“I was very pleased for a first-time show,” said Nan Gurley, commenting on dealer response and visitor traffic at her first Presidents’ Day Weekend Antiques Show at the Royal Plaza Trade Center on February 20. Never afraid to try a new venue for her shows, Ms Gurley rented this site many months back, as it has been a continuing success for her Thanksgiving show over the last two decades. She said, “I took the chance and we had a terrific gate, a few less early buyers and a lot more retail buyers attended.” She filled the exhibit hall with nearly 100 dealers featuring early American antiques and primitives.

Sales were good, according to several dealers. Firehouse Antiques, Galena, Md., reported good results with a broad variety of antiques. I-deal Antiques, the business name for Bud Hughes, New Market, N.H., was very happy to be there. From his exhibit there were numerous sales, including some small woodenware pieces, an early Shaker pulled yarn mat and a large pantry cupboard.

John Anderson brought a New Hampshire-made continuous arm Windsor.

Christine Tisdale brought to the show a small mull chest, oneprobably used for cereal grains in the home. It appeared to havebeen a countertop piece, but it might also have worked as a wallhanger, made of pine with covered bins at the bottom and drawersabove. New Ipswich, N.H., dealer Estelle Glovey had an earlyAmerican-made Sheraton or federal-style chest of drawers. JudyBrennan, Peterborough, N.H., said she and her husband, Joe, soldwell, with smalls such as household tools and lighting.

Some dealers have been at the business for nearly all their lives and a show is just another day. Two such fellows are John Anderson and Robert Hay. Mr Anderson has followed in his parents’ footsteps, becoming what in the antiques business is known as a “picker.” He will get a call to come to a house to buy “some stuff,” and he has a wealth of knowledge and can recognize the really fine antiques. He then buys and offers his purchases to other dealers with, as the expression goes, “money left in it,” so even a dealer can buy from him for resale, although not necessarily at a big profit margin.

Robert Hay, Plainfield, N.H.

Among his most interesting pieces was a New Hampshire-madeEighteenth Century continuous arm Windsor chair for less than$1,000. Mr Hay, from farther north in New Hampshire, often can dothe same; he offered numerous small items, a set of chairs and atall painted cupboard in his temporary shop.

Sandwich Glass candlesticks were Michael Rackis’s specialty. Shohola, Penn., dealer Michael Gagnon had a great yellow painted cupboard. William Lary brought a tavern table from Dublin, N.H., in what was probably its first trip out of the state since being made more than 200 years ago.

Ted and Carole Hayward, Richmond, N.H., trade as Yankee Smuggler Antiques. In a postshow interview, Mr Hayward said they “did very well, much better than we expected…furniture, smalls, very well.”

Ms Gurley said that for a first-time show her expenses were high, but she was so pleased with the results she has already booked for next year’s Presidents’ Day weekend, February 19. She also has a series of shows coming up in Sturbridge, Mass., starting May 12. For information, email nangurley@adelphia.net or call 207-625- 3577.