Shelby Antiques Show’s edition on October 1‴ at Harmony Hall, followed the same pattern it has had for 25 years now, making it one of the longest running shows in the Round Top Antiques Week.
Producer Emmitt Knuppel filled Harmony Hall in this sparsely populated crossroads with the usual full house of dealers. Most have been there for many years, helping ensure the show’s success.
The customers find it, visit it and buy antiques there. Knuppel began the twice-yearly event in 1983 as only the second event in what has become the enormous Round Top Antiques Week. The facility, Harmony Hall, in the neighboring town of Shelby, was a dance hall that had been renovated and air conditioned circa 1975.
Knuppel collected dealers into the building, arranged for a church group to cater the food as a fund raising event and the rest was history. Rent for the dealers is low, lower, in fact, than the few other indoor shows and even lower than some of the outdoor tented events.
The Shelby Show opens a day after the Marburger Farm Antiques Show and the same day as The Big Red Barn of the Original Round Top Antiques Fair but several hours later. Customers were able to be there as the doors opened early afternoon.
The offerings were a healthy mix of styles and periods, as well as form and function. Joan’s Antiques, Canton, Miss., offered her collection of early furniture, primarily with a country look. Ann McCain, Streeman, Texas, and Carol Lincoln, Conroe, Texas, were sharing an exhibit space overflowing with early American quilts and coverlets.
There was fine art and majolica from Eunice Hendricks of Corinne & Company, McKinney, Texas. Art pottery was offered by Billie Karacostas from Galveston, Texas.
Knuppel is also an exhibitor at the show, with a penchant for collecting shop fittings. This fall he was offering all the store fixtures from a Nineteenth Century merchant or general store.
The show has been a fixture for the Round Top Week twice each year even though a few miles away, it is in another town. Look for it again in the spring, April 1‴, and in the fall, September 30⁏ctober 3. For more information, 979-830-5070.
