Annual antiques show returns to West End Plaza
Published 12:00 am Sunday, November 5, 2017
- Longtime dealer Sylvia Rowell sits at her booth during last year's antique show at the West End Plaza. She’s owner of Windsor House Antiques in Charlotte and has been at the Antiques Show for at least 12 years, she said. Photo by Susan Shinn, for the Salisbury Post.
By Susan Shinn Turner
For the Salisbury Post
For the first time in many years, the 64th annual Antiques Show and Sale returns to a three-day format.
For the second year, Rowan Museum’s flagship fundraiser — and North Carolina’s oldest continually operating antiques show — returns to West End Plaza. Both the sold-out Patron’s Party on Thursday evening and the show itself will be held in the same expansive space.
Show hours are 10 a.m.- 7 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday, and noon-4 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $5 in advance, available at Rowan Museum, and $6 at the door.
Despite a challenging year with leadership changes at the museum, said Executive Director Aaron Kepley, the show is set.
“We’ve got it all put together and it’s gonna go fine,” he said last week, “but it does have a lot of moving parts.”
The dealers are thrilled with the show’s expansion, Kepley said, both in extra space and in adding the extra day.
“It was something a lot of people were skeptical about,” Kepley said of the move. “But after last year people said there was no way we could go back to the old space. How could it not be better?”
Rumor has it that Davis Cooke’s booth is actually bigger than Old Sarum Gallery in Downtown Salisbury, where he offers sales, restoration and appraisals of 19th and 20th century fine art.
“And so it is,” Cooke said Friday afternoon. “Everything about the show is bigger and better. We’d kind of outgrown our previous space.”
Other local vendors slated to attend next weekend’s show include: Sentimental Era, Felina Justin, Mount Ulla, with antique jewelry, hair jewelry, and memorial items; Memories, southern Rowan County, Marlene Minshaw, salt cellars, glass, Depression glass.
Other vendors include: Chips Away Restoration, James Smith, Southport; Wintergreen, Mike and Nanette Johnson, Fort Mill, S.C., Americana, primitives, tools; Plantation House, Ellyn Brannick, Rockingham, jewelry from recent store closing; Somerset Antiques, Joan Kravets, Leesburg, Va., English furniture, small antiques, silver and estate jewelry; Snow Leopard, Susan Curran Wright, Raleigh, linens, vintage clothing, glassware; Jackson’s Antiques, Hugh and Frances Jackson, Lynchburg, Va., Canton rose medallion, English and American furniture.
Also Attic Antiques, Cora Hosse, Charlotte, small antiques and collectibles; Seaport Antiques, Nell Thompson, Morehead City, English furniture and small antiques; Old Friends Antiques, Judy Killingstad, Vass, collectibles; Victorianna, Connie Marks, Rocky Point; Brass Lantern, Phyllis Prather, Greensboro, brass collectibles; A Silver Chest, Pete Clapp, Tampa, Fla., silver collectibles; Lavinder’s Antiques, Jane Lavinder, Asheboro, furniture, china English boxes, small antiques; Windsor House Antiques, Sylvia Rowell, Isle of Palms, S.C., jewelry, small antiques, collectibles, and art; Vintage Phoo Phoo, Jan Lavey, Greensboro, vintage accessories; Simply Elegant, Leigh Ames, Columbia, S.C., Victorian estate jewelry and gems.
As of press time, dealers were still being added, according to Kaye Brown Hirst, who’s working with vendors.
In keeping with longtime show tradition, caterer Debbie Suggs will be offering the traditional show menu of chicken salad, vegetable beef soup, ham and Swiss sandwiches, pimento cheese sandwiches, and homemade desserts. As she has each year since 1968, Barbara Lockert will be marshaling the volunteer servers.
“And she’s still excited about it, that’s the thing,” Kepley said. “She’s ready.”
Kepley also credits the hard work of Hirst, the museum’s former executive director.
“I can’t say enough about Kaye’s fortitude and commitment this year,” Kepley said. “Even with the loss of her dear husband, Ed, in August, she has stuck right with us. We owe a huge debt of gratitude to her. Certainly, we are grateful for her efforts every year, but especially so this year.”
Betty Mickle, board president, is co-chairing the show with Hirst.
“Betty has done a fantastic job of keeping the spirit of the show intact, while ensuring that the event will raise as much money as possible,” Kepley said. “This show couldn’t happen without Betty, Kaye and Barbara, and so many other of our wonderful volunteers.”
The Antiques Show and Sale raises money for the upkeep of Rowan Museum’s properties, include the museum building on North Main Street, the Old Stone House in Granite Quarry, the Utzman-Chambers House on Jackson Street, the China Grove Roller Mill, and the future Rowan County Civil War Center, along with expanded education programs with Rowan-Salisbury Schools and Horizons Unlimited.
For more information about the show, please call Rowan Museum at 704-633-5946 or visit rowanmuseum.org.
