The TriCon Antiques Show celebrated its 53rd year at Concord’s Trinitarian Congregational Church on historic Walden Street.
Review & Onsite Photos by Z.G. Burnett
CONCORD, MASS. — If not for the fallen leaves carpeting sidewalks and Halloween jack-o-lanterns sitting on front steps, the weather would make one believe that it was May 1 rather than November 1 in Concord, Mass. Besides finding parking, breaking a sweat was the only impediment to dealers and customers of the TriCon Antiques Show. With three floors of antiques, dealers were kept busy by customers for both Friday and Saturday, November 1-2.
Celebrating its 53rd year at the town’s Trinitarian Congregational Church, which was established in 1826 and rebuilt in 1930, the antiques show is one of few in the state that has operated continuously and successfully. Funds raised from the show — including dealer rents, entry fees and sales from the onsite TriCon Café — all benefit the church and its support outreach mission organizations. “There used to be one of these annual shows in every town church; now there are only a couple left,” recounted Bobbi Benson, owner of Bobbi Benson Antiques, Concord, Mass., who as been managing TriCon dealers for about 30 years. Stationed to the right of the main floor’s entrance, Benson greeted customers with a table full of goods that encapsulated a Concord sitting room.
Bobbi Benson Antiques, Concord, Mass., recreated the feel of a local sitting room with this red, white and blue display. The smallest Staffordshire dog was purchased immediately after this photo was taken.
Many of the show’s dealers were local businesspeople, with a number also selling at the multi-dealer shops North Bridge Antiques (NBA) and Thoreauly Antiques (TA) just a few blocks down the road. Each had their own booths spread across the exhibition spaces and other dealers came from all corners of New England. Julia Gwinn Huggins of NBA recreated an English-style country parlor in her booth with brightly painted accent furniture and Pakistani carpets that brought her own touch to the scene. One standout piece was a large, as-found wood advertisement for Tetley’s — not the tea, but beer. Tetley’s Beer of Leeds, England, was one of the United Kingdom’s largest cask ale brewers at its peak. The company ceased beer production in 2011 after nearly two centuries but restarted production in 2018 under Carlsberg as a parent company.
Sara Matias, owner of TA, set up on the lower floor and later reported, “It was a well-attended show and I really enjoyed it!” Her booth was bedecked with baubles and ephemera, but what stood out was a royal blue book titled Astronomy with an Opera Glass, by Garrett Putnam Serviss. Written in 1890 and fully illustrated, the book was a guide to identifying constellations without the use of complex equipment. Although opera glasses are far more uncommon today, the book’s instructions would easily translate to a pair of binoculars. On the ground floor, TA dealer Judi Gray brought a late Nineteenth Century sampler showing flora, fauna and a crucifix garlanded with roses, bordered by the requisite stitched alphabet.
Sara Matias, the owner of the multi-dealer shop Thoreauly Antiques, Concord, Mass., brought this rare 1890 edition of Astronomy with an Opera Glass by Garrett Putnam Serviss.
Another, less conventional type of embroidery surfaced in the booth of Caldwell’s Miscellaneous Fancy Goods, Concord, Mass. Proprietor Heather Caldwell brought a trove of adorable smalls and other goods to offer, including an individually priced set of redwork embroidery squares. Made with simple stitched lines of red thread on a white field, these pieces would be made individually, often by different sets of hands, then quilted together. The most charming square showed an owl using an early camera, dating it to the early Twentieth Century. “The market was a boomer,” Caldwell said. “Essentially sold out on both days.”
For some reason, there is usually a trend of specific animals at antiques shows. It’s rarely planned, but often there will be many examples of the same species on display from separate dealers. At TriCon, this was the Year of the Pig. The centerpiece of S.B. Adams Antiques’ booth was a rocking pig, hand carved from old English wood likely in the 1930s or 1940s. “Our amazing rocking pig received much attention, but he lives on to be showcased at another event,” Susan Sorrentino, Westport Island, Maine, wrote. “The Concord Show is our favorite event all year.”
Another distinctive pig was offered by Matt Jackson, Gloucester, Mass., on the upper level, greeting customers as they climbed up the church’s narrow staircase. Sitting on its rear legs and seemingly staring into space, the ceramic pig was produced in London and hand painted in the Roses pattern design created by Czech decorator Joseph Nekola. Pigs are symbols of good luck in the Czech Republic, (then Bohemia), and the producer of this particular line was Jan Plichta, another Czech immigrant turned London wholesaler. Jackson shared that he had only seen one other example of this design, in a past retrospective at the New Orleans Museum of Art.
This hand painted Plichta pig caught every customer’s eye in TriCon’s steamy upper level. Matt Jackson Antiques, Gloucester, Mass.
Downstairs, David Weidner and Jared Cilley of Dark Flowers Antiques, Haverhill, Mass., expanded on this medium with a wide range of fine Art Nouveau, Arts and Crafts and Art Deco porcelain and pottery of all makes and origins. Many of these were collaborations between designers and the potters. Weidner explained that much of the pottery would be purchased directly from the factory in white, then artists would paint each piece by hand according to specific design catalogs.
There was an entire shelf devoted to animals and figural trinket dishes from the Hungarian porcelain manufacturer Zsolnay, which has operated from Pecs since 1853. Each of these showed multiple colors at once, a result of Zsolnay’s Eosin glaze. This effect is achieved by firing the porcelain with many layers of glaze, which then mellow with age as the glaze reacts to airborne chemicals.
The TriCon dealers primarily bring furniture and decorative arts, but some used these wares to support fine art-driven displays. Joy Moore of JLS Art & Antiques, Littleton, Mass., exhibited six works by — and from — the estate of French post-impressionist landscape painter, Julien Bleyfus (1876-1953). Celebrated in France for his fresh, immediate interpretation of its countryside, Bleyfus studied under plein-air painters Alfred Renaudin and Ernest Romanet. Bleyfus was decorated by multiple Beaux Arts societies and exhibited in major French cities and salons during his career. Moore’s selection of paintings showed Bleyfus’s travels in central France to the Auvergne and Cantal regions, away from the rapid industrialization of larger cities. Later he retired to Provence, where scenes dominated his later work.
From the artist’s estate, JLS Art & Antiques, Littleton, Mass., displayed a number of landscapes by the post-impressionist painter, Julien Bleyfus (French, 1876-1953).
One of only a few vintage and antique jewelry dealers, Jaynee Budovsky of Gracious Gems, Newton, Mass., displayed her sparkling wares in the light of the main hall’s windows. A large, striking portrait pendant of a young woman in Neoclassical dress and a coral necklace was particularly arresting. From the Georgian period, the pendant also contained two braids of different colored hair under glass on the reverse; this was either an engagement present or a mourning memento. During this time, it may well have been both. Budovsky displayed the pendant from a gold Victorian mesh chain, offered separately, and reported both “great sales” and “new contacts” from the show.
The TriCon Antiques Show occurs annually at the Trinitarian Congregational Church on 54 Walden Street. For information, 978-369-4837 or www.triconchurch.org.
