Maine Antique Digest, December 2016

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16-C Maine Antique Digest, December 2016
- SHOW -
16-C
“The show is patterned after Nan Gurley’s
one-day markets in New England.”
Hilliard, Ohio
Antiques in 2 Barns
by Don Johnson
This one was different. It was a risk. And at the end of it all,
promoter Jennifer Sabin was perplexed.
“I don’t know what to think,” she said.
She stood just outside two pole buildings that gave the day’s
event its name,Antiques in 2 Barns. The show, held onWednesday,
September 14, at the Franklin County fairgrounds in Hilliard,
Ohio, was Sabin’s latest venture. Hilliard is a northwest suburb
of Columbus.
The concept was simple. To quote the show’s promotional
material: “Short & Sweet. Real Antiques.” There was room for
50 dealers to bring a selection of genuine antiques—with an
emphasis on country and Americana—to a show that would last
for five hours in the middle of the week.
“The show is patterned after Nan Gurley’s one-day markets in
New England,” Sabin noted going into the event.
September 14 was selected because it was the day before setup
at the Springfield Extravaganza, the semiannual show that attracts
upward of 2000 dealers just 35 miles to the west. Sabin had hoped
to draw in a number of buyers and sellers heading to Springfield.
“There’s no way I can compete with a Springfield. That’s why
I thought keep it antiques and keep it small,” Sabin had said
during the planning stages. “Springfield attracts serious buyers
and attracts a lot of dealers who go to pick. I want to keep my
show small, antiques only, and take advantage of some of these
customers in the area.”
It sounded like a good plan, but the customers at Antiques in
2 Barns never materialized in the way Sabin had hoped. Also
missing was the large number of buyers she’s used to seeing at her
Heartland Antique Shows in Richmond, Indiana.
An early glitch didn’t help. An ad in one antiques trade paper
listed the wrong time for the opening of the show—one hour
earlier than planned. When some buyers drove up at 9 a.m., Sabin
let them pay the $10 admission and walk in, even though not all
the dealers were ready.
What those shoppers found was a mix offered by 40 dealers
who filled the 50 spaces. There were “real antiques,” as promised,
from a boldly paint-decorated mule chest priced at $1295 by Scott
Lippert of Dexter, Michigan, to a tall-case clock with a wooden
face having a mourning motif, tagged $1650 by Fred Henderson
of Sharpsville, Indiana.
For the most part, items were priced at well under $1000. The
variety included a 12" pantry box in old green paint, the inside
of the lid stenciled for W.S. Isherwood & Company of Toledo,
Ohio, which specialized in chewing and smoking tobacco. It was
priced at $340 by Judson and Karen Fults of Lakeview, Ohio. A
pair of carved wood hearse curtains, ex-Clark Garrett, was $750
from John and Ellen Williams of Troy, Ohio.
For buyers on a tight budget, there were low-dollar items, such
as a tin cookie cutter in the form of a sitting dog, priced at $17.50
by Dan and Susanna Smith of Dayton, Ohio.
Tim Chambers of Missouri Plain Folk, Sikeston, Missouri, was
set up just inside the large opening to one of the barns. His day
got off to a good start when he purchased a diorama of a Midwest
farmhouse. “As a dealer you’d like to go home with something
you didn’t bring, so mission accomplished so far,” he said.
The diorama went under a table, saved for another show.
However, there was plenty of folk art available in his booth,
including a barber pole made out of a tree root, painted red and
white with a blue wall mount. Dating to the early 20th century and
having come out of Kansas, it was priced at $200.
That barber pole, Chambers suggested, summed up the antiques
trade. “I could sell it for like a hundred and fifty bucks, and the
next guy would get like six fifty. That’s just the way it goes. There
is no rhyme or reason to it. I don’t care if it’s a show like this or
the New Hampshire show. I guess if you could figure it out it
wouldn’t be as much fun.”
By the end of the day, Sabin was the one trying to figure things
out. “Some dealers did well,” she said, noting the positive. There
was also a downside. “The gate was not good,” she added. She
was left shrugging her shoulders. “The facility is very nice. The
area is nice.”
One thing was certain, she wasn’t ready to give up on Antiques
in 2 Barns. A week after the show she was formulating plans for
2017. Antiques in 2 Barns will return to Hilliard, but Sabin is
giving up on the idea of a Wednesday event. Piggybacking off
of the Springfield Extravaganza didn’t have the positive impact
she anticipated, so she will go it alone. Sabin will move the show
to Saturday, probably in late September, but keep the one-day
format.
While the risk of Antiques in 2 Barns hasn’t fully paid off, Sabin
believes enough in the show to keep it going.
For more information, phone Sabin at (843) 812-0282 or visit
).
Larger dartboard, with numbers, black and white,
$165; bull’s-eye dartboard in red, white, and blue,
$195 from Jim and Toni Stoma of Latcham House
Antiques, Waterville, Ohio. Barber pole in red and white stripes with a blue
mount, $200; shutter in red, white, and blue, $250;
arrow in red, $175 from Tim and Charline Chambers
of Missouri Plain Folk, Sikeston, Missouri.
Whimsy Indian pincushion with American flags over
an eagle, circa 1900, 10" diameter, $185 from John
Sittig and Robin Chase-Sittig of Beaufort, South
Carolina.
Mammy bottle doll with original clothes, circa
1900, $355; striped Spalding Indian clubs, $295
the pair from Hannah Humes Art & Antiques,
Columbus, Ohio.
American ash burl bowl,
about 15" diameter, $1200;
Amish grain-painted dough
box in maple, Pennsylvania,
probably 1850s, $450 from
Sherry Spehar of Jacob
Dorn Dairy Farm Antiques,
Hamburg, Michigan.
Early stuffed
rabbit, $325
from Alicia
Lawson of
Halderman
House Antiques,
West Alexandria,
Ohio.