January 2018

Happy New Year! It has certainly been a very cold holiday season—feels like an old-fashioned Vermont winter at last! Hope everyone had a great holiday and is looking forward to a great new year.

The dates for Vermont Week 2018 are September 26-September 30. Shows are held in Weston, Ludlow, and Stratton. There have been some changes in the shows for this year: the Vermont Antique Dealer’s Show has taken over what was the Antiques at Stratton Mountain Show and has a new manager,  Lori Scotnicki. Contact Lori for information at 802-318-1619 or email lscotnicki@gmail.com. The Ludlow Antique Show and Sale also has new managers, Kris Johnson and Steve Sherhag.

The Cabin Fever Antiques Show is on Saturday, February 17th, 10 am-4pm at the Mid-Vermont Christian School, 399 West Gilson Avenue, Quechee, Vermont. The show features antiques from 30 dealers and admission is $10. It’s always a great show so mark your calendars. The new manager of the show is Lori Scotnicki. For information contact her at 802-318-1619 or email lscotnicki@gmail.com or www.cabinfeverantiqueshow.com

Our featured dealers this month are associate VADA members from New York state—Pat and Bob Martin of Home Farm Antiques. Pat and Bob have been selling antiques since the late 1980’s but were collectors long before that—until they, like so many of us, had to start selling in order to find room for all the new purchases! Pat’s collecting passion at the moment is stick figure wooly lambs, bottle brush trees, and early sewing; Bob likes military items and antique guns. Prior to becoming dealers, Pat taught school and wrote children’s books; Bob was in hotel management. As Pat puts it, they retired from employment that actually paid them and gave them benefits in order to work harder and put in longer hours doing something they really love. They have been VADA members for many years, participating in many shows in Vermont and New York as well. They not only do shows but are also in a multi-dealer shop, Antiques Market Place on Route 149 in Lake George. In addition, Home Farm Antiques has a website www.homefarmantiques.com and also has shops on Ruby Lane and DIG Antiques. They deal primarily in early Americana country and primitives, folk art, early fine jewelry, and 18th and 19th century sewing items. Both Pat and Bob are enthusiastic about the future of antiques and the antiques trade, feeling that people may be tiring of the lack of personal interaction with people and with what they are buying in online trading and thus hoping this will bring more people into antique shops. Pat says that she sees more young people coming into the shop these days and while they may not buy a lot or know much about antiques, they are buying what they can afford and what is familiar to them—usually fun, vintage, mass-market collectibles. I think that many of us started out this way and gradually refined our tastes and interests. As Pat so aptly said “vintage links to memories and earlier pieces of history enhance the present and are capable of enriching the future”, so hopefully some of these young people will be the dealers and customers of the future.

Dues letters for VADA members were sent out on December 27th. Please send your dues in by January 15th  to Judd Gregory, PO Box 65, Dorset, VT 05251. If you did not receive a letter or would like to join the Vermont Antique Dealer’s Association, please contact Brian Bittner at bittnerantiques@gmail.com or Jeff Noordsy at jeffnhol@shoreham.net.

We were sorry to hear that Michael Pheffer of Two Sides of the River Antiques in New London, New Hampshire had a serious health emergency in November. Happily, he is recovering at home and we look forward to seeing him fully recovered soon. All of us at VADA send Michael our best get-well wishes.

As always, I am happy to hear from you with news of your shop, shows, and antiquing adventures. Wishing you all a Happy 2018!
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Vesta K. Urband  
vkurband@gmail.com