MARBURGER FARM ANTIQUE SHOW

FLYING HIGH IN ROUND TOP

4/14/06 Round Top, Texas---It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a helicopter coming to shop at the Marburger Farm Antique Show! In the tiny town of Round Top, Texans have always arrived by chartered buses, by limos and by a fleet of housewives desperate to fill their SUVs and empty trailers. At the March 4-8 spring edition of the show, the new thing was arrival by helicopter.

Show owner John Sauls, known as “the promoter who thinks of everything,” found himself stumped as 2 women from San Antonio phoned from the sky. “Where would you like us to land?” Sauls looked out over 27 acres of free parking, jam-packed with vehicles, and managed to come up with a spot now designated “For Helicopter Parking Only.” So they navigated past the giant air balloons flying over the Country Living Magazine tent and settled down to shop.

The pilot wasn’t the only one flying high, though. “I’m over the moon!” said Houston dealer Vivian Brietel from her spot in the General Store, one of 12 historic buildings now on the Marburger Farm site. That’s in addition to the 8 massive tents that shelter over 400 dealers from 39 states and 4 countries for the twice-yearly mega-show. Brietel sold American and continental sterling, art glass and 19^th century needlework in original frames. “I love this show,” she confided. “Basically, Marburger Farm dominates the market.”

“John has developed the premiere show in the south,” said Barry Strohm of StrohmArtandAntiques.com in Park City, Utah. “I sold serious art: old master etchings, 2 Renoir etchings and 2 by Degas. It’s 3,200 miles of driving for me, but my average Marburger sale was hundreds of dollars over the total gas bill. The people come to Marburger Farm with money in their pockets and ready to spend it. That makes all the difference.”

Sauls reported that opening day shoppers tied with the previous early buying record, with non-stop interest in the Country Living magazine “Live On Location at Marburger Farm” display. He noted celebrity shoppers such as actress Mary Steenburgen “who bought all over the show” and well-loved design authors Rachel Ashwell and Mary Emmerling. “One shopper,” said Sauls, “asked to use our camper hook-up for his motor home, which turned out to be a $1.25 million mobile corporate command center. He said he did a $100 million deal between shopping our tents. I can find a camper hook-up for him anytime!”

Tampa, FL area dealers Bill and Kay Puchstein of American Heritage Antiques also felt that their gas investment per mile paid off beautifully per shopper. They sold early CT and OH quilts and a 1760’s long cupboard base in old blue paint from the Hudson River Valley as well as a tall NH wood box, also in original blue paint. “I liked the age of the customers,” reported Kay Puchstein. “Many were young women, 25-35. It’s exciting to see young people getting interested.”

Jason Cohen, of the new Dallas store, Dolly Python, talked about a surge in younger buyers throughout the state. “They like to dress up and go shopping for antiques.” Cohen sold a cutting edge mix of American folk art from NB and KS alongside vintage medical models and charts, such as a biology class model of an earthworm with pull-out cross sections “that looked like a Damien Hirst sculpture.” The best thing about Marburger Farm, he said, “is the mix of interesting, fresh merchandise with old-school established dealers---very diverse, but every single dealer here has a good eye for things.”

Carrizo Springs, TX dealer Laura Coggins, from that “more established dealers” category with early Texas and American country furniture, also observed that “the buyers are getting younger.” She sold an 1800’s MN cupboard, over 7 feet tall, plus a Texas table to a shop soon opening in Fredericksburg, TX. “You feel that new stores are opening and younger buyers are coming into the antiques markets, both wonderful signs.” Coggins sold an early dry sink to a young couple for an 1890’s home. “What a classic and classy thing for a young couple to buy.”

Not everything was American country. Thomas Hoke of Landis, NC travels every 3 months to remote areas of France, Belgium and England, looking for all things “comfortable, warm, wrinkled, weathered, well-patinized.” At Marburger Farm Hoke sold a pair of English wing-back chairs in old leather, a French faux bamboo armoire in pine and “customers wiped out my 19^th c. English painted cottage furniture. I mean wiped out. After the first day, it was already the best show in the history of my business. And I spent the next 4 days making myself even happier.”

Ender Tasci of Orlando’s Elephant Walk Antiques also reported “my best show by far.” Tasci sold primarily European furniture, but also sold a set of large 19^th c. papier mache angel wings in gold paint from the Boston Museum of Art Christmas display---“Off to California,” he said. “Actually I was so busy on opening day that I did not have time to write invoices. I just handed people my card with the total scribbled on it.” Descended from 3 generations of antiques dealers, Jodie and Michael Roberts of Homer, MI managed to write invoices, but they also experienced “a fantastic show.” They sold 26 alabaster lamps, 8 Austrian country beds, garden urns and antique wicker. “We love coming to Texas and we save merchandise all winter to bring our best to Marburger Farm. No one is as friendly as Texas.”

“With good-timin’ Texans, balloons, helicopters and more, Marburger Farm was a bit of a 10 ring circus. Tulsa, OK dealer Debbie Wold summed it up, “We had fun, both buyers and sellers. We all wanted to forget what was going on in the rest of the world, so we just had a good time for a week.” Along those carnival lines, MN dealer Al Linder’s favorite piece sold was a 1920’s bumper car sign that said “Laughter Oils the Wheels of Life.” And on the other said it said, “Press the Clutch and Drive On.” Maybe the world should take note.

The Fall Marburger Farm Antique Show runs Tuesday, Oct. 3 through Sat. Oct.7, 2006. For information on maps, travel, lodging, bus trips, shipping and corporate command center hook-ups, see www.roundtop-marbuger.com or call John Sauls at (800) 947-5799.