It’s Brimfield!

May 24, 2011
by: Katherine Cook
Antiques

It’s Brimfield!
By Katherine Cook

It seems like a little overkill to talk about the biggest and best antique show in the US on an antiques blog, doesn’t it?

Hasn’t everyone heard of Brimfield? Well, everyone who loves antiques, at least.

OK, not everyone has, so here goes. Brimfield is the Mecca of the antiques world on the East Coast, and is considered one of the best flea market/antique shows in the world.

Want to know why? How about 6000 dealers? That’s right. There are actually twenty shows all together at Brimfield, stretched along a mile route along Massachusetts Route 20. The shear volume of dealers is staggering.

And it’s the stuff, too. Yeah, yeah, in the south we know the truth. We have some fabulous stuff down here (like hunt boards, sugar chests, plantation beds), but up there, they have been saving stuff up in their attics for hundreds and hundreds of years. There were also lots more people up there saving up lots more stuff in their attics. Sometimes, regular visitors to Brimfield will tell you that great merchandise seems to just pour out of the woodwork.

Yes, it’s overwhelming. A dealer friend of ours went there for the first time a couple of years ago. We saw her at a show a few weeks later. Eager to learn how it went for her, at first she just blushed mightily.

“Well,” she said after a moment’s hesitation. “It was so overwhelming, I left after two days. I just didn’t know where to turn.”

Of course, if you’re going, the lodging issue is huge. People –especially dealers- book their hotel rooms a year or more in advance. But there still may be places to stay for the summer show, and close enough to get you to the show… if you don’t mind a drive.

The summer show is in July this year, from the 12th through the 17th. Yeah, that’s six weeks away, but try to find a room for those dates. This year’s fall show is September 6 through 11, so you can plan ahead. There is a third show every year in the spring, and many dealers we know say they like the spring show best. (Next year’s spring show is May 8 through 12, 2012.) Many who are regular Brimfield visitors will tell you that they like the spring show because, they say, there is a better selection, although with 6000 dealers, how they could tell makes you wonder….

A favorite item you may see at Brimfield…that’s not an antique? It’s the people who print up t-shirts that say “I Collect ______” and wear them to help locate their beloved antique/collectible in the masses of dealers there.

Anyway, if you want to know more about the Brimfield Show, here’s a good place to start: http://www.brimfield.com/

You can see some really cool photos of Brimfield here, too! http://www.brimfieldbook.com/slideshow/index.html