New Hampshire Dealers Show A Hit

MANCHESTER, N.H.

:Photos By R. Scudder Smith

"You never know what will turn up," said exhibitor Mike Whittemore, circling the floor of the 65-dealer New Hampshire Antiques Show for a final time before it opened to the public at 10 am on Thursday, August 11.

Waiting to get in were hundreds of shoppers from around the country. The queue coiled around the lobby of the Center of New Hampshire, trailing out onto the sidewalk and around the back of the Radisson Manchester and into the parking lot.

First and second in line were Westfield Center, Ohio, dealers Bobbie and Roger Pries. Looking no worse for wear, Roger had been at his post since 3:30 am. Bobbie joined him at a more civilized hour.

When the dam broke, crowds flooded the exhibit hall's upper and lower floors. Husbands went right, wives went left, checkbooks and credit cards emerged, and antiques flew out the door. Notwithstanding a lull in attendance on Saturday, the magic of the 48-year-old New Hampshire Antiques Show continued through its closing hours on August 13.

"We're an association, not a stable of dealers attached to a promoter," observed Linda Tate, president of the New Hampshire Antiques Dealers Association. "The magic comes from camaraderie, from wanting everyone to do well. Throughout the year we encourage our members to put things away, to save the best. There's a feeling of discovery, of finding something that hasn't already been to New York or Philadelphia.

"We always get about 3,000 people. Maybe we had a few less this year because of the heat and humidity," said Tate, who put this year's attendance at roughly on par with last year's.

Minutes before opening, Newbury, Mass., dealer Peter Eaton shook his head with disbelief that one of his rarest items, a well-documented clock by Paul Rogers of Berwick, Maine, housed in a tall case by Simon Lewis, Jr, of Kittery, Maine, had attracted little notice. Moments later the $25,000 clock, accompanied by Lewis's 1826 account book, sold. Eaton parted with 14 other pieces of furniture, including a highboy, a Queen Anne blanket chest, a banister back armchair, a banister back high chair, a five-foot tall Federal mirror, two card tables and three corner chairs.

"In terms of numbers of things sold, it was one of my best shows. It was great to see so many people buying," said Eaton, a 33-year veteran of the fair who has long occupied a prominent spot at its entrance.

The scene in Eaton's booth was repeated around the floor. Peter Sawyer Antiques of Exeter, N.H., quickly sold one of its treasures, a David Wood of Newburyport, Mass., shelf clock, circa 1800-05, $75,000.

"It's got everything: great proportions, refined details, wonderful choice of woods and superb condition," said Sawyer. Sawyer and partner Scott Bassett also soon parted with a New England lift-top blanket chest, $17,500, with a stylishly high base, scalloped skirt and outstanding vinegar-paint decoration.

Sawyer's neighbor, new exhibitor Barbara Pollack, was praised for her high-power display. The part-time New Hampshire resident sold a Sheldon Peck portrait said to portray Phebe Fitts of Salisbury, V.t, circa 1826. The likeness was exhibited at the Whitney Museum in New York in 1975.

"They are absolutely untouched," Pollack, an expert in primitive portraiture, said of oil on canvas portraits of Henry Ehle, who holds a copy of the October 31, 1838 Chittenango Herald,and Anna Bellinger. From Gnarlehedge House in Skaneateles, N.Y., the $90,000 pair was illustrated in The Magazine Antiquesin August 1953.

The earliest furniture on the floor was Nathan Liverant and Son's carved and molded yellow pine linen-fold blanket chest of circa 1675-1700. Inscribed "HK" for Haynes Kinglsey of Northampton, Mass, it was $65,000.

Another rarity was an American press cupboard, one of only five or six known, $87,500, at Stephen-Douglas Antiques, Rockingham, Vt. Dating to circa 1710-1740, the cupboard shares features with other early pine furniture from Hampton and Hampton Falls, N.H.

Other New Hampshire furniture to choose from included a Dunlop Queen Anne chest-on-frame, $53,000 at Jane and Phil Workman, New Boston, N.H., and a desk signed "Samuel Dunlop," $250,000 at Wayne Pratt, Woodbury, Conn., and Nantucket, Mass. Merrimack, N.H., dealer Jeannine Dobbs featured a New Hampshire Hepplewhite card table, $5,000. Marlborough, N.H., dealer Betty Willis displayed a New Hampshire Chippendale serpentine front chest of drawers, $18,000.

Of two barrel-back corner cupboards on the floor, one was a Queen Anne example with shaped shelves in old blue paint. Newsam and Berdan, Maine dealers who sold a drop leaf dining table, a painted hanging cupboard and a New England watercolor memorial just after the show opened, priced it at $28,000. Ferguson & D'Arruda had a red barrel-back corner cupboard for $9,500.

Gail and Don Piatt, Contoocook, N.H., sold an open and canted step back pewter cupboard in gray-blue paint, $12,500. Lewis W. Scranton of Killingworth, Conn., parted with a comb back Windsor armchair. Sandy Jacobs displayed a pair of green birdcage Windsor armchairs with unpainted tiger maple arm supports and a tiger maple one-drawer stand, $1,550.

"This is unlike any show I've ever done," said Ackworth, N.H., dealer Kathy Schoemer, another new exhibitor. Well-known for American folk dolls, she featured a 26-inch-tall cloth doll with a painted face, articulated fingers and a period gown, $4,800.

Schoemer's sales included a small step back cupboard. Practical pieces of furniture, especially sets of shelves and hanging boxes, cupboards and racks, were best sellers, sold by M.S. Carter, Michael and Sally Whittemore, and Yankee Smuggler, among others.

Portsmouth, N.H., dealer Hollis Brodrick sold a long, single shelf supported by shaped brackets. Laurie and Charlie Clark parted with their early Nineteenth Century hanging cupboard with a scalloped crest in crusty old surface.

"I've just sold it," Sanbornton, N.H., dealer Linda Tate apologetically told a shopper as he reached for an early Eighteenth Century New England double-tiered, carved candlebox with a high tombstone back. Decorated tinware, flamboyantly painted boxes and early lighting were other hot selling categories.

"It looks like it was decorated by a mural painter," Butch Berdan said approvingly of a diminutive western Massachusetts chest, $68,500, with the most "free-spirited" decoration the Maine dealer had ever seen. A series of painted boxes in the Jewett-Berdan booth included a New Hampshire example with red leaf and gold wheat motifs on a teal ground.

"Doesn't it just look like it belongs in a great still life painting?" said Port Charlotte, Fla., dealer Linda Fodor, who sold her paint decorated wooden compote on a pedestal base, $1,850.

A fleet of ship's dioramas, portraits, half-hull models and hooked rugs with ship motifs sailed at Courcier & Wilkins, who have enthusiastically embraced their new Cape Cod lifestyle. Other dioramas were offered by Cheryl and Paul Scott, The Tates, Thomas Longacre, and Gail and Don Piatt. Stephen-Douglas hung "Navy Yard, Portsmouth, New Hampshire," a captivating oil on canvas harbor-front view of the city, 1850-75, by an unknown hand. An intricately inlaid sailor's work table was $3,200 at Judith and James Milne of New York City.

A coastal mood also prevailed at Corey Daniels, Wells, Maine, where a 300-pound iron garden sculpture vaguely suggestive of a weathered anchor accompanied three primitive Maine decoys, $1,150. Wayne Pratt's outstanding selection of Nantucket baskets included a nest of eight signed Sylvaro, $85,000.

West Newbury, Mass., dealer Paul DeCoste showed off a pair of carved and painted trail boards, $7,500, from a private Long Island yacht; a carved and painted griffin architectural ornament from the 1859 Witch House in Maolis Garden on Massachusetts' North Shore, $12,500; and an early militia knapsack and haversack from the Briggs Family of Scituate, Mass.

For collectors of military Americana, there was also Cheryl and Paul Scott's large eagle and shield decorated drum. Across the aisle, American eagles ruled the roost at Russ and Karen Goldberger Antiques, where the bird appeared in carved, painted and cast form.

Both Ron and Penny Dionne and Pam and Martha Boynton parted with eagle wall plaques. The Boyntons' example was attributed to Bellamy and priced $12,500. On the patriotic theme, Barnstead, N.H., dealer Tommy Thompson sold ten red, white and blue flag holders, $495, and a standing figure of Uncle Sam, $595.

"This really is folk art," Steve Corrigan of Stephen-Douglas Antiques said of a unique flag designed as an eagle and stars on a field of 11 stripes. "It was probably a Secessionist flag. It was made by his wife in 1861 for Bill Kell, who died at the Battle of Shiloh in Tennessee."

"We primarily handle New York and New Jersey coverlets," said Melinda Zonger, at work on a new catalog. The Zongers were one of several textile specialists in the show.

Steven J. Rowe, Craig and Nancy Cheney, and Priscilla Hutchinson Antiques sold hooked rugs. Other outstanding textiles included Barbara Ardizone's yarn sewn and appliqued table covering, $4,800; Sharon Platt's Eighteenth Century madder-red linsey-woolsey quilt, $4,500; and a Navajo pictorial weaving that descended in the family of Wilford Wheeler, a licensed Southwest trader. It was $26,500 at Nathan Liverant and Son.

Meryl Weiss was playing ball with a collection of classic, original photos from the now defunct Baseball Magazine and a presentation bat from St Johnsbury, Vt. A collection of framed, hand drawn advertisements for the merchants of St Albans, Vt., $4,900, supplied an interesting contrast.

"People come from all over the country for this show, and they come prepared to buy," said Peter Eaton. "The secret to this show's success is its ability to grab a national audience and offer a broad enough spectrum of material that anyone, whether his budget is limited or unlimited, can buy."