Ashaway Antiques, Ashaway, R.I.
Review & Onsite Photos by Madelia Hickman Ring
TOLLAND, CONN. — The longest running show in Connecticut returned to the Tolland Middle School on Sunday, March 9, with nearly 30 dealers from all six New England states, New York and Pennsylvania. With a slightly smaller group of dealers — down from 55 the previous year — all of the exhibitors fit into the school’s gymnasium, a change most everyone welcomed. There was no change to the show’s host and beneficiary: the Tolland Historical Society (THS).
“We have fewer dealers but have the same great quality of things we always have,” noted THS president, Kathy Bach. “The morning was very good, with consistent traffic and lots of buying.”
Show director Mary-Pat Soucy confirmed the show’s attendance numbers were on par with previous years.
Two years ago, John and Elizabeth DeSimone and Goosefare Antiques & Promotions, long-time show promoters based in Saco, Maine, took over managing the show.
The DeSimones set up at each show they run and their booth at the back of the room was had both large and small pieces of furniture, paintings and decorative arts, or “smalls.” Their sales that morning were “all smalls” and they had a good lead on a collection to buy from.
From left, Kathy Bach, Tolland Historical Society president, and show director, Mary-Pat Soucy.
Glenn Allard was packing up a pair of Eighteenth Century Dutch brass chambersticks he had just sold when we walked into his booth. Additionally, he had sold a Queen Anne table while his colleague, Lisa Titcomb, said she’d sold a Windsor chair, a boat picture, a tulip-form cloche and a copper bath.
Bethlehem, Penn., dealer Thurston Nichols was a last-minute entry and was pleased to be there, occupying a prime spot near the front of the show. A Louis XV canopy porter’s chair and decoy were among his early sales. A carved Black Forest style bench with bear supports, a 42-star flag that dated to between November 11, 1889 and July 3, 1890, and a steel Windsor sackback armchair were among the other pieces that shoppers inquired about.
Next to Nichols, Charles Guinipero of Stafford Springs, Conn., was in his usual place. A striking log cabin quilt provided the perfect backdrop to four Connecticut stoneware jugs that sat on a one-drawer mule chest. Papered hatboxes were also in plentiful supply, as well as the Steiff stuffed animals he is known for.
Tom Landers, with Palisades Trading Company, showed Antiques and The Arts Weekly three rugs he was particularly pleased to have. A Lori Pamback had purple or aubergine hues that dated it to before 1890, a Bidjar example and a Heriz with an unusual camel-colored ground. The Windsor, Conn., dealer had sold a couple of “good” Caucasian rugs to a “sophisticated local client” and a couple of Navajo rugs to a dealer.
Lincolnville, Maine, dealer Martin Ferrick restores furniture and always has an elegant display that carefully balances case pieces with mirrors or paintings on the wall. A bowfront chest of drawer that had a distinctive closed cupboard space above the drawers sported a red “sold” dot. A British map sampler of Europe that dated to circa 1800 and two still life paintings were among the stand-out pieces on his back wall.
Hilary Nolan had a pair of circa 1820 English redware bird-form whistles. He is shown here demonstrating on one of them. Hilary & Paulette Nolan, Falmouth, N.H.
In his usual booth across the aisle from Ferrick, Hilary Nolan had found new homes for a white painted lantern he had found in Maine and a small lidded redware crock.
Deirdre Healey is The Victorian, and she specializes in antique and estate jewelry. It was her first time doing the show and she was very pleased to have written receipts for lockets, rings and earrings, as well as an enameled open-face ladies watch with matching chain that were sold separately to the same buyer.
Healey’s neighbor was Bruce Henley, New England Home Antiques. Two pieces of furniture had sold and been taken out of his booth by late morning: a stepback cupboard and a Rhode Island tea table. Two watercolor landscapes, painted in 1895 by William Paskell that hung on his side wall depicted the same house, in spring and autumn.
Providence, R.I., based Richard Lawrence Greene is known for high-quality framed works of art and works on paper, most of which have some historical importance. Among the things he brought was an unsigned pencil and chalk harbor recognition drawing titled “River SF / Center of Breakers S.S.E.”; he explained that harbor recognition drawings were important documents that allowed mariners to identify key landmarks and navigate safely. Greene was not certain which river “SF” referred to. A gouache and pencil illustration from a late Nineteenth or early Twentieth Century First Reader depicted a lamb grazing in a field with other sheep asleep under a nearby tree. For collectors of Winslow Homer’s (American, 1836-1910) works, he had a matted engraving of his “The Army of the Potomac — A Sharp-Shooter on Picket Duty” from the November 15, 1862, issue of Harper’s Weekly.
Richard Lawrence Greene, left, showing a shepherd’s crook to a mother and her children, who looked a bit skeptical as to its merits. Providence, R.I.
“The morning has been okay. I sold quite a few small items and gave out a bunch of cards and measurements,” Jim Luskay told us. He is DocEngine Antiques, in Holliston, Mass., and said all of his sales — a wall box, a Jordan Marsh hatbox, some architectural pieces — were to new clients, split, he thought, pretty evenly between dealers and private collectors.
“I’ve sold a good painting, a nice garden seat and some Staffordshire,” reported Greg Hamilton. His Stone Block Antiques’ booth was fronted with a blue-cloth-covered table with Staffordshire figures of all sizes while landscape and still life paintings framed pieces of case furniture. Two unusual Indian carved wood covered shelves — similar to each other with only minor differences — were stand out pieces.
“Smalls are selling well,” Jim Megura told us, though the Brookfield, Conn., dealer did not elaborate. A pair of dolls made out of shells were two of the distinctive items in his booth, as were an Eighteenth Century carved marriage chest and a bright blue pie safe.
Next to Megura, an empty spot on the wall of Chester Cwilichoski Antiques, Ansonia, Conn., signified where a birchbark picture once hung. Cathy Cwilichoski always stocks holiday pieces and this show was no exception, with a few brightly-painted papier-mâché Easter eggs and a small table-top Christmas tree with vintage ornaments.
The gap on the wall of Chester Cwilichoski’s booth was where a birchbark picture once hung. Ansonia, Conn.
Long-time vendor Nancy Douglas, of Rexford, N.Y., had sold a Horace Bundy picture, an early fraktur that was dated “1790” and an early bottle. Her Willow Springs Perennial Antiques booth still had lots to look at, including a diminutive Pennsylvania painted table-top box, a selection of tin heart-shaped cheese strainers, metal chocolate molds in the form of rabbits and other animals and some chalkware lambs and bunnies.
Jim Twining of Raven’s Way Antiques noted “a range of things” selling, noting country smalls, antique tools and some sporting objects were among what he had negotiated sales of. Centered on the North Kingstown, R.I., dealer’s back wall were a pair of high-head red-breasted merganser decoys by Pennsylvania carver Bob Biddle that retained their original paint, a shorebird decoy, a Frank W. Benson etching titled “The Passing Flock,” several ice fishing lures and a book on decoys.
In the adjacent booth, Donna Kmetz sold carved birds and an early knife box, as well as a “nice” Francis Draper work and one of two pencil drawings by George Ennis (American, 1884-1936). The Douglas, Mass.,-based fine art dealer said she had done a lot of buying over the winter months and was glad to be at the show.
For information on the Tolland Historical Society, www.tollandhistorical.org; Goosefare Antiques & Promotions is at www.goosefareantiques.com or 860-641-6908.
