brimful of Brimfield

Brimfield Massachusetts Antique Show

Three times a year, 21 fields, more than 5000 dealers.

plenty of whimsy

vintage pottery

big green cupboard, old map, and night crawlers sign 

(I'm moving in)

plenty of painted, chippy, shabby, cottage, garden

sweet white and green tete a tete chair

duck hunting boat

best industrial fan

so many great old windows

plenty of reproduction signs, but I think this is the real deal

one more look at the perfect hybrids of cottage charm and industrial salvage

Based on one visit, I think the best way to approach Brimfield is like an anthropological expedition, or perhaps a carnival---fun, weird, and try not to spend all your money on ring toss hoping for the life size teddy bear. There is high end, low end and everything between. Worlds collide--mint julep v budweiser, hot dog v. lobster roll, Neiman Marcus v Old Navy...

 It's fun to just wander. Fields I'd been told were the best were kinda disappointing. Fields I'd never heard of were interesting. There were nice dealers and snooty ones. Prices seemed generally fair--not bargains, but not outrageous. Beware of reproductions. Wear comfortable shoes.

upcycled potting bench

Nice surprises: Good industrial and architectural salvage at reasonable prices. Well done upcycled furniture. Prices on old painted cabinets, pie safes (especially at the end of the week). Kicking myself for passing up the big wideboard cabinet in old pink paint for $200...

I'll show you what I did buy in my next post.

Shelburne Museum

The eclectic Shelburne Museum near Burlington Vermont has 39 buildings on 45 acres, most of them historic and relocated from other parts of New England. Some are historic houses and community buildings set up as they would have been in their time,

such as this settlers cottage. (Click on pictures to enlarge.)

Others are galleries/ exhibition spaces, and not all of them are old. The Kalkin House was built in 2001--the interior was created from 3 trans-oceanic shipping containers. Within was an exhibit of contemporary 3-dimensional paper art. Other buildings exhibited fashion from 1690-2001, Vermont firearms, and landscape paintings.

The founder of the museum, Electra Havemeyer Webb (1888-1960), was an early serious collector of folk art. She was responsible for relocating 20 historic buildings to the property. After her death, her children had this house built on the property and relocated six rooms of the Havemeyer Park Avenue apartment to it. Her parents were collectors of European art and there are Degas', Monets, and Cassatts on these walls.

Mrs. Havemeyer had a lighthouse moved to the property which looks very strange on a grassy knoll.

Not as strange as the Ticonderoga, an elegant old steamboat that used to run on Lake Champlain and that has been fully restored.

 A quick geography break for those not familiar with Vermont: Shelburne is the first town south of Burlington, about 45 miles south of Canada and 235 miles northwest of Boston. Outside of the five Great Lakes, Lake Champlain is the largest freshwater lake in the U.S.  The Adirondack Mountains of New York are on the other side of the lake, and to the south of them you can see the Catskill Mountains.

 The sights of the museum include a covered bridge, built in 1845, that was dismantled and moved in 1949,

 a Shaker round barn, a saw mill, Adirondack lodge, school house, general store, 1950 house, and much more. I was there for four hours, and did not see everything.

Some of my favorite things:

The old buildings. All 19th century New England, which is the time and place of most of the antiques I sell--I learn from seeing good examples of the buildings and their furnishings.

the old kitchens

and bedrooms.

this fence woven with sticks,

gardens,

the extraordinary circus building, which houses a five hundred foot long circus parade, a 4000-piece hand carved circus, many wondrous posters and photographs, and outside of which is an old working carousel.

There is one house filled with antique toys, another with quilts, hatboxes and dioramas (as in the above--I love how detailed the selection of items on his desk is), and one with duck and fish decoys. I see so many bad decoy (and other antique) reproductions that it is a breath of fresh air to see genuine, old, primitive ones.

My favorite place was the stagecoach inn filled with folk art. 

Most poignant moment: a very long cradle made for the elderly and the infirm, a practice originated by the Shakers. It made me think how comforting it would be for someone ill or dying to be rocked in the security of a cradle.

Museum website here. Excellent NY Times article about it here.

what i know

The horse and wagon I got at the auction is a model of a Sicilian Cart.

I want to go here. Immediately. I need to see all of it, including "a 3,500-piece three-ring circus, with a brass band, a tiger cage and acrobats performing before an arena of spectators. But the figures are just inches tall, carved out of wood with a penknife and a jigsaw by Edgar Decker Kirk. Along the curved walls, glass cases display a 500-foot-long circus parade, with 4,000 miniature figures carved by another craftsman, Roy Arnold."  That's 7,500 miniature carved circus figures, folks. Speaking of miniature carved figures, I think I am going to sell the 1860 clothespin soldiers I wrote about here. They are in a closet. They want to come out.


Which brings me to the puzzling fact that I really want to clean out my house. I'm in the mood for streamlined and spare. I'm tired of stuff. And yet I keep bringing in all this stuff to sell. 

Like landscapes. You wouldn't believe how many old landscapes I have.

And I have banished my cat for the night because she caught a baby rabbit. I got it away from her, and I think it's okay but there will be a next one. She goes berserk when I put a bell on her. She goes berserk when I keep her inside.

How was your weekend?