May 2019

May 2019 VADA News

The Vermont Maple Festival Antiques Show in St. Albans on April 27th and 28th  was well attended with good sales reported by dealers. It’s a great little show and if you missed it this year, be sure to mark your calendar for next year’s show.

This month’s featured dealer is Gary Briggs from Lunenburg. Gary says he has antiques in his DNA! His mother is a dealer and has had an antiques shop in her home for the past 50 years. Gary went to his first auction at age 7 where he bought a small bamboo stand for 25 cents and sold it years later--after it had appreciated in value for more than his initial investment of 25 cents! Gary has a shop in Lunenburg, Twin Oak Antiques, and also has space at Thos. Bartlett Antiques in Chichester, New Hampshire as well as a Facebook business page www.facebook.com/twinoakantiques. In addition, he does a handful of shows every year including the Vermont Antiques Dealers’ Association show, Antiques at Stratton Mountain,  and the Woodsville Antiques Show, Woodsville, New Hampshire.

Gary is also the co-owner of Aunt Sadie’s Candles in Lunenburg. The candles are sold in retail stores and through catalogs throughout the US and Canada. www.auntsadiescandlesonline.com.

Every dealer has at least one funny story to relate and Gary’s might sound familiar in that it chronicles the path many of our sales take from dealer to dealer. In 2015 he bought a box lot of vintage clothing and included was a box of 15 vintage bathing caps from the 50’s in their original packaging. The caps had big flowers and were in wonderful vibrant colors. Think Esther Williams for those old enough to remember her! Gary carefully removed them from their packaging and displayed each one on a plain white Styrofoam head. He took them to the Woodsville show and sold them during set up to another dealer but asked if he could keep them in his booth as they were so eye catching. The dealer wanted to sell the bathing caps so they were repriced. The show opened at 10am and within ten minutes the caps were resold to another dealer who also let Gary keep them in his booth, repriced once again. They were then resold at around 2pm to a dealer who took them to the textile show in Sturbridge before Brimfield opening where they sold to a New York decorator. Who knows where they are today???!!! Great story!

Gary loves what he does and has fun doing it.  Discovering the history of what he sells and the people he meets at shows and in his shop is his favorite part of being a dealer. Like many of us, he is a collector. Some of the things he likes to collect are Adirondack cabin and camp antiques and one-of-a-kind “oddities”, folk art, early wooden signs, and Lunenburg and Old Man in the Mountain  memorabilia.

Don’t forget to attend the VADA annual meeting and luncheon on May 28th at the Middlebury Inn. You can pay for the luncheon at the meeting but please let Brian know if you do plan on attending bittnerantiques@gmail.com . If you’d like to pay in advance, please send a check for $20 to Judd Gregory, PO Box 65, Dorset, VT 05251. There will be a meet and greet at 11:30 followed by lunch and a general meeting and a “Show and Tell” with an option to sell/buy so please bring something to share with the membership. Dues were due in January—if you haven’t paid them, please do so as soon as possible in order to be included in the Directory and listed on the website. Mail your dues to Judd Gregory.  We urge all members to attend the annual meeting if possible as this is your association and best functions if all the membership participates.
I am including an email that Brian sent to me.

Dear VADA Member,
I am writing to let you know of my plans to resign as President of VADA later this year. I have enjoyed filling this role and plan to continue to serve on the board. I no longer have the time to devote to this position that it deserves.

I informed the rest of the board of this decision at the end of 2018. As of yet no one has volunteered to fill the position. I am hopeful that one of you may consider. The ideal candidate would have an interest in directing the association through the next 2-3 years and availability of time and energy. 

Please let me or another board member know if you are interested. And please plan on attending our Annual Meeting at the Middlebury Inn Tuesday May 28th, 2019.
We are also always looking for more involvement on any level. If you would like to consider a position on our board or a subcommittee, please let us know.

Sincerely,
Brian Bittner
802-272-7527
www.vermontada.com

Have a great spring!
Vesta Urband vkurband@gmail.com