Ender Tasci’s Elephant Walk booth is the streetfront anchor shop for the EX-CESS field, and EX-CESS is pretty much the anchor field for the whole Antiques Show. So Elephant Walk is a hard to miss space, if only as a slow-creep-drive-by-looky-look while you sit in traffic on one of the busy days. I find myself visiting Ender once, twice, maybe three times every show, often helping friends get some truly beautiful things at great prices.
Elephant Walk’s permanent location and warehouse is in Orlando, FL of all places. Which of course got me thinking about how much the Round Top Antiques Show is like a Disney theme park experience: Completely overwhelming visual overload, endless traipsing well beyond your exhaustion point, long hot lines at the casual dining spots, groups of families and friends desperately trying to keep track of one another, parents taking turns pushing strollers, costumed characters everywhere you look… I’ll let you decide which fields are Tomorrowland, Frontierland, Fantasyland, etc. but Warrenton is definitely Main Street USA.
This gorgeous beaded tray is a perfect example of how things get away. I saw it two days after I was super-tempted to buy the almost matching beaded stool at a booth down near Zapp Hall. If I’d known the Zapp stool had a matching tray waiting at Ender’s I would have grabbed it for sure, but in the interest of my sanity I’ve instituted a strict a never-go-back rule for myself, so I will be without either.
You are surrounded by infinite possibilities of choice. Yikes!
Antiquing is such a thrilling feast of possibilities. What makes things even more interesting is that “possibility” is a completely relative concept. Your possible might be beyond my wildest dreams. My possible might be your so-not-worth-it. When you really think about it, that isn’t just a booth full of old treasures and castoffs, it’s an entire possibility multiverse.
As they are paid to do, interior designers, decorators, furnishers, stylists and their ilk look around the fields and tents and see even deeper layers of possibility. And here’s where Mel and El finally enter the picture. Next to their Old Depot tent full of super-stylish frenchy chairs, settees and benches that they’ve recovered in great hair-on hides, old Army bags and worn in vintage feed sacks, Mel and El also set up a complete upholstery workshop. The pros (and anyone else with the nerve) can order a pair of throw pillows for a new settee. Or they can bring some metallic leather from Arbor and an old stool from North Gate and have the whole thing redone on the spot. Or they can choose a custom fabric scheme for one of Mel and El’s own yet-to-be-done chair frames and it’ll be whipped up in a couple of days. What a handy and empowering and mind-opening resource to have in your pocket as you shop the show. Possibilties x 10!
Speaking of possibilities, let’s quickly review what I call the Sure You Can Do It, But Will You Really? possibility principle that must be kept in mind during all antiquing trips. As you find yourself slipping into the seductive “oh that burlap wreath plate charger with ombre dip-dye accents is so darling but I don’t need to buy it because I can make it myself” possibility trap, stop yourself and remember: What is possible when we get home from the show has its limits because we are involved, and we are busier and lazier than we think.
These are the beauties waiting for their turn!
And lastly, you’ll remember that my Grandmadean used to say a house or a shack or a town had “possibilities.” That’s what I thought when I saw this fabulous hide chair. The second photo shows how perfectly she fits into her new home!
Shannon Vance and her team from Stash Style put up not one but two zero cool spaces at this year’s Fall Show. Most of my pics are from the Zapp Hall building, but the teepee and doilies-gone-wild shots below are from Marburger. Don’t you want to buy pretty much anything from the folks who can create spaces like these?
I drink my whiskey out of a teacup… Take me to the lake… Silly boys, trucks are for girls… Sorry for what I said when I was hungry… Stash Style t-shirts, like everything else, are made from vintage stock in Shannon’s studio in Rocky River, OH, which if you don’t know is near Cleveland and is both the birthplace of George Steinbrenner and the home of the Cowen Pottery Museum.
Quick aside: Chris and I drove all over Texas one month hunting high and low for that very wagon wheel living room set. We never found one in great shape for a great price, so we’ve lived our lives without, which seems a shame and I’m thinking we should probably get back to making one happen.
The Zapp Hall space had a lot of hats for sale, some in a straw stovepipe style that seems like a southern gentleperson’s version of the hat worn by Slash. If you’ve been looking for this look, please know that the ones here were much hipper than those available at Dress Like a Pirate dot com.
You leave at sunrise. Sit patiently in the traffic. Pay the premium entry fee. Get herded through the parking chutes. You find the luxury potty trailer and the gourmet breakfast booth and you stake your spot at your favorite entrance. Then you wait. For the bell. Because Marburger Preview Day starts with the ringing of the bell.
It’s a super scorchy steamy Preview Day. 9:45 am and we’re already squinting and shielding and sticking to ourselves. Nevertheless, when the welcome bell rings at exactly 10:00 we scoot over and under the caution tape barrier with dewy-fresh enthusiasm.
Inside, every gorgeous booth is preview perfect. I spend most of my time watching the deals go down; buyers scooping up tens of thousands of dollars worth of goods with a few points of a finger. Clearly, I’m surrounded by the serious players in the interiors world – a real Who’s Who – but since I only know the faces I know, most of the fun is wondering who all the the other Who’s are. BTW, this year’s surprise star and most Facebook-photo-posted shopper was probably Anderson Cooper, who kindly walked the show without a hat or even a pair of Ray-Bans. I’m sorry I didn’t get a photo of him for you, but you can imagine it, right?
Lanny and Lonnie are probably best known for their exceptional zinc top tables that have a unique, super-smooth coppery patina. If you can wait ’til next show to purchase your family dining table, you should, because the prices are reasonable and the mix-n-match tops and bases make it easy to get exactly what you like. And while we’re here, doesn’t that penny rug star make you wish you’d started collecting modern quilts about three decades ago and you now had a magnificent archival-quality storage room full of Nancy Crows and a pile of name badge lanyards from every Quiltcon ever?
Beyond the zinc tables, L&L’s space has a strong mix of town and country and garden and gun, with lots of oversized pieces. So if you can wait ’til next show to buy the bar back and bookshelves and grain bin storage units for your ruralist-chic new party barn, you should.
I wish I’d asked Lanny and Lonnie what this chair is all about, although judging by the “in the headlights” expression on the deer’s face, I’m not sure I want to know.
The Antica Collection booth at the Fall Show had a spectacular sketched portrait of Emperor Tiberius looming overhead. Remember I Claudius? That was a favorite book and even more enjoyable mini-series for me, even if I got a little mixed-up at times because everyone’s name was practically the same.
I remembered Tiberius as a less than noble emperor, but I wasn’t sure exactly why, so I googled him up. As I’ve said before, you don’t come here for a history lesson, so I won’t go into all the details of Tiberius’ life. But I will say that he was a bossy but rather lazy Roman emperor who made a point not to be “overburdened with work.” Well, we can’t all be Augustus now can we.
Antica specializes in early period European furniture and decorative items that are not quite from the Roman Empire, but they’re old. What’s surprising is how fresh and light and very modern their booth feels. It’s a photogenic space with textures and subtle colors that are easy to capture.
If, like Tiberius, your second retirement takes you to the Isle of Capri please hire me to help with the interior decor. Jackie Onassis loved Capri, so I think we might go for an Upper East Side meets Med-Chic thing, with elaborate Roman baths of course.
The good news? You've discovered The Crush List. The not so good? I haven't been actively posting here for a few years now, which means the never terribly reliable details about my crushes are even more unreliable. Antique vendors have switched venues, shops in town have moved or passed on, donkeys may or may not be in the same front yards... In spite of the risks of massive misdirection I've left the site up in hopes that it still achieves its goal - to inspire you to visit Round Top for the Antiques Show or any time you have the time.
With that said, I leave you to explore this random list of my very favorite things about my very favorite place. I’ve tried to capture the area’s special pieces and parts. Some are big deal, some are small gestures, some are legendary and some are just tiny pip and squeak.
Love The Crush List? Please Subscribe! You’ll get a weekly email with an extra image and a link to the new posts. Nice!
