Country Living, Woodbridge, Conn.
Review and Photos by Laura Beach
MADISON, CONN. – If you went looking for a place to hold an outdoor summer show, the town green in the shoreline village of Madison is as good as it gets. A bust of the nation’s fourth president guards the entrance to the trapezoidal field, large enough to host more than 100 booths and in the center of town, with parking to boot.
Show chairman John Gallops had help from past chairman Cathy Meier organizing the 44th Annual Madison Antiques, Vintage and Repurposed Treasures Show on July 8.
It was here that the 44th Annual Madison Antiques, Vintage and Repurposed Treasures Show assembled on Saturday, July 8, from 9 am to 4 pm. The weather was cool, if a bit muggy, and the rain held off.
The show benefiting the North Madison Congregational Church is entirely managed by volunteers, this year headed by chairman John Gallops. As the Madison resident explained, “We do it all – publicity, bakeshop, set up and break down. The profit centers are the spot rentals, gate receipts, food concessions. This is a good event. Among other things, it helps members of the church get to know each other.”
In an effort to boost attendance, organizers have broadened the show to emphasize what they call “vintage and repurposed treasures.”
“The whole thing is to get people to come,” Gallops said.
The show takes its cues from the setting and time of year, featuring inexpensive furniture, paintings and accessories just right for the area’s many seasonal and vacation homes.
If it is a summer show by the shore, you know to expect Steve and Doris McKell of Tradewinds Fine Art, Doris wearing her distinctive straw hat. The Rhode Island dealers offer a perfect mix of ships’ portraits, seascapes and landscapes at affordable prices.
Several displays featured antique garden furniture and accessories. The most impressive belonged to Byron Benton, a party and event planner from Branford, Conn. Benton’s handsome selection of wire arbors in arresting shapes formed a procession at one corner of the green.
“They call me the Pin Lady,” said Carol Millot of Carol’s Curios in Farmington, Conn., who organized her glittering boxes of brooches by color and subject matter. “If you tell me what you want, I can point to it immediately,” she boasted.
Company J, Madison, Conn.
Country Americana was plentiful at Company J of Madison, where dealer Laura Jamra displayed a pie safe with punched tin panels and a large whirligig. On a nearby table sat a metal tree decorated with vintage fishing lures.
“It could be Madison, or just about any quaint town in New England,” Susan Lotz of Windsor, Conn., said of the handsome streetscape in her booth.
The purchase of a Midcentury Modern house in Florida prompted Jim Schroeder and his wife, who otherwise divide their time between Connecticut and Rhode Island, to collect and subsequently deal in fun furniture and housewares for the Modern home. Topped with Temporama dishware, their white and lime-green dinette set was an attraction.
There was much else on the field, from glass oil lamps at Victorian Antiques of Southington, Conn., to vintage glass Christmas ornaments at Ruth Ellen Hunt, Bethel, Conn. Meanwhile, Old Horizons Antiques, Norwalk, Conn., had cornered the market on drop-leaf tables, attractively spread with pottery, brass and other accessories for the antique house.
Many exhibitors said they were on their way to Brimfield, or hoping to sell to those who were. Other dealers were setting up at Elephant’s Trunk, the Sunday market in New Milford, Conn., the following day.
For information, www.northmadisoncc.org or call 203-421-3241.
