The large Broadway Café neon sign in working condition, was in the booth of Peter Mack, Relics & Rust Speedshop, Newburyport, Mass. It was priced $5,000.
Review & Onsite Photos by Rick Russack
DEERFIELD, N.H. — Now in its fourth year, Brimfield North advertises itself as New Hampshire’s largest antiques show and flea market along with the largest food truck rally. The two-day show on the Deerfield fairgrounds, ran on Memorial Day Weekend, May 25-26, and the weather was perfect. The reality justifies the advertising as the show attracted more than 13,000 shoppers for more than 300 dealers. Many of the exhibitors were comparatively young, some of which were showing for the first time. Exhibitors have a choice of indoor or outdoor spaces; this year, dozens of exhibitors utilized indoor spaces in five buildings while hundreds more chose outside spaces. Klia Ververidis Crisafulli, who runs the show, said that as late as Friday, the day before the show, she was getting calls from exhibitors asking if there was space available. She said, “That’s because of the weather forecast. That’s okay. We have plenty of space outside — the fairground is huge.” In addition to heavy print advertising, the show’s Facebook page had 475,000 visits during the 28 days leading up to the show.
What are shoppers likely to find? Perhaps not much Eighteenth Century furniture, but there were plenty of vintage advertising signs, toys and dolls of various ages, glassware, kitchen items, lamps, outdoor fixtures and garden furniture, vintage clothing, holiday items, architectural remnants, tools, Oriental rugs and more. There were also select contemporary crafts. In other words, if you can name it, it was probably there.
Liza Duffy, Derry, N.H., concentrated on outdoor furnishings. Her selection of wire furniture ranged in prices from $25 to $175.
Those interested in trade signs and vintage posters would have enjoyed the display of Peter Mack, Relics & Rust Speedshop, Newburyport, Mass. Mack was set up in one of the buildings and a large 6-foot-wide illuminated neon sign from the Broadway Café he had was immediately noticeable. Much of the material in his booth had come from Miami, Fla., and Mack believed the sign came from a café there. It was priced $5,000. He also had a large selection of colorful turn-of-the century European posters for a variety of products, as well as a selection of automotive trade signs. One of his favorite posters was a large blue print depicting a male lion with a globe of the world held in its front paws. It advertised Rochet, a late Nineteenth Century bicycle and automobile maker. It was priced $2,800. Another bicycle poster, priced $1,800, was for Redior, which depicted a blond-haired maiden with butterfly wings, in a flimsy gold-colored gown, holding aloft a bicycle. He had many more, all were uniformly framed and had come from one collection in Florida.
Some of the vendors said they were dispersing collections of deceased family members. Ken Elwell, Newton, N.H., had a selection of about two dozen modern dressed, bisque-head dolls. He said, “They were my mother’s. I don’t know much about them other than that she was buying in the 1990s. I priced them to sell, from $25; I just want them gone.” This was a show in which most exhibitors had a variety of merchandise. In addition to his mother’s dolls, Elwell had a selection of records and comic books.
Ken Elwell, Newton, N.H., was selling a collection of dolls collected by his late mother. Most dated from the 1990s and were priced from $25 up. He said, “They’re priced to sell.”
Dolls were available in several other booths. Bill Gittes, Barrington, N.Y., brought several older Raggedy Anns and Andys. The dolls were not expensive, with a well-loved pair priced at just $25. As in many other booths, his varied selection included die-cast toys, baskets and trade signs made and aged to look old. One, in the form of a large black sheep, promoted homespun flax and wool and was priced $275. He was one of the dealers who said they had been doing the show since the beginning, “You never know what will sell here.”
Liza Duffy, Derry, N.H., had a large outdoor booth with a variety of garden fixtures, seating, tables, vintage-style wire furniture and large wire birdcages. She said that she has done the show before and found that the wire furniture was her bestselling category. Prices ranged from $25 for individual pieces to $175 for sets with tables and chairs.
One of the features of this show is the inclusion of experienced craftspeople. Doing the show for the second time was Cassie Turcotte, Merrimack, N.H., a health and physical education teacher at a local high school. Her specialty is creating collages of “found material” — driftwood, beach sand, polished glass, discarded salt and pepper shakers, bits of glass from bottles she has dug, ceramic shards and just about anything else she can collect. She said she always brings things home from wherever she travels and has been selling at a limited number of craft shows for about seven years. A large wall hanging featuring a loon was one of her most expensive creations and was priced at $325; most were priced between $35 to $75. Her subject matter was varied and when asked what subjects sell best, she quickly said, “Crows. I don’t know why.” An hour after the show opened, when asked if she had sold anything, she said “Yes, there were four sales so far and three of them included crows.” After the show, she said, “This was a great show. The crowd was huge and interested in what I had. I made 29 sales, the most I’ve ever had at one show, and I sold four pieces to the same buyer, the most I’ve ever sold to one customer. It included one of my most expensive items.”
Cassie Turcotte, Merrimack, N.H., creates assemblages from materials she has found, including driftwood, beach sand, old bottles and more. Her works were priced from $35 on up and she said she sold 29, including four to one customer, noting, “It’s the best show I’ve had.”
Turcotte makes things on commission as does Meg Jones, another vendor with a booth of interesting handmade items. The South Berwick, Maine, dealer calls her work “object assembly” and filled a booth with hundreds of small objects she had made from erector set parts, advertising tins, old kitchen items, various polished metal parts and other objects. Her items were mostly priced between $25 and $75.
One dealer, George Lemar from Wiscasset, Maine, specialized in Matchbox and other die-cast automotive toys such as those made by Hot Wheels, Corgi and Dinky. Hundreds were on display, nearly all mint and in original boxes. He said that he has been collecting for about 50 years. Most of those he had at this show were priced between $5 and $80, although he said that “some had recently sold for $7,000 and $8,000. Hot Wheels, in particular made very detailed models and often made models of cars and trucks that were in production for a very short period of time. There models were equally ‘short runs’ and collectors who want ‘complete’ sets will pay for those kinds of models.”
Lemar shared the story behind Matchbox toys: “They originated in 1953, when a father, Jack Odell, was told by his daughter Annie, that kids weren’t allowed to bring toys to school that were larger than a matchbox. So, he designed a toy steamroller that fit inside a matchbox.” And the story went on from there.
Klia Ververidis Crisafulli, who conceived and planned the show, uses a golf cart to get around the large fairgrounds. She was delighted with the results of the two-day show, which attracted more than 13,000 visitors.
After the show, Crisafulli said, “Everything really fell into place for us. The weather was perfect, and the crowd was exceptionally strong both days. The mix of dealers was broad, and several told me that now that they’d done the show a few times, they had a better understanding of what buyers are looking for. Getting between 13,000 and 14,000 shoppers was great and that number has been growing. Social media advertising works very well and gets a younger crowd to attend. We’ve kept the admission price to $5 and the parking is free so it’s affordable for families. I think that makes a big difference. We’ll be back again over Columbus Day weekend in October and a bunch of the dealers told us that they’ll definitely be there then.”
For information, 781-324-4400 or www.brimfieldlive.com.
