Creating New Spring Tradition With Concord Antiques Show?

CONCORD, MASS.

:Rescheduled to occur just after this town's April 19 Patriot's Day holiday, the Concord Antiques Show by promoter Paul Davis got underway April 30 at the National Guard Armory.

With beautiful spring weather adding to the ambiance, the show was filled to capacity with dealers offering antique furnishings, household accessories and even some Revolutionary War items. The show has been a midwinter tradition for Davis, the dealers and customers for many years with good attendance and sales. This year, the originally scheduled date experienced the worst snow storm the Boston area ever recorded, so Davis cancelled the show at the last minute.

When the promoter was able to reschedule the show, nearly all of the original dealers signed up, and a few spaces were filled from his longstanding wait list.

Anne Hall has been collecting antique prints together with her husband, Mark, for most of her adult life. It is this Sturbridge, Mass., dealer's expertise and business. For this show, her centerpiece was a collection of six very rare prints of woodpeckers from 1760. One of the specimens was the recently rediscovered ivory billed woodpecker, previously thought to be extinct. The set was priced at $4,700.

Milford, N.H., dealer John Anderson was there with a collection he called "fresh, I just got most of this for this show!" His sales included a Hepplewhite chest of drawers, and a New England candlestand with carefully turned pedestal and very small round top. He also brought an American Chippendale tall chest to the show and his typical collection of interesting small antique accessories. Robert Foley was across the aisle with his latest inventory of antique furniture and also some architectural pieces. Among the pieces that attracted the most attention was a settle bench in early finish and a hutch table.

Antique art, especially sandpaper paintings, are the hallmark of Martha Perkins and Menson Barrett. Barrett was organizing the booth without Perkins as she had to be in Pennsylvania for another show commitment. He was showing a great deal of early art and also some of Perkins's specialty vintage and antique textiles along with furniture.

The Bradford Trust is a dealer of antiques and fine art. The most prominent item in its booth was an older textile in cotton with appliqué designs added, which looked Egyptian. The piece, according to owner Roy Mennell, was "probably 100 years old, made by someone in the family I bought it from. It was showing its age but not badly. The design was taken from all the interest in Egyptology at that time." He added that their results were good, "I was very pleased with the show, it has a good following," he said.

Irma Lampert and her daughter, Emily, were there with an interesting collection of early furniture. Their exhibit featured a mixture of small items, such as porcelain and kitchen ware, some furniture and their specialty, foil paintings. These are paintings in oil, which was applied to tin foil; age for them is generally sometime in the Nineteenth Century.

Miller-Robinson Antiques of Ashfield, Mass., came in with a kitchen full of primitive early furniture from throughout the Northeast. Centered was a trestle table with scrubbed pine top and base in old red milk paint. Priced at $925, Michael Robinson said it was found near Lebanon, N.Y.

There was a large set of paint decorated chairs, eight total, offered by Richard Smith of Portland Antiques. The Hitchcock set was in very good original condition. Keith Funston was having a good time at the show, judging by the sold tags late Sunday. Two large chests of drawers and a cupboard were sold during this one-day affair from the Sudbury, Mass., dealer's inventory. Nearby, Bill Kelly, Limington, Maine, was offering a collection of early country style furniture and accessories. More formal furniture with highly polished finishes was John Gould's style. The Yorktown Heights, N.Y., dealer also carried a large inventory of Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century frames.

Art was offered by many dealers who specialize in it. Donna Kmetz, Douglas, Mass., and Greywall Gallery of Wellsley were combining their efforts for the show in one booth filled with both fine art and some folk art pieces. Ingeborg Gallery, Northfield, Mass., "did well," according to owner Gert Wirth. He sold a Paul Hollister oil painting and some prints, which gave him a comfortable total. Full time in the business from his home, he does 26 shows a year and was planning to be at J&J in Brimfield next and some of Paul Davis's summer shows.

Ester Gilbert Antiques was exhibiting with its usual variety - some art, some furniture and some very early firearms. And as most know, Concord has a history with early firearms, for on April 19, 1775, the Revolutionary War began here when the British tried to take the Concord Armory at North Bridge.

Now it is history, and so is the antiques show, but Davis has not yet decided when the date will be for next year. Dealers and visitors reacted well to this spring date, but February has become a tradition. Davis has several more small shows this summer, all in July. He also manages a show for New Hampshire Antiques Dealers Association on the first Saturday of June.

For information, www.pauldavisshows.com or 207-563-1013.