“Our show did well, attendance was up from last year, and we received the usual reports from the dealers with some of them doing very well, while others had bad days,” John Bartlett of Old Farm Antiques and one of Antiques in the Valley’s show managers said. He indicated that a good number of the dealers said they would be back next year, and “we will be looking for about six or eight new exhibitors to be joining us,” he added. This year, 57 dealers took part in the June 15‱6 show, offering a variety of goods, with the balance tipping toward Pennsylvania objects.
Antiques in the Valley filled the gymnasium and the cafeteria of the Oley Valley Middle School, as well as space in the hallways between the two areas, with a food service and tables adjoining the cafeteria area. The booths, for the most part, were attractive and uncluttered, making it easy for visitors to clearly view the objects being offered. Furniture, which has not been a hot seller for a couple of years now, was still available and several case pieces, including a large Dutch cupboard, were sold.
One of the booths set up in the hallway was American Vernacular Antiques, Lititz, Penn., offering a nice selection of smalls, including an eight-sided game board in several colors of paint, with a small tin star in the center, and a child’s handmade riding toy in the form of a black and white painted mule, original paint and leather ears.
Steven F. Still Antiques, Manheim, Penn., offered a blacksmith’s horseshoe trade sign from the shop of John Albert, East Hanover, Lebanon County, Penn., circa 1880. It featured a wooden cut-out of a horse head within a large wooden horseshoe with the original painted surface and lettering. A paint-decorated corner cupboard of Pennsylvania origin dated circa 1850 and measured 6 feet 8 inches tall with a 33-inch corner. An interesting pair of six-arm maple egg cups with master salt dated circa 1850 and was found in New York City. The first thing sold from the booth as the show opened was a small cast iron figure of a reclining whippet with great original surface.
Goodhart’s Antiques of Shippensburg, Penn., had a papier mache chicken, about 6 inches tall, in mint condition, and two New Jersey three-handled stoneware crocks with blue decoration. A batter jug deco-rated with three blue cherries was by Cowden & Wilcox and had the original handle and tin lid.
Several dealers came from New York State to do the show, including Home Farm Antiques of Bolton Landing, with a large selection of wooden breadboards in various forms, including several pigs, a couple of fish, a duck and some rabbits. A collection of six yellowleg tinnies in the original painted surface and displayed on the original sticks, dated circa 1900‱910 and were ex-collection of C. Gunny Andrews.
Among the weathervanes offered in the show were two in the booth of T.L. Dwyer Antiques, Barto, Penn., including a New England full-bodied copper rooster example, an extra plump version measuring 17 inches high and 13 inches long. It dated circa 1880 and retained a verdigris surface with some traces of gilt. A New England Black Hawk, attributed to Harris, measured 20½ inches high, 27 inches long, and dated circa 1880. Traces of yellow sizing and gilt showed through the verdigris surface.
A good portion of the back wall in the booth of Lisa McAllister, Clear Spring, Md., was taken up by a large gathering basket, Nineteenth Century, shown with a selection of smaller baskets inside. A grouping of yellowware molds took up a portion of the showcase, and a hooked rug featured a beige running horse within a zigzag patterned border.
Several pie safes were on the floor of the show, including one in the booth of White Horse Mill Antiques, Gap, Penn., dating from the Nineteenth Century with the original punched tin panels, porcelain knobs and two short drawers over two doors. Of interest was a set of four handwrought quilt clamps.
Another exhibitor from Shippensburg, Penn., was Wilhide’s Antiques, offering about three dozen tin cookie cutters in many different forms, including a man with top hat riding a horse, birds, matched pair of man and a woman, tulip, guitar, eagles, hearts and alligator. Other tin pieces were a small coffee pot, creamer and syrup, and among several pieces of stoneware was a 3-gallon crock, Cowden & Wilcox, Harrisburg, Penn., with blue bird decoration.
It appeared as if Blue Diamond Antiques of Dearborn, Mich., had cornered the market on Flow Blue, for several tables were loaded with pieces, including a large platter with a turkey design, complete with six plates each with a turkey centered in the design. And in complete contrast, Donald and Verna Stump of Sinking Spring, Penn., showed a selection of carvings, trade signs, a tall cast iron hitching post with horse head and a red painted hanging wall cupboard with one paneled door.
Christopher and Bernadette Evans Antiques of Waynesboro, Va., had a selection of stoneware, including a rare 4-gallon crock with house and lawn decoration, signed Huxstun & Co., Fort Edwards, N.Y. Other pieces featured fish and floral decoration. A full-bodied cow weathervane with cast iron head had weathered about a dozen bullet shots, but they were easily overlooked considering the great green surface on the vane.
Two late Nineteenth Century dolls, each measuring about 6 inches tall, sat on a small bench in the booth of Neverbird Antiques of Surry, Va. The dolls, in period military dress, were Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee, looking exhausted as the Civil War has come to an end. For baseball fans, a 1943 Philadelphia Athletics baseball was signed by the whole team, with Connie Mack on the sweet spot, offered along with a 1940s Stan Musial kid’s baseball glove.
One never knows what to expect to find in the booth of Moseley’s Antiques, Reading, Penn., and among the offerings this year was a Cook Coffee Co. handled carrying box made of some sort of compressed material that would sustain bumps along the way, and an early doll’s wooden bench in old green paint, the perfect spot to show off an old stuffed bear. And, as usual, there was a selection of walking sticks, many with silver tops.
What happens at a local carnival scene was perfectly captured in a large painting on canvas, framed, taking up the major part of one wall in the booth of David H. Horst of Lebanon, Penn. Colorfully depicted were a couple on a seesaw, a game of croquet, a young man and his date on a bicycle built for two, lots of fancy dressers out for a good time, and a portly lady seated on a tent rope, just about ready to collapse the lemonade stand, among other amusing situations. “The picture dates from the 1920s and it once hung in a bank in York County,” David Horst said. Against the back wall was a large paint decorated Dutch cupboard, two six-light doors over two drawers over two lower doors, with a grained bittersweet surface.
Halsey Munson Americana of Decatur, Ill., sets up a neat looking booth, with every object destined for some exact place to be shown. Taking a prime spot on the back wall was a late Nineteenth to early Twentieth Century trade sign in the form of a violin, complete with bow, in bronze. It measured 21½ inches long, 7½ inches wide, and was probably the sign for a violin maker in either Boston, New York or Philadelphia. An oil on canvas showed a New England hillside farmstead by the shore of a lake, complete with fences, animals, a barn, house and sheds. It measures 17¾ by 26 inches sight, and dates circa 1870‱890.
Gloria M. Lonergan of Mendham, N.J., offered a red painted pine and maple New England table, circa 1790, with rectangular top and rounded corners, square chamfered tapering legs and old surface. “How do you like the five building banks on the table?” Pat Lonergan asked, apparently proud of the way he had arranged them. They did look nice, but did not sell to any of the “first into the show” people. A dough box, also sporting a red painted surface, measured 34 inches long, 17 inches wide, and dated circa 1830.
Greg K. Kramer & Co., Robesonia, Penn., set up with his usual look, lots of things, including crowded shelves in the showcases and use of all the shelves in the corner cupboards offered from both ends of the booth. One of the cupboards, Pennsylvania and of cherry, two parts, dated from the Nineteenth Century and was in an old red surface. A selection of mocha and spatter was shown behind a 12-light door on top, over two doors in the lower section.
In the opposite corner, a mustard surface was grain painted, again with a 12-light door in the top section and door with red panel in the bottom part. On a table was shown a model of the interior of a general store, Berks County, and attributed to the Jail House Carver, complete with counters, a stove, stocked shelves and two figures playing a game of checkers.
Seven case pieces of furniture lined the walls in the booth of Bertolet House Antiques of Oley, including a Pennsylvania Dutch cupboard, grain painted with a 12-light door over three short drawers over two doors in the lower section. It dated circa 1850, as did a Pennsylvania paint decorated jelly cupboard in vibrant red grained surface. A blanket chest, also circa 1850, was grain painted with a smoke simulated lid, Pennsylvania, ex-collection Lester Breininger.
A sheet metal cow weathervane, black and white painted with well-weathered surface, circa 1890, came from Delaware County, N.Y., and was shown by Axtell Antiques of Deposit, N.Y. A large apple drying rack of woven splint, circa 1830, took up the major portion of a side wall of the booth, and a collection of butter stamps filled one shelf of the showcase. “I have a large collection of butter stamps and right now my favorite one has a heart design,” Smitty Axtell said.
A tall case clock from Lancaster County, Penn., original cherry case, John Esterle, Maytown, was shown by Robert M. Conrad Antiques, Yeagertown, Penn. He also had a nice miniature cupboard, circa 1850, of walnut and cherry, in a red surface with a four-light door.
A circa 1820 pumpkin pine chair table with two-board top measuring 60 by 41½ inches, large enough to seat six or eight people, was at the front of the booth of Emele’s Antiques, Dublin, Penn. The table was surrounded by a set of six arrow back Windsor side chairs with cherry decoration on the back splat. A large wooden bowl of tin cookie cutters was shown on the table.
The Norwoods’ Spirit of America, Timonium, Md., offer a carved and well-detailed puppet of a police officer, and a Pennsylvania carved wooden eagle looking back over its left wing, mounted on a limb and well painted.
A Pennsylvania oversized chalk pig with the original paint, circa 1860‱870, was shown by Raccoon Creek Antiques, Oley, and another large offering was a Delaware Valley sheet iron weathervane, an arrow with oversized “tulip” end and the original iron worked base adornment. Dating circa 1860‱870, it was once on top of a church. A Chippendale high country “tap” table with drawer, one-board top with breadboard ends, was in the original red surface, and a pair of yellow painted stepdown Windsor side chairs had tulip decoration on the back splat.
Ivy Hill Primitives of Langhorne, Penn., is certainly well-named, for at every show the booth is filled with country, mostly unpainted objects that fit the primitive definition. At first glance, the booth appears to be a long forgotten and completely undisturbed pantry or kitchen, piled high with hog scraper candlesticks, baskets, butter molds and stamps, wooden bowls and plates, storage boxes and more. On a closer, look one can find a nest of spice drawers, and even a tin top hat off in the corner.
Oley Valley Antiques of Oley offered and sold an interesting game table that had a large, polished stone mounted in the middle, a piece from Crystal Cave, Penn. Against the back wall was an Eighteenth Century New England tiger maple settle with lift lid and pullout bed, and in the corner was a collection of candle molds ranging from three to eight tubes.
A hanging candle or salt box in walnut with one drawer was shown by Jeff & Cathy Amon Antiques, Jamestown, Penn., along with a stack of three storage boxes, finger construction, in two shades of green and red. Baskets were plentiful, including a nest of straw baskets.
Timeless Restoration, Canfield, Ohio, had a miniature walnut chest with reverse graduated drawers, original surface, and an Eighteenth Century ball and claw footed table from eastern Pennsylvania. A decorated settle bench, circa 1820‱840, was also of Pennsylvania origin.
Gene Bertolet Antiques of Oley had many small collections to offer, including cookie cutters, graters of various sizes, breadboards and scrub boxes. A large metal sign once helped sell Wilson Whiskey, and a large tin squirrel cage was in the form of a church.
Carlson & Stevenson, Manchester Center, Vt., had a selection of French carnival figures, as well as a police officer and a priest, circa 1880, 18 inches tall, and a woolwork fire screen, American, circa 1865, depicting a parrot among a bunch of roses.
A large oil on canvas by Ben Austrian (1870‱921) titled “A Comfy Roost” showed a Rhode Island Red mother hen with her brood of 15 chicks, painted circa 1904, 20 by 26 inches, signed lower right, in the booth of Greshville Antiques & Fine Art, Boyertown, Penn. Another work offered was “Springtime in the Garden,” an oil on canvas, 36 by 36 inches, circa 1930, by Ralph D. Dunkelberger (1894‱965).
Filling his usual spot in the hallway was Joseph J. Lodge of Lederach, Penn., with a varied selection of folk art and furniture, plus many interesting accessories. A one-of-a-kind weathervane fragment had a soldier standing by a cannon, sheet metal, and a large full-bodied fish trade sign, gold surface, was on the table at the front of the booth. A collection of 11 colorful wooden hat stands was arranged in two rows, a grouping that “took me seven years to put together,” Joe said. The red tulip was the first one found and the stands were being sold only as a collection.
“We have already started thinking ahead to next year, when our dates will be Friday and Saturday, June 14 and 15, when we will be at the same location with another interesting Antiques in the Valley show,” John Bartlett said. Funds from the show are directed to community projects, mainly school needs, and this year’s support brings air conditioning to parts of the middle school.
