Review and Photos by Tom O’Hara
GLASTONBURY, CONN. — Glastonbury Antiques & Collectibles New Year’s Show on January 1 marked the 35th consecutive year of the town’s Exchange Club’s leading fundraising event. According to show manager Bob Barrows, “more than a couple thousand in attendance and more than 110 exhibitors” filled the Glastonbury High School. The crowds were so good that even a couple hours into the show the parking lots were at capacity and aisles inside appeared full, Barrows reported.
Judith Lesser, Frederick, Md.
Sales were said to have been good throughout the day. A broad mix of inventory meant that there was something for just about every collector available at the show, with antiques and collectibles from the last 250 to 300 years selling throughout the day.
The Ryans, Harwinton, Conn.
Tina Black, an exhibiting dealer from Raubsville, Penn., was selling just that kind of variety. Early that morning among her first sales was a primitive 200-year-old dough box in original paint from Pennsylvania. Soon afterward, she sold an apothecary, also painted. Next came a variety of Nineteenth Century homespun textiles that had mixed uses, such as towels and grain bags. As the morning continued, more sales included some Pennsylvania quilts, a gameboard and some cutting boards. Before the day was over she had even sold an early Twentieth Century teddy bear, making it a very good day for her efforts.
Another dealer had similar success for the day with dissimilar stock. Diana Onyshkewych from Redding, Conn., sold from her fine art collection a portrait and also a painting of a ballerina along with an assortment of small antiques.
Her partner in the booth, Chris Velush from Southbury, Conn., sold an early bronze sculpture and some of the jewelry from his cases. He had a great deal of interest in an unusual mercury barometer, dating back to the mid-1800s, he said, and made in Russia. Its country of origin and condition are what made it especially unusual, he noted.
Marion Scully was too busy writing sales receipt to have a conversation. She exhibits at this show and several others in southern New England, including Brimfield, showing early earthenware and silver that she gathers at sales and auctions near her home in Enfield, Conn. There was great interest in her Lenox; sales included many pieces of the Nineteenth and early Twentieth Century silver hollowware, but not just for the dining table; a lot of it was for personal use, such as perfumes and charms.
Michael’s Antiques, Connecticut
The partners of Ironstone Antiques, Tim Brigham and Adin Poole, said they were pleased with their day. Specializing in early American country, according to Brigham, their sales included a hard-to-find overshot coverlet in queen size, three sections, blue and canary yellow; a country Queen Anne table; an assortment of Eighteenth Century pewter and a Pennsylvania bucket bench. Tim also explained about a “flip glass” from the Eighteenth Century: it would be filled with ale or beer; then a shot glass filled with rum would be dropped into it for the imbiber to enjoy. They sold one priced at $300.
Christmas was the major theme for Beth Snyder. This Bethany, Conn., dealer is a regular shopper at shows year round, but is always looking for holiday items and some Nineteenth Century toys.
Swank Pearce Antiques & Décor, Canton, Conn., was offering a variety of small antiques, which included jewelry and select pieces of Nineteenth and Twentieth Century dishes.
Vermonter Richard Fuller was in great form by noon, as he had already sold the largest piece of furniture he had brought to the show — a large cupboard found near his South Royalton home. With his propensity for Eighteenth and early Nineteenth Century New England furniture, the dealer was offering several more pieces as well, including a charming pine hutch with decorative cutout top; a small pine dry sink and a hutch table. All appeared to be in original surfaces, with only wax added.
Pieces of Time, Hamden, Conn.
Fran Cotumaccio, Manhasset, N.Y., offered several tables filled with little things ranging from turn-of-the-century lead soldiers to old fishing lures.
Natalie Warner, 1843 House Antiques of Springfield, Mass., was into her copper inventory. There were all kinds of copper things for the colonial kitchen, including sauce pans, skillets, dippers, ladles and more.
In a show with this many exhibitors, there was much more for the shopper to see and buy.
Kris Casucci, Walker Homestead’s owner from Brookfield, Mass., was showing her American kitchen featuring a primitive corner cupboard made with an unusual decorative crown molding and filled with Eighteenth Century wooden ware and earthenware. Next to that was a mule chest from the same time period with a painted table in the center of her exhibit.
Cynthia Leonard, Southington, Conn., was selling Nineteenth Century oil lighting. Harwinton, Conn., exhibitors and shop dealers The Ryans were offering a collection of early kitchen tools, including an assortment of glass rolling pins. Another Connecticut dealer, Michael’s Antiques, offered an unusual spinning wheel, complete with the fiddle head.
Anne O’Connor, Glastonbury, Conn.
Kim Kittredge is now trading under the name of her new shop in Coventry, Conn. — Nathan Hale Antiques Center — but still with her traditional inventory. She is a toy, doll and teddy bear specialist. Here she presented an oversized exhibit area filled as Santa’s sack on December 23 with all the early toys from about 1850 through the early Twentieth Century.
As this is a Connecticut show, there were of course a great many early Connecticut clocks. One of the exhibitors specializing in them was Steven Levine, Pieces of Time, Hamden, Conn. His offerings included clocks from a native pillar and scroll, Chauncey Jerome, from about 1850.
Bob Barrows has been producing the show since its inception 35 years ago as a fundraising event for the Glastonbury Exchange Club. Proceeds allow the club to do good works within the community, such as scholarships and assistance for the needy, according to Barrows.
Barrows and his family have been in the antiques business as show promoters and auctioneers for now 70 years, as Thomas Barrows and Sons, Portland, Conn., with auctions in central Connecticut. For information, 840-342-2540.
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