Talk show host Gary Sohmers, also a frequent guest on the “Antiques Roadshow,” is a regular exhibitor at Papermania. He displayed a P.T. Barnum 1888 broadside and some games.
Ephemera, toys and advertising are Leon Jackson’s specialties. The Carlisle, Mass. dealer brought Disney’s 1938 Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs collection.
As pages of the calendar go flying off, ephemera dealers catch them and save them, and maybe, later on, sell them. That is what the ephemera and paper memorabilia show called Papermania Plus is all about – catching a slice of life and preserving it for the future. Nowhere is vintage pop-ular culture better recorded than in the postcards, books, pictures, magazines, advertising premiums, posters and other paper memorabilia of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Century. The largest show of its kind in the Northeast, the antique paper extravaganza took place August 23-24 at the Hartford Civic Center with 160 exhibitors.
The show has been around long enough to become a part of history in its own right – more than 20 years. This year was the 44th event for this biannual show and marked the first year for Gary Gipstein to produce the show. Gipstein’s mother, Arlene Shea, was the show’s manager this year. The late Paul Gipstein, Gary’s father, had produced the show in years past.
Larry Shapiro of Glastonbury, Conn., had an advertising sign in blue, mauve, black and white promoting Robin Hood Cycles made by Raleigh Industries. John Van Doren of Stockton, N.J., brought dozens of colorful vintage Hollywood posters wrapped in plastic and ready to look at in flip-through bins. Stacks of books and magazines could be found at the booth of Harry F. Brewster of New Windsor, N.Y.
Leon Jackson of Carlisle, Mass., catered to the child inside with may toys and children’s rdf_Descriptions such as the 1938 Disney Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs collection of storybooks. G. Ross Irving of New York City could bring out the “fan” in just about anyone, with his display of autographs of movie stars, musicians and others.
“In spite of a beautiful, sunny weekend, Papermania had a respectable turnout,” said show manager Arlene Shea after the show. The weather was, after all, no match for the enthusiasm of the dealers, the colorful and interesting bits of culture and history that filled the exhibition space and the warm nostalgia that Papermania Plus is known to foster.
For information on the January 10-11 Papermania, call Hillcrest Promotions at 860-563-9975 or 860-529-2234.
