For Immediate Release

Find all Your Easter Eggs at the 20^th Marburger Farm Antique Show April 3-7 in Round Top

2/10/07 Round Top, TX- On April 3-7 the Marburger Farm Antique Show celebrates its 20^th twice yearly show and the “Top 20 Reasons” for shopping the mega antiques event in Round Top, Texas. Drum roll, please! Reason 20 is that you might meet the Easter Bunny. Show owner John Sauls, who himself is reason number 19, reports, “Easter has come in early April many times before. We’re looking for a record turnout on the Tuesday through Saturday before Easter, including the Easter bunny.” Reason number 18 is that this particular Easter bunny will hide an egg for some lucky shopper with a $500 shopping spree in it.

Reason 17 is the 350 spirited exhibitors from 39 states and several countries that stack their best antiques in barns and containers from Peoria to Provence, all in preparation for Marburger Farm. Those dealers meet their match in the thousands of eager shoppers for whom an Easter bonnet may be a cowboy or a cowgirl hat. Just the people-watching is reason number 16.

Reason 15 is the stuff! Nebraska’s Kristi Bacon has taken a 20 year break from doing shows. She’s arriving at Marburger Farm with, she says, “a little of everything.” The hoard includes hard-to-find large American oak furniture such as sideboards and cupboards, as well as mid-western quilts. Bacon will also toss in a 1940’s wagon wheel couch, chair and rocker set in original western tooling and an “off-the-wall huge and intricate plaster dressing table and carved mirror from the ladies dressing room at Kilpatrick’s Department Store in Omaha.

Reason 14 is springtime in Texas, bluebonnets and all. “It’s been a cold winter in Texas and across America,” said New Orleans shop owner Kevin Stone. “People are ready to get out and shop.” What will Stone and partner Mark Diamond bring? Reason 13 has got to be their 2 forty foot containers coming directly to Marburger Farm full of 18^th and 19^th century French and Italian furniture and accessories, such as a pair of 19^th century Tuscan consoles and a set of 8 Italian painted dining chairs. “We pick containers just for Marburger so that we can get the best quality at the best price for our customers. We give value at Marburger Farm---and because of that, our customers send us other customers.” “And because of that,” adds Stone, “Marburger Farm is now the only show we do.” Let’s just sum that up by saying that wonderful antiques at good value and price have got to be reasons 12 and 11 to shop at Marburger Farm.

Reason 10 is the diversity of quality merchandise. Michael and Lynn Worden of Burr Oak, Michigan will offer architectural, industrial and found artifacts alongside high-style concrete and iron garden sculpture and urns (check those urns for Easter eggs). Also from Michigan, Bill “The Ragman” Spencer offers literally thousands of small objects, all grouped by collections and displayed in floor to ceiling shadow boxes. The categories will include Native American items, snuff boxes, walking sticks, civil war items, scrimshaw, tribal and ethnographic antiques, photography and more. The fact that Marburger Farm offers lots of antiques such as these that appeal to men as well as women is probably reason number 9, all by itself.

Reason number 8 is the unusual nature of the merchandise, such as the 20 foot wide Bohemian theater curtain on canvas with a castle painted on it that Ann and Ray Veazey of San Antonio will offer. Nearby, they’ll have a 19^th century large 3 dimensional terra cotta castle found in Romania. “These are one-of-a-kind folk art items that have never been offered for sale and which I can never replace,” said Ray Veazey. That leads to reason number 7 for shopping at Marburger Farm: the talent of these 350 dealers in finding the most sought-after pieces. Jason Cohen, owner of the new Dallas shop, Curiosities, and a Marburger shopper says, “whatever their area of merchandise, every single dealer at Marburger Farm has a good eye.”

Early Texas furniture, that rare commodity that manages to surface at Marburger Farm, may be reason number 6 for shopping the show. Shelly Weidner of Cibolo Creek Antiques in Bulverde, TX will turn up with Texas pie safes, wardrobes, 3 Texas cupboards, 2 tables, chairs, even an 1860’s piece by “Jahn,” the cabinet maker from New Braunfels, TX. Displayed nearby will be an oil painting of Stephen F. Austin, probably the original illustration art for an early insurance company advertisement, which sounds like it deserves to be reason number 5 all by itself. “I’m excited about bringing a pair of large twig mirrors and an 8 foot Adirondack-style log table made in Dallas. It would be a great lawyer’s conference table. I’ve been called ‘the Queen of Big,’” she admits.

At Marburger Farm, big is good. Reason number 4 is that all the bigness is located in one convenient place. Being Texas, it’s a big place, including 5 tents each as big as a football field, 3 others almost that big and ten 19^th century restored Texas buildings, all packed with dealers. They’ve even got dealers in the Silver Dollar Saloon and 27 acres of free parking, which certainly qualifies as reason number 3.

And, in case no one has told you, show owner John Sauls thinks antiques shopping should be fun and easy. Amenities include valuable Easter eggs, daily $100 drawings, Texas barbeque smoking, mile-high pies, frozen drinks, on-site shipping, an ATM, Mobility cart rentals, and beautiful Lake Marburger as certainly reason number 2.

And the number one top reason to shop the 20th edition of the Marburger Farm Antique Show? It ends early on Saturday, so you can be home in time for your own Easter bunny.

The Marburger Farm Antique Show opens Tuesday, April 3 at 10 am for early buying at $ 25 admission per person. At 2 pm that day regular $10 admission begins, with the show running Wed., Thurs., and Friday from 9-5 and Saturday, April 7 from 9-4. Admission is good all week and parking is free. For information on maps, travel, food, lodging, bus trips and on-site shipping, see www.roundtop-marbuger.com or call John Sauls at (800) 947-5799. Happy Easter and thank you to all who have made each of our 20 shows a great adventure.