Texas - The Food

What would travel be without good food? Fortunately, there was plenty to choose from in Texas, which was a good thing, because with so much walking to do, we had to work hard at staying fortified and hydrated!

Many of the shows (and there are, just on the Round Top Chamber of Commerce website, more than 20 listed during the two-week period in spring) have their own concessions, so you'll get a variety of opinions on what's best. There's barbecue at Marburger Farm, but some will tell you that you should head down to Round Top for the Methodist Men's barbecue. Andrew was also very fond of his vegetarian tacos at Marburger, but as he pointed out, handmade fresh tortillas make everything taste great. And with a rich local German heritage, if barbecue's not your thing, you'll find great German and other local foods and desserts at the Carmine Dance Hall, La Bahia, and Shelby shows.

For dinner, we got as much local variety as we could with only three nights, having dinner one evening at the Stone Cellar in Bybee Square, where you can get good pizza, wine and beer, and making the trip over to Brenham by the scenic route one night for some excellent and affordable Italian (in a great repurposing of an old house) at Volare.

But if you go to Round Top, you'll likely be told that Royers Round Top Cafe is a local must with a restaurant right in the center of downtown. We had dinner there on our first night with some lovely folks - out in the evening air, perched on hay bales, as the crowd worked their way through stir-fried vegetable pasta dishes, marinated pork and quail, and shrimp BLT sandwiches (see the photo, courtesy of our hose, Rick McConn of the Marburger Farms Show). Royers offers concessions at a number of the antiques shows, including the Big Red Barn show, during the day as well, so it's a great opportunity to have a little taste before committing for a full dinner. The real reason to go to Royers, however, is their pie....

Texas - The Countryside

We're baaack! Last week was a whirlwind week in the Round Top, Texas area for the shows. "Shows," by the way, seems to be a huge understatement, but more on that in the next few posts. We saw and did so much in three days that we're splitting it up a bit: countryside, shows, food, and marketplace. You'll want to be on the lookout for the upcoming column, too, as we'll go into a bit more detail, but we took so many photos that we wanted to share a bit here.

Back in the fall, we got a kind invitation from Rick McConn, one of the new owners of the Marburger Farm show, to come to Texas and see what they're up to down there, as they've been working hard at drawing a new crowd. Having never been and knowing how many shows there were, how could we say no? So, Monday afternoon we headed south, and after a delay in Chicago, we landed about 8:30 local time. Picked up our rental car (ridiculously small - it's the white speck in the photo) and managed to find our way through the Texas dark, which, by the way, is really dark, to our cabin.

We can't tell you where we stayed. Well, we could, but we'd have to kill you. Apparently, accommodations are slim pickings during the show weeks, so a friend said we might want to keep that information to ourselves if we ever, ever, ever want to have a shot at staying there again. But it was a cute little place over a pond, as you can see, and we went to bed to the croaking of frogs and woke up to the bawling of cattle.

Texas in late summer may well be hell on earth, depending on who you ask, but if that's true, then Texas in spring is certainly heaven on earth. Fresh breezes blew steadily, the sun was always shining (although very gentle on our pasty winter-whiten Midwestern skin), and bluebonnets were everywhere. When you pair that with more antique shows and good food than you can shake a stick at, you shouldn't be asking yourself why would you go to Texas, but rather why would you not?

Check back for more on food, shows, and a general perspective on the marketplace in the next few days....

Busy, busy, busy...

I (Andrew) apologize. We have been rather reticent here for the past few weeks. It's been, well, rather hectic. Auctions, deadlines, and lots of trips out of town have kept us going and, frankly, neglecting other things. (Evidence of our travels: Hollie and I in front of the White House during a brief stop in Washington last week.)

Our most recent trip was, in some sense, like going home. Last week was the annual Furniture Forum at the Winterthur Museum (where I earned my master's degree). This year's theme was "Nature in Furniture, Furniture in Nature." Day one consisted of lectures on the use of naturalistic motifs (plants, flowers, animals, etc.) in the decoration of early American furniture. Day two complimented day one by including lectures about the use of furniture in nature; that is, garden furniture and furniture that was often moved outside for temporary use (like Windsor chairs). Robert Mussey, Brock Jobe, Wendy Cooper, Nancy Goyne Evans, Alexandra Kirtley were among the speakers, and as always, it was tremendously informative.

I was very disappointed in one aspect, however: attendance. In years past, the Forum often sold out (sometimes selling out fast, making it crucial to register early) and the auditorium was packed with over 500 attendees. This year, I only counted about 130. Sure, the economy is partly to blame...less money for extracurricular travel. And this year, the conference did not correspond to any shows (last year, it was just before the Philly shows, and in years previous, it was the same week as the Chester County Show). But I should also note that attendance at the Williamsburg Antiques Forum in February was also way down.

I think the biggest problem is the same thing we're seeing at auctions and shows: the regular attendees are aging and dying off and there is not a large number of younger folks filling those spots. Museums are struggling just as much with attracting the interest (and the admissions fees) of 20- and 30-somethings. So it seems that we in the trade should really think about reaching out to our institutional counterparts and see if we can't work together to attract new blood.

How can we do this? The first step the trade can make is to become members of local museums and attend conferences like Furniture Forum. I am routinely amazed at how few dealers and auctioneers I see at these conferences. I realize that with my academic background and my continued scholarly activities, I have more impetus to attend conferences, but wouldn't any dealer or auctioneer benefit from attendance? We're talking about listening to some of the most cutting edge research from the best scholars in the world. If a dealer or auctioneer expects to be seen as an authority among collectors, shouldn't every one of these conferences be chockablock full of dealers and auctioneers? Then why am I usually one of the very few members of the trade in attendance?

Recent letter in MAD

A letter in the most recent edition of Maine Antique Digest suggested that we failed to properly cite Robert Fulghum's 1986 classic, All I Really Need to Know I learned in Kindergarten. We very much appreciate the fact that Mr. Douglas reads our column, however, please note that in paragraph two of our column, we do mention Fulghum by name and refer, perhaps indirectly, to his book.

Another victim of the economy...

If you have lived in Ohio, then you may be familiar with Norka Futons. The firm started in Akron (write the letters N-O-R-K-A backwards) and then spread to Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, and Pittsburgh. Unfortunately, they have closed their doors. Turns out they can no longer provide their customers with the quality futons they have been selling, so it was either start selling cheap Chinese imports or close up.

What made Norka futons so good, and what does this have to do with antiques?

Norka futons were quality, made of solid wood, made in America (Pennsylvania to be exact) and they were made and sold by an American small business. The ONLY piece of new furniture we have in our house is a Norka futon.

Well, folks...know what? Antiques are quality. Antique furniture is made of solid wood (no such thing as 18th-century particle board). And if you want American-style furniture, 99% of antique, American-style furniture was made in America. And finally, 99.9% of all antiques can only be purchased at locally owned, small businesses. And what antiques have that even a Norka futon doesn't is resale value.

Nashville United

As I mentioned in our last post, Nashville in February is much better with all three shows in the same weekend. Help us send the message! Click here to read and sign the Nashville United petition.

A brief break from travel

February was spent mostly on the road, it seems. Eight days in Virginia and vicinity with pickups visits and, of course, Antiques Forum at Williamsburg. Then home for 3 days and a trip to Nashville for Heart of Country. We hosted a VIP evening and led some tours of the show. It was a good time, though we need to work to get young folks there next year.

Nashville isn't what it use to be. The three shows (Heart, Tailgate, and Music Valley) are now separated by a week (or more) and several miles. We couldn't get to the Jenkins shows, unfortunately, since they conflicted with Williamsburg, but word is that the shows were strong with good selling. Heart is a much smaller show these days, but with more geographic diversity than before (dealers and stuff from farther west, which is great), but it was still a good show. We saw lots of red stickers, even on some higher-priced items. We continue to be buoyed by shows and auctions...the market seems to be back on an upswing.

That being said, I (Andrew) am really starting to think that this market, if it really wants to become attractive to younger folks, needs to really shake things up. As an industry, we've been on cruise control for some time. We continue to provide the obligatory young collector events and we continue to pay lip service to being green and affordable, but I have yet to see anyone really embrace some of these youth-friendly concepts and really put them out there (and I don't mean just in the trade, but in the non-antiques world.

Anyone out there seeing an antiques business doing things differently?