WEST PALM BEACH ANTIQUES FESTIVAL SCHEDULES LARGEST SHOW OF THE YEAR FOR FEBRUARY 4,5,6 Spring comes early in South Florida for the annual Festival Spectacular, one of Florida’s largest antiques events.
News-Antique.com - Jan 06,2011 - (West Palm Beach, FL) The West Palm Beach Antiques Festival will celebrate Spring early this year with a Spectacular event scheduled for the first weekend of February. The annual Spectacular event always has huge attendance and Festival owners Kay and Bill Puchstein expect this year to be the best ever with over 10,000 in attendance. More than 1,000 dealers are signed in for the Festival which will feature dealers from all over the United States, England, France, Germany and many other locations.
The site for the Festival, the South Florida Fairgrounds, features ample dealer spaces and comfortable aisles and walkways for customers with more than 90% of the space inside and air conditioned. However, one of the most popular locations is the breezeway, offering a little of both inside and outside.
Among the prominent dealers in attendance will be Brett Gregory Antiques of Indiana with a large selection of decorative mirrors and accessories covered with seas shells in a Florida theme. Also among the eclectic cadre of dealers will regulars like Peter Mellon of Pompano Beach, FL who will offer his collection of over 2,000 vintage watches and pocket knives for the “smalls” enthusiast and he is willing to share a wealth of information about vintage Zippo lighters.
On the decidedly upscale end of the spectrum is Rosemary Dawson’s Cathedral Place Gallery of St. Augustine. Dawson specializes in hard to find porcelain sculptures from Giuseppe Armani, Lladro, Boehm, Old Staffordshire and other antique selections. She makes a market in sold out editions of new issues and retired issues that are hard to find.
One the dealer booths that has been a fixture at the West Palm Beach Festival for many years is that operated by Gladys and John Ezzo. The Ezzos have been in the same location for over twenty years and have seen the world come and go by their booth. The Ezzos specialize in higher end artifacts in the area of art glass with selections of Lalique, Galle and LeGras and from the 19th and 20th century. They also carry a variety of Tiffany bronze with a concentration of desk sets and dresser items. But the real eye opener in the booth is the sign that relates to silver plate. John offers a resilvering and silver plating service that is utilized by both dealers and retail customers who need to “freshen up” a silver item.
Another Florida dealer who always has a good show is the “Doll Lady” Jane Greenwalt. She has always had a love of dolls and when she retired the first time she began to rehabilitate old dolls to give to charity. Naturally she eventually came across dolls she didn’t want to part with so she started her own collection which rapidly grew out of control and she became a doll dealer by accident. And a major dealer at that.
One of the interesting stories to be found at West Palm Beach Antiques Festival revolves around dealer Cody McQueen and his journey to the antiques
