: It's Texas - It's Big
Marburger Farm Antique Show was again the largest single show in
the Round Top week of antiques shows and markets, March 28
through April 3.
Promoter John Sauls said, "The Tuesday and Wednesday gates were
the biggest ever - a new record. And, the week, while held down
because of Friday's rain, was at least as good as any before." He
added that with some new exhibit halls the show is now up to 400
dealers, also a new record.
Dealers for this event pay rents higher then most other shows and
even so there is an enormous waiting list for exhibit spaces for
the twice-yearly event. The antiques offered are strong on
country style and especially so in Texas with lots of hot colors
and Nineteenth Century primitives but that is not everything.
Buyers are here for antiques, and they want a little bit
of everything. John has managed to attract dealers from
throughout the country so a little bit of everything is here. The
show's many large tents house from ten to as many as 70 dealers
and there are now a half dozen buildings on the old farmstead
with more exhibitors.
Susan Mick, Quincy, Fla., still shops in her native Ohio as well
as in Florida, bringing a large selection of wall hangings, out
of print books and some esoteric items (after all, she is an
ex-school teacher). She also had furniture, household accessories
and even a pair of snowshoes (from Florida??).
Gene Best, Mocksville, N.C., and Peter Spanos, shared a
four-booth space under the overhang of one of the buildings. Gene
carries late Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century furniture and
Peter has art from current back 200 years. The combination made a
very attractive booth.
Gene and his wife Diana also get into some cute and different
items from time to time. He brought with him a concrete cow Diana
had found that had been an advertising prop for Borden's Dairy,
Elsie the Cow. It was sold twice on Sunday during the unloading
and at least once more before it left the show in midweek. During
the week he then found the world's largest pond boat (his joke) a
nine-foot-long by eight-foot-tall model of a Nineteenth Century
clipper ship. Its condition was very good and he felt he was
going to put it away for Nashville's Heart of Country in the
fall.
This cow jumped over the moon - several times. It came with
Gene Best, Mocksville, N.C., but was sold several times before
Marburger ever opened.
A local dealer Jan Orr-Harder calls her antiques business Hot
Tamale Antiques and keeps a shop in her hometown of Aledo. Her
taste runs to hot colors for textiles and wall hung art as well as
late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Century furniture and
accessories. She brought several pieces of matchstix furniture
including a large coffee table and similar lamp, silk, cotton and
wool quilts and an assortment of hooked rugs and mats. Jan may be
remembered by many of our readers as the church minister and
sponsor of a New York City antiques show, Country Comes to the
City, held at her East Side church in the 1990s.
Jennifer Mallon, Warrenton Va., was feeling like queen of the
hill by the end of just the first day. She had sold several large
pieces of furniture including an American made slant front desk,
also known as a Governor Winthrop-style desk, to a dealer who
offered the piece at another of the week's shows.
Venice, Calif., dealer Casey Hale, trading under the name "Urban
Country," brought a set of six chairs, which might be categorized
as Arts and Crafts, but by any name were unusual. Made of mixed
woods with intricate inlays by John Shpies in the 1920s they were
purchased from The Denver Museum of Art and offered for $19,500
at the show.
Dealers come to this show from near and far - very far in fact.
The Los Angeles area dealers travel about 1,200 to 1,400 miles
while exhibitor Virginia Renschen, Middletown, Conn., has a trip
of a little more than 2,000 miles. Virginia brought a wide
variety of antiques and had "the best show ever" selling early
dishes, several chests, two sack back Windsor chairs and many
small antique accessories. June Ainsworth is from East Hampton on
Long Island, N.Y.'s eastern tip and she has been a regular at
Marburger Farm for years, long enough that she has one of the
inside spaces.
North Carolinian Jessica Pack brought her typical assortment of
Nineteenth and early Twentieth Century dishes and dining
accessories. Tom Cheap and Rose Reynolds are now settled in their
new home in Scottsburg, Ind., but they still collect early
American country furniture and accessories. Most of their
furniture was painted early in its life, some simply for
protection and some with great decoration. In a corner of their
booth they had a tapered stack of blanket boxes from very large
to a miniature on the top of the stack, all painted.
The distinction of furthest traveled went to Florence Porterman.
She and her husband are retired Americans living in Ross-on-Wye,
England. They come to the states several times each year with a
large collection of Staffordshire dishes and figurines, art,
small hardwood boxes and household decorating accessories. For
this trip they also had two matching early Nineteenth Century
brass chandeliers.
Gale Zelnick, Mt. Dora, Fla.
John Sauls began this show because, as a dealer, he wanted an
alternative to what was there in Round Top some years ago. He had
been an exhibitor at various shows throughout the country at the
time, including Brimfield, Mass. He still exhibits but he only does
it here for his days are not long enough to travel elsewhere. His
collection is pure Americana, with a great deal of textile
artifacts and household items. His collection of quilts as
merchandise is second to none in quality. For this show he had
several samplers in many colors, framed in near perfect condition.
His personal exhibits at the show are about the equivalent of 20
booths.
An interesting phenomenon has begun to happen here. The Round Top
Week, and in particular Marburger Farm, had a few visiting
promoters interviewing prospective dealers for the bigger Eastern
shows. Paul Davis, ever the enterprising entrepreneur, came down
for most of the week even though he had his Portsmouth, N.H.,
show at the Yoken Center on April 4.
Marburger Farm Antique Show happens twice each year with the
event ending on the first Saturday of October and April. This
makes the fall date September 28 through October 2, and next
spring will be March 29 through April 2. To reach John, call
800-947-5799, visit or johnsauls.com.
Texas: selling, buying or just visiting - it's worth the trip.
