The Magazine Antiques celebrates 100 years in 2022 and will be honored later this fall with the Antiques Dealers’ Association of America’s annual Award of Merit. To help furnish the booth, a few exhibitors loaned pieces of furniture, including a Chippendale chest of drawers from Nathan Liverant & Son, shown on the right side of this photo.

Review & Onsite Photos by Madelia Hickman Ring

MANCHESTER, N.H. – As it turns out, age really is just a number. The 65th New Hampshire Antiques Show, which took place August 11-13 at the DoubleTree by Hilton hotel in downtown Manchester, witnessed large crowds, steady buying and strong sales across the show floor. In a time honored tradition, people showed up early, beginning a line at 4 am on August 11 that, by 10 am when the doors to the show were flung open, snaked up the block and around the front of the hotel.

Sharon Platt, vice president of communications for the New Hampshire Antiques Dealers Association, which sponsors the show said, “Our 65th Annual New Hampshire Antiques Show on opening day welcomed a huge crowd of antique collectors, ready to hunt and buy their favorite treasure. We had a significant increase in our gate, which is always a pleasure. Within minutes, high energy and excitement filled the aisles. Exhibitor booths were glowing and filled with prized objects held for our special anniversary show. A warm thank you to our hard working volunteer board and staff for a very successful New Hampshire show.”

Two new exhibitors were on hand: Baker & Co. Antiques from Lake George, N.Y., and JK Nevin Antiques, Elverson, Penn.

Many of the framed works that were hung salon style in the booth of Resser-Thorner Antiques were gone by the end of the first day of the show. Also selling was a doll’s bed. Manchester, N.H.

“It was very good, exceeded my expectations and I loved doing it,” Tom Baker said to Antiques and The Arts Weekly over the phone after the show wrapped. “We sold nice smalls, a couple pieces of furniture, including a cupboard, lots of early textiles, wooden ware in paint, folk art…just a little bit of everything. I’d love to do the show again.” He was particularly happy that not only did he get new clients but a few of his preexisting clients came to his booth first thing on Thursday morning.

J.K. Nevin’s Liz McElroy said the show was “really great. Thursday was very, very busy and we did very well; it was slower Friday and Saturday. Everyone was so friendly and welcoming, it felt great to be in such company.” A returning customer from California purchased an Index horse weathervane and Virginia auctioneer Jeffrey S. Evans bought a pie safe with leaping stag panels, but new clients took a rare Wedgwood teapot and sugar bowl in the form of bee skeps, a Nineteenth Century oil on canvas painting of strawberries in a pot and assorted ceramics.

Just to the left of the show’s main entrance, on the upper level, Olde Hope Antiques’ booth was anchored on one side by a large portrait by Ammi Phillips, and a pair of hooked rugs of dogs on the other, with colorful painted furniture, sculptural weathervanes and more, providing ample reason to tempt collectors. Ed Hild was pleased to report that the show was “excellent.”

“We had a wonderful show, and a great buying week. The Ammi Phillips was a wonderful sale, one of the best ones we’ve made in the ten years we’ve done the show.” He reported sales of 17 different things, from baskets and watercolors, small furniture, decoys, weathervanes, to a painted dome-top box, Shaker pieces, gameboards and crib quilts. Not only were sales made to new clients but also to customers who had not purchased from them in many years who came with open checkbooks.

Looking for carved and painted penguins? Norwoods’ Spirit of America had not just one pair but two, shown here on both the left and right sides of this photo. Shortly after this photograph was taken, sales helped thin the booth out a little. Timonium, Md.

Opposite Olde Hope was Exeter, N.H., dealer Peter Sawyer, whose selection of high-style New England furniture was supplemented by framed works of art, carvings and ceramics, to name a few.

“It was really very good. I did quite a bit of business at the show and significant business since the show. I did much better than my expectations and there’s strength in the market,” Sawyer said. He’s been doing the show for 28 years and sold to both existing and repeat customers. Sales included furniture, clocks of every variety, accessories and, an unusual item for the Exeter, N.H., dealer, a Grandma Moses landscape.

If one moved up the right hand aisle, Douglas Wyant Antiques from Cassopolis, Mich., was doing a brisk business, reporting several sales in the first couple of hours of the show, with more to come as the show continued. Early sales included a painted wall chest, a miniature painted blanket chest, two framed textiles, a sampler and a watercolor drawing, as well as an unusual carved plane model that Wyant said sold to one of his regular customers from New York City.

Judy Milne found early buyers for a cast iron rooster, an iron urn, a carved wooden owl and a carved dog. One of the most impressive pieces in her booth was a pair of Nineteenth Century cast iron dogs with a wonderful patina. When asked about them, she said, “I’ve never had them that good.”

Thomas and Bev Longacre were also busy during the initial rush, writing receipts for baskets, a barber pole, a small trade sign, a fish weathervane and a feather Christmas tree.

“It was almost like the old days,” said Jonathan Trace, describing the interest he experienced on the first day of the show, when he sold brass, furniture and paintings. The Portsmouth, N.H., dealer had this portrait of Sir William Pepperell, done by an anonymous New England limner circa 1710-15.

John Chaski was assisted by his son, Charlie, who helped record a video of the show opening that was posted on Facebook and helped out in many other ways. Among Chaski’s sales was a blue painted rush seat highchair.

An upside – or downside depending on how one looks at it – of selling lots of furniture is the challenge of restocking one’s booth. Within two hours of the show opening, Jeffrey Roelof and Julia Savoy had sold so much furniture that their booth looked more like what it had looked like when they first started setting up rather than shortly into the show, selling to several different buyers “from all over.” The Kalamazoo, Mich., dealers did not have a second string of furniture packed in their booth, so they made do with borrowing pieces from other dealers to fill in some of the gaps.

Buying fever at Roelof’s spread across the aisle to show veteran of 18 years, Nathan Liverant and Son, where a whole cloth coverlet in both red and yellow sold in what Kevin Tulimieri described as “overflow buying.” Among other sales were a Vermont serpentine chest of drawers that had been found in Connecticut, but which was sold to one of Liverant’s existing clients in Vermont, and a pair of portraits attributed to John Tolman (1777-1863), the Burpee-Conant Limner, Massachusetts, 1810-20. The portraits had literally “walked in” to Liverant’s Colchester, Conn., shop and sold to a buyer in northern New England.

“We sold furniture, including a great chair, a wonderful candlestand and a large naïve folky farmyard scene. All from private homes and family antiques, all fresh. I thought the show looked great; some high style and country things, from both New England and the Mid-Atlantic; there’s something for everyone. I love doing the show. There’s great companionship among the dealers on the floor; we need that in this country right now,” observed Arthur Liverant.

This group of ten Nineteenth Century Jenny Lind painted doorstops was offered by first-time exhibitor, Baker & Co. Antiques, Lake George, N.Y.

“We sold four pieces of furniture right off the bat,” said Josh Steenburgh, whose first day sales included a yellow-painted Sheraton dressing table, a “Furniture Dept” sign, a sign for “NJ White” hot dogs, a slant lid desk, a bookcase and some stoneware.

“The best people buy antiques,” enthused Jim Hohnwald, who said he had spent the first two hours of the show chatting with people who bought well. When Antiques and The Arts Weekly was visiting the booth he shared with Bob Jessen, Jessen was busy helping a potential buyer “sit test” a set of three black-painted bowback Windsor chairs.

A “No Smoking” sign, a Nineteenth Century still life, an early Nineteenth Century English pearlware occupational jug and an oversized Eighteenth Century Dutch gin bottle were among the things that Jeff and Holly Noordsy packed up on the first day.

David Schorsch has been doing the show for just four years but said he thought it was one of the best New Hampshire shows he’s done, tallying a total of 17 sales across all three days as well as from interest after the show. Among his sales were furniture, paintings, small objects and a weathervane, to both new and existing clients as well as a customer who hadn’t bought from the Woodbury, Conn., dealer for a long time.

“It was a very good show and I’m very happy,” said Kelly Kinzle, who has been doing the show for eight years and deemed it one of his better years. He sold an iron candlestand, a grandfather clock, paintings, a collection of daguerreotypes, a curly maple card table and “all the redware I took.” Sales were spread throughout the run of the show, to both new and returning customers.

Hercules Pappachristos’ booth was anchored by this large cupboard with grain blue-painted interior. It sported a red dot after a few hours of the show. Derry, N.H.

Ed Johnson, who was helping man John Rogers’ booth, said butter molds are always popular but he noted a few big sales, most of which were to existing clients, but which also included a burl bowl to a new client from Illinois.

“We had a very good show,” Stephen Corrigan said. “We sold a ton of stuff. It was just as good as you’d want it to be and was encouraging for the market.” The Walpole, N.H., dealer noted that they sold a few very expensive things with about 75 percent of his sales to returning customers. A set of six paintings from the Sooner family of Plymouth, Mass., depicted a family of Black people who may have been associated with the family. He sold them to a dealer/decorator friend who had admired them on the first day but waited until the second day to purchase them.

Dennis Berard of Dennis & Dad said they had “a very good day,” selling mocha ware, decorated yellowware and various “odds and ends.” He said most of the sales were to repeat clients – about 75 to 90 percent – and went through a stack of receipts they’d written up, with sales to clients from Massachusetts, Kansas, New York State and New York City, Maine, Indiana, New Hampshire, Connecticut, New Jersey, Ohio and Utah.

The undeniable showstopper in Jeffrey Tillou’s booth was a carved lifesized pine swan-form garden planter from the second half of the Twentieth Century. The Litchfield, Conn., dealer sold a landscape, a gameboard and a view of West Point by Thomas Chambers on the first day.

One of the two booths facing the divider between the upper and lower levels of the show, Kate Alex said she “sold lots of stuff.” That stuff being garden decorations, urns, iron chairs, folk art, weathervanes and a beaded chandelier. The Warner, N.H., dealer said all of her sales on the first day of the show were to new clients, including many from the Midwest, California and Chicago.

Of particular interest with Cherry Gallery, Damariscotta, Maine, was this circa 1920 steamer deck chair in salmon paint. Sales included two signs and an Adirondack-style three-drawer chest of drawers.

Across from Kate Alex, Butch Berdan and Tom Jewett were thoroughly enjoying themselves.

“The show was great!” enthused Tom Jewett. “We save all year long for this show and I think that most of the dealers do, and it pays off. It is and always will be our favorite show. Thought the crowd was great and we actually sold all three days; however, the last day was all social media sales by posting photos of our booth on Facebook. Some of our sales include the Jack Dempsey folk art plaque we advertised in The Bee [Antiques and The Arts Weekly], the Gabriel weathervane, two choice painted boxes, garden [ornaments], painted smalls, folk art, paint-decorated furniture and so much more. So much effort goes into this show, we thank all who volunteer to make it a success!”

Randy Segotta, McClard-Segotta Antiques, said they had sold a wall cupboard, silhouettes and miniatures, including ones by James Sanford Ellsworth and JH Gillespie, among other things. The Weare, N.H., dealer’s undeniable showstopper was a paint-decorated desk with decoration attributed to wall muralist, John Avery Sr.

Show neighbors to McClard-Segotta, Chris and Bernadette Evans, observed that it had been a good show, selling stoneware, a rooster weathervane, five painted Virginia Nineteenth Century baskets, a miniature blanket chest, redware and some Shaker things. When asked what their favorite pieces were, Bernadette pointed to a large 6-gallon stoneware crock with a cobalt profile head decoration, the “6” placed where the ear was. As for his favorite, Chris pointed to a running fox weathervane with a great verdigris patina, which he thought would look great in a modern or contemporary setting.

The 66th Annual New Hampshire Antiques Show will take place August 10-12, 2023. For information, www.nhada.org.

The head of the line doubled back and stretched up the block...