PART
2
Page
3
Carlton's
Road trip to the
PORTLAND
EXPO ANTIQUES SHOW
July
9th- 11th 2010
I
would say the Portland Expo facility is one of the
nicest locations for an antiques show I've been to. The
building looks fairly modern, well maintained and is
nice and clean. Probably most important, the air conditioning
works great throughout the whole building,
even in the huge lobby area. I saw dealers who obviously
were set up outside in the 100+ degree heat, napping on
the floor in the lobby. Good for them and good for the
promoter for providing the relief.
The show is staged in
two huge rooms that are divided by an area that has food
vendors and a lot of tables to sit at. Although the
tables are so close together it's hard to get into them.
As you're sitting
there, every once in a while you sense
someone peering past you with a plate of food
contemplating the nerve to disturb you to squeeze by.
I
had a hot dog and a Pepsi that basically served it's
purpose. But the self serve chopped onions and relish
didn't have a sneeze guard. I guess because sneeze
guards are so expensive or they just don't expect anyone
to ever sneeze on them.
One of the vendors sold ice
cream bars with nuts that eventually got to me. They had
what looked like the whole set up to dip the vanilla
bars on a stick in chocolate then roll it in nuts, which
watching is part of the fun of getting one. But once I
handed over the money all they did was reach in the
freezer behind and hand me one already made up. I guess
they just like to fake ya out with the tray of chopped
nuts sitting there. There are also food vendors located around the
perimeter of the floors. There was an Asian food
one that served stir fry that seemed pretty popular. The
great smell of sesame oil gets your attention and lets you know it's not a hot dog stand.
42"
x 29"
The
Yale Fence by Alfred Cornelius Howland copyright 1891
As
mentioned, I arrived at the show at 9:00AM Friday and
hit the outside dealers first since it was already 75
degrees and was expected to get to 100 that day….Within
fifteen minutes, about the third row I spotted the print
you see above titled “The Yale Fence”. It has a
copyright of 1891 by the publisher C. Klackner, and the
artist was Alfred Cornelius Howland. Framed it measures
42” wide by 29” tall.
close
in of print
The print could easily be overlooked as it’s almost
mundane. All you see is a bunch of trees and a boring
looking street scene with a lot of small illustrations
of people. However…it’s all in the neighborhood and
who the people are. Had I not seen another example once
I may have walked right by and never noticed it.
Here’s the whole story…back about a year ago Hunt
had one of these in their March 2009 auction. Even that
listing would have been easy to overlook. The photo didn‘t
look like much, but the description was intriguing.
See the Hunt listing
here.
The description stated it was a “Unique Harvard
baseball print“, and that it depicted the “Harvard
baseball team posed in a campus setting”
It was the
first example I’d seen and the description said it was
the first Hunt had seen…so if I hadn’t seen it….and
Hunt hadn’t seen it…it’s rare!
Example
Hunt Auctions had
I sensed it was a great piece and a potential sleeper
that might not get a lot of action. I emailed Hunt with
questions and requested closer detailed photos. They
graciously sent multiple close in shots but I never got
a reply to my question of whether the dimensions they
gave were outside the frame or inside the window. I
ended up not bidding on it because, in short, I felt I
couldn’t fully comprehend the piece. I wasn’t
exactly sure what the print was all about and I just
didn’t feel like plunking down money for something
that really didn‘t turn my head to look at. But it was
one of those pieces I never forgot and left me
wondering, as I sensed there was something important
about it.
Then
came Portland.…The dealer had a wide assortment of medium quality stuff....and there among it all
was this print on the ground propped up against a large
crock. Because of my experience with the one in
Hunt a year earlier I recognized it immediately. It
caught me completely by surprise. If you asked me
beforehand what I expected to see at the show this print
surely would have been last. Particularly since it’s
such an east coast thing, who would expect it in a
pile of stuff way out in the Pacific Northwest.
As I recall the couple that had it were still setting
stuff out and scurrying around. Naturally using the
standard poker face I asked the price in a way that
wouldn’t seem like I was too interested….but I was
interested all right! It all came on so sudden, and I’m
not a morning person, so I had to kind of struggle to
put it all together. It wasn’t like it was in perfect
condition and nicely framed…The glass appeared to have
been missing a long time and the print had
yellowed/darkened. There was evidence of some water
stains, but not too bad, plus there were tiny specks of
paint. The oak frame seemed period and was very well
suited, but needed refinishing…
CONTINUE
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