Antiques in Manchester, The Collector’s Fair, the new show in town and latest addition to Antiques Week in New Hampshire, got a very warm welcome from both visitors and the sun on Wednesday, August 8, when it opened at 3 pm at the JFK Coliseum on Beech Street. A huge crowd started building about two hours prior to the opening of the show and extended across the front of the building and down the left side.
Due to the hot day, Karen DiSaia, show manager, opened the front portion of the coliseum to those first in line and was able to bring about 170 people into the air-conditioning. “I tried to arrange for a tent across the front of the building in case of either rain or a very hot day, and I was denied by the fire marshal,” Karen said. She plans to submit alternate plans next year that hopefully will be acceptable to the fire department.
“We have a few things to iron out for next year, including possibly a change in our hours, but for the most part, the show went very well, many of our dealers had good sales, and the coliseum is already reserved for an August 7, 2013, opening,” she said. Forty-six dealers were in the show and “so far, all of the dealers are planning to return next year.”
The list of exhibitors was a power list, laced with names that are associated with some of the top shows in the Unites States, such as The Winter Antiques Show, The Philadelphia Antiques Show and the Delaware Antiques Show. As a result, presentations were filled with fine and rare objects, be it furniture or accessories, and most areas of collecting were covered. Country mixed with formal, ceramics filled some shelves, and tin and iron toys were offered. Shaker and samplers, folk art and rugs, paintings and miniatures, fabrics and silver and a good measure of Pennsylvania, all added up to a most interesting and attractive show.
There was a slight ramp leading from the entrance area to the level of the exhibition floor where Steve Powers from Brooklyn, N.Y., was in the front booth with a collection that included a folk art carving of a man with his hands in his pockets, painted surface, 24½ inches high, circa 1890, that was found in Kentucky. A folky seascape, oil on canvas board, showed a Maine island, circa 1870, 18 by 24 inches sight, with a cabin and sailboat, and a cast iron Boston bull terrier, circa 1900‱920, was 12 inches high and in the original painted surface.
Smitty Axtell of Axtell Antiques, Deposit, N.Y., said the show was “wonderful, just wonderful, as good as any show I have ever done in New York.” He went on to mention that selling was good for the first three hours on Wednesday, and right up until closing on Thursday. “I went to the New Hampshire Show on Friday and two people there came up to me and bought things they had seen in my booth the day before, and on the following Tuesday I got a phone call and sold a couple of other things,” he said.
An Eighteenth Century chair was the only piece of furniture to leave the booth, but other pieces included a fine pierced tin lantern, a portrait of a young girl and a set of six painted pantry boxes, each a different color and each with a spice name written on the side. “We sold our best things and went home with a very light load,” Smitty said.
Colette Donovan of Merrimacport, Mass., had a wonderful child’s desk on frame, slant lid with one long drawer, old red surface, cubby interior and in pine. It was from New England and dated from the Eighteenth Century. A chopping table, with the original painted drum decoration, was also from New England and of the Nineteenth Century, while a trestle table with one-board pine top, 89½ inches long and 27 inches wide, on tripod legs, was again of New England origin.
Norman Gronning Antiques of Shaftsbury, Vt., offered a maple Queen Anne highboy with the original surface, Eighteenth Century, 69 inches tall, and a rare pair of Merriam & Moore, Troy, N.Y., terrestrial and celestial globes, circa 1852. An early Nineteenth Century doctor’s traveling medical apothecary, mahogany case filled with medicine bottles, was of New York City origin. “The show was great for us,” Norman said, listing sales that included the highboy, military items, andirons, table, stool, two wing chairs, a quilt and many smalls.
“We had to redo the booth for the second day,” Mary Gronning said, adding, “we have had a couple of callbacks for items people saw at the show. We wish all of our shows were like this one.”
A New England dressing table with scrolled backsplash, stenciled and freehand foliate and grape design on chrome yellow ground, circa 1825, was offered by Sheridan Loyd Antiques, St Joseph, Mo. A circa 1840 New England high chair was made by Ephraim Durpee of Weathersfield, Vt., and still retains his paper label. The chair was deaccessioned by the Locust Grove Museum in Louisville, Ky.
H.L. Chalfant, American Fine Art & Antiques, West Chester, Penn., showed a pine trestle table, Sweden, circa 1780, measuring 78½ inches long and 37¾ inches wide, and a Hudson River Valley oval hutch table with three-board scrubbed top, some old red surface showing, circa 1770. A green painted decorated blanket chest with white tombstone in the center, Elisabeth Enderleinich, 1817, was from Berks County, Penn.
A good number of pieces of furniture were in the booth of American Spirit Antiques, Shawnee Mission, Kan., including an American Queen Anne oval tea table in maple, pinned top measuring 34 by 26 inches, straight skirt, circa 1780, probably from either Massachusetts or southern New Hampshire. A Vermont Federal half sideboard in cherry, tiger maple and mahogany veneer, had three short drawers over two cupboard doors over three long drawers and dated circa 1815. And, as usual, the booth had weathervanes, including two horses, one cow and one rooster.
RLG Antiques, Pittstown, N.J., displayed a Pennsylvania decorated blanket chest, Berks/Lebanon County, the front inscribed M.T.S.W.S., 1775, with two drawers and resting on short straight bracket feet. An oil on canvas portrait of a West Point officer, with parade grounds and men in the background, was circa 1830 and in the original frame, while a Canada goose in the original paint, 1919, was by Joseph Lincoln and came with a great provenance.
Alexandria, Va., dealer Sumpter Priddy III showed a Pennsylvania tilt-top candlestand in walnut, circa 1770‱800, and an eight-day tall case clock with movement by Jacob Frye, Woodstock, Shenandoah Co., Va., circa 1800‱810, 95½ inches tall in walnut.
“Ask me what I have been doing this summer and I will show you,” Hilary Nolan of Falmouth, Mass., said, pointing toward an Eighteenth Century cupboard that was once part of a tavern in Roxbury, Conn. “It came with a quarter-inch of white paint and I have been stripping it down to the original surface,” he said. The piece, circa 1750‱760, has a single and a double folding door on top, two doors on the bottom, 13 pairs of original H hinges, and a tip drawer inside. A Massachusetts tavern table, circa 1700‱710, with one board top, came out of the private collection of John Kenneth Byard of Silvermine, Conn., and was sold at Sotheby Parke Bernet in 1960.
Mark & Marjorie Allen of Gilford, N.H., had an Eighteenth Century New York State pine hutch table with storage box and round top, circa 1740, surrounded by a set of four Boston fanback Windsor side chairs with saddle seats and from the late Eighteenth Century. A Pennsylvania raised panel doors schrank was in the original red paint and dated circa 1775.
Don Olson Fine American Antiques, Rochester, N.Y., had a fine Atlantic salmon trade sign from coastal New England, sheet copper body and sheet brass fins, 42 inches long and dating from the mid-Nineteenth Century, along with a paint decorated freestanding companion board depicting a large compote of flowers. This piece, of the same period as the trade sign, was of pine and measured 42 inches high and 30 inches wide. In an email after the show, Don said. “I can’t wait to do the show again next year and based on sales after the show ended, I had a very good week. Certainly my best New Hampshire show ever. And follow-up continues.”
A Bird In Hand, Florham Park, N.J., showed a plaque with two shorebirds carved and painted on a single piece of wood by A. Whitehead Jr, West Yarmouth, Mass., circa 1940s. Taken from a building in Lake Forest, Ill., was a horse and sulky weathervane by A.B. & W. T. Westervelt, 102 Chambers Street, New York City, circa 1883‱890. And it would not be A Bird In Hand booth without Grenfell Mission mats, this time showing a collection of seven on one end wall of the booth. Ron Bassin said, “The show was better than we expected and there was a great opening attendance.” He also mentioned some of the items he sold, including early Nineteenth Century tole candlesticks, a sandpaper painting, a blue painted document box, Labrador puppy andirons and early Twentieth Century decoys.
Covering most of one wall in the booth of Diana Bittel of Bryn Mawr, Penn., was a selection of 15 sailor’s valentines, some single and some double, making a fine and impressive display. A two-masted ship flying an American flag, silk sails, was the subject of an embroidery and oil on canvas by Thomas Willis (1850‱925), measuring 39 by 29½ inches. A Seventeenth Century wood carving of Gabriel blowing his horn, 30½ inches high by 24 inches wide, was of Continental origin, and two American cast iron hitching posts, circa 1880, featured a black head and a horse.
A paint decorated whimsical mantel, American, 55 inches high with a 33-by-40¼-inch opening, drew attention to the back wall of the booth of Grace and Elliott Snyder of South Egremont, Mass. To the left of it was a single-door cupboard in yellow paint, cutout base, measuring 78¼ inches high and 31½ inches wide. A fine shadow box depicting a sailboat in a harbor set against a village and snow-capped mountain, of carved wood and mounted on wood base, dated from the late Nineteenth Century was offered, as was a portrait of a young child wearing a pink dress and holding a cup, attributed to William Matthew Prior, circa 1840, oil on academy board.
A selection of tin cookie cutters in the booth of The Herrs, Lancaster, Penn., included a man with top hat, a horse and a horse with rider, and a large rack held 17 coverlets, with a few more piled on the floor. A late Nineteenth Century quilt with George Washington and his horse depicted in a round medallion in the center of the piece came from the Kready family, Manheim, Penn.
A vinegar grained blanket chest with high cutout bracket end with center drops, circa 1820, and a rig of five yellowlegs shorebirds, probably Eastern Massachusetts, original paint, circa 1880‱900, were in the booth of John Sideli of Wiscasset, Maine.
Clarke Gallery, Newburyport, Mass., showed a selection of paintings, including “Fishing in the Mountain,” an oil on canvas, 28 by 48 inches signed lower right, by William Louis Sonntag Sr (1822‱900). Walter Granville Smith (1870‱938) painted “The Landing Bellport, L.I.,” an oil on canvas, signed and dated 1910, and measuring 36 by 47 inches.
A New England pine and chestnut chair table was in the booth of Brian Cullity, Sagamore, Mass., along with a collection of redware, stoneware and cast iron heads. “I sold every head of stoneware and redware,” Brian said. Of great rarity was a George Washington memorial armband, circa 1800, of leather, cloth, hair and watercolor on paper.
H.L. Chalfant of West Chester, Penn., hung a pair of folk portraits, the lady seated in a red decorated Windsor side chair and the gentleman also seated in a red chair with yellow striping, circa 1825, New York State or New England, measuring 28 by 23 inches. A Chippendale oxbow chest of drawers in mahogany with molded top was from New England, probably Massachusetts, circa 1775‱780, with bold ball and claw feet. A fish weathervane of iron, 20½ inches long, dated circa 1890 and had directionals.
Samuel Herrup of Sheffield, Mass., had a maple highboy with the original brasses, circa 1760‱780, 70 inches high, from Providence, R.I., and a redware jar from New York State, attributed to the Rochester Pottery, with multicolored glaze. A cast iron gatepost finial, circa 1840‱860, American, had a distinctive horse head with long mane, and a sold tag was attached to a large, full-bodied copper weathervane of a fish measuring 30 inches long. “I did pretty well in Manchester, and I thought the show looked great,” Sam said by email from the show in Ellsworth, Maine.
The Cooley Gallery, Old Lyme, Conn., hung a selection of paintings that included “The Road To Raymond,” an oil on canvas by Chauncey Foster Ryder, 28 by 36 inches, signed lower right, and George Henry Smillie’s “Tidal Pool, Marblehead,” an oil on canvas, signed lower left and measuring 161/8 by 243/16 inches. “That is one of my favorite things, I really love it,” Jeff Cooley said, pointing out an American shutter, two parts, with great red painted surface with gold trim.
A. Scheffman’s Meat Market trade sign, in three parts with a cow’s head pictured in the center piece, water in the background, hung in the booth of Kelly Kinzle of New Oxford, Penn. “That sign came right out of a place in Marietta,” Kelly said, “and I think it has a great look and is so well done.” Standing at the front of his booth was a cigar store Indian by Thomas Brooks, New York City, circa 1880.
Robert Walin / Tucker Frey of Woodbury, Conn., had a large cupboard against the back wall of the booth, a piece that came from the Rochester, N.Y., area, circa 1800, in red, white and blue paint. It was filled with a number of pieces of redware, all yellow slip decorated, from Bob Walin’s personal collection. Several half-hull models were mounted on the wall, one of the Navigator whaler, Medford, Mass.
Fred Giampietro of New Haven, Conn., came with a selection of American folk art, including two large wood carved and painted pigeon heads from the Pigeon Cove Inn, Maine. There are eight of the same carving; two more are in the collection of Shelburne Museum, and the other four are in private collections. A carousel horse, in the original paint with a red, white and blue shield on its chest, stood in the middle of the booth, and a horse over fence weathervane was on the back wall.
Raccoon Creek Antiques at Oley Forge of Oley, Penn., offered a faux painted corner cupboard from Chester County, Penn., 1830‱840, with tiger and bird’s-eye maple painted surface and small Sheraton feet. A tall case clock, paint decorated, circa 1840‱850, New York State, had Riley Whiting works and cinnamon color case with chrome yellow detailing. A miniature blanket chest from Berks County, Penn., had sponge decoration over the original salmon ground, circa 1840‱850.
A zinc fountain with a boy holding a fish was shown by Chuck White, Warwick, N.Y., along with a carved wood and polychrome stork, late Nineteenth Century, found in Ohio. An apothecary contained 36 drawers with shelves in the top section, 79 inches high, in old red painted surface and found in Fairfield, Conn. A Chippendale slant front desk, with red surface, was sold along with a watercolor theorem and a tree of life pantry box. Chuck noted that “I opted not to participate in New Hampshire last year, but I am pleased to be back and I think our show has great potential. And I am pleased with my sales.”
The Village Braider, Plymouth, Mass., did not sell a tall lighthouse of cement offered, but Bruce Emond said, “The show went fine; lots of sales and we met some nice, new people.” Sales included several carved and painted birds, golf hole markers, a miniature firkin, several early trade signs, a miniature on ivory, stoneware and a weathervane in the form of a quarter moon with stars and an owl.
“We had a great show, many sales, good crowd and lots of interest,” Sam Forsythe of Columbus, Ohio, said. David Good of Camden, Ohio, completely agreed, naming off a number of sales, including redware, blown glass, paint decorated dome top box from Maine, a New Hampshire tall chest in cherry with the original brasses and several pieces of chalk.
James Killington, Greenville, Del., had a “sold section” of his booth that included a model of the Idaho , a lake steamer dating circa 1890, and a paint decorated blanket chest, circa 1890, from Lancaster County, Penn., yellow ground with brown splotches.
Jeffrey Tillou Antiques, Litchfield, Conn., showed a Chippendale slant front desk, probably Massachusetts, in walnut and birch, circa 1775‱785, with a Ginsburg and Levy provenance, and a carved stag jumping over a stump, Midwest, circa 1900, 18¾ inches long.
“This show was great and on the first day we sold seven samplers,” Stephen Huber, Old Saybrook, Conn., said. Carol Huber mentioned that the “people who came in knew what they were looking for and bought rare samplers.” Among those not sold was a sampler by Maria Morton of Plymouth, dated 1820, with six alphabets, silk and paint on linen, measuring 17 by 12½ inches. Along the bottom of the sampler were two memorial stones with a village scene and water.
John Keith Russell of South Salem, N.Y., offered a set of eight Queen Anne side chairs, Hudson River Valley or Long Island Sound, in maple and pine and dating circa 1800. A Sheraton harvest table in pine and birch had two leaves, original red stain, circa 1830, measuring 72 inches long. “We sold some Shaker pieces the first day, and a nice candlestand,” John said.
Elle Shushan of Philadelphia said, “My sales were terrific and, amazingly, I didn’t just part with American pieces, but there were buyers for European miniatures as well.” She added, “The show will be an annual on my calendar, and for a first year event, it was remarkable.”
Don Baumann of Van Tassel / Baumann, Malvern, Penn., mentioned that “it’s a good show when you can’t enter your booth for the first 1½ hours; what a crowd, and we had good sales and will return again next year for sure.”
Stella Rubin of Darnestown, Md., came loaded with a selection of colorful quilts and jewelry, and noted she felt great potential for the show. “I sold equally well on both days and to people from eight states,” she said.
“We worked together on this new show, taking suggestions from the dealers and ironing out the floor plan,” Karen said. “I think we all came away happy, it ran very smoothly for a first-time show, we brought in a grand crowd, and we are looking forward to next year,” she added.
