Brimfield Antiques Markets Wind Up 2008, Prepare for 50th Anniversary

Brimfield, Mass.

:The unique experience of shopping the many markets lining this small New England town three times yearly concluded for the 2008 season on September 2–7. Acres of antiques and thousands of shoppers and dealers came together for spirited trading during the week that marked the last edition of the megamarket's 49th year.

Tuesday at Brimfield was busy, with many fields opening to the public for the balance of the week. There are two fields opening that first day, however, that are only open on Tuesday — Dealer's Choice and Brimfield Acres North. These fields were once owned by sisters Judy Mathieu and Jill Lukesh, daughters of legendary Brimfield Antiques Market founder Gordon Reid. They operated the fields together for some time, selling both venues to the current owners in order to focus on their home field, now called J&J Promotions.

Dealer's Choice has had the same general rules of operation since it began under the ownership of Tom and Laurie Faxon. It opens at 11 am on the Tuesday of Brimfield Week. This year it had about 350 dealers exhibiting. The market has a reputation for unusual antiques, which was again upheld this September. Peter Dunham of Saugerties Antiques Center offered a large roof ventilator made mostly from tin, but with some wooden framing. With its weathervane, it was priced at $1,800. Another exhibitor had Pinocchio ready for a new owner.

There is, of course, a great deal of traditional antiques as well. David Horst of Lebanon, Penn., was there in his usual place with an assortment of early American earthenware, including hard-to-find pieces of spongeware. Bob Lewis, Frederick, Md., was offering a collection of Staffordshire plates and several other Staffordshire pieces, such as a cow cream pitcher. Nancy Parks's collection was in the covered pavilion toward the rear of Dealer's Choice. She had an assortment of English dishes in pearlware, porcelain and Staffordshire, very early brass chamber sticks and fine art.

Ken Rafenburg is from Sherburne, N.Y., in the far northern part of that state, which probably explained why he was offering a horse-drawn sled made for delivering milk. Painted furniture in bright colors and patterns is frequently the focus of Steven Smoot's collection. From Lancaster, Penn., he had a large assortment of it. There were at least five benches in different colors, a fancy painted wood box, several different collections of painted chairs and small things, such as colorful firkins.

Joseph Martin and Suzanne Bruckner were sharing a space together under the shade trees. Martin, from Brownington, Vt., was selling early Vermont folk art and some fine art as well.

Kate Alex, Warner, N.H., displayed an unusual birdbath. Large and heavy, it was a swan in full size with outstretched neck and very well designed base and bath. It was too big and heavy to lift out of the truck, so it remained there with its price tag of $12,500.

Opening at 1 pm, Brimfield Acres North, owned by Colleen James and Bob Hopfe, is host to about 400 exhibitors.

With a collection of early American furniture, quilts and transfer ware dishes, Ken and Jan Silveri came to the show from Hamburg, Penn. Their schedule had them leaving after the one day of shopping and selling, but usually that is enough for their success.

Offering a collection of early architectural elements, some converted into different forms than their original purpose, was Antiques at 30B from Cambridge, N.Y. This is a partnership of two couples, the Sherwoods and the Ferrisses, with a shop in the small upstate town and also a great deal of exhibiting at shows. Their collections when merged include prints, furniture and usually some antique novelties, such as a Victorian dollhouse.

Province Road Antiques is Tom Pirozzoli's business in Goshen, N.H., where he focuses on early primitive furniture. He came to Brimfield to acquire fresh additions to his inventory and sell; he did both.

Living in nearby Springfield, Mass., Natalie Warner offered a collection of small antiques. One such piece was her small paint decorated toleware box, dome top with flower design and painted border.

There was a collection of paddles in the space of dealer John Fionda, Chester, N.H. Mario Pollo, Bearsville, N.Y., offered folk art, including a hooked mat depicting a lion at rest. A collection of Native American moccasins for children was in George Bernheimer's showcase. His business, Moonstruck Antiques, is located in Mansfield, Mass.

Wednesday

On Wednesday, the primary action turns to three markets, New England Motel and Heart-O-The-Mart, which are both entry by paid admission fields, and Hertan's, which is free but requires dealers to keep their merchandise under wraps until noon.

At first light, 6 am, owner and manager of the New England Motel Marie Doldoorian admitted an eager crowd, ringing her trademark bell at the show's main gate. "It seemed like a pretty good gate," commented Doldoorian an hour or so into the show. "The merchandise is fabulous, dealer participation is good and there is some great shopping."

Because it is still fairly dark when the gates open at this market, many early buyers come equipped with penlights or head-mounted illumination in order to examine treasures out on the field. Such was the case with the miscellany being perused by flashlight at ABC Antiques. Dealer Bruce Dicker and Judy, his wife, are from Sheboygan, Wis., and have been coming to Brimfield for about ten years.

Lighting, of course, is no problem for the dealers set up in Dealer's Row, three permanent pavilions that permit 75 or so dealers to exhibit their antiques and collectibles in room settings. Scott Roland of GlimmerGlass Antiques, Schenevus, N.Y., is one of those dealers and he was highlighting Victorian cranberry opalescent glass, including a Northwood pitcher. Next to him, Jessica Pack Antiques of Chapel Hill, N.C., and VBS Jewelry from Endicott, N.Y., drew interest to their well-lighted showcases brimming with glittering estate jewelry.

"Clients know where to find us," said Glenn Lucia, who with Jessica Pack, has been showing Victorian and Georgian jewelry, majolica and other items for about 15 years. One of their special pieces brought to the show was an Italian pietra dura set of earrings and a brooch in 18K gold, circa 1860–80. Booth neighbor John Sowizral of VBS had an Edwardian bracelet, circa 1901–1911, featuring two large diamonds of about one carat each, smaller diamonds and a platinum top and textured bar links.

American country furniture and accessories could be found at Edgewood Antiques. Dave and Karen Metcalf, the owners, have been coming to Brimfield from Greenville, S.C., for about 20 years, but do not come up for the July show. Karen Metcalf also restores pottery and pointed out a nice Bennington pitcher and bowl, circa 1849–1853, for which she had made an apparently seamless repair to a chipped rim.

Antique firearms enthusiasts know to look for the Relic Shop, a Townsend, Tenn., dealer specializing in early American weapons, Civil War relics and Indian artifacts. Owner Dan White had only one of two known surviving rifles by Solomon Reed (b 1791), who used a hand-powered mill to produce about 20 rifles and 40 barrels.

Enjoying brisk sales were Edd and Karen Oberg of Richmond House, Ashford, Conn. The Obergs have an enduring love affair with Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century primitive furniture, and early on this day they had already sold a northern New England cupboard featuring pegged construction and a wonderful original sage green paint. The single door cupboard, circa 1780–1800, had three shelves inside.

Graphically arresting, a display of West German and Italian art pottery from the 1960s and 1970s had been set out by Robert Grano, owner of Circa 20th Century, a New Jersey business that has plied its trade at Brimfield for ten years, three of them at New England Motel. Grano also supplies the handsome pieces as props for designer Kate Spade's advertising and marketing shoots.

Those on the prowl for the antique lighting, furniture, sterling silver and silk floral arrangements offered by Rick Linehan and Bob Voss of Yesterday's Luxuries will see less of the pair on the show circuit. That is because, having just opened their new shop, Yesterday's Luxuries Antiques at 27 Bank Street in Seymour, Conn., Linehan and Voss said they are reducing the number of shows they do each year. The new shop, offering 500 square feet of display space, is open on Monday and Tuesdays by chance, Wednesday to Saturday, 10 am to 5 pm, and Sunday, 11 am to 4 pm.

Heart-O-The-Mart opened at 9 am, and Pam Moriarty, who runs the field with her husband, Don, reported that the field was well populated by "a lot of repeat dealers who come back year after year." The field, bordered by a small lake, accommodates 500 exhibitors and, as a paid admission show, gets high marks for the quality of the merchandise offered there.

From Franklin, Tenn., Scarlett Scales was there with her father, Barry. Scales, a young woman whose memories of Brimfield go back to when she was about five years old, was offering a mix of antique garden pieces and statuary, American and European, including a pair of cast iron garden urns with a nice crusty surface and a pair of shell-decorated cast stone planter boxes.

As proof that good fine art can risk the elements at Brimfield, Joe Laskowski and Rachel McKay of Griffin's Gallery were showing among their collection of Nineteenth and Twentieth Century American paintings a New York City winter scene by living Impressionist John Terelak. Laskowski and McKay are the real-life couple from Collegeville, Penn., who are the protagonists in Bob Wyss's book Brimfield Rush , which follows the pair's exploits as they shop the flea market. They have been participating in the show for more than ten years.

Midcentury furniture and accessories — lighting, advertising, paintings and folk art — are the focus of Ipso Facto, a Three Oaks, Mich., business managed by Brandon Nelson. Among his sleek merchandise was a pair of Art Deco-style arm chairs made in the 1970s.

An ornate console table that had been fabricated from scrollwork wrought iron panels, circa 1880s, from Brooklyn, N.Y., was a highlight among the architectural antiques shown by Olde Good Things. The antiques salvage firm based in New York City, with facilities in Scranton, Penn., and Los Angeles, reclaims antique and architectural artifacts from many turn-of-the century and prewar buildings slated for demolition. In business since 1995, its characteristic collection of mantels, iron work, doors, mirrors, stone and terra cotta and pieces of hardware can be seen in various fields during Brimfield week. The console table shown at Heart-O-The-Mart was an example of the firm's new product line of "altered antiques" — salvaged antique artifacts transformed into usable furniture and design elements.

Salvage of an entirely different sort also played a role in one of the highlights shown by Alan Peters, a dealer from New Hartford, Conn. A Depression-era child's toy, a pair of carnival horse pull toys whose wheels had been fashioned out of the discarded tops from evaporated milk tins, was an example of an early "green" movement. Peters also offered a pair of Mettlach beer steins, circa 1890–1910, decorated with comical scenes, and a Honey Bear bank.

Reclaiming vintage seed packages, Steven Schwab of Gasport, N.Y., put together a colorful display of packages from the Card Seed Co. of Fredonia, N.Y., from the 1920s. Single packets were going for $3. The packages are colorful and epitomize the striking graphic design of the period. Schwab, who carries a general line of antiques, stoneware and advertising, offers custom-framed collections of the colorfully lithographed packages as a side business.

Arcade games, pinball machines and early advertising were the core offering at You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet, a New Haven, Conn., business genially managed by Bob Adams. Among Adams's unusual and eclectic finds was a collection of Civil War items and early optical instruments, including American Civil War and French telescopes.

For nearly 30 years, John Polito and Joe Csik have also been buying and selling antique arcade items and advertising at Brimfield. They are such fixtures that they appear in the recently published Brimfield, a collection of photographs by Angelo Dounoucos — pictured is their eerie triumvirate of presidential mannequins of Nixon, Carter and Ford. For this show, they featured a witch that came out of an amusement park in northern New Jersey when the park closed about ten years ago. The Hansel & Gretel witch was made of papier mache, burlap, wood and cloth.

Dounoucos himself was selling and signing copies of his book at Hertan's Antique Show, which opened on Wednesday at noon. Documenting 25 years worth of compelling scenes at America's most famous flea market, culled from some 4,000 photographs and five years in the making, the 128-page hardcover book is, according to Dounoucos, an attempt to portray the "story that is beyond the items — namely, the human experience, passion and interaction with others" that comprises the "soul" of Brimfield. Dounoucos's wife, Claire, is an antiques dealer, and the two have had an up-close and interaction with Brimfield's denizens on and off the fields.

Told that some of his images seemed to channel Diane Arbus, Dounoucos said that it was not surprising as she is one of his favorites, along with Richard Avedon and Irving Penn. He said he resisted an attempt by his book agent to produce a book of color photographs. "Black and white is more direct," he said. The format of the book was also a factor, with Dounoucos (successfully) arguing that the photographs deserved more play. "It's important, especially with an aging population [of dealers], who in the many years of doing the show, never stopped to take those snapshots to document these memories," he said. The book, published by Tour D'Show Publications, Delmar, N.Y., can be ordered at Amazon.com and lists for $40.

Along with the distillation of the Brimfield experience, however, commerce was happening within the shady grove that constitutes Hertan's. Rick Matteo was writing up a sales slip for an upper Connecticut Valley cupboard, and had sold another hanging cupboard and a footed bookshelf early during the field's opening. Matteo and his wife, Karen, split their time in the Albany, N.Y., area and Vermont. Their business, Leicester Americana/Shiraz Bazaar, features period furniture, early accessories and antique Oriental rugs.

Also getting a lot of interest was a mid-1800s screened pie safe being shown by Dan Freeburg of Wilcox, Penn., and a set of four matching step down New England Windsor chairs, circa 1820, being offered by Hilary and Paulette Nolan of Falmouth, Mass., who had motored to Brimfield with their Chesapeake Bay retriever named "Keeper."

An emporium of antique and vintage pressed tin and battery operated toys was created inside a long trailer by Chuck Bubie of Postenkill, N.Y. Some of his standout examples were a Marx battery operated Airporter bus from the 1960s, still in its cellophane wrapping and box, and an early 1950s White Truck construction set of Japanese tin featuring a friction bulldozer, shovel and trailer.

Two dealers specializing in early American and primitive furniture were sharing a shady space — Robert Trites, Columbia County, N.Y., and Firehouse Antiques, Galena, Md. Trites showcased a whimsically painted table by the Provincetown artist Peter Hunt, dated 1967, while Firehouse Antiques had a New England lift top blanket chest in original red with a black checkered decoration that had been applied perhaps 100 years ago.

Thursday

At May's Antiques Market, the gate opened to a strong crowd as customers quickly swarmed the field. By 9:30 am, a large table set out by Dudley Hill Antiques, Dudley, Mass., had been nearly swept clean of merchandise. A few items remained, but the dealers promised they would be restocking as soon as they could get to their truck across the street. Good sales included a small cupboard and a Christmas display unit.

Our Place Antiques and Collectibles, Fairfield, Conn., offered a hand carved wooden cowboy, life size, outfitted with a working slot machine. The slot machine was circa 1960s, while the carving dated to the 1940s. Cigarette advertising was also prominently displayed, with one sign asking, "Have You Tried a Lucky?"

Longmeddowe Antiques, Monson, Mass., offered a Bait's Motel sign (not spelled the same as the infamous fictional motel in the movie Psycho ) and a sublime grain painted Windsor chair. Early in the morning, dealer Richard Decker was talking to two women in his booth about two Nantucket baskets he held in his hand. The baskets were indeed fine and were soon wrapped up and leaving the booth with the women.

Kurt Mansbach, Marshfield, Mass., offered an assortment of ephemera, such as a collection of police patches and Kennedy campaign pins. Also offered was a Dick Tracy squad toy car, various firearms and some examples of Rockingham pottery.

John & Vicki Hanson Art and Antiques, Eustis, Fla., showed mostly Nineteenth Century art and English School paintings, with a particular emphasis on sporting art, including an example of two dogs chasing a rabbit.

Eklectibles, Seminole, Fla., lived up to its name, stocking its booth with vintage radios and unusual designer lamps, including an example created from a large hunk of calcite. The standout, however, was a bright and colorful model car made in Germany, circa 1950s, for automotive education classes. The car was a fully working model, sized that a child could drive, but this was no toy.

Taxidermychick.com had one of the more eye-catching booths. Bethany Hickey, the Taxidermy Chick, is a second-generation licensed taxidermist who creates elaborate and artistic domestic bird mounts. A veritable roost of roosters and hens were in her booth, but a very tall peacock with tail feathers spreading down almost 5 feet high was what one noticed straightaway.

Friday

At the site of the original Brimfield market, J&J Antiques Market, owned by Judy Mathieu and Jill Lukesh, the daughters of founder Gordon Reid, opened on Friday at 6 am as it has for the last 49 years. It was still dark, but that did not matter to the hundreds of waiting customers who lined Route 20 and flowed over the bridge into May's parking lot. They were there with their flashlights bobbing through the early morning mist.

This was the last time buyers would need their flashlights at J&J's. Mathieu and Lukesh were on the loudspeaker making the announcement that, in honor of J&J's 50th anniversary, the field that started it all will open at a new time in 2009 — 8 am. "We wanted to shake things up a bit after 50 years," Mathieu said, "and all those dealers who stay up all night to set up have often asked us to open later. Now we will!"

Mathieu proudly advertises that the majority of the dealers on the J&J field only exhibit here, so the antiques are fresh to Brimfield. Such is the case of Lewis Parker, Fayette, Maine, who has shown only at J&J for 20 some years. An early photographer's child-size chair stood ready at the entrance leading to skis, baskets, sleds and other early Maine collectibles.

Jane and Don Desjardins were also offering sleds: an early Nineteenth Century sled in old red paint was sold by flashlight; a double sled, also in old red paint, was handmade and had a steering wheel and working bell to warn people it was coming. The Ware, Mass., couple also showed a collection of old, wooden shaft golf clubs, milk bottles, a country cupboard in original yellow paint and other country antiques.

From New York City with mainly Arts and Crafts period pieces, Roblyn Antiques had several luminous Tiffany & Co. iridescent bud vases. One larger vase, signed Tiffany Studios, was covered in dew, but sparkled when dried and polished and placed on an Arts and Crafts side table with cross stretchers and long, tapered legs. Also in the vignette were a slat back early Onondaga rocker and a fierce-looking full-sized model resembling the Pierce Arrow hood ornament.

High-quality antiques are a hallmark of J&J. So it was no surprise to find a set of circa 1790–1800 Associated owl's eyes Chippendale chairs and a circa 1830–40, possibly Pennsylvania, dry sink with an open bottom shelf, side scrolls and cutout base all in an early mustard paint over red. They were on view at Harmony, R.I., dealer Daniel Romani's Allworthy Antiques. He said he had already sold one set of four chairs and had someone coming back to look at the second set. "This is the only place at Brimfield where you expect to find this type of antique, and we hope it continues to be that way," Romani said.

Gerry Jackson and Susan Batchelder of Canterbury Corner Antiques, Canterbury, N.H., agreed. "We come because it's fun and only here do we meet with other dealers who carry our type of items," Batchelder said. Their type included a wonderful Philander Willard tall clock, circa 1800, in paint with original face and wooden works; an early cross-foot stand with applied molding that was "very rare," according to Batchelder, joined an early table, chest and assorted smalls.

Paul DeCoste had his usual assortment of antiques along with a fun carousel horse in original paint. He was also showing a 1670 Pilgrim joined chest that he believed was one of only three by the maker. "It's all original except the lid, which is an old replacement," De Coste said. On top of the chest were a Louis Weule Co., San Francisco, jug marked at $6,250 and a Chelsea clock with special hands and numbers priced $1,500.

Directly down the aisle, Doug and Diane McElwain set up from Goldsboro, N.C., with antique sports equipment. They were happily helping buyer Tom Melo from Nantucket, Mass., load his newly purchased dinghy. Doug McElwain believed the rowboat probably came from one of the hotels that dotted the Catskills in the 1920s. The number on the bow of the boat most likely corresponded to the room or cottage number. Regardless, Melo thought it would be perfect for his seaside place in Nantucket.

Seed packets, calendars and advertising — all from before World War I to the 1950s — were on offer by Bill and Joan Lennon, Diamond Point, N.Y. Jill Taylor was showing a complete Tiffany desk set in a filigree pattern, an oil on canvas portrait of a woman by E.P. Zichy, and an Arts and Crafts leather suitcase that when opened revealed a pinkish/red satin interior in near mint condition. The Belchertown, Mass., dealer also had cases of jewelry, small boxes and furniture.

For 2009, the Brimfield show dates are May 12–17, July 14–19 and September 8–13. For information, www.brimfieldshow.com .