Date: Fri 01-Oct-1999

Publication: Ant

Author: GWARD

Quick Words:

Brimfield-Beach

Full Text:

Brimfield Wet And Wild

(with cuts and sidebar)

By Laura Beach

BRIMFIELD, MASS.-- One expects a certain amount of Sturm und Drang to

accompany anything as momentous as the passing of a millennium. But the latest

Brimfield carried it to a literal excess. Thanks to Hurricane Floyd, the final

markets of 1999 were wet and wild. Those who took part in the September 11-19

shows - dealers, managers and town officials - deserve much credit for

remaining cool, calm and collected, despite trying circumstances.

As detailed in the accompanying report by Antiques and The Arts Weekly

associate editor David Smith, who visited Brimfield at the height of the

deluge, the markets opened under fair-enough skies on Tuesday. Rain began on

Wednesday afternoon, falling heavily through Thursday. With both winds and

forecasters' warnings gaining momentum, the town's Board of Selectmen issued

an advisory, urging people to evacuate their tents and leave the fields

between 6 pm on Thursday and noon on Friday.

For the first time in anyone's recollection, Brimfield was effectively, if not

officially, closed. Many dealers picked up and left for home, cutting short

their losses at midweek. Others made frantic efforts to get into shows with

more propitious opening times. Some exhibitors arrived on Friday after the

storm had passed, only to find it still too windy to unpack fragile

merchandise. A minority dug in its heels and stayed through the week.

For Judith Reid Mathieu and Jill Reid Lukesh, affectionately known as "the

girls," September's markets were as noteworthy for closing as for opening. On

Saturday, September 18, the organizers of J & J Promotions Antiques &

Collectibles Show celebrated the founding of the Brimfield markets by their

father, Gordon Reid, 40 years earlier. Through the decades, they have never

canceled a fair, though weather did force J & J Promotions to open six hours

late on this occasion. When vendors pulled onto Auction Acres at noon on

Friday, buyers snapped up merchandise as it was unloaded from trucks and vans.

Brimfield Acres North managed to miss most of the bad weather by opening with

400 dealers on Tuesday and again on Saturday, when azure skies greeted the

largest retail crowd of the week. Said Colleen James, "We had a super Tuesday.

The weathermen told us it was going to be a nice beautiful, sunny day. It

wasn't. But at least the rain held off until 2 pm."

Noted the manager, "By Tuesday, we were getting calls from dealers signed up

to do other shows who knew they were going to be washed out and were desperate

to find another space. Unfortunately, we were sold out. We always are." Thanks

to Floyd, Brimfield Acres North swelled from 100 exhibitors to 150 on

Saturday, James said. She concluded, "A lot of our dealers had two good shows.

We were lucky."

Operated by Pam and Don Moriarty, Heart-O-The Mart traditionally swings into

action on Wednesday and continues through Sunday. "We had a good opening day,"

noted Don Moriarity. "We opened at 9 am and the dealers did very well for the

first few hours of the show. The crowd was about the same as last year. The

rain started at noon. Between 5 and 6 pm we told everyone that we were closing

the field and would reopen as soon as we could. The party rental company came

and worked through the night to take down the tents. Of course, the vast

majority of our dealers did not return. Those that had their own tents

hunkered down and reopened on Friday afternoon."

May's Antiques Market opened at 9 am on Thursday. "All things considered, we

had a tremendous show. We had some pretty heavy hitters come through on

Thursday. Friday was really worse weather-wise, because of the wind," Laura

May said afterwards. "The dealers are troopers. We figure that about 80

percent of our exhibitors showed up; the others turned around and went home.

People don't have to be concerned about losing their spaces for May. We're

holding everyone's spots."

As the sun returned on Saturday, Brimfield's remaining dealers were glum,

philosophical or both. "It's our worst Brimfield," Chuck Marburger of Olde

Good Things said cheerfully. Resourceful nonetheless, the New York City dealer

set up at Sturtevant's, May's, Heart-O-The-Mart and J & J Promotions, catching

as much traffic as he possibly could.

In addition to foot traffic, there was movement overhead. For hours on

Saturday, a single-engine plane trailing an Amazon.com banner looped lazily in

the sky above, hoping to attract attention away from eBay and other online

auctioneers who had set up information booths on several fields.

As the world's largest outdoor antiques show, Brimfield is encyclopedic in its

offerings. Nevertheless, some flourishing categories of merchandise are worth

mentioning. Garden antiques and not-so-antiques were big business at this

September's Brimfield. Truckloads full of terra-cotta pots, wire plant stands

and topiaries, and baskets showed up on the fields. Weathered wooden porch

furniture in crusty paint was also plentiful, but many dealers offered

glass-topped metal tables and matching chairs, or enameled aluminum garden

seats, some set on gliders.

Brimfield is still an excellent source for country furniture if you know where

to look and who to ask. "Our market was ruined. We drove 13 hours and were

drowned out," sighed Tom Heisey and Dan Dennis, two Ohio dealers doing J & J

Promotions together. Still in the back of their truck was an exceptional Knox

County, Ohio cupboard with unusual raised diamond panel doors and a skirt with

reverse scrolls. Signed John Purdy and dated 1866, the casepiece was $3,700.

The markets are a superb place for stocking up on Twentieth Century design

from dealers such as Donna and Steve Wisnewski of Modern Home, Webster, Mass.

Streamlined modern tablewares in mint-and-boxed condition is their specialty.

Jewel-toned kitchen glass, circa 1930 to 1950, glittered in the bright sun in

Richard DeSanto's stand. One hot item was Swanky Swigs, colorful enameled

drinking glasses made as premiums for Welch's grape jelly, Bosco peanut butter

and others. They ranged in price from $4 to $12. Said the Scranton, Pa.

dealer, "I've been selling collectible drinking glasses for 13 years. Now

people are buying them eight at a time." DeSanto's business was presumably

helped by "Glass Giveaways," an article on the subject that appeared in the

July/August issue of Martha Stewart Living.

Florida dealer Margaret Meier hit pay dirt with a cache of homespun linen

grain bags from the turn of the century. Decorators were snapping up the

earthy-looking beige fabrics that were priced at $75 or $85 a piece. Many of

the bags was decorated with subtle red or blue stripes; some bags were even

initialed. Meier, a Fort Lauderdale-area textiles specialist with an extensive

selection of 1920s to 1950s bark cloth, said designers are using the grain

bags for pillows, hand towels and other accents in beach or mountain homes.

The photographs on the accompanying pages tell the story. There were plenty of

Steiff animals, another hot collecting category; lots of salvaged electric

lighting; resurfaced bathroom fixtures; loads of Twentieth Century dinnerware;

and the staples of country decorating, such as hooked rugs and yellowware.

There were also innumerable collector specialities, from advertising marbles

to mantel clocks, figural canes and walking sticks.

The September 1999 Brimfield markets will not soon be forgotten. "Hurricanes

and field shows don't go together. But I don't have an attitude. Weather is

part of the business," Betty Fuss said good naturedly. The Tennessee dealer

had driven hundreds of miles through the rain, but was only able to set up on

the final weekend of the fair.

"The combination of wind and water was more than we've ever experienced," said

Don Moriarity, organizer of Heart-O-The Mart. "But I must say, the thing that

impressed me most is how responsibly everyone acted. We all were as fortunate

as we could have hoped to have been."