Maine Antique Digest, December 2020

66 Maine Antique Digest, December 2020 FEATURE SHOW and the setting was really pretty.” Sherhag offered booths in one large tent with walls and another with no walls. The walled booths had a full back wall but side walls that extended only about 2'. The unusual configuration was because of COVID. “I didn’t want to set up boxed-in spaces,” Sherhag said. He was not allowed on any of the tents to have side flaps that might restrict air flow. Sherhag did not provide lighting in the tent, which led to some dealer complaints. The walled-booth tent was significantly darker than the no-wall booth. Sherhag said that providing lighting would have dramatically raised booth rent. He researched it. “Generators for lights would have meant thousands of extra dollars,” he said. “I tried to keep the show as affordable as possible,” he said, citing the uncertain nature of the show. “It was a new show during a pandemic, outside, in October, in Vermont.” He wanted to minimize the risk to his dealers. “I wasn’t sure how many bodies were going to show up and shop this thing. I was trying to be very protective. Trying to be very careful.” Several dealers took their goods outside the tent, placing objects on the large field where they could be seen in the light of day. During the two-day run, over 500 people attended. “I’m not disappointed. That was better than last year’s attendance,” Sherhag noted. He said that in the days after the show, he received “a lot of emails from dealers and others who really appreciated the effort.” Sherhag said, “People from the Midwest came to shop. I was surprised how many people were there from Ohio and Indiana. I think people are itching to get out and do something right now. I had several people say they had their best year ever in Vermont.” Sherhag is a fan of the new show’s size. “I think it attracted more people. Hitting the sixty- to seventy- dealer mark on that show is very attractive for people. They get to look at a lot of stuff, especially if it’s a good show with quality dealers. If people are going to travel any distance, they want both quality and quantity.” “I wanted to do this to get another year under my belt, to learn what I’ll have to do next year if we’re still dealing with COVID,” Sherhag stated. “There’s a lot of things I found out and learned this year. There were some things we won’t do in the same way next year.” Adding to the positive news, two weeks after the show Sherhag said that he had not heard of anybody contracting COVID-19 at the event. For more information, contact Sherhag at sherhag@ gmail.com. The Illinois rooster weathervane at the top, 1920s-30s, 22" x 19", was $595 from Tim and Charline Chambers of Missouri Plain Folk, Sikeston, Missouri. The 19th-century Maine weathervane on the lower right was $495. The rooster on the left with the abstract red- and yellow-painted tail is not a weathervane; it was probably made to sit atop a henhouse. It dates from the first quarter of the 20th century and was $695. “We had a fabulous final figure,” Tim Chambers said. “Steve did everything he could. I have no complaints. He was a magician to pull it off.... All things considered, people were in pretty good spirits.” Thomas Clark of Francestown, New Hampshire, had several of these hats in red, black, and blue. They were labeled from New Jersey and priced at $85 each. Roberta Paul of Millcreek Antiques, Geneseo, New York, asked $795 for the signed John Conger rolling pin, $1400 for the 18th-century flame-stitch wallet, and $1200 for the 1700s friendship album. Folk-art portrait of a mother and child, attributed to Zedekiah Belknap (1781-1858), oil on canvas, 36½" x 24½", $14,500 from David Hillier of Antique Associates at West Townsend, West Townsend, Massachusetts. “I’m a cup-half-full kind of guy,” said Hillier. “I made a half-dozen new relationships with people who have now bought objects from me post-show. Just getting out in the community and seeing colleagues was very positive.” Robert Foley of Gray, Maine, asked $850 for the late 19th-century wine rack with porcelain pulls. It sold.