In many ways, the annual Memorial Day antique show at a school outside of Chesterland, Ohio, is a typical 1980s show. I always find lots of popular antiques that have been collected for generations: fancy silver, beautiful china, sets of flatware, garden urns and figures, “brown” furniture from the 18th and 19th centuries, toleware, pewter, prints, Tiffany, Asian ceramics and paintings.

But in other ways, the show has become a younger, hipper 21st-century show. There was costume jewelry, folk art, industrial-style furniture and even some early advertising. Many buyers are parents of children who attend the school or are long-time customers, like me, who go every year to see old friends and, of course, to buy.

The advertising items were small signs, labels and a few tins from the 1940s and later. Not what serious country-store collectors look for. There was an Enterprise countertop store coffee grinder for $915, a high price. There was also a cone-shaped lithographed fire extinguisher from the early 1900s with its chemicals removed. Price tag: $325. While I was standing there, a “looker” offered $200 and the dealer made the sale. I was surprised that a 42 percent discount was OK with the dealer.

“Recycled” pieces that made use of old or unpopular items were in many booths. Imported English pottery chimney tops were selling for $175 to $195 to be used as garden plant stands. These have been showing up at shows for about five years now and really work well in the yard.

Necklaces made from a string of brand new pearls and an old pendant-like locket or medal, a group of old rings or charms, or just any piece of gold or silver jewelry that could be attached to a ring were back again. The dealer sold out last year and a line was forming when I walked by.

Industrial stuff included an old wooden table with a sheet-steel top and smudgy paint. It sold in the first few minutes. A rack full of old wire baskets with rusty numbered labels, probably from a manufacturing plant’s locker room, seemed unenticing to me. Then I watched a young woman buy five of the baskets, $10 each, without even asking for a quantity discount. A table made from an old pedestal, a boat steering wheel and a glass top was still not sold when I left.

Several dealers were offering “smalls.” One had a table near the door with “dump displays” of picture frames, hardware, costume jewelry, small boxes and little metal things of all sorts. Customers seemed to like searching until they found a small “something,” and business was brisk.

I bought an unusual necklace made of bent discs for $25. It looks like a copy of a piece of modernist jewelry. Another dealer was manning his usual booth of small decorative things. You could buy a variety of clear glass candlesticks to display in groups for $20 to $40 each. Three-inch-square wooden frames held pieces of old lace.

A large old bowl was filled with buttons assembled to look like flowers. On top was an old pottery chicken. It was a “no-flowers centerpiece,” according to the dealer, who was asking over $100. He was a creative guy. He was also selling forks bent to form stands. The tines were spread flat in opposite directions, with the handle facing up. It made a display for a picture about postcard-size.

 

continued next month…..