“I was feeling faint, headed for a chair in Hilary Nolan’s booth, slipped on a rug and fell to the floor, but not before breaking a rib on one of Hilary’s pieces of furniture. I landed on my knee and somehow also cut my hand,” Richard “Smitty” Axtell recalled from a hospital bed in York, Penn. This all happened on Sunday, September 24, the last of the three-day York Antiques Show, but before the show opened to the public that day. An ambulance took him to the hospital and he is now residing at the  WellSpan Surgery & Re-Habilitation Hospital at 55 Monument Road in York, Penn., 17403. “They tell me that I will be in residence for about eight to ten days,” Smitty said, sadly noting that he will be missing the show in Vermont and most likely the ADA/Historic Deerfield Antiques Show in Amherst, Mass., on September 8-9.

Best of all, and despite the interruption of his schedule of antique shows, “Smitty” is in good spirit and is planning to be back action ASAP.

He can be reached at the address printed above, or by phone at 717-812-6203.