By Tom O’Hara On the Trail Howdy Folks! And now we are in the last month of the year as we sit in a friend’s Alabama living room beginning to write this last report for 2009. Gee whiz, it seems like so short a time ago when I was writing this monthly report for Harold Hansen, founding publisher for Northeast Antiques and discussing the coming new millennium of 2000. Is time moving faster or is it just my perspective? 2010 is days away, so the 10 years went in a flash, the shows have been hard work, but by being selective we are still making a living brokering antiques. The big promoters are still producing the big shows, while some other promoters have dropped, along with many shows. Promoters who work hard to fill the shows with good antiques have been able to draw enough customers to keep the business vibrant. Stella had a great show on the eleventh floor of a Manhattan Building; Jenkins has Richmond Antiques Spectacular had the variety of antiques appreciated by the area’s customers, here showing an exhibit with early American furniture, accessories and art. changed the venue for their Nashville shows and filled them with dealers and customers; Round Top Texas for Susan Franks has tripled the dealer base successfully in just five years under her management. The business is still out there at the big shows. Promoters of small shows have had to work harder, but if they do, it still works for them too. Sweeney’s Williamsburg on Thanksgiving weekend had the largest show ever, with most dealers succeeding in sales sufficiently enough that they want to come back next year. Jim Dunn’s Cabin Fever in Quechee, Vt. Feb. 13 is a full house. We have lost some friends whose time ran out, but others including your faithful reporter are still fortunate enough to have the good health to continue. Nine grandchildren, moved from Vermont to Connecticut, cut back on the amount of shows (still trying to reduce that number) and still having fun. Richmond Spectacular was…spectacular It was a light month for shows as we only set up at two since the last report to you and covered one other. Nov. 21-22, 2009 was the Richmond Spectacular at The Showplace in the Virginia Capitol. The show has been described in this monthly report as old reliable in that it caters to an audience in Central Virginia and the Tidewater who appreciate antiques. For the last 20 years it has enjoyed a full house of antiques and dealers primarily from the Middle Atlantic States with large loads for the customers’ perusal and purchase. Many exhibit here as they are also able to shop the show – it’s somewhat of a melting pot with southern dealers buying and selling to northern dealers who are there for the same. One Connecticut dealer found 11 items for purchase including a Baltimore Banquet table which was sold again a week later, several Native American beaded purses, an early Pennsylvania Farm table, some eighteenth century dishes, a Persian rug and several small items. That same dealer sold as much during the show as he spent for his purchases, so it was to him a very good show. Barry Yohe, Adamstown, Penn., was selling well for the weekend, with the farm table to the dealer above, a slipper chair from the nineteenth century, an early Victorian shelf and much more. From Zuni, Va. Peg Lockwood was showing the boxes of antiques she had just received from her most recent shopping expedition to England. She was selling small pieces of furniture, antique and vintage art, small dining table accessories and some early silver. The Richmond Antiques Spectacular is four times each year with a second topic each time for a portion of the showplace. Dates for 2010 are Jan. 2-3, along with an Antiques Tools Show; March 27-28, with Garden Antiques and Design; June 5-6, with a Civil War Show; and finally Nov. 20-21, with the Antiquarian Books and Paper Show. Contact for the show is Louise Jesse at 804-462-6190 or Bob Taylor at 804-769- 8866 or visit www.renaissancepromotions.com. Mad River Antiques, North Granby, Conn. was among the regular exhibitors at the Thanksgiving Weekend Holiday Antiques Show in Williamsburg, Va. Happy holidays at Holiday Antiques Show in Williamsburg Bettianne Sweeney’s Holiday Antiques Show in Williamsburg previously mentioned was the largest she has ever put together with 35 dealers, and more space in use than in all the 28 years of the show. Sweeney only produces one show a year but she puts her total effort into making it a success for the dealers, the customers and hopefully herself. The Marriott Kingsmill Ballroom is the site on a slow weekend for their banquet staff so the show gets good attention from them. This year there were a number of newcomers including Axtell Antiques, Deposit, NY was reporting sales at Wilton were not bad with a collection of small antiques selling in the one day event. Page 28, Northeast Antiques, January 2010 www.northeastantiques.com