Marburger Farm Antique Show opened April 3 to its largest first-day audience, according to show manager Ashley Ferguson. Running April 3‷ with nearly 350 exhibiting dealers, the show was greeted by several thousand visiting shoppers looking for the latest décor and antiques to add to their collections.
Set on a 43-acre site with five tents larger than double tennis courts and with about a dozen smaller tents and 17 buildings, the show has a warm and casual feeling, a comfortable escape for the shoppers to wander for a day or more to see all the home furnishings, collections of early silver and earthenware, and even some trendy décor items for the home. There are also many dealers offering personal items, including fashions both retro and funky, and jewelry for most any budget.
Dealers come to the show from all over the country. One of the longest trips was for Priest River, Idaho, dealer Linda Naccarato, who drove more than 2,600 miles with her collection. Sales for her were well worth the trip as she said, noting, “We sold a little bit of everything! Among the first sales were several paintings, including some by listed American artists.” She also sold jewelry, garden accessories and some of the furniture from her inventory.
Making a short jaunt to the show was Shannon Poppino, who brought a huge truckload of “merch” from her Dallas shop. She reported having “a great show with lots of garden and architectural things. I sold a wonderful 5-foot corbel in its old finish, paintings and even an upholstered child’s chair.” Her collection of Staffordshire also contributed to her success, with sales of bocage figurines, animals and serving pieces.
Mountain Thistle Antiques, Waynesboro, Va., was offering a collection of English and Continental smalls. Owners Trish and Bill Huestis began their collecting by traveling to Europe and England for the buying, but quickly built so large a collection it became their inventory. Featured in their exhibit were Black Forest bears, barometers, a collection of wine bottle openers and hundreds of other little things from the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries.
Branded Luxury Unlimited, Philadelphia, was even more specific in its collection. The owner, Marco Astrologo, was selling his collection of Louis Vuitton luggage as the focus for his booth. The dealer has been showing here for three years now.
Shades of Grey, a Dallas area shop, was exhibiting white goods †bed linens from the past made in America and abroad.
Sniktaw Antiques, Gurney, Ill., was in its usual place, but with a pair of horses. They had been props in Chicago’s Lyric Opera Company in the 1930s, but now were for sale at $2,495 each. Suzanne Fox, a Santa Monica, Calif., dealer, was selling majolica in the Saloon, one of the buildings at the site.
Ameritiques, Ltd from Crystal lake, Ill., near Chicago, has been at Marburger for three years now. Sales were “great,” according to owner Marcia Weisz, and included silver, fine art and jewelry. She was especially pleased with the silver sales, as that helped her to have her best sales totals ever at Marburger.
Several valuable early Persian rugs were big hits for Lake Placid, N.Y., dealer David Zabriskie. Continental furniture as well as early American was selling for Janet Wiebe, a Houston dealer. Olde Mobile Antiques Gallery, with a shop in that Alabama city, was there with mostly early American furnishings. Dennis Berard of Dennis and Dad, Fitzwilliam, N.H., reported a very good first day’s sales from the collection of early earthenware, mostly English.
There were several early carousel animals in the collection of Don and Marta Orwig. This couple, from Corunna, Ind., comes to the show each time with wonderful early and unusual things, including advertising, weathervanes, toys, and this month there was a scale with the fortune for a coin, as well.
Marburger Farm Antique Show, as with all the Round Top antiques events, is held twice each year ending the first Saturday of April and October. That makes the next show October 2‶. For details, www.roundtop-marburger.com or call Ashley Ferguson, show manager, at 800-947-5799.
