Harold Cole and Bettina Krainin, Woodbury, Conn., featured a fabulous trade sign for The Hitchcock Chair Company along the top right wall.
Review and Photos by Greg Smith
LUDLOW, VT. – The Okemo Antiques Show was the second event to open in Vermont Antiques Week, presenting 32 dealers October 4-5 in booth-style settings spread throughout the lodge at the Okemo Mountain Resort.
Dealers traveled from as far away as Florida, Alabama and Missouri to join the show’s roster, with offerings that ranged from American fine and country furniture and accessories, American pottery, early textiles, antique holiday material, folk art, wood carvings, baskets, and more.
Show manager Steve Sherhag, who has run this show for four years, says his gate was nearly even with last year. “Okemo has mainstream show dealers, so it has great Americana and folk art,” he said. “I think all of these dealers do a very good job of having something great in their booth. You couldn’t walk into any one and not find a few good things, and even with that quality of dealers, there are still buyable things on the floor.”
An artful wall filled with various examples of iron strap hinges was offered by Wilhides Antiques, Shippensburg, Penn. Dealer Jane Langol, who exhibited opposite the wall, called it her favorite display in the whole show. Among them was a W-shape bird’s head Conestoga wagon hasp, two pairs of Pennsylvania Perry Co hinges and pintails painted in red and white and a pair of heart shaped hinges.
Marlborough, N.H., dealer Beverly Weir Longacre was offering a nice assortment of antique Christmas material, including early Santas, ornaments in all colors and forms, wreaths, Christmas boxes and an early sleigh with a teddy bear in it. She said this is a good show for her, as the beginning of October is when people start to prepare for the end-year holiday season. Her husband, Tom Longacre, was set up in a booth a few feet away and recorded several early sales, including a Bethel, Vt., chip-carved small table-top mirror dated May 20, 1848, on the bottom with a fabulous fan carved to the front and original surface.
A wall of varying forms of strap hinges, some with original paint, was on show at Wilhides Antiques, Shippensberg, Penn.
Latcham House Antiques, Waterville, Ohio, featured a folk art oil on canvas painting of a girl in a blue dress holding her cat. Owners Jim and Toni Stoma said it was found in Connecticut and dated to the 1840s. In Vermont material, the dealers featured a Cavendish family record sampler stitched by Rosetta Adams when she was 12 years old. Jim Stoma related to us after the show that sales were a little soft, but he said he bought well and that he was able to move a few things, including a couple paintings during the show run.
Nancy and Gene Pratt, Deposit, N.Y., said they had a good show, selling across the board in a number of categories. Included among those red tags was an oil on canvas circa 1850 that likely depicted the Thousand Islands on the St Lawrence River along the US-Canada border in the northeast corner of Lake Ontario. The dealers also exhibited a mid-Nineteenth Century red-painted oval table with cross-stretcher base and a Hepplewhite blanket chest with vinegar grain-painted decoration and original brasses.
Michael & Lucinda Seward featured a number of Vermont relics. Among them was a theorem on paper from Barre, Vt., as well as a colorful slate game board from either Vermont or Pennsylvania, circa the 1880s. A large mounted yarnstone rug was hung across the center back wall of their booth, it came out of a home in Stowe, Mass., circa 1830, yarnstone on linen, featuring leaves and acorns. The dealers related that they did well, selling three pieces of furniture, many smalls and wall hangings. Mike Seward said that people came back on Saturday to buy, which helped tremendously.
Brendan Edgerton of Country Cupboard Antiques, Princeton, N.J., featured a circa 1790 tape loom in original period red paint. It was cut from a single piece of pine and features a fishtail cutout above a frame of heddles. Edgerton said that to find them in this original caliber of condition is quite rare. The dealer also featured a blue and black painted checkerboard from New England, circa 1870.
At the front of his booth, Derik Pulito, Kensington, Conn., featured a Deerfield, Mass., country side chair circa 1780 with Victorian gilt decoration on the original black. To its left is a New England Spanish foot side chair circa 1750. The candle stand between them is from New Hampshire, circa 1780, in birch.
Ashby, Mass., dealership Perkins / Menson featured a pair of dated 1863 portrait paintings showing Lafayette Clark, whose image is similar to Abraham Lincoln’s, and his wife. The paintings were signed J.H. Keeley to the back.
Woodbury, Conn., dealers Harold Cole and Bettina Krainin were showing off a Nineteenth Century trade sign for The Hitchcock Chair Company. The sign retained the original town name, Hitchcocksville, which was renamed to Riverton in 1866. The dealers believe it came off the front of the factory.
Merrimac, Mass., dealers MG Art and Antiques were featuring a wonderful sheet iron locomotive weathervane, a wall-mounted triangular-shaped barber pole with a yellow color variation and an early Twentieth Century New Bedford, Mass., whirligig featuring a man wearing knee socks and a cap.
A vibrant hand-sewn and quilted New York State appliquéd quilt was on hand with Baker & Co Antiques, Delmar, N.Y. Also in the dealer’s booth was a Nineteenth Century painted hanging box with tombstone cap, a Crolius cobalt decorated stoneware jar and a Nineteenth Century New England blue-painted bail handle pantry box with painted polka dot decoration.
For more information, 330-207-2196 or okemoantiqueshow.com.
