“Go To the Marburger Farm Antique Show” Sept. 30-Oct. 4 in Round Top

Fall Show Features Country Living Magazine 30^th Anniversary Salute

7.5.08–Round Top, TX “Go to the Marburger Farm Antique Show,” says Newsweek. Go for the central Texas hills. Go for the barbecue. But most of all, go for the antiques— miles and piles of antiques, packing over 350 dealers into nine mega-tents and twelve early Texas buildings.

This September 30 – October 4, shoppers can also go to Marburger Farm for Country Living Magazine’s 30^th anniversary celebration. On Tuesday, September 30, Country Living will host a book-signing for Marburger Farm exhibitor Robin Brown, founder of Magnolia Pearl. On Wednesday, October 1, the magazine’s editors will offer demonstrations on living with antiques, including new trends in country style. On Thursday, Oct. 2, Editor-in-Chief Nancy Soriano will tour the block-buster show, greet shoppers and host a Texas-style 30^th birthday party for the top-selling shelter magazine at newsstand.

Of course, when Marburger Farm celebrates country style, it’s not only great American country antiques, but also Italian country, English country, Country French, Continental country, a little Asian country and what might be called industrial country. That’s not to mention the rare pieces of early Texas furniture that regularly make their way to Marburger Farm. “Whether you are looking for formal, country or both,” says show co-owner Ashley Ferguson, “Marburger dealers price their merchandise right. You’ll find good value here at all price levels and budgets.”

Theresa Smith of Glendale, Kentucky’s Time-Worn Interiors will bring a ten foot-long Iowa harvest table from the 1890′s, as well as a seven foot tall church arch in old crackled white paint. She will also offer a large apothecary cabinet with a zinc top and 12 bins, in original gray paint. Her own home was featured in Country Living last year.

Tamara and Jean Provoust of Decor will offer antiques from their native French countryside, both country and formal. Their collection for Marburger Farm includes a pair of Louis XVI commodes in cherry with clean and simple lines, a 1720′s gilded mirror and 2 sideboards from southwestern France. “As we are French residents,” says Tamara Provoust, “it is easier for us to buy well from local estates and homes.” The Provousts buy at the source and price their antiques right for the American market.

Most Marburger Farm dealers sell a mix of antiques that wear well with either country or formal looks. Cheryl and Bob Daniel of Dadeville Alabama’s Plantation House Antiques create lighting out of antique bases such as Staffordshire pieces, olive jars from Greece and Turkey, wicker-wrapped bottles from Italy and stone barrels from England. Chico, Texas dealer Joy Jenkins offers shell-encrusted chandeliers, early shell sailor’s valentines, garden and architectural antiques and pier mirrors with frames embedded with antique found objects. “I specialize in heavy,” she says. “I’m shopping hard to find the most exciting antiques for Marburger Farm.”

Also specializing in heavy, Rebecca Looten of Monsoon Imports lives in Austin, Texas, but travels year-round in India, bringing home granite and other stone artifacts from old structures. She offers carved wooden panels, some 200 years old, with floral and animal motifs that can be used as headboards or as art on walls. For Marburger Farm, “I’ve got one of the oldest collections I’ve ever seen of tribal black and white marble platters and bowels, some nearly four feet wide. And I love doing Marburger Farm.”

James Herron of West Palm Beach, Florida phoned in on his way to Belgium. “I travel the world getting stuff for Marburger Farm.” His “stuff” includes 18^th century through mid-20^th century decorative antiques with a more formal bent, but “I do oddball things,” he says. He mixes primitive American trade signs and industrial pieces with classic antiques from Austria, France and Belgium, always a completely fresh load. “I look for quality pieces with distressed, old patinas. That’s what they want at Marburger Farm and I’m going to give it to them. Last time I brought two 24-foot box trucks. This fall, I may bring a semi-truck.”

So whether you’re traveling by 18-wheeler or by compact car, get yourself to Marburger Farm. Take home a souvenir from Country Living’s 30^th anniversary or, for larger items, use the Marburger on-site shipper. For shopper convenience, Marburger Farm offers free parking, a wi-fi area, air-conditioned restrooms and even a masseuse.

The Marburger Farm Antique Show runs Tues. Sept. 30 through Sat. Oct. 4, 2008, with $10 admission good all week. Early buying runs from 10 am – 2 pm on Tuesday, September 30, for $25, with regular $10 admission from 2 pm to 5pm that day. The show continues on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from 9 am to 5 pm and on Saturday from 9 am to 4 pm. Plan on breakfast and lunch in the Marburger Cafe where food includes Ellen’s Cafe, a Connie’s Coffee Bar and Rio Verde with an authentic home-cooked Mexican menu.

Spring Marburger Farm Antique Show adds fun to “fantastic”

New Owners Carry on Mega-Show Tradition in Round Top

4.14.08 ROUND TOP, TX – “Marburger Farm has done it again,” said jubilant dealer Larry Arnold of Castlerock, CO. “And this was our best Marburger ever. We wrote 268 tickets.” While the rest of America pondered the economy, the blockbuster Marburger Farm Antique Show burst across the Texas pasture with no looking back. Americana dealer Don Orwig of Corunna, IN agreed: “We had the best opening day we have ever had and ended up with a fantastic show.”

The April 1-5 spring edition of the show brought excitement to customers and relief to dealers. The central Texas weather was perfect and the bluebonnets bloomed on cue. “This is a celebration,” said shopper Beth DeLapp, who had just retired after 32 years of teaching. “Marburger Farm has been fabulous. I am so glad to be here.” Many shoppers described an intangible quality of the 11 year old event. It seemed to be more fun.

Maybe it’s because the dealers were so glad to be there. “In the first 45 minutes of the show,” said Charlotte NC dealer Nancy Harper of Harper House Fine Art & Antiques, “I sold $30,000.” Harper sold French oil paintings, accessories and furniture, including a 1750 walnut side table. “Marburger customers recognize the best items right away and they get so excited. I do many shows, but Marburger Farm is my very favorite show.”

County Living Magazine also had something to celebrate at Marburger Farm, where editors were on hand Tuesday to kick-off the magazine’s 30^th anniversary. Margaret Marsh, Rick McConn and Ashley Ferguson, the show’s new owners, joined shoppers in signing a giant birthday card for the magazine. “We extend a big Texas welcome to Country Living,” said McConn. “And we’ll be celebrating them all year.” The Marsh family of Tyler, Dallas, Houston and Round Top bought the Marburger Farm Antique Show last year from its founder John Sauls. Sauls exhibited as a dealer in the restored Gulf Warehouse, overlooking Lake Marburger.

The show’s new owners not only survived but enjoyed their first show. Ferguson, McConn and Marsh announced during the show that long-time Marburger staff Bruce and Terri Jones will become Show Managers, working with the dealers, staff and owners to carry on the now grand tradition of Marburger Farm. Welcome improvements included a coffee bar and Tex Mex Taqueria, a new show office, a wi-fi dealer lounge, plus an air-conditioned restroom. “We had an easy load in, a record opening gate and good results for our dealers,” said Ashley Ferguson. “The fall show is selling out. We feel very fortunate and we appreciate everyone’s help.”

On Wednesday, Sue Whitney came to help promote the show and the new book that she and Ki Nassauer have just published, Junk Beautiful: Room by Room Makeovers with Junkmarket Style (Taunton Press). Before a book signing and re-purposing talk, Whitney was accompanied by show owner Margaret Marsh on a “Green Ribbon Tour” of the show, giving awards for the best re-purposed antiques on display. “I LOVE Marburger Farm,” said Whitney. “I had a blast.”

Cheryl and Bob Daniel of Dadeville, AL were good candidates for Whitney’s green ribbon. From Marburger’s restored Silver Dollar Saloon, they sold 50 lamps created out of re-purposed antique objects, from rare French confit pots to churns to Mediterranean olive jars to Staffordshire figurines. Kim and David Leggett of Newbern, TN sold an expanding industrial table from a dye-makers shop. The buyer plans to adapt it for a bar. “We basically sold out,” said Kim Leggett. “My whole trailer was full of furniture, all big. And they bought big. We had 5 small items left. The show was outstanding—and every dealer in our tent had a great show.”

“I had to laugh to myself,” said dealer Thomas Hoke, “when 10 am Early Buying struck and the customers just about fell over each other rushing by the yellow tape.” Country French expert Charles Faudree shopped in Hoke’s booth with a client. “He was ecstatic and right at home at Marburger Farm, finding fabulous things because they are there.” Hoke sold an English leather wingback sofa, a Persian rug, oil paintings and a 19^th c. French majolica basket “handled by no fewer than 200 customers before the 201^st decided to get her checkbook out.” Hoke will soon open the 6500 square foot Thomas Hoke Antiques Warehouse in Salisbury, NC, near High Point.

Partly due to the show’s overlap with spring break and partly due to the children of the show’s new owners, the antiquers at Marburger Farm are getting younger. Many shoppers brought their children and grandchildren and many dealers brought their extended families. There was a lightness and fun spirit to the show that some attributed to the presence of so many young people and so many families shopping and working together. Teenager Hannah McQueen came from Indiana with her mother, Lisa, of Queenie Tin Mirror Co. “It was work, but fun. Marburger Farm was a lot bigger than I expected.” What did Hannah buy? “Vintage belt buckles, of course.”

Three tiny sisters stood looking at the show-stopping booth of Michael and Lynn Worden of Burr Oak, MI. Each wore a colorful tapestry top from Marburger exhibitor Magnolia Pearl with a matching cowgirl hat. What have you learned at the show? “Well,” one replies, “there’s lots of stuff that’s not the same, there’s not two of one thing.” You mean one-of-a-kind? “Yes!”

One-of-a-kind, unique, unusual and sometimes just flat awesome—these are words that shoppers associate with the merchandise of Marburger’s nearly 400 dealers from 35 states and several countries. Spread across 13 historic buildings and nine giant tents, the unusual ranges from the huge carved wooden Harley Davidson brought by Dolce of Palm Beach to the 5 foot diameter by 3 foot iron painted king’s crown, a 19^th century theatrical prop in the booth of Urban Country from Santa Monica, CA. Urban Country sold a 1930′s carved carousel giraffe, carnival artifacts and industrial items such as early molds from a Bronx toy factory and large industrial carts that buyers are re-purposing as coffee tables in loft-style homes.

The loft-size Marburger booths and the 5 day show encourage dealers to bring more merchandise than to most shows. “I bring a lot of merchandise,” says Phyllis Unrein of Houston, who sold from the restored Marburger Dance Hall. “I am the ‘more is better’ look.” Unrein sold furniture and smalls, including English bamboo furniture, prints, estate jewelry, Chinese, French and Russian items, books, tole trays and Barbola mirrors. “I thought the new owners did a marvelous job on their first outing. I am very happy with the direction that the show is taking.”

The Fall Marburger Farm Antique Show runs Tues. Sept. 30 through Sat. Oct. 4, 2008. For information on vendors, travel, maps, lodging, shipping and special events, see www.roundtop-marburger.com or call Rick McConn at 800-999-2148 or Ashley Ferguson at 800-947-5799.

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.