What I did on my Summer Vacation
Went Antiquing!
By: Jane Hudson - Oct 08, 2006
Coming from the East Coast, Boston area, what I learned about was mostly simple 18th C. country pieces or the more ornate Victorian style. The good pine bench or dry sink, the little ladder-back chair with the cane seat, the wide but simple hutch or sideboard. We lived for a while in an 18th Century 'salt box' colonial, and my mother furnished it with the appropriate period (many things slightly damaged or repaired). I have to say there really wasn't a comfortable seat in the house aside from the leather wing chairs that were hidden up in the TV room on the second floor, away from the setting of the main spaces. Later she bought a Victorian farmhouse, and furnished that with over-stuffed chairs and large, dark tables, shelving units, sideboards and settees. I actually missed the lightness and simplicity of the earlier pieces although these were a little bit more comfortable.
I mention this as a small history to my current collecting. Over the past year my husband and I have moved from a tiny Greek revival farmhouse in a neighborhood of Boston to a renovated Mill complex in the Berkshires. Having lived in old loft spaces in the city (he and I met in one such building in the 70's) we were not unfamiliar with the particular demands and joys of living in industrial spaces. The big rooms have to be defined by clusters of furniture to determine use (couch and TV determine livingroom, screened off area defines office or studio, and in our case, an actual closed door separates the bedroom and the kitchen). Because of the scale, we've had to bring in a lot of pieces to fill the space and make it livable and pleasing to the eye.
So we've been going to auctions, tag sales, salvage businesses, group shops and in the process we've learned a whole new world of antiques. Because we're in the western part of New England, on the border with Vermont, New York and close to Connecticut, the period of interest is a little more modern, and the sensibility is much more minimal and restrained. This is the 'Gateway to the West' and so there's a Shaker influence, and an Arts and Crafts sense of the handmade. Mission style, especially the purity of Stickley oak, is favored. Ceramics made in Ohio from the late 1880's into the 1920's abound, particularly McCoy, Rosewell, and Hull.
We started to hang out with the dealers, and got the bug to be in the business. Our first and continuing resource is Al Hamilton's Cheshire Auction, a one-a-month festival of fantastic objects at wholesale prices. Al scours the area from New Hampshire to New York and Pennsylvania, and comes up with amazing pieces. Then, locally there's Sanford and Kidd Salvage (Tim's place), Second Chances (Norm's place), both in North Adams. Also, Stormy's Westend Market that specializes in McCoy. Heading toward Bennington on Rte. 7 in Pownal, Vt. is a great antique barn that recently been purchased by a couple from Connecticut who will turn it into a photography studio and gallery. Too bad. Further up the line is Morgan at Fonda's, one of the oldest antique businesses in the area with three buildings. Next is Sweet Pea, with some sweet silver and amazing topiary animals. Then in Bennington proper is Camelot Village, a cooperative antique barn that is a blow away collection of dealers. Of course, the local Goodwill sometimes has treasures (I got a very old handmade wooden level for $3.00).
In the end, and of course there never really is an end to the search, we've collected enough things to start our own little business. North Adams Antiques, Art and Antiques in the Mill http://northadamsantuquies.com We're using the front of our loft as a store. If you're in the area, traveling along the Mohawk trail, stop in to the Eclipse Mill, a destination now for art at the Eclipse Mill Gallery and Brill Studio Gallery, rare books at G.L.Askins Bookseller studio, ceramic pottery at Gail and Phil Sellars studio and antiques from Jeff and Jane Hudson's North Adams Antiques. You'll get the bug!