“Thirty country dealers featuring antiques in a country setting” is the motto for the Bromley Mountain Antiques Show taking place in the lodge at this popular ski area over the weekend of October 4. Living up to its slogan, promoters Jim and Elisabeth Dunn use every nook and cranny of this rambling facility as they pack the dealers into cozy confines.
Preview comes in a more traditional form than the shows that open the previous day, taking on the flavor of early buying, served up with a complimentary breakfast. While making it to the other shows for preview can be turned into somewhat of a leisurely affair, Bromley requires a bit of adjustment as the 8 am opening comes quickly after the late night of shopping and libations typically enjoyed in Ludlow.
Nonetheless, an eager crowd ascended from the steps leading up to the lodge with the first in line arriving prior to 7 am. As had been seen everywhere else along the Vermont Antiques Week trail, people were hungry for quality antiques.
Jim Dunn swung the doors open promptly at 8 and the crowd rushed inside. One advantage to the facility is the location of the entrance †shoppers have a choice as to which direction they want to head once inside: straight toward the rear of the venue where Liberty Hill, Tommy Thompson and Fraser’s Antiques were set up, or to the left where Katona and Lutz displayed alongside The Dog and Pony Show, or to the right where American Decorative Arts monopolized the narrow hallway.
Due to the tight confines, booths quickly appeared to be crowded, with shoppers lined up several people deep †all requesting prices, negotiating sales, or just trying to see what was still available.
Sue and Otto Hart pleased the crowd with their selection of folk art, mechanical banks and smalls of interest. Keeping with the fall theme, the dealers offered three early stuffed black cat toys, two with windup mechanisms and with one of those playing with a jack-o-lantern positioned between its legs and retaining its original box. Two of the cats had done a disappearing act as soon as the show opened, going home with satisfied buyers.
Katona and Lutz enjoyed one of the more spacious display areas and they used it well, with a four-poster bed set on one wall and shelves loaded with accessories in the corner. The back side of the lodge’s natural stone fireplace served as a perfect backdrop for a very nice dower-style blanket box in smoked decorated blue paint with two side-by-side drawers above the cutout bracket base. A slipware plate and a child’s thumb back chair in vibrant yellow paint and red and green decoration sat on top.
Yankee Smuggler offered a country tap table with a red base and scrubbed pine top. A pewter bowl and small apothecary chest in blue-gray paint were displayed on top of it and a nice Windsor in black paint alongside.
A tiger maple highboy, probably of New England origin, was offered by Liberty Hill Antiques. Across the aisle was Fraser’s Antiques with an equally stimulating selection that included an early ladder back armchair in an old and bright red paint. A blanket chest in the original red finished was close-by, as was a banister back side chair. A hooked rug ringed with bright red floral decoration was thought to have been made for a hunter, as the center panel was decorated with a 12-point trophy buck.
A William and Mary gate leg table was featured in the stand of David Proctor and Steve Cirillo. A monumental turned treen bowl was displayed on top of the table as the show opened; however, it soon disappeared behind the wall, amid a host of other items all bagged and with sales slips attached to them.
For further information, 802-885-3705.
