Marburger Farm Antique Show Fall 2010 --  EMbracing A New reality

10.19.2010—Round Top, Texas --- Call it the newlywed show, the designer show, the stroller show or the collector show. The Marburger Farm Antique Show in Round Top fired on all cylinders September 28 through October 2. Even the weather cooperated.

“This was our third straight show in a row with record attendance and beautiful weather,” reported show co-owner Rick McConn. “Kids, families and strollers were everywhere. The new reality at Marburger Farm is that our show is maturing into a national destination, while our audience is growing younger. That’s exactly what we’ve been working toward. I couldn’t be more proud of the dealers and the show team.”

Someone, probably on Facebook, put out the word for newlyweds to shop at Marburger Farm. When the show closed on Saturday, a slew of furniture left for first homes. One dealer reported on a young couple who bought their very first piece of furniture: a sideboard in early red and black paint. They came back a few minutes later to ask if she thought it would look good with antique moose antlers. She did.

With all the romance going around, Susan Curran Wright of Snow Leopard Antiques in Raleigh, NC sold Italian wedding pillows embroidered with “Amore” and Victorian christening bonnets. “Everyone that I talked to had a great show---and I talk to a lot of dealers. The public loves our show,” says Curran Wright. “It’s a good mix of dealers and people can buy things at Marburger Farm. It’s not exorbitant.”

Dealer Alan Hoops of Findlay, Ohio sold a wide range of reasonable prices. “We sold lots of white ironstone, from $20 plates to $500 cake stands.” The big seller for Hoops was fraternal lodge regalia, such as costumes, props, banners, hats and helmets. “We sold over 150 theatrical collars and over 50 costumes.” What are people doing with them? “People wear the costumes to renaissance fairs,” he responds, “and designers cut them up for fabulous pillows.”

Thanks to the design community outreach, interior designers from all over America converge on the converted cow-pasture. Fortunately, with over 350 dealers on 43 acres, there is plenty of superb merchandise to go around. Designer Leslie Pritchard’s Dallas shop, Again and Again, ranked as a “Vital Resource” in the September issue of Elle Décor magazine. She sums up Marburger Farm in this way: “I appreciate the vendors who find this wonderful merchandise, who travel all this way and who put up with people for a week with a smile on their face. The Marburger Farm Antique Show is a twice-yearly family re-union. It’s the happiest group of dealers and customers anywhere in the US.”

What did Pritchard buy? Lighting and furniture, including a brutalist Paul Evans-style credenza from the 1970s. “I never expected to see that piece here!” she says. “It’s going into a home with 60s and 70s design, as a console for a TV.”

And exactly how did that piece arrive within sight of the show’s herd of longhorns? Dealer John Berry of Grosse Pointe Park, MI pulled it out of a 30 foot truck and set it right in the center of the show’s pedestrian promenade. He had bought it near Detroit, along with several Knoll and Eames mid-century modern pieces. ”I’ve dropped all my other shows. Marburger Farm is the only show I do. Next time I’ll bring the Knoll and Eames pieces and even more modernism. I’m a dealer who looks for good deals for customers at Marburger all the way here. If I see something I like, and I have room on the truck, I’ll throw it in. Even if I don’t make a lot on it, I make a customer on it. The repeat customers at Marburger Farm come back and buy. It’s a very personable and personal show. For people decorating their homes, what they buy here is a form of personal expression. It’s fun to be part of that.”

Marburger enhanced the fun this time with the new Blacksmith Shop Bar, serving wine, beer and margaritas from one of the site’s twelve historic buildings—that’s in addition to ten super-size tents and three food pavillions. Customers enjoyed being interviewed throughout the week by the large number of media teams on site, from the live radio broadcast on Brenham’s KTEX to “The Junk Mafia” program, broadcasting live to the Kansas City area from Marburger Farm. Telemundo TV interviewed shoppers in Spanish, bloggers abounded and film crews captured the show from such diverse angles as Texas Co-op Power magazine to media personality Reyne Haines.

On opening day, the show stayed open until 7 pm to host its first fundraising event in partnership with the Houston Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Earlier that day, author Carolyn Westbrook signed copies of her new book, The French Inspired Home, and gave tips on “How to Shop French at Marburger Farm.”

“Opening day was great,” said exhibitor Brian Curtis of Santa Cruz, CA. “We benefited from the extra two hours and the cooler weather helped. People spent more time at Marburger Farm.” Curtis sold a massive French crystal chandelier, three feet tall, all lit up in the booth. He also sold 19^th and early 20^th century paintings, sculpture, furniture and porcelain. “I was encouraged that people were willing to spend money on things that they wanted, whether for collecting or for decorating their homes. And decorating certainly won out!”

Set up in the show’s Dance Hall, brothers Lee and Mark Gillespie of Cross Junction, VA were glad to see the many designers at the show, but also commented on the number of retail buyers attending for their first time. “We had lots of new customers, especially from the Dallas area. They were pleased with the quality of the show,” says Mark Gillespie. “But we had a few who looked at items and then went on to “think about it,” coming back to find the items gone. Waiting to buy did not pay off.” The brothers sold silver, china, a pair of wing chairs, chandeliers and original furniture from Virginia’s Greenbrier Resort that had been created by famed designer Dorothy Draper and upholstered in fabric by her protégé Carleton Varney.

Along with the designers, collectors, newlyweds and baby strollers, “the very married” made it to Marburger Farm too. Valerie Pannier of Erie Canal Antiques tells of a husband and wife who arrived in her booth 30 seconds after the show opened to buy inventory for their shop in Mississippi. The wife bought six pristine pieces of furniture and then the husband said, “Honey, you can’t find this anywhere else. You’d better buy more.” Pannier laughs, “From a husband? That’s a first!”

The Marburger Farm Antique Show welcomes everyone to the Spring 2011 show on Tuesday March 29 through Saturday April 2, 2011. Husbands welcome too. For information on vendors, travel, maps, lodging, shipping and special events, see roundtop-marburger.com or call Rick McConn at 800-999-2148 or Ashley Ferguson at 800-947-5799.