Okemo Antiques Show Brings Shoppers To the Mountain

LUDLOW, VT. - For those on the Vermont Antiques Week circuit, the Okemo Antiques Show at Okemo Mountain ski area is the next main event. A showcase for American country furniture, folk art and textiles, the show, which marked its 12th year when it opened on September 30, is managed by Pat and Don Clegg, who do business as Abbott House Associates, East Berlin, Penn.

"We seem to have what people want," said Don Clegg, who, although managing the show for the past eight years, said he has been there every year for the past 12.

Jane F. Wargo, Wallingford, Conn., quickly sold an early Nineteenth Century painted peg rack from New Paltz, N.Y., at the show's opening and had to scramble to rehang the vintage textiles that had been displayed on the rack. She also displayed a Nineteenth Century New England painted bench with mortised construction, a fun set of Nineteenth Century steps that had probably been attached to a porch once and now served as a great collection display stand.

"The show was great," said first-time exhibitor Robin Fernsell, who with an education in fine art and photography stocks her Walpole, N.H.-based business with folk art, painted furniture and paintings. Similarly, her booth space featured an elegant Maine server, a Nineteenth Century checkerboard rendered in three colors, a Parcheesi board with breadboard ends and paint decorated chairs. "The promoters were nice and helpful and the location was good," said Fernsell. "I really enjoyed the mix of people doing the show as well as the visiting public."

One of the items Fernsell sold was an early paint decorated child's sled in original surface. "I also sold a pair of wooden painted garden gates," she said. "I think the show is a great place for people to buy affordable country antiques."

Less sanguine was Fernsell's booth neighbor David Beauchamp, also of Walpole, whose gleaming restored formal furniture and stacks of antique boxes and tea caddies were not in step with the painted country cadence. "The show was not my type of show," said Beauchamp, who was testing it for the first time. "Most people were looking for painted stuff, not what I had to offer. I will say that it was well attended and the show was well managed. It looked like a million dollars."

Jim Murphy, whose J&J Murphy Americana based in Newtown, Conn., did at least fit in with the show's country look, also characterized his outing's results as "a push" after adding up all his costs. But he hastened to add that it was the general environment, not the particular show that was wanting. "I'm afraid people just aren't ready to indulge in that discretionary spending that spells the difference between a good show and treading water," said Murphy. "For example: Within ten minutes on Saturday, I had a man and then a woman looking with great interest at my cobbler's bench. He described himself as a shoe manufacturer; she said her father had been a cobbler. They both saw the bench as an extension of something very important to them. They both walked away. I understand that's a single vignette, but I see it as symptomatic of a much larger malaise."

Murphy said that his diatribe against the "big picture" would not dampen his plan to do the Okemo show again. "Bottom line, good people running a good show and in a better economic climate, I'm sure it can produce good results," he said.

Another new face at show was Bette Zwicker of Bristol, Maine, who quickly sold a checkerboard from New Hampshire at the show's preview opening on Friday. "The next day I sold my early chair table to a couple from California, a large Taconic gathering basket, a sampler and several paint decorated boxes." All in all, Zwicker said she thought it was "a great, small show, bringing dealers from the Northeast, Midwest and West Coast. Pat and Don put on a short strong show, which works for all."

Also new to the show roster, Charles and Lucille Berg, South Eason, Mass., brought their collection of American antique furniture from the colonial and federal eras. An early shoe foot trestle table, circa 1700, with wedged stretchers and a round scrubbed top bearing traces of early paint was a highlight of their booth, while an early Virginia step back cupboard featured a top with applied cornice molding over scalloped front molding with open shelves and spoon racks. While the big pieces did not sell at the show, the Bergs said, "We had a respectable show, selling quality smalls in the $300-$400 range, such as a nice old sgraffito-decorated redware bowl and a blue and white spongeware pitcher."

Janet and Bob Benjamin of Wild Goose Antiques, Barnstable, Mass., said that the show, their fifth year, was a success for them, with Saturday being the busier, more profitable day. The couple, whose eclectic offerings included quilts, hooked rugs, wooden items and baskets, related an experience that is emblematic of how dealers in the antiques trade look out for one another. On Saturday afternoon, a couple from near Utica N.Y., expressed an interest in a New England blanket chest the Benjamins had brought, as well as their largest and most expensive item - a two-piece step back cupboard.

Unfortunately, the couple, who had bought a blanket chest at another show, said they had no way to get it home. "I found a program of dealers to see who was from New York, Ohio or beyond and thought I might ask about the possibility of them delivering this large piece," said Janet Benjamin. "We asked Stephen Morse of Federal House Antiques, who was set up next to us, if he would have room and time since he was going home to Hudson, Ohio. One problem arose when the buyers said they were not going home until Sunday and Stephen was leaving Saturday evening. The buyers called their 20-something son and asked him to meet Stephen at an exit on the New York State Thruway between 11 pm and midnight with a pickup truck. All was planned, cell phone numbers were exchanged, check was written and off the buyers went. Bob helped Stephen load the two pieces in his van and trailer and off he went. He called us the next day to say all went well - the buyers' son showed up, they transferred the goods and everyone was happy."

For information on the Okemo show, call the Cleggs at 717-259-9480.