Page 14 - Carlton's 2014 National Sports Collectors Convention Post-Con Road Trip

PART 1

2013 NATIONAL SPORTS COLLECTORS CONVENTION

Net54Baseball.com Dinner

The Three Bills Room

Corey Leiby Collection

PART 2

2013 NATIONAL SPORTS COLLECTORS CONVENTION

POST-CON ROAD TRIP

John Gennantonio Collection

PART 2

OF THE 2013 NATIONAL SPORTS

COLLECTORS CONVENTION COVERAGE

- THE POST-CON ROAD TRIP -

Featuring forays into Indiana's Antique Alley, Springfield Ohio

Antiques Malls, Adamstown PA. , and a viewing of

the John Gennantonio Collection

BY CARLTON HENDRICKS

Page 14

THE 2013 NATIONAL SPORTS

COLLECTORS CONVENTION COVERAGE

POST-CON ROAD TRIP

By Carlton Hendricks

PULLING INTO COLUMBUS

So I made it into Columbus late as usual...like midnight...Somehow I had a room booked in some suburb of Columbus called Hillard...The next morning I hit the road looking for antiques stores...So I'm in a foreign environment...had never been to Columbus and didn't know my way around at all...By using the internet I lined up a short list of antiques stores...Using my GPS I first headed for a town called Westerville

The pleasant town of Westerville Ohio

THE PLEASANT TOWN OF WESTERVILLE

Westerville was really nice...Matter fact...walking around it a little drove home that fact I piled too much on my plate...That is...I was always rushing here and there my whole trip...What I'd have really liked to do was just hang out in a town like Westerville for half a day...go to the historical society...have lunch...soak up the local color...Maybe go to a midweek evening church service...But I was always in a hurry to get to the next place...I think I finally learned my lesson...next vacation I'm going to leave time to stop and smell the flowers...

Uptown Custom Frame and Antiques, Westerville OH

Well the first couple stores I hit in the downtown area of Westerville weren't very big and I didn't find anything...but the last store I went to Uptown Custom Frame and Antiques had some cool stuff...except for the Nazi memorabilia...I guess it was quality material but the stuff creeps me out...the dealer Wade Witmer was actually very nice though...We discussed the Nazi memorabilia and to him they were just historical military artifacts...and he had other military antiques too...He had a cool nicely framed West Point football pennant for $225.00 that caught my eye...Coincidently it turned out Wade and his wife Caroline had moved to Westerville from Seattle and knew my friend Keith Schneider of Gasoline Alley Antiques in Seattle.

Above, Antiques Shops on N. High St. Columbus OH

Below, driving to last antiques store before leaving for Cincinnati

INNER CITY COLUMBUS

After that shop I headed deeper into Columbus. Following my GPS I went to North High Street where there were a few shops clustered in about a block sized area...Didn't see anything spectacular...ran thru them pretty fast...I'm sure there were more antiques stores in Columbus than I saw but I didn't have time to dig deeper...The last one I hit was way off in another part of town in sort of old shopping center...really big but really weak...

And so from there it was off for the hour drive to Cincinnati to visit and shoot the collection of Pediatric Dentist, Dr. John Gennantonio. You would think I would have plenty of time to shoot John's collection but no...Between John's family commitments and his work he was tight on time and we only had a little more that a couple hours...and that included visiting...kind of rush rush...To save time John and his wife Peggy (Dr. Peggy Gennantonio M.D.) sent out for Chinese...so John, Peggy, their daughter Isabella, and I had a nice little dinner together.

This will be the conclusion of our 2013 National Sports Collectors Convention Post-Con Road Trip Story. I hope you enjoyed the ride! For our finale' I've featured 143 photos of John's collection, see below. See you next Road Trip Lord willing!

-Carlton

Dr. John Gennantonio, Cincinnati OH

Pediatric Dentist, Devoted Hockey Dad, Sports Collector Extraordinaire

ohn and I have been good friends about 20 years. John started collecting in high school. He earned money after school washing dishes in a Chinese restaurant and spent his earnings on antique sports memorabilia. Back then he would call Dave Bushing off his ads in Sports Collectors Digest. He's probably the only person in the world who bought a c1880 fingerless baseball glove while still in high school. Today they are extremely rare and highly sought after by advanced glove collectors...But to John...old hat...been there done that in high school!...Today he has a successful dental practice in Cincinnati and brings his family to the Chinese restaurant he once worked in.

Probably John's favorite area of collecting would be memorabilia of the 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings, but he collects much more as seen in the photos below. Basically he's collected so long his tastes have evolved to the impossible level...that is he wants very early examples of things...like first generation equipment and uniforms of baseball and football...His guides are the early catalogs and photos...I would say he's at the forefront of those areas, and he has a lot of knowledge tucked away... I'm sure he could compare notes with the best of museum and hall of fame curators...He knows the nuances to look for and can research things as good as anyone...In turn he schools his pickers on what to look for. While Carlton is hitting the road off to some early morning flea...John's heading for the golf course or taking his family somewhere...and just waits for a call from his pickers...

And speaking of his family...he's a committed family man with two teenagers...I know not to call him on Sunday's because that's his big family day...John's ethic is work hard play hard...I literally never know what exotic vacation he'll be taking his family to next...A few months back it was the Galapagos Islands...Last week out of the blue I'm getting text photos of him and his family in Paris...One time he took his entire dental staff to Hawaii.

One of John's "impossible" areas he collects are period photos of antique sports items he has...That is, he not only wants the item, but he also likes photos of those items taken during the time period the item was used...That's a tall order but he's done it at least a few times I know of...For example there was the time he bought a c1883 Spalding National League baseball, one of only two known, that purportedly was used as a prop in the photography studio that made the c1888 Old Judge Cigarettes baseball cards. The ball would have hung from the ceiling by catgut, which would have been invisible in the photos...John's ball has the exact lines that would have been left by the catgut.

Below is a link to 143 photos of John's collection. Please enjoy. -Carlton

Click here to see all 143 photos of John's collection