The Avid Antiquer

 A lot of antiques shows bill the event as "much anticipated" whether they are or not simply to drum up interest. I have been to a number of shows that were labeled that way only to find not much of anything.  Then the only thing I anticipated  was lunch.  

However, the ad for Sunday's antiques show by the Northport Historical Society's advertised the event accurately, because one look at the amount of items each dealer had piled on their table inside the Northport Junior High School on Laurel Avenue explained why people look forward to this annual sale.

Under the management of Elias Pekale Shows, Ltd of Merrick, the show was scheduled to feature over 50 dealers but it looked like the number was closer to at least 75. There were tables set up in the school's auditorium, cafeteria and several hallways. Each table or booth seemed more chock full of items than the next.

No matter what you collect, you could find it at this show: silver, pottery, glassware, flatware, clocks, linens, toys, jewelry, ephemera, furniture, pottery and a litany of other items were on display.

East Northport resident Eleanor Cantor was one of the dealers at the show, plus she also has a booth at Antiques at Northport. The items for sale at her table included a child's wicker rocker, dolls, sterling silver salt and pepper shakers, glass, pottery and perfume bottles. Cantor recently got back into antiques after a long hiatus.

"I was into antiques 35 years ago then stopped. About four years ago I started doing it again when I had the time," she said.

 Jim Newman of Manhattan was selling mostly paper items like prints, confederate money, stock certificates and bonds.

"I also have a mortgage bond from railroads that merged two of the subway systems stops from 1884. I think this one was for the station at Broadway and 7th Avenue," Newman said, as he opened up an old folded mortgage document to show me. He also showed me two Confederate paper money bills, one from Louisiana dated 1864 and the other from South Carolina dated 1872.

Copiague resident Linda Lombardo's display featured vintage jewelry she sells through her business, Worn to Perfection.

"This is a passion for me. I would say Art Deco is my specialty, but I also love the lacy, delicate look of the filigree in the Edwardian pieces. Victorian pieces are heavier and darker and they feature items like mourning pins. They were usually solid black for the first year of mourning, but after that embellishments like pearls or other things were usually added. Jewelry made social, economic and political statements," Lombardo said.

Linda Intranuovo of South Huntington has been selling antiques at shows for 20 years, but she is still an active buyer.

"I am a psychologist, so I like to collect psychology related items like old medicine bottles with labels of mental health medications. I also collect poultry related items which is why I bought the egg sign from another dealer," she said. "But after I did I realized I had too much stuff so now it's for sale. The good thing about being a buyer and seller is that you can live with things for a while so you can decide if you want to keep them or not."

Intranuovo finds her antiques at other shows including the big Brimfield shows in Massachusetts. "I used to go to estate sales and garage sales but these days I am just too busy for that. A lot of us dealers buy from each other so that helps us all out when things are slow like they have been with the economy," she said.

It was the table featuring items from the Farmingdale store, the Land of Oohs and Oz, where I made my greatest and most unexpected find of the day, perhaps of the year. I found a 1950's toy set featuring three of the Peanuts characters: Charlie Brown, Snoopy and Lucy with her psychiatrist stand in tow. I have been collecting Peanuts items since I was a little girl, and I have never seen this item anywhere else, either in person or on line.

"The store carries unique nostalgia items, and most of the things we have are rare.  I have been doing this for 30 years. I was always into baseball cards, then comics and then toys," said owner John Haefer, who lives in West Babylon.  For more information about his store, call 516-420-9214.