ANTIQUE SHOW BRINGS BACK OLD FAVORITES

TAMARA FUDGE, QUAD CITY TIMES

Looking for a few pieces of fine silverware to complete your grandmother’s old set? You just might find them this weekend at the 10th anniversary of the Antique Spectacular.
The event is being presented by Melting Pot Productions Inc. at the QCCA Expo Center, 2621 4th Ave., Rock Island.
“This is my 26th year matching silver,” said Lee Bargfeld of Princeton, Minn., who is displaying everything from tiny, intricate salt spoons to large ladles.
“And it’s nice to do shows here,” he said, citing producer Kim Schilling’s careful planning.
“This is our biggest show ever, with 10 more vendors than last time,” Schilling said.
Russian nesting dolls and Wedgwood plates, glassware, delicate quilts, old telephones, picture postcards and even little buttons are among the many treasures for sale.
“I have a lot of advertising items,” said Arnie Madsen of Mad Cat Antiques in Waterloo, Iowa. “Just ask and there’s a decent chance I have it.”
A Reddy Kilowatt figurine and pins were the products of electric companies as far back as the 1920s, he said. A John Deere promotional 45-rpm record (which apparently accompanied a film strip) can be dated by its leaping deer logo, said Madsen, pointing out that the four legs and the downward jumping direction of the animal are indicative of the 1950s and ’60s. He also has lots of old Cracker Jack toys, which were made of tin prior to World War II, paper during the war and plastic in the decades afterward.
A Standard Model-A Talking Machine (a gramophone made prior to 1913), complete with a morning glory horn, was tested at the show. After some vigorous cranking, the scratchy strains of a now-forgotten tenor belting out a tune called “Mother” sealed its purchase from Mike Morrill of Des Moines.
The Ragged Poppy booth, owned by Bob and Lynn Herrington of Davenport, features Roseville, Weller, and Rookwood pots, figurines and vases, some more than a century old.
“The pewter hardware was unusual at the time,” Bob Herrington said of an old oak liquor cabinet offered by Shop of the Crafters.
Some of those attending the event on opening night came out of curiosity, but others arrived on a mission.
“Mission furniture of the early 1900s was a radical departure from the Victorian era,” explained Phil Taylor of Ottumwa, Iowa. “It’s nice to furnish older-style Craftsman bungalow homes with furniture of the era to match the architecture.”
His Phil Taylor Antiques business specializes in that style, and he travels the Midwest selling the furniture, which he said has seen a surge in popularity during the past decade or so.
The show continues from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. today. Admission is $5.