TH and I drove up to Massachusetts yesterday to attend the Brimfield Antique Show which is considered one of the (if not the) largest outdoor antique show in the United States. There are 21 fields (of varying sizes) holding thousands of vendors. I suspect that this year was a little smaller and a little slower because of the general economy and recent onslaught of inclement weather throughout New England. But I could be wrong, after all this was our first year attending.
Before we came I expected to find some really cool mid century modern furniture, Fisher Price toys, typewriters, and sewing machines. Since we attended the second to last day of the show those things may have been readily available earlier in the show but I don’t think so. There were only three vendors selling mid century modern furniture- in a show of thousands! As for the typewriters and sewing machines well they just didn’t seem to be the “in thing” to buy or sell.
That’s not to say we didn’t find some cool stuff. We still managed to spend almost $200 (which was our budget), we just spent it on a number of small items as opposed to one large item. We found so much cool stuff that I’m going to break the items we saw (not necessarily purchased) into a series of themed posts. We will start with my favorite- the sewing and sewing related items.
I LOVE vintage advertising displays, I’ve never purchased any because they are so expensive! Both of these were over $80 and since I have no real purpose for them it’s not worth the money. Now if I had a fabric or sewing shop it would be a different story!
And speaking of potential fabric shop displays how awesome are these-
I seriously considering buying this and having a new insert built to fit modern spools. How awesome would your thread collection look in here?
And while I was disappointed by the lack of vintage sewing machines I did spot a couple cool ones.
Finally how crazy was it to see this displaying having recently seen these giant wooden spools online and asking TH if he thought he could make them for me.
In addition to the spools they are carried these beauties
Obviously there were still some really cool items to be found even on the second to last day! And the added bonus was that by the time lunch came around vendors were already offering steep discounts to clear their inventory before they had to pack it up and haul it home.
Thanks for sharing. I would love to have been there. I too am in love with the old. I have a beautiful collection of old spools and bobbins. Living in the south has its advantages when it comes to collecting old textile items.