Two shows in one was the new theme from Jenkins Management’s production at the Tennessee State Fairgrounds on October 28″0. More than 200 exhibiting dealers were offering antiques for the home, with emphasis on early American country style and a modest amount of early collectibles, which created a weekend combination of Music Valley Antiques Show and the Tailgate Antiques Show.
Company spokesman Jon Jenkins said their results “were very good for the majority of the dealers, especially considering how business has been this year.” The fall edition of their semiannual Nashville event was filled with collections of early furniture, home furnishings, folk art, fine art and vintage textiles. Exhibitors offered their best Americana for the large audience that makes this a regular shopping spree each year.
Dealers Al and Jane Benting of Benting and Jarvis, Barrington, N.H., filled two show spaces with their assorted furniture, and many pieces found new owners. A pair of early wing back upholstered chairs went early to a customer who was planning to recover them quickly; an American highboy sold on the first day of the show and so did many other accessory items in their collection.
Schoolhouse Antiques is the business of retired school teachers, Barbara and Neal Finbloom from Kirkwood, Mo., a suburb of St Louis. They had a large assortment of unusual patterned hooked rugs, several early baskets and early lighting. Their best basket in original blue painted surface was an early sale, along with a number of other transactions in small accessories.
Found near their Mount Crawford, Va., home, Judy Warren had a collection of clowns with her. Actually, they were mannequins, nearly life-size, in brightly colored costumes and painted faces, which had been some kind of circus props. Trading as Stonecrop Antiques, Judy and her husband, Charles, were also showing painted furniture from the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.
Just across the aisle Marilyn Haley was offering painted vehicles for children, including a wagon that was rigged as a dog cart and a few early sleds.
There was an unusual pair of doors, each with a half of an eagle in primitive carved form. They were hung at the entrance to a tavern in eastern Massachusetts, around 1850, and priced by Finish Line Collectibles of Campbelltown, Penn., at $5,400.
Coming from Bearsville, N.Y., Mario Pollo had a collection of seldom seen pieces, both furniture and accessories. A pair of carved lions sat upon a bird’s-eye maple side table with a carved great blue heron to the side and a bird’s-eye maple framed mirror.
Salado, Texas, seems far from Nashville, but it is only about the same distance as Boston. From that small Texas town, Paul Cox brought a collection of antique Oriental rugs. Selling two and a Federal period sideboard in mahogany veneer, Cox said his sales also included several small items, giving him “a pretty good show.”
Selling fine art and folk art made the results good for Sandra St Pierre, Maine Attic Antiques of Hartland, Maine. Early into the show her sales included two oil paintings, one on board and the other on canvas. The oil on board was a small piece depicting a New England country church with a cemetery, while the large piece on canvas was a Hudson River School scenic. Both were given a provenance of Canaan, Maine, from the last half of the Nineteenth Century.
Country Corner Antiques, Bowie, Md., exhibited its collection of small art, including many miniature paintings, samplers and much more. The owners, Ken and Sue Zippel, have been shopping in England for many years, usually two or three times each year, for the antiques they enjoy collecting. Sue said they “did very well. We sold samplers, early kitchen things such as the tools from the Eighteenth Century, some of our early cork screws and some miniatures.” While they will not be going to England before Jenkins’ next Nashville show in February, she did say their shipment had not yet arrived from their last trip, so she will have a fresh supply for the late winter shows.
While the Jenkins shows are best known for their country and Americana, many of the later popular styles were being offered here. Worden Select Objects, Burr Oak, Mich., was offering some industrial antiques and furnishings and Outsider art. Their focus piece was an oversize table, about 18 feet long with stout-painted legs and top; displayed on top was a set of large old electric lights, rewired to today’s safety standards.
Steve Jenkins, the founder of the Jenkins Show Management, was first an antiques dealer and still enjoys exhibiting and selling antiques. His booth was filled with early pieces, including an Eighteenth Century tavern table, a wall-hung shelf in original green paint, a blue painted water barrel and a paint decorated wall coat hanger.
Jenkins discussed the future location for this show with the dealers at a Saturday morning meeting. On February 17-19, the show will again be at the Tennessee State Fairgrounds, which is on the market, but Jenkins expects to move his shows starting with either the October 2011 show or February 2012.
For more information, www.jenkinsshows.com or 317-598-0012.
