Cool Stuff Consignment Shop, Clinton, N.Y.
Review and Photos By Tom O’Hara
SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Steve Allman joined together more than 180 exhibitors and more than 5,000 shoppers at the Syracuse Fairgrounds January 16–17 for the winter edition of his Salt City Antiques Show. People of northern New York do not fear the winter weather, and they came throughout both days and stayed for long visits, combing through all the rows looking for the special things to take away.
Sales were dominated by a variety of small antiques, but some furniture and other big antiques sold as well.
Nan Kasting of Nan’s Antiques said she was pleased with the weekend’s results. “Sales were good with a little bit of everything,” she said. Her assortment is varied with an emphasis on smalls, so that was what sold. The toys were miniature Victorian-era dollhouse pieces and also some slightly larger for play. From her showcases she sold several Nineteenth Century perfume bottles, including one that a lady would have kept inside her purse or pocket, cut leaded crystal with sterling silver top. The other was larger, perhaps for the vanity table, also in cut crystal with sterling top.
Nan said she had a run on cat figurines from the Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries. Also selling was an American military sword from the Spanish-American War, as well as jewelry, including a ring she found in an estate sale and some Moorcroft. This Kutztown, Penn., dealer is a regular at the show.
Irene Sheckler from nearby Baldwinsville, N.Y., was one of the exhibitors who did well with furniture. She offered a booth filled with comfortable Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century sitting room furnishings. Her sales included a circa 1830–40 side table with marble top, New York origin in Eastlake style; a small Sheraton sofa, re-covered in an off-white and buff stripe damask; a pair of stands for the sofa, likely New York, circa 1875–1900, in mahogany. She also sold a large Edwardian period coffee table, two-drawer drum-style, along with an assortment of small antiques from her inventory.
Pats Pots, Westport, Mass.
Steve White, White & White Antiques, Skaneateles, N.Y., reported a good mix of sales for the weekend. Among his first sales were an early child’s high chair, probably from the Eighteenth Century he believed, and a large cupboard. As the weekend continued, the sales included some small American silver hollowware and textiles.
The Colony Shop from Fayetteville, N.Y., was exhibiting a variety of empire and Biedermeier furniture, along with Eighteenth Century English silver and fine art. Proprietor Ed Becker said sales were good for the weekend, with a European desk, several paintings and an assortment of the silver finding new homes.
Getting together for the last minute preparations, from left, Diane Keller, Selma Adyan, owner of Behind the Iron Gates, and Rosemary Cottrell, all from Syracuse.
And then there were those who were potted at Pats Pots.
Pats Pots is a highly specialized collection and inventory offered by Pat Bourgoeois and her husband, Don Gill, of Westport, Mass. They have been specializing in art pottery for many years so that their offerings are both broad and inclusive. Pat said for the weekend sales were very good, with several pieces of Weller going out the door, including large urns, and some Fulper. She also sold four Japanese woodblock prints.
There were toys from the Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries. Nancy Sterling, who trades as Child In Mind Toys, was showing her cars and trucks from the 1950s and 1960s. Next to her was John Gage with an assortment of big trucks dating to the first part of that century. Both these dealers are from Ithaca, N.Y.
Diane DeVolder from Rochester, N.Y., was selling miniature dolls, animals and furniture for the dollhouses. Much of what she had was from the last half of the Nineteenth Century and, in many cases, made in Europe.
Early advertising was available in many forms from several exhibitors. Country Lady, Saratoga Springs, N.Y, offered materials that were sold in Nineteenth Century general stores, either containers with their full amount of paint or labels advertising what they originally contained.
Bill Trexler, representing the Cool Stuff Consignment Shop in Clinton, N.Y.., showed an 8-foot-tall Big Boy figure from a Bob’s Big Boy Restaurant of the 1950s or 1960s along with the front end of a Chevy made into a bar for use in a recreation room.
From Elmira, N.Y., Treasured Memories offered stoneware jugs with the original seller’s name painted under the glaze.
Child In Mind Toys, Ithaca, N.Y.
Selma Adyan has a shop in Syracuse, Behind the Iron Gates, but she does the show with some friends just for the publicity and fun. This weekend the sales were good, too, with her small antiques including art pottery, jewelry and silver.
Matt and Otis Olszewski did not have any Moxie, but they did have a lot of other brands of soda and beer bottles in their inventory. They were selling bottles, posters and early clocks from beer, soda and other food venders of the first half of the Twentieth Century.
Lee Moxey, New York City, was showing her jewelry. With several showcases filled to overflowing, she had a large collection of estate and costume jewelry for sale.
John Gage, Ithaca, N.Y.
Crowds for the show, according to Steve Allman, are very responsive. He said, “We got more than 5,000 people through the gate and they were spending pretty well throughout the two days.” His feeling is that for the middle of winter in Syracuse, that is a wonderful response for the promotional efforts and the dealers. Salt City is twice a year, October and January, as founded by Jock Hengst 30 years ago and now assumed by Allman Promotions.
Coming up later this winter, Allman will present a show in Holliston, Mass., February 20–21, and the Greater Syracuse Antiques Expo is set for March 12–13. For details, www.allmanpromotions.com or 315-686-5789.
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