Queen Anne table with a 44 by 50 inches top, and a great chandelier from Waterville, Maine, mid Nineteenth Century, hung over the drop leaf. This chandelier was found in a barn, held 12 candles and measured 19 inches in diameter, and "looks sensational when all 12 candles are burning."

A grain painted chest of drawers from Adams County, Penn., was fully documented by an inscription on the bottom of the top drawer reading "maker Joseph Fitz Charles Petersburg, York Springs, Pa" in the booth of Jim Woodruff of Chester, N.J. The piece was in cherrywood with poplar the secondary wood.

A long painted hanging rack, possibly European, was hung with 14 small stoneware jugs in the booth of John Gallo, Otego, N.Y., to be sold as a lot. "People would just pick the great small ones if I would break it up," John said. Nearby a red and white quilt speckled with stars covered a green painted single child's bed in the booth of M. Sparger Antiques, Mount Airy, N.C.

Patriotic symbols of every type filled the booth of American Memories, Wyncote, Penn. Mixed in with flags, political figures, eagles, bandannas and a Pan American Expo fan was a large ironstone platter, 19 by 14 inches, circa 1850, with a view of the Capitol at Washington.

Halsey Munson Americana, Decatur, Ill., offered a small Queen Anne breakfast table with cabriole legs, sculpted pad feet, Eighteenth Century, in maple and retaining some of the original red on the base. This table descended in the family of David Hopkinson of Groveland, Mass. A pair of bowling pins, carved in the shape of shoes with heads at the top, were of Pennsylvania origin, circa 1830-60. They were in early or original paint and probably the only two from a set of nine that survived with heads attached.

Mary Carden Quinn of Floral Park, N.Y., offered another set of six chairs, this one half spindle thumb back side chairs from Newville, Cumberland County, Penn. The chairs retained the original floral decoration on the splats and dated from the third quarter of the Nineteenth century. Among the pieces of folk art were a wooden booth sign, painted red and black, Nineteenth Century, 181/2 inches tall, and a cast iron Germantown Mutual Fire shield, clasped hands, 1843.

"Our May dates are set for 2006," Barry Cohen said, confirming that he will be in the Toyota arena at the same time Jim Burk has his Greater York Show, May 19-20. "We plan to sell a combination ticket in the spring, allowing visitors to go back and forth between the shows without stamps and separate tickets," Barry said. He also mentioned that the dividing metal gate would not be up, and that the food concession would be shared by both promoters.

At this fall show Memorial Hall has certain perks, depending on whether you are in the West wing or the East wing. "When we are in Memorial Hall, my side has the best food, but Jim has the best bathrooms," Barry said. "And you can quote me on that." Done.