12th Coastal Antiques Show: A Maine Summertime Ritual

Damariscotta, Maine

:The 12th annual Coastal Maine antiques show opened to a good, energetic gate of shoppers on August 26 on the bucolic grounds of Roundtop Farm, just off business Route 1, according to Colleen Donovan, the one-day show's manager and a dealer from Falmouth, Maine.

Managed by the Damariscotta River Association, the farm building and grounds provided an appropriate backdrop for 108 antiques dealers, members of the Maine Antiques Dealers Association (MADA), who were set up outdoors, under tents and inside the historic farm's barn and farmhouse.

For the second year in a row, the weather was postcard-perfect, attracting many vacationers and second home residents. "It was forecast to be hot and muggy," said Donovan, conditions that usually take the starch out of all but the most serious shoppers, "But it turned out really pleasant. We did pack up about a half hour earlier than usual due to the threat of rain, but that did not have a big impact."

The property's layout facilitates the staging of dealers around the historic farm in four main tents, a barn, the farmhouse and several swatches of lawn space separating the buildings, making for a varied and interesting presentation. Inside the barn were about a dozen dealers, including Nancy Prince and James LeFurgy of Portland, Maine, and Wiscasset, Maine, respectively. Prince said she did well, selling a Native American basket that had not been out before, a piece of Santo Domingo jewelry, iron bookends and some miniature dogs, while her colleague, LeFurgy, wrote up slips for a ship painting and an Eighteenth Century map.

For Gray, Maine, dealer Robert T. Foley, who specializes in Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century American furniture, art, accessories and nautical antiques, the barn was also a great setting for his eclectic collection. Sales included a George Hathaway painting, a large (48 by 48 inches) oil on canvas by George Ennis of Campobello, a sea chest and a nice Maine dry sink. He commented that the crowd was "looking to buy," resulting in "one of the best shows I do, for the money."

In one of the main tents close to the road, Barbara Bourgeois from Hampton, N.H., set out her display of decorative antiques. Sales "weren't bad," in her estimation, and over the course of the day she pared down her diversified inventory of sterling silver, pewter and early American smalls. "I sold a candle stand, some pottery and little early smalls, like jamb hooks," she said. "I love the one-day show format," added the dealer, who has been coming here for about eight years.

Across the way in Tent A, Bob and Tina Mortimer from Falmouth, Maine, were kept busy by customers poring over their display of hooked and braided rugs, small country furniture, folk art, toys, ceramics and unusual smalls. "We went into the show with low expectations, but were very pleased," said Tina Mortimer, adding that their overall results were better than last year. Sales included a small green blanket chest, a small black toy, a watercolor painting of an interior scene, a weathered rudder, a wicker magazine rack, a Sheraton one-drawer stand, a Don Carpentier mug and a small birch bark canoe. "The quality of this show was very good," said Mortimer.

"I like this show because it draws a different crowd — not the typical New York City and Boston customers," stated Jack Geishen, owner of Chesterfield, Mass.-based Chesterfield Antiques. Although allowing that he did half the business at this show compared to previous years, Geishen said he would keep doing it. He was showcasing, among his stock of American Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century furniture and accessories, a New Hampshire Queen Anne tea table, circa 1760–70, with a rectangular top — "good, small and desirable" — and a miniature Schoharie County, N.Y., blanket chest from around 1770 in original blue paint.

"A gem of a show," is Ed Holden's take on the event. He and his wife, Anita, who divide their time between Connecticut and Florida, were here for their third year, and did "very nicely," according to Ed, "twice as well as last year." Set up in Tent B, they saw buyers from as far away as Texas, Virginia, Arkansas and Alabama — all "buying to use," according to Ed. The Holdens' sales included an Eighteenth Century Crolius stoneware jug and a 6-foot Hepplewhite harvest table with pine top and maple base. Other items making up their display were an Eighteenth Century tavern table, quilts, Northwest and Indian rugs, redware, burl bowls and smaller items.

Bill Quinn, an Alna, Maine, dealer, said he does only two shows a year, and decided to give the Coastal Maine show another try after a long hiatus. It turned out to be a good decision. Specializing in country, cottage and camp antiques, he found that the folky merchandise resonated with shoppers. "It [the show] was very good for me. I was surprised, because I wasn't expecting too much." It may have helped that he presented his collection of as-found wares against an elaborate backdrop he set up — basically, a white picket stockade fence that was hinged — creating a homespun "booth" out in the open. Items like a Nineteenth Century green wooden pull toy, "obviously made by a craftsman, as evidenced by the dovetails and square nails," he said, a narrow cupboard, also Nineteenth Century in gray paint that he had found on Pratt's Island and several signs — he sold six — got a lot of interest from what he said was a mix of local and out-of-state shoppers. In addition to the signs, he sold a country server, a couple of hooked rugs and three early toys. Country antiques fans could next catch up with him at the Adirondack Museum Antiques Show & Sale in Blue Mountain Lake, N.Y.

Commenting on what he witnessed as a good gate and active market, Paul J. DeCoste, West Newbury, Mass., nevertheless, acknowledged that his sales were "not like they used to be." An old-time dinghy from 1946 with original oars and original stencil bearing the legend "East Wind of Cohasset" drew lots of oohs and ahhs, but followed him back home. Similarly, a 1740 chimney cupboard in natural finish with open top and rare sides with raised panels got many approving looks, but did not sell. The dealer was hoping for better results at Brimfield, Mass., in early September.

Also "looming up the truck" and Brimfield-bound when contacted for this article were Tom Jewett and Butch Berdan, Jewett-Berdan Antiques, Newcastle, Maine (Actually, in York, Penn., for the Original York Antiques Show), and Jon Magoun, South Paris, Maine. What they had sold at the Coastal Maine show already seemed a bit of a blur for these Maine dealers. "It was a great crowd, good for buying and selling, well worth doing," said Berdan. It's a low-fuss show in a pretty location." Recalling that he had sold a nice pine corner cupboard and some expensive small, Magoun summed up, "great show, did well."

For information, contact Colleen Donovan, the show's manager, at 207-781-5367 or visit MADA's website at www.maineantiques.org .