Jenkins Management’s Tailgate Antiques Show filled three buildings at Tennessee Fairgrounds with antiques, dealers and customers †all looking for that special piece of Americana.
With 130 exhibitors, the show, conducted February 11‱3, has become a mainstay, together with its companion, Antiques at Music Valley, in the unofficial national tour of antiques shows and markets.
Schoolhouse Antiques is the business of Neal and Barbara Finbloom, Kirkwood, Mo., an outgrowth of their collecting passion for early American crafts. Barbara has been busy finding early textile crafts, including samplers and hooked rugs, that can be resold in their exhibit. They also featured a collection of fine early stoneware from middle America and small handmade useful objects from the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. Sales in these small antiques were rewarding, Neal said, adding, “We have had a good show; selling was good and we found some things as well.”
Their comments were echoed by many of the exhibitors that Valentine’s weekend. Monty Young, an exhibitor from Shelbyville, Tenn., was thrilled with an early purchase, a two-handled crock, about 12 inches tall, that he believes was from Alabama. “The color of the glaze, a mottled green with splashes of purplish brown on bright red clay, plus the form with two handles are, I am quite sure, Alabama,” he said.
He noted that early pottery from Alabama is very rare as it was not an area known for that craft so it made his purchase even more rewarding. His exhibit included pottery from Tennessee and other Mid-Atlantic and Eastern states and an assortment of very early furniture from the area.
Christopher English, West Palm Beach, Fla., was sharing his space with Alan Hoops, a Findlay, Ohio, dealer. Together, their offerings were an interesting mix of early American household objects, some Continental furniture, European and English small antiques and even early garments and textiles. Their assortment was so broad, it encouraged visitors to study all the parts and pieces in their exhibit and eventually focus on a purchase.
Coming from Mount Vernon, Ohio, Israel Schaaf brought a collection of early Ohio, Pennsylvania and New England furniture. There was a diminutive hunt board in mixed hardwoods, origin unknown but for sale at only $3,400, modest today for the style. He sold a corner cupboard in early blue milk paint that was found in Latrobe, Penn. Construction details †including rounded drawers and the joinery in the body and drawers †reflected its German heritage.
From Lebanon, Penn., David Horst was offering fine Pennsylvania furniture and also several early wooden toys. Among them were a wooden carved fan and a homemade mechanical pull toy.
Marilyn Angel, Willoughby, Ohio, had good sales of miniature portrait paintings on ivory with original frames, along with jewelry.
Painted furniture from Pennsylvania was the inventory for Robert Conrad, Yeagertown, Penn., and he offered a paint decorated blanket chest as his centerpiece.
A Wilder Place, Flower Mound, Texas, showed early ironstone and Nineteenth Century home accessories. Bob and Betty Daigle of Country Squire Antiques, Fall River, Mass., were selling from their collection of Native American-made furniture.
Of the three buildings at the fairgrounds used for the show, the Wilson Building had 16 dealers exhibiting and it was the entry point for the show, while the Vaughn and Agriculture Buildings each had about 60 exhibitors in straight rows, walls optional.
This kind of setup, according to show manager Steve Jenkins, “is what the Tailgate dealers and customers are accustomed to, a chance to see all of it! Our dealers at this show have feather trees and the villages to go with them, Eighteenth Century dishes, William and Mary furniture and lots more. One setup was for hunters and fishermen, next to it were early linens and quilts.”
He added, “We have a lot of fun with this show; the dealers do too, and they sell quite well.”
Tailgate will return this fall, October 28″0, and February 10‱2, 2011. For information, www.jenkinsshows.com or 317-598-0012. The company’s other shows include the Springfield Antiques Extravaganza in Ohio every month and Farmington [Conn.] Antiques Weekend June 12‱3 and September 4‵.
