Dealers set up both inside
and outside at Fiddlers, weather permitting.
Americana
in the Heart of the US:
By Tom O'Hara
NASHVILLE, TENN. - Heart Week in Nashville is the unofficial
convention, twice each year, February and October, for dealers of
Americana. The name comes from the premier show of the week,
Libby and Richard Kramer's "Heart of County Antique Show and
Sale" at the Opryland USA Hotel.
Americana may not be the same in Vermont as it is in South
Carolina or Ohio or Texas. In Nashville, "Heart Week" is
synonymous with Americana and it now means three great antiques
shows offering early American furniture, crafts and tools,
textiles and folk art from throughout the United States and
covering nearly 400 years.
The location gives the Midwest and even the West an opportunity
to travel a reasonable distance to see what might otherwise only
be available at Americana and antiques weeks in New York and New
Hampshire.
The week began with the Tailgate Antiques Show at Fiddlers Inn
opening for early buyers Wednesday, February 12 at 8 am; regular
admission is at noon and closing at 5 pm on Saturday.
Owned and managed by the Jenkins family, it is set in an older
motel where all the rooms open to outside walkways or on the
ground floor to the parking lot. Each dealer's exhibit space
rental is for a guest room and a parking space. In most cases,
the dealers move the motel room furniture, leaning the beds
against the walls to allow the largest possible area for their
booth. The outside space is also used for exhibiting their wares,
some simply by filling the space, others by creating open-air
room settings.
Music Valley Antiques Market and Heart of County are the two
other shows filling the week but "Fiddlers," as it is known, is
the most fun. Its approximately 180 dealers are there to sell,
which they do, and visit and simply hang out with other friends.
The buyers include collectors with resale registrations, tax
certificates which qualify them as dealers, and many of them have
shops, do shows or are in group shops. Others are decorators and
there are even buyers for large retail stores and chains. Most of
all they are all aficionados of early American history and its
ornamentations.
They come to compare, buy and simply enjoy the time and
experience, and Fiddlers is a great place to buy. Prices are not
cheap but affordable and the access is easy.
Colorful flags decorate the booth of Steve and Barbara Jenkins.
Fiddlers.
Who set up there? Here are some examples.
Ken Ware and Kathy Hanlon, Boyleston, Mass., have been doing the
show for years. Ken loads a large van and trailer with big pieces
of furniture in such quantity he can have two complete settings,
one in the room and another on the parking lot space.
Former Bostonian now from North Carolina, Ruth Nutty carries a
vast collection of silhouettes and samplers for her room. The
outside space is for some early painted and country furniture.
John and Veronica Malchione, Kennett Square, Penn., have the room
filled with fishing tackle and other sports gear.
Darwin Bearley has a collection of early Twentieth Century art
and folk art that he brings from his native Ohio.
De Wilhelm is from Michigan but her booth looks like Pennsylvania
or New England, always some outstanding pieces of early New
England furniture and charming painted accessories.
Vye's Antiques, Mt Morris, Ill., is mostly early small objects,
especially things to be used in the kitchen or on the dining
table. Another Illinoisan, Robert Anderson, brought early
American furniture and glass as well as early English, European
and Chinese porcelain dishes.
Ridgefield, Conn. dealer Corinne Burke set her room so that the
windows could be changed daily. The first day it was all early
textiles, hanging as if on washday.
Barbara Kramer, Florida. Music Valley.
Laurel McKinney filled her room with early textiles including bed
linen, table linen and bed covers.
Ellen Katona and Bob Lutz brought a selection of country
furniture from their New Jersey home.
Dennis and Ann Berard from Fitzwilliam, N.H., have been making a
living selling antiques all of his adult life. They now
specialize in early English porcelain, prior to 1840, selling out
of the largest guest room at Fiddlers.
Michael Higgins makes his home in Brussels where he collects
dishes especially the Chinese Rose Medallion.
Old Good Things from lower Manhattan was there selling
architectural pieces and accessories, while Magoun Brothers
brought canoes and moose heads from Maine.
Even the show managers, Steve and Barbara Jenkins, get into the
selling. They brought some painted furniture and accessories and
an enormous collection of pre-1940 American flags and bunting to
sell.
This year's show was the best Fiddlers ever in terms of dealers
and guests. Sold out since November, the visitors came in record
numbers Wednesday and Thursday. All day rain Friday dampened the
activity but Saturday was scattered showers and so the visitors
skipped between the rain finding and making great deals.
The Tailgate at Fiddlers returns in the fall, Wednesday, October
22 through Saturday, October 25. Visitors fill the national chain
hotels on Music Valley Way or stay at Opryland U.S.A.; be sure to
ask for the "Heart" specials. Dealers can inquire to the Jenkins
at 317-598-0012. Try to get there, Heart Week is great fun.
Music Valley
Burleigh and Jean Wellington, Redding, Mass. Music Valley
Heart of Country week in Nashville began about 20 years ago and
grew so quickly it spawned more shows. Music Valley Antiques
Market is one of the satellite shows but it has grown to be very
important in its own right.
It began with Ann Jennings in the early 1980s at the hotel across
the street from Opryland USA -- then called the Ramada -- who,
after a few years, retired. The Jenkins, producers of the
Tailgate Antiques Show at Fiddlers Inn, and the Kramers,
producers of Heart of Country Antiques Show, formed a
partnership, received their own agreement from the Ramada and
continued the show, known as the Ramada Antiques Show at Heart.
Management of the hotel changed, dropping its Ramada franchise
and calling itself the Music Valley Inn, so the show name was
also changed to, you guessed it, Music Valley Antiques Show.
The new management was not happy with the disruption of an
antiques show in the hotel rooms, ballroom, atrium and smaller
conference rooms, so it failed to renew the show's contract a few
years ago.
Steve Jenkins then rented a tent about the size of a football
field and set it up in a parking lot across the street with
lights and heat in it for about 140 dealers. After 21/2 years
there, the (again) changed management of the hotel, now a
Radisson, invited the show back. And it is bigger than ever.
Running from Thursday, February 13, through Saturday, February
15, it is the short-term exhibit hall and store for more than 130
dealers of antiques with an Americana theme. It is also the
headquarters for a great deal of visiting and fellowship among
the exhibiting dealers and their visitors. Across the street the
Fiddlers Inn has the Tailgate antiques show, but no restaurant,
so the week's visitors meet at the restaurant and lounge in the
Radisson most evenings. It really is quite a party, and there is
great business, too.
Selling dealers of this show are from the East and Midwest
bringing antiques with their own touch of Americana.
Jack and Gloria Evans are Leander, Tex., dealers whose antiques
are generally softwood (i.e., pine) furniture and lightweight
textiles and cottons.
Walton's Antiques Mall is from Dyersburg, Tenn., practically
commutable from Nashville. During "Heart" week they make their
booth look like an overfilled kitchen, circa 1875. Carla and
Calvin Murphy, also Tennesseans, offered a different looking
kitchen but still early Nineteenth Century.
Chuck and Phyllis Suhr, Annapolis, Md., dealers, call their
business Suhrprise Antiques and offer a wide selection of early
painted furniture.
There are many dealers from Ohio, including Claude and Sharon
Baker, John Roth, Sam Feller from Uniontown who brought a dough
box with work table top, and Springboro dealer Harriett Tucker,
who had a wide variety of furniture in her atrium booth including
a library table, circa 1840, with New York turned legs.
An old country store set in about 1940 was the theme for Texan
Sandy Burnam, complete with store fixtures and cupboards of an
earlier era, while Vi Hulshart had a Lincoln log-style quilt,
which she brought from her Bowling Green, Ky., home.
Lois Robinson, Charlotte, N.C., had missed the show several times
but returned in February. As always she and husband Robie brought
great Carolina painted and refinished furniture.
George Morel and husband Buddy are from New Roads, La., near New
Orleans. Her booth is always an outstanding example of Americana
and Country French furniture with some Continental accessories.
Texans have a look that is different from the East but not unlike
other early and Nineteenth Century furnishings. The most
noticeable feature is the use of softwoods, such as pine, cedar
and fir, and the free use of paint. Comfort, Tex., dealer Jim
Lord's booth was a good example of this, with bright glossy paint
and strong wood grain and stain in the same setting.
Keenan Antiques, Amherst, Mass. Music Valley.
Antiques and the antiques business helps to create many
friendships. Florida dealer Thomas Cheap has been doing shows for
some years, including Music Valley. Rose Reynolds resided at her
shop in Maine and came to a show last year where they met. He has
since sold his house and moved to Maine. Her shop has been known
as Hearts and Roses and there were a lot of comments about
possibly including Tom's last name in the business.
Toby Chittum, Ruther Glen, Va., had a tall Shaker dining hall
cupboard in her atrium space. Mike Cohen from Brooksville, Ky.,
had a great variety of furniture and store fixtures.
Aberdeen Company is from Ashville, N.C., but it offers both
American and English furniture in a tasteful mix, while
Hagadone's Antiques, Charlottesville, Va., is all country right
down to the braided rug.
In the ballroom, Sharon Pecesk had an assortment of dolls and
child's dresses decorating her booth along with other textiles.
Joan Fithian and her husband had a booth filled with small
antiques, while in the next booth, son Scott filled up with
furniture. They all live in the Atlanta area.
The show is managed by Kay Puchstein, whose husband sets up a
booth in the atrium, and the Jenkins' son, Jon. "In a season of
unsatisfying results, Music Valley Antiques Market was strong,"
Jon said. He added, "All the dealers I spoke with were very happy
with the results."
As with the other two shows in Heart week, it is a fun time. The
visitors, including exhibitors, dealers, decorators and
collectors, move about easily during the shows and in the
evenings to mix at the various restaurants.
Fall dates are October 22-25. Call 317-598-0012 for details.
