Michael Whittemore Antiques & Folk Art, Punta Gorda, Fla. NHADA 2019 archive photo.
MANCHESTER, N.H. – The venerable NH Antiques Dealers Association (NHADA) will host its own online show. The 63rd Annual New Hampshire Antiques Show will be conducted virtually August 6-8.
“The exhibitors have been collecting their best for months and were disappointed that the show had to be canceled,” stated Tommy Thompson, president of the board of directors for NHADA. “We have been working with our web developer to create our own online show for some time. As a board, we decided to proceed and unveil the 63rd annual show online. This isn’t a replacement for the show, but a new twist. We are thrilled to have this technology available to bring antiques enthusiasts together, one way or another,” added Thompson.
Sharon Platt, a New Castle, N.H., dealer and vice president of communications, was unable to share many details about the event at press time, stating, “We are inundated with busy-ness.” However, she was able to say, “At this moment, we have 45 dealers signed up, and each dealer will be able to present up to 20 items.” Unclear – but to be announced – is how the show’s “opening” will be staged to an online universe of shoppers. The NHADA show is typically characterized by the long, monumental line of attendees stretching through the lobby of the hotel, spilling out onto the sidewalk outside. The eagerness stems from the fact that participating professional antiques dealers exhibiting at the show always save their “best” newly acquired inventory for this event, an appealing motivator for the hunter-gatherers waiting outside the doors to the show on the morning it opens. It is the way the show has maintained its longstanding reputation for “fresh-to-the-market” antiques.
On offer is a wide range of both country and formal antique furniture and accessories, including clocks, folk art, paintings and prints, textiles, woodenware, nautical and scientific items, metalware, glassware, pottery and ceramics, early lighting, samplers, Shaker furniture and accessories, decoys, architectural and garden ornaments and books about antiques.
Making the transition to a virtual opening is something the association’s web designer has been hard at work on, said Platt, and may involve a link on the NHADA’s “countdown” page, which then will take shoppers to a simple drop down menu of exhibitors and categories when the show “opens” at 10 am on August 6. “We believe it is very important that we work on presenting the show on our own website versus using a third-party,” Platt explained. “We love to present the magic of the show.”
Which means, folks should carefully watch www.nhada.org for details to follow.
