d
ephemera fair, and what is
believed to be Bostons first-ever
antique textile and vintage fash-
ion show. Nonbelievers abound-
ed in the months leading up to the
first Boston Antiques Weekend,
as it was called, on Saturday and
Sunday, March 31 and April 1.
One sticking point was that the
venue, the Bayside Exposition &
Conference Center, is actually in
South Boston, in the vicinity of
Dorchesters Columbia Point
neighborhood, the University of
Massachusetts at Boston, and the
John F. Kennedy Presidential
Library & Museum. That is to
say, not downtown. Yet even
before this event took place,
Bostonians and their suburban
neighbors had already proved
that they know how to get to the
complex, built in 1980. Thats
where they go to attend the New
England Spring Flower Show, the
Bay Colony Dog Show, car
shows, RV shows, and motorcy-
cle shows; and, in July 2004,
many thousands of them went
there with hopes of being filmed
for PBSs Antiques Roadshow.
One other reason for skepti-
cism was that at least two other
promoters have tried the venue in
the last dozen yearswith poor
results. Dealers who exhibited
with them were some of the loud-
est naysayers. In the end, though,
many of them signed on. If Get-
man, known for his border collie
work ethic and willingness to
spend ad dollars, couldnt bring it
off successfully, no one could.
Getman doesnt always have
good luck with weather, but this
time, he did. On Fridays setup
day, it was sunny and bright. It
was the same for the rest of the
weekend, butand this was
importantit was too cool to
garden. When the doors opened
on Saturday at 10 a.m., we
watched the rush for some
The range of 20th-century objects brought by Ken Arthur of Spotted Horse Antiques, Quechee, Vermont, was
strikingsome would say quirkybut the booth worked stylistically and attracted the right customer. The
81" tall Ngata sarcophagus in carved and painted wood with brass tacks, from Africas eastern Congo, was
tagged $16,500. The carved wood Koro initiation mask alongside it, also from the eastern Congo, was $950.
The cone-shaped mask from the Belgian Congo, missing its tusks and meant to be worn by a dancer, was from
the Jean-Pierre Hallet collection and priced at $2800. Then there were the American radios from the late
1930s and 1940s, in red, pink, yellow, and black Bakelite, offered at $125 to $550. All the radios sold. A
developer took nine of them and also paid for 19 others that Arthur had back at the shop.
minutes before realizing the end
would not be reached any time
soon.
Roy Mennell of Bradford Trust
Fine Art & Antiques, Harwich
Port,
Massachusetts,
whose
booth gave him a good view of
the ticket takers, said there was
no break in the flow until 10:58
a.m. Richard Rick Russack of
F. Russack Books, Danville, New
Hampshire, corroborated that it
took about a full hour for the
freshet to finish.
Significantly, the crowd, which
numbered just a hair under eight
thousand by Getmans count,
included many prominent mem-
bers of the Boston antiques and
arts community and beyond. By
Sunday, we had noted dealers
Peter Clarke of Newburyport,
Massachusetts, Howard Chad-
wick of Boston and Nantucket,
Massachusetts, and Bill Samaha
of Wellesley, Massachusetts; auc-
tioneers Willis Henry of Marsh-
field, Massachusetts, and Richard
Pompeo of Quincy, Massachu-
setts; promoters Linda Turner of
South Portland, Maine, and
David and Bernice Bornstein of
Peabody,
Massachusetts;
dealer/promoters Tony Fusco and
Robert Four; John Curuby of the
Boston Art Club; curator Ted
Stebbins of Harvards Fogg Art
Museum; Lorna Condon and
Nancy Carlisle of Historic New
England; and John Colasacco of
Skinners jewelry department.
We also saw art collector John
Gale of Cambridge, Massachu-
setts; bibliophile Larry Gillooly
of Machias, Maine; and, from an
entirely different segment of the
culture, Lydia Shire, chef at
Bostons Locke-Ober, and Pierre
Sosnitsky, owner of Pierrot
Bistrot Français at the foot of
Beacon Hill.
Only a few of those people
have been seen at Getmans
Greater Boston Antiques Festi-
val, held twice yearly at the
Shriners Auditorium in Wilming-
ton, Massachusetts. The new
show was meant to be a step up
from that north of Boston venue.
Dealers were invited, and once
they were in agreed to abide by
Getmans dress code of no jeans,
no sweat shirts, no sneakers. A
world-class event for a world-
class city, the slogan stated.
One thing this location has over
any place in the city proper is
parking. There are 2500 spaces at
the front and sides of the building
Arlene Komyathy of Glenbrook Antiques, Walden, New York, sold this
set of 12 dining chairs from the 1920s. The set was marked $4900.
Michael Hingston Antiques, Etna, New Hampshire, asked $1500 for the
set of six vintage Tulip chairs, designed in 1956 by Eero Saarinen and
produced by Knoll Associates. The price for the oval top dining table,
also designed by Saarinen and produced by Knoll, was $1700. The
chairs and table sold.
and 1000 more spaces across the
street, according to Bayside Expo
sales manager Rick Bishop. The
catch is the cost. Of course, you
have to pay for parking down-
town, but there its a rarity, like a
fine antique, and it seems logical
that the price is high. Out where
parking is ample, a $12 hit, on top
of admission tickets ($10 for one
day, $15 for two), did strike many
show-goers as steep. Also with
patience and luck, one may find a
street spot downtown. At Bayside
Expo, there are few, if any, street
options.
Of course, private car wasnt
the only way to get to the show.
Getman offered a shuttle bus
from the nearest subway stop,
which is also a commuter rail sta-
tion. The Beantown Trolley ran
continuously, said Getman. I
had the driver keeping count of
riders. They shuttled close to
three hundred people.
Another shuttle bus ran
between the show and Landry &
Arcari Oriental Rugs and Carpet-
ing in Bostons Back Bay. Thats
the neighborhood where the Ellis
Memorial Antiques Show takes
place every year and where the
Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston
used to have its antiques show,
before it decided to fund-raise
another way. Many of the clubs
former dealers (Blue Heron Fine
Art, Cohasset, Massachusetts;
Spotted Horse Antiques,
Quechee, Vermont; Donna Kmetz
of Douglas, Massachusetts; Glen-
brook Antiques, Walden, New
York; Diane Kane of Linge de
Berry, Boston) were bereft until
Getman decided to step into the
breach.
The three-in-one concept
attracted 127 antiques dealers, 73
book dealers, and 31 textiles deal-
ers (231 in all) who filled 110,000
square feet of the 280,000-
square-foot facility. At the
entrance signage led bibliophiles
one way, antiques seekers anoth-
er. The path to the textiles and
vintage clothing section wasnt as
obvious, but observers reported
seeing many people make a bee-
line for it, perhaps having been
alerted by a prominent story
before the show in the Boston
Globe that began, Fashionistas
take note.
Getman spent months on his
pitches to the press. He also spent
close to $55,000 on TV and radio
spots, magazine and newspaper
ads, and direct mail. One thing
that the publicity stressed, and
another important component of
the weekend, was a seminar
series, Learning with the Pros.
Presented by the Journal of
Antiques and Collectibles, the
series featured talks on such top-
ics as dolls by Dorothy McGona-
gle, maps by Michael L. Buehler,
tiles by Wendy Harvey, books by
Nicholas Basbanes, Dedham pot-
tery by James Kaufman, textiles
by Diane Kane, quilts by Lin
12-C Maine Antique Digest, June 2007 - SHOW -

A circa 1920 Louis Vuitton trunk is shown closed
and opened to reveal its inserts, including two
shoe trays, enough for 12 pairs. The more inserts
the better, said David Genereux of Wayside
Antiques & Collectibles, West Boylston, Massa-
chusetts, whose asking price for the trunk was
$8200. The trunk sold.
Joshua and Mary Steenburgh of Pike, New Hampshire,
brought a wooden sign from a Springfield, New Hampshire,
general store and filling station; it was tagged $1550. The
rusted iron grate (upper right) with serial fan pattern was
$250.
A rainbow lithograph by Corita Kent
(1918-1986) was meant by dealer Michael
Westman of Newport, Rhode Island, to echo
a Boston landmark, the 150 tall natural gas
tank, seen from Route I-93, that is painted
with a similar Corita design. Westmans
Corita was $425.
German face figures from the 1930s were $360 for the pair from
Crones Collectibles, Brewster, Massachusetts. The two purposely
asymmetrical Swedish pots from the late 1930s or early 1940s,
designed by Stig Lindberg for Gustavsberg, were $865 and $995 (for
the taller one). The Arts and Crafts brass candlesticks were $295.
The 17th-century central European carved wood blanket chest lid was
$2200 from Brian Cullity of Sagamore, Massachusetts. The pintails by
Elmer Crowell, 1928-30, were tagged $14,500 for the pair; the Salisbury
& Company coin silver tea set, 1835-45, was $3750; the Sandwich
lamps were $6500.
Bradford Trust Art & Antiques, Harwich Port, Massa-
chusetts, showed a 33" x 35" oil on board by Nancy
Maybin Ferguson (1872-1967), one of the Philadelphia
Ten. Its a view of Commercial Street in Provincetown,
Massachusetts, dating from 1925-30, showing the art
association on extreme left and the old Bryants Mar-
ket, now Angel Foods, on the right. Roy and Sheila
Mennells price for the painting was $38,500. The rug
on their booth floor was lent by Landry & Arcari Ori-