An Autumn Antique Show

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Last Saturday I spent hours weaving around the colourful tents that dotted a field in Aberfoyle, Ontario. These are the things that caught my eye.

Colourful antique show tents with a moody sky.

The Aberfoyle Antique Market, about half an hour from my house, is Canada's oldest antique market, opening in 1961. It's open every Sunday until the end of October but twice a year they hold what they call the Saturday Special.

Guest vendors fill the parking lots and fields surrounding the regular show and it's become the place to go for junkers who are still mourning the demise of the exceptional Christie Antique Sale.

It was an immensely popular, world class, outdoor antique show that took place twice a year for the past 30 years with 10,000 people showing up every time.

The city cancelled it.

If you work for the City of Hamilton and know exactly who I should send my most respectful comments on this decision to - please let me know.

SO that leaves us with Aberfoyle and a perfectly pleasant fall day.

These are the things that caught my eye. ONE of which came home with me so get ready to guess what I bought.

Rug hooking of a log cabin in wintertime.

Winter rug hooking scene with house and trees.

Vintage license plates at outdoor antique market.

Vintage farm signs for crops including corn, beans and citrus.

The Thing I Regret Not Buying

I'd never seen anything like this table runner before. A penny rug that you could never, ever duplicate. That's the thing about antiques. The aged fabric, wood or metal just can't be convincingly faked or reproduced.

You could make a copy of this penny rug sure. But it wouldn't have the softness that a century of wear gives it. Or the subtle beautiful fading of the fabric.

That's what I love so much about antiques. They have a depth that new things just don't.

Vintage bright red, orange and yellow cast iron enamelware.

See what I did there?

Steiff hand puppet. This is the kind of thing you find at an antique show and think ... holy crap ... who knew I'd like a tiger hand puppet so much.

Would you like to save this stuff?

We'll email you this post, so you can refer to it later.

I was just having a conversation with one of my sisters a couple of weeks ago about these old cardboard Humpty Dumpty potato chip containers. They were like hat boxes for your chips.

Add a trip to the Pop Shop before Saturday night's Love Boat and ... you had a seriously good night ahead of you.

One of the most unique fines at the show was this bar cart.

The porcelain dolls in the cart are called Piano Babies. Draping a shawl across the drawing room piano was once in fashion. These dolls are made and marketed as a way to keep the piano's shawl from falling off.

They were weird times indeed.

It was a rough day for Superman.

FUN FACT:

Superman was in fact Made in Canada. The artist who created him was from Toronto. You can learn more about how very Canadian Superman is in this article from the CBC.

If you like the kissing dogs photo you'll love tomorrow's post which is going to be a tribute to The Dogs of Aberfoyle.

They f&*ked with my FRIES. The importance of french fries to an antique show trip can't be overstated.

They're the reason for going. The reason for walking. The reason for everything.

And then some rogue lunatic cook randomly decides to serve french fries dusted with a flavourful spice mix on them as if this were some kind of Michelin starred antique show and ruin my day.

Luckily my mood lifted as soon as I saw the 10 cent pen dispenser. I want to live in a house that's large enough to accommodate important household items like retractable pen vending machines.