Robert Perry, Orchard Park, N.Y.

Review and Photos by Tom O’Hara

SYRACUSE, N.Y. – Steve Allman filled the Center of Progress Building at New York State Fairgrounds January 20-21 with about 250 exhibiting antiques dealers for his Salt City Antiques Show. The show is a winter escape for the region, something to break the cabin fever, an excuse to get out and do something different, and that was exactly what about 4,000 people did Saturday and Sunday, filling the building quickly each morning, searching through the exhibits for just the right pieces to add to their collections.

Mike Gallant, Hometown Antiques, Glenburn, Maine, was here for the first time, offering a collection of small things that included Nineteenth Century toys, painted boxes, collectible marbles and more. He sold something from each of these categories and also earlier stoneware. He said it was also a good opportunity to buy more for his own collection and inventory.

A third-generation antiques dealer and new to the show was Chris Blanchard from Jamesville, N.Y. He came in with a great variety of early American antiques, particularly objects from the Eighteenth Century, which began selling quickly. His stoneware was popular with the knowledgeable collectors at the show, selling well. He also had some furniture, including a cherry stand, a little rough, but still it went out on the first day, and there was also more painted furniture.

Green Antiques was happy to be there as well. From the small, northwest Connecticut town of Sharon, this dealer brought a mix of Nineteenth and early Twentieth Century quilts, 200-year-old furniture and little accessories. Early in the show, a lady was enamored with a Lone Star quilt in polished cotton with an overall green color, and the same on its back, 100 percent hand stitched, circa 1920-30. The customer spent a while looking it over, left the booth but came back shortly thereafter and took it home. Sales for the dealer also included a Waterbury shelf clock, circa 1860, a Connecticut cherry stand, circa 1775, and a large assortment of small pieces from the silver showcases.

Red Barn Antiques, Egremont, Mass., is a specialist in Nineteenth Century lighting that has been restored and electrified. Here the firm’s business was good, but it was the furniture category that stood out, with an Eighteenth Century Moroccan table being one of their best sales of the weekend, along with many smaller pieces.

Ancient Origins, Canandaigua, N.Y., featured stoneware from the Northeast and rare coverlets. The owner, Frank Bergevin, was thrilled with his weekend’s results as he began with the sale of a rare piece of stoneware, a large butter churn with a lion in blue selling in the four figures. He also brought two Jefferson County, N.Y., coverlets from the Nineteenth Century, which attracted a great deal of attention. He said that more than half of the stoneware he brought sold during the show.

Green Antiques, Sharon, Conn.

Bill Thomas, Abington, Md., was selling from his assortment of smalls. He offered a recently found collection of carnival glass, several hundred pieces in perfect condition, as well as an assortment of small silver articles and crystal. Together this gave him great variety, he said, and good sales.

And there was a great deal more selling with great variety. Tony Mullins, Bernhards Bay, N.Y., was selling from a collection of kitchenalia, which included the cabinets and the little things that filled them. Tony Perretta, New Hartford, N.Y., sold a Nineteenth Century walnut veneer cupboard, not too large but in excellent condition on the first day.

Richard Fuller, Royalton, Vt., was offering his collection of Vermont country furnishings, including a blue painted cupboard with scroll design top. His sales included the farm table in its original finish and an American Sheraton dressing stand in chrome yellow.

The Cutters Wheel is Joan Randle with her extensive inventory of cut crystal. Her sales were good, with both Nineteenth and early Twentieth Century pieces.

Odds and ends of silver, not really silver matching but unusual pieces, are Sandra Willson’s specialty. From Churchville, N.Y., she was busy all weekend explaining what the pieces were used for and selling them.

Steve Allman has been producing New York shows for a generation now, and this, he said, “was gratifying. The show was cheery, a pleasure to run because the customers came in to have a nice time, the exhibitors had good sales and that makes for a good show.” He added that the success of this show also gave his March 10-11 show a big boost with the dealers.

Allman Promotions conducts three shows each fall and winter in this facility although only this one is called the Salt City Winter Antiques Show. The 2018 events at the New York State Fairgrounds are The Greater Syracuse Antiques Expo, March 10-11 and October 20-21 and Syracuse Thanksgiving November 24-25. Allman also produces the Madison-Bouckville Big Field Antiques Show August 17-19 and a group of Florida shows.

For additional information, www.allmanpromotions.com or 315-686-5789.