Jan & John Maggs

Antiques and Art

The Small World of Antiquing (2009)

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On Tuesday and Wednesday mornings of the summer Brimfield shows, with the interior of our screened porch fully refurbished and freshly painted, we set out for the shows, hoping to combine shopping for business inventory with selecting Chinese country furniture, the motif we had chosen for our porch furnishings. By the end of the day on Wednesday, we had explored the inventories of two very affordable Asian furniture dealers, from whom we purchased chairs, benches, small tables, and a handsome cupboard. On Friday, after the paint on our new floor had dried sufficiently, we put our new furniture in place.

We were elated by our choices, but one key component was still missing - a table. As we had suspected, the centennial gateleg table that we'd sat at for years just didn't work with the Asian scheme. Since the likelihood of finding a suitable Chinese table was exceedingly slim, we decided that we would design and build a large trestle table, incorporating stylistic elements from our other Chinese pieces. In the meantime, we'd get by with our gateleg table.

On Saturday morning we left before dawn, headed for Vermont to exhibit at the Dorset Antiques Show. As we had usually been able to find new stock at this show, we set up our tent quickly and placed furniture within it. Then, as Jan began arranging paintings and smalls in the booth, I set out to shop the show.

Not far from our space, I came upon the booth of a Vermont dealer whom we'll call Greg. In the center of Greg's booth was a large, period trestle table - just what we needed. I asked about the table, which had come to Vermont with Swedish immigrants. The price was a bit daunting, although quite reasonable for a large table of its age and form. But we were planning to build one, so I assured Greg that my interest wasn't to be taken too seriously. Nonetheless, I took a few pictures of it to show Jan.

When I returned to our booth, Jan's reaction was the same as mine. The table was the perfect size and would be completely at home in a roomful of Chinese furniture. (Might it, in fact, be Asian?) What's more, it would save us at least a week in our workshop.

And it would complete the task of furnishing our porch.

And we could eat our breakfast at it tomorrow.

Which we did!

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POSTSCRIPT

A week later, at the Rhinebeck show, we spotted a William and Mary style sofa in the booth of another Vermont dealer, whom we'll call Mike. Mike told us a little about the sofa and that he had bought it from Greg.

When we told Mike about the table we had bought from Greg a week earlier, he said, "Oh, yeah, Greg told me that you'd bought it. You know, he bought that table from me."

The world of antiques is small, indeed. 

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Click HERE to visit the J&J Maggs Antiques home page.