Schweiz-Mar Antiques.
Don & Kay Buck.
Green-Mays.
LANCASTER, PENN. -Franklin and Marshall College Sports and Fitness Center was the site of the fourth Lancaster Heritage Antiques Show, March 23 through 25, managed by Jim and Donna Burk.
The show brought over 70 exhibitors from the Eastern seaboard states, including Ohio and Missouri. The show’s theme was “Ornamentally Yours: A Stroll Through The Garden.” This large special loan exhibition of garden ornaments and plant materials was brought together by guest lecturer, curator Dr Irwin Richman.
Guy and Mary Sparger, Severna Park, Md., are first-time exhibitors at the show. Mary mentioned that they do about 20 shows a year – from New Hampshire to Georgia. She added that they sold something, “every once in awhile. I like to buy. I like to buy more than I like to sell.” They featured a sugar chest circa 1830-1840 plus an interesting pair of seldom seen iron sugar nippers.
Second-time exhibitors, the Barringers, Thomas and Julia of Stockton, N.J., had a very handsome Pennsylvania-German three-drawer blanket chest in salmon paint along with a mid-Nineteenth Century rocking horse (probably by Crandall). On the wall hung a fine Mennonite quilt, in the sawtooth diamond square pattern. Melissa Greene, Lititz, Penn., has a preference for Americana and folk art. Greene featured a fine running horse weathervane with original surface and a zinc head. According to Greene, “The zinc head makes the vane top heavy so that in the wind the front of the horse on the post was backturned.”
Also shown was a paint-decorated Chester County one-door cupboard and a painted New England bench.
“Girlhood needlework,” is how Ruth VanTassel, Malvern, Penn., described her booth. “It’s a very competitive market for American needlework of the better type. We try to handle the best examples.” Van added the well-known saying “The older it gets, the rarer it gets. Quality does start to shrink. You can sometimes accept some things that are condition issues when it is earlier then when it is later. We also do some conservation work.” She added, “within the trade of buying and selling needlework it is taboo to do any kind of embroidering replacement.”
When asked if he was the manager of the show, Jim Burk said, “I am when my wife [Donna] lets me be.” Burk went on to say, “This is our fourth year. We have 71 dealers. It’s a mini York [show]. The attendance [at the Friday-night preview] was up again.”
Heritage Center Museum Board of Trustee President, Andre H. Fouchet, discussing the show said, “This show offers a great variety of Americana to the public.” Chairperson Gaye Cox added, “All the show proceeds go to our children’s special programs. Our core committee is about six-or-eight but includes a group of volunteers of about 30.”
H & L Antiques, Marlton, N.J., brought a Nineteenth Century pine cupboard and New England hanging shelf plus a small cupboard in gray paint. Ann Marie Campbell had on display a unique folk art collection of carved, miniature form animals, including 39 animals, 25 birds, circa 1920. Thomas Thompson, Carlisle, Penn., brought a three-drawer, two-door maple stand plus a punched metal lantern along with a transfer platter. The early sideboard was made of pine, circa 1820.
Stephen Douglas, Rockingham, Vt., brought a unique pair of 18-inch tall glass balls, each with its own megaphone shaped glass stand. They are more than just pretty, they are supposed to ward off evil. According to Douglas, “Legend says when you set a witch’s globe in front of a window they catch the sunlight and they are supposed to scare witches away.” Douglas added. “They are unusual because they have their original [glass] stands.”
