It is easy to tell when it is Jim Burk time at the York Fairgrounds. All sorts of vans, rental trucks and trailers surround the many entrances to Memorial Hall East, dealers are running in and out with boxes and pieces of furniture, some preshow inspection takes place in the parking lot, and signs are put in place announcing the Greater York Antiques Show and Sale for May 30″1. This spring, dealers came from 17 states to take part in this popular event, which benefits the Y’s Men’s Club of the York YMCA.
“We had a good show; people were pleased with the presentation by our exhibitors, and many things were sold over the two days,” Jim Burk said. “The people who came were here to buy, as the price of travel is keeping away many of those who would come to just look around and were not serious collectors,” he said.
Among the first of the dealers to polish off his booth was Thomas Longacre of Marlborough, N.H., who had to meet a tee time deadline on Thursday. A Vermont blanket chest with vinegar graining was among the furniture offered, and decorative items included a two-sided backgammon board, New England, Nineteenth Century, in mustard and black paint; a colorful penny rug, green, yellow and red on a black ground; and an Ethan Allen horse weathervane.
Thomas G. Thompson Antiques of Carlisle, Penn., showed a large linen press, New Jersey or Hudson River, circa 1780, with the original brasses; a set of four yellow painted plank seat chairs of Pennsylvania origin’ and a settee from York County that retained the original floral decoration on a rust-colored ground.
An interesting Odd Fellows frame, made by Charles B. Burdan, 1910, who was a member of the Manatawny Lodge 214, Pottstown, Penn., hung in the booth of Stump’s Antiques of Sinking Spring, Penn. Against the back wall an old sign for a florist was hung, reading “Ye’ Old Fashion Flower Garden,” with a Delaware Gap, Penn., provenance. A circa 1860 door, found near Pine Grove, Penn., had floral and geometric yellow grained decoration.
A mixture of objects in the booth of Emele’s Antiques, Dublin, Penn., included an Uncle Sam Santa riding a painted rattan trike with a basket filled with toys, a double-door painted wall cupboard, circa 1800‱810, from a lawyer’s office and a barber pole in old surface, about 6½ feet tall.
L. Monsheimer, 1888, was the name and date on a cast iron cemetery gate in the booth of David Hurst. He also showed a set of six painted plank seat chairs, green with decoration, and a nice Adirondack rocker. Bertolet House Antiques of Oley, Penn., offered a Pennsylvania eight-pane Dutch cupboard, yellow grained and filled with redware, circa 1830. Other furniture included a Pennsylvania dough box in the original mustard paint, circa 1850.
One of two exhibitors from the state of Maine, Newcastle dealers Jewett-Berdan showed a pair of real folk art horses that were once joined together as a rocking horse for children, along with a pale yellow painted and stenciled dressing table with flowers in an urn on the backsplash. A one-drawer blanket chest was in the original old blue paint, and two red and green painted boxes were once used for storage of tea.
Patricia Clegg Antiques from nearby East Berlin centered her booth with a painted rope bed, Montgomery County, circa 1820, tapered lags, in the original bittersweet and dark umbra painted surface. An oil on board of two mergansers was by Baltimore artist Marie Conway, 1960, signed lower right and measuring 18 by 24 inches. It was one of two painting traded by Conway to Lem Ward for a pair of decorative painted pintail decoys.
A comb back Windsor with carved ears, vase and ring turnings, shield-shaped seat, circa 1775, was among the furniture in the booth of Van Tassel-Baumann of Malvern, Penn. Samplers included an example by Elizabeth Golley, of large size, showing a house, trees, a couple and urns, with a floral border and dated 1824.
Washington, Ill., dealers Michael and Sally Whittemore had a large booth to accommodate a collection of sculpture, furniture and wall hangings. An Eighteenth Century Pennsylvania tavern table in poplar and pine retained its old red surface, and a large swan decoy was positioned with two other bird carvings on a red painted garden bench. A New England dry sink with stepped galley was of pine with old gray paint over the original blue, circa 1840.
A selection of framed quilt squares filled a portion of the back wall with color in the booth of Raccoon Creek at Oley Forge, Oley, Penn., and a small wood-carved horse from Lancaster County, with horse hair tail and mane, was displayed on a table at the front of the booth. As usual, a fine display of redware was on display including a number of slip pieces such as “Fanne,” “Emma,” “Remember Thy Last End,” and “Chicken Pot Pie.”
Pat and Rich Garthoeffner showed a set of six rod back Windsor side chairs in salmon paint, a small apothecary with 12 small drawers over three larger ones, a fancy doll house with a porch at both the top and bottom level, and a large floral hooked rug that took up most of the back wall.
Sixteen firkins and pantry boxes were displayed on a large yellow painted dry sink in the booth of Hart’s Country Antiques of New Oxford, Penn. Hanging over it was a wall cupboard in bittersweet, and a step back cupboard with a nine-light door on top, two doors on the bottom, was in green paint.
A large corner booth was the site for Newsom & Berdan, where a large grained linen press on turned feet, two doors over two drawers, was displayed. A colorful child’s quilt featured a floral design with vine-type border, and a six-board chest with paneled sides and turned feet had a grained yellow surface.
“We are offering four signed American pewter tankards,” Melvyn Wolf of Flint, Mich., said, pointing out examples by Peter Young, Henry Will, Parks Boyd and “Love,” Pennsylvania, circa 1750‱780. Together with his wife Bette, they showed one of the largest collections of pewter on the market today. Marjorie Staufer of Medina, Ohio, had some early Eighteenth Century furniture, including a New Hampshire four-drawer chest with cherrywood front and pine sides, and a New England tavern table with drawers in pine and maple.
Otto and Susan Hart of Arlington, Vt., had a real variety of objects, ranging from two pictures of trout taking flies, one a watercolor and the other an oil on canvas, to a choice of weathervanes, all full bodied, including a Black Hawk, a cow and a large running horse. A praying angel was carved from stone, a pair of Indian-form andirons were of cast iron, and a large copper finial with flowers on top was displayed in the corner of the booth.
Cape Cod dealers Hillary and Paulette Nolan offered a Queen Anne Philadelphia Quaker walnut chest on frame with slipper feet and the original brasses, and a pair of Connecticut banister back side chairs, circa 1750, retained an old crusty finish. A child’s Windsor from New England dated circa 1820.
John and Nancy Smith hung a number of hooked rugs in their booth, including two by the same hand, one showing a pair of mallards and one with wood ducks. Each measured 24½ by 38 inches. A working swan decoy, 20 inches high, 31 inches long and 11 inches deep, was constructed with a compartment in its back used to store shotgun shells and keep them dry.
A dining table with four-board scrubbed top, blue painted base, circa 1850, measuring 7½ feet long, was across the front of the booth of Joseph Lodge of Lederach, Penn. Displayed on top of it was a large beaver weathervane mounted on arrow.
Jim Burk will return to the York Fairgrounds this fall on October 31⁎ovember 1 with another Greater York show. He will again be in Memorial Hall East. For information, 717-872-2778.
