Antiques, Collectibles and Auction News

Marburger Farm Antique Show Welcomes Spring and Shoppers April 1-5 in Round Top

With a Tribute to 30 Years of Country Living Magazine

Round Top, TX —2/18/08 - Spring in Texas means bluebonnets, barbecue and the Marburger Farm Antique Show in Round Top. After a long winter, Americans are ready to hit the tents and early Texas buildings that shelter the 400 dealer mega-show, halfway between Houston and Austin on April 1-5, 2008.

On Tuesday April 1, the Early Buying day opens at 10 am with a tribute to Country Living magazine, celebrating its 30th anniversary. Country Living, the largest selling shelter magazine on newsstands today, is the definitive guide to country style. A giant anniversary card from Marburger dealers and shoppers will give readers a way to say thank you to the magazine. The editors will also be on hand to greet shoppers, sign books, and share decorating tips and ideas.

“For the past 30 years, Country Living magazine has continued to bring a fresh approach to using and enjoying antiques in our homes,” says Margaret Marsh, of the Marburger Farm Antique Show. “On behalf of everyone at Marburger Farm, I congratulate this remarkable magazine and wish them continued success in the next 30 years.” Marsh and her family bought the show from its founder, John Sauls, last year.

Traverse City, Michigan dealers Sharon and Rob Markey buy all winter for Marburger Farm. “The Texas economy is so much better than other parts of the country,” says Rob Markey. “We’ll pull into Marburger with the best that we can bring.” The best this spring includes a six and a half foot tall wooden Tobacco store Indian princess attributed to Theodore Melchers, a group of American pond-racer sailboats and a collection of 35 early fishing creels, including some Indian-made. The Markeys will also offer room settings of Indiana Old Hickory lodge furniture and the 1930’s Rittenhouse white cedar log furniture made in Michigan.

Marburger dealers span the United States, from Oregon to Florida. “If new bamboo is a green material, then antique bamboo is the greenest of all,” says Stefani deLaVille of Coco House & Co in Palm Beach of her Brighton Beach bamboo furniture from England and France. Hers will come in many colors, including a French rattan porch set in old blue and white paint. Coco House will also offer estate jewelry such as a 1950’s long pearl necklace with diamond rondels, taken directly from Coco Chanel’s own archives.

Textile dealer Susan Curran-Wright of North Carolina’s Snow Leopard Antiques says, “Texans have good taste and they appreciate the rarity of antique linens.” For the spring pre-wedding season, she will offer large French linen sheets and Italian wedding pillows and bolsters, with embroidered sweet sayings such as “Smiles and Kisses…Felicita.” Marburger Farm, as Curran-Wright puts it, “is a huge show and very hard work. But dealers and customers love it and it’s fun. I’m very excited about our new owners and I think they will do John Sauls proud.”

New co-manager Ashley Ferguson reports that the spring show was sold out by Dec. 1. This gave the new team time to expand the menu in the Marburger Cafe and to create a coffee bar, a new show office, a dealer lounge and a pedestrian-only walkway through the village of restored Texas buildings that house exhibitors alongside the five football-field-size tents.

One of the original Marburger dealers, Rogene Hoagland of Kansas, says “People come to Marburger for the beautiful setting and for antiques that are wonderful, eclectic, unusual. It doesn’t have to be the most expensive thing, just different. Nothing ordinary comes to Marburger Farm. That’s what makes the show so exciting. Marburger is now the only show I do.”

Mary Lee and David Snuffer of Pittsburgh’s Bedford on the Square Antiques will arrive in Texas with American and European period furniture and accessories, oil paintings, sterling, porcelain and glass. “The Marburger customers,” says Mary Lee Snuffer, “are very sophisticated. We do a lot of shows, but I have not found any other show with the kind of excitement that Marburger Farm has. The customers love being there and they come to buy.”

Spring will burst out all over in the booth of East of LA from Castlerock, CO. Owner Terry Pfister will bring garden statuary, French and Italian furniture, chandeliers and an eight foot tall circular gazebo from France. “Marburger Farm gives validity to why we love antiques in the first place,” says Pfister. “It’s pure joy to walk through the show and see the great pieces that dealers have saved up all winter. There is no place else in the world that we would rather be.”

You can be there too. The Marburger Farm Antique Show starts Tuesday April 1. Admission is $10 at 2pm that day and is good all week. Early Buying begins earlier on April 1 at 10am for $25. The show continues Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from 9 am to 5 pm and Saturday, April 5, from 9 am to 4 pm. The gates open daily at 8 am for breakfast and free parking. For information on vendors, travel, maps, lodging, shipping and more, see www.roundtop-marburger.com or call Rick McConn at 800-999-2148 or Ashley Ferguson at 800-947-5799.

About Country Living

Country Living is the No. 1 selling shelter magazine at newsstand. It focuses on a variety of topics including decorating, antiques, cooking, travel, remodeling and gardens. Country Living is published by Hearst Magazines a unit of Hearst Corporation (www.hearst.com <http://www.hearst.com/> ) and one of the world’s largest publishers of monthly magazines, with a total of 19 U.S. titles and nearly 200 international editions. Hearst reaches more adults than any other publisher of monthly magazines (77.4 million total adults, according to MRI, Fall 2007). The company also publishes 20 magazines in the United Kingdom through its wholly owned subsidiary, The National Magazine Company Limited.