Most of my Brimfield score!
Yesterday I went to do some antique hunting at the Brimfield Fair.
The Brimfield Fair is Americas oldest and perhaps largest antique fair.
Julia, my old shop gal, and I set out for a day trip. Julia had never been
and I have been a few times before so I had a rough plan. Park near the church
and get out with our rolling shopping carts and hit the route. There are so many
fields with hundreds of vendors in each field so its impossible to visit the entire
antique fair in one day. But its alright to not worry about seeing everything,
just start wandering and start buying whatever catches your eye and seems
like a price you are willing to pay. I had nothing I was looking for except
for perhaps an old screen door to attach to the outside of our side door for
that old fashioned breezy summertime feeling. Other than that, it was
just going to be a very laid back hunt.
It took us less than an hour and half to get to Brimfield, Massachusetts from the Boston area.
When we got close to a mile away the traffic stalled but it only took a few minutes or so to find a
local place to park. $5 in someone's yard and we were off to look for antiques!
My first score was this spherical told chandy. It had no price tag, so I had to ask....the lady in the tent said it belonged to another vendor and she would call him on the phone. It was not looking good....but the guy answered and he told her he wanted $20. HUH?! SOLD!! The cheapest chandy I have ever bought and now it was mine. Its a little round metal chandelier that I want to put in my small home office. I might paint it antique green, but its too early to say at this point.
You can see it sitting in my rolling cart. I already have a pile of things inside
my cart, as I was having good luck. Maybe if you aren't looking for things they
come and tap you on the shoulder? In the cart was a Florentine musical jewelry
box for $25 and some other goodies. Julia was holding back and her cart (the blue one)
was still empty. I had to encourage her to BUY stuff!! Come on girl!! Get our your wallet
cause you are at Brimfield!!
At this point of the day, as you can see by the selfie we took in the gigantic tin tile mirror,
Julias cart was loaded. Alright, well half of it was mine, but she was catching up with me.
We had to peek through the bird cage holder that I bought. It has a matching bird cage that
was in a pretty antiqued green and gold finish. What is it about bird cages that I love? I have
no idea, except that they remind me of small gazebos and I love outdoor garden houses.
We made a point to visit Cary Goodrich at her booth in the Shelton Field.
It was filled with interesting smalls and garden pieces. One thing in particular
caught my eye...this large round window. I saw it on Cary's instagram feed
and I just had to see it in person. Cary was featured by Matthew Mead for her
collections as an antiques dealer and she is in DECORATING with me in the same issue.
Here is that amazing window!!!
I would have loved to get that thing and install it somewhere....
but where oh where was the question.
Anyway it was SOLD by the time we got to it.
So I have this funny story to tell about the Matthew Mead DECORATING magazine
that Cary and I are currently featured in. Here you see a stack of them for sale in Cary's booth.
Well this was the second siting of "MY" magazine in as many minutes at Brimfield!
You see we were at a dealer's tent two doors down from Cary's and finding all kinds of the stuff I LOVE! Like pink Florentine frames and boxes, (gold italian decorative wooden pieces),
florentine style sconces, ceramic asparagus molds, botanical prints etc when I spotted the Matthew Mead magazine sitting on a table in the back of the booth.
So I asked the dealer, "oh have you been reading this magazine?" and the guy says, "Well my friend is in it!" he said very proudly. I asked him, "who is your friend?" He says, "Cary. Cary Goodrich. She's an antiques dealer who is a friend of mine"." So then I said, "I know Cary! She is a friend of mine too. And.....I am in the magazine too!!!" So now the guy looks at me really carefully. I pick up the magazine and flip the page open to my spread, the one with the blingy chandelier dripping with crystals and all....and I say, "This is my house!" Then I turn the page where there is a photo of me and show him because I wasn't sure he believed me. Hahaha!!!
He probably didn't recognize me in my big sun hat. Not exactly a glamorous look.
Anyway, it was SOOOO WEIRD! After seeing my layout he says happily,
"Oh no wonder you love all of MY stuff. It will go perfectly in YOUR house!"
So that was a very funny thing that happened to me at Brimfield and "Tony" was a great dealer, but old school he said, so I have no website or Etsy or Ebay shop to hook him up with you. Oh well.
He is from Savannah Georgia. His wife is a big button dealer.
I just do find myself loving how people in the South tend to decorate.
I swear I must have been an old Italian/French lady who settled in the South in a former life.
You can see Tony his booth. This photo was an after thought. I had left the booth for the neighboring one and decided I must take a pic of his wonderful booth. See the tole floral chandys
he has hanging on the left. The metal grates out front, and then tons of gilded goodies inside.
That was a memorable visit. Some booths you just wander in and out, others you forge a quick friendship as you exchange money for goods they carefully curated for their booths. Antiques dealing is not for the faint of heart. Its a lot of hard work for the money and boy do they work hard to set up at Brimfield.
At some point along the way I spotted this green screen door. It looked kind
of short, and our side door is shorter than normal. It also had a wooden panel
on the bottom that I wanted to keep pawing dogs from busting through screen
after screen. It might be perfect, but I had not measured so I just had to wing it.
The price was knocked down to $50, so I bought it.
Counting out the money to this dad and son dealer team.
He said he would bring the door to our car at the end of our shopping day
if we pulled into his little dirt road. Sounded great to us. No lugging needed.
As far as the screen door I had my fingers crossed it would fit.
If not, the door it would look pretty good as a garden ornament
with a big hook holding a hanging plant.
So many pretty booths, and many had themes. Like sweet painted cottage style
furniture or industrial goods, or all chandeliers etc. After about four hours we
were run down and ready to go home. Plus we had no more room in our rolling
carts. It was time to hit the road. Julia got a pink metal bread box and a big iron
plant stand for her patio. She also bought a crystal sconce from Tony.
I grabbed a few more goodies along the way and even found a purple transferware
bowl for $12~! A brown transferware vase for my sister for $5!
A fancy pink horse ribbon from 1939! In pink, no less! Did I say it was pink?!
( I rarely see pink ribbons)
I also scored on a wonderful old wedding ring quilt done by hand in the softest pastels
and it was in almost mint condition. It was all too much fun.
Loot was loaded and were done with Brimfield.
We loaded up and headed back. Husbands and kids were waiting on us.
Not to mention dogs....
That night I felt like a kid on Christmas pulling all my antique treasures out of
old paper wrappings and mismatched bags that the dealers had used to wrap them
securely. One by one I set them onto the dining table. I was in heaven!
It was really a lot of fun, and I did not spend more than $80 on any one thing.
The quilt was the most pricey at $80 and the rest were in the $20-30 range.
My pink horse ribbon and a pair of Florentine boxes, one a musical jewelry box.
A pair of soft pink and green botanicals would go inside a pair of vintage Florentine frames.
And above them the spherical chandelier in tole.
A neat tole library lamp in that lovely antique green color. Ivy pattern painted on the base
and a pastoral scene with dogs on each shade. I fell hard for this lamp. Both these light fixtures
were destined for my little home office. The one I have the pair of garden architectural prints of Versailles over my desk, remember? The leaf patterns will be perfect for this garden theme.
A European maker of bird cages, Julia knew of them, but not I. She told me they were the word in fine bird cages. And its matching stand! I could not resist its charms. Oh, I stand corrected, this
pair set me back $110.
I got these pink Florentine frames from Tony, as well as the botanicals I will use.
These aspic molds with signatures and bearing my favorite asparagus and artichokes.
A lovely taupe needlepoint that I will fashion into a lumber pillow for our bed.
And that wedding ring quilt? I thought it would either go in our bedroom as an
accent throw on the big leather chair, or it might look nice for the summer laid over the
back of our white living room sofa. I set it up in the morning and planned to photograph
it later in the day after I finished washing the crystals on a huge lamp I bought last month at
another vintage market, SOWA. As I was in the kitchen washing a billion nicotine stained crystals...
each one had to be removed, washed and then dried and reattached...so about an hour later I came back into the living room holding the lamp and what to my wandering eyes did I spy??
Dillon was having a little pillow party for himself. He looked ever so comfy and cozy.
And my lovely and delicate wedding ring quilt was tossed around in his whirl of
sofa cushion tossing and pillow fluffing. He has never done this before. Hmmmm...
I think the wedding ring quilt will NOT be on the back of the sofa after all.
I moved it onto the back of the tufted chair until I travel back
upstairs. I had a big pile of treasures on my piano to put away
after taking photos. A blog post of Florentine style will be next up,
as I have a slight obsession that is growing.
