An Antiques Show in a Rhode Island Vineyard

Fine wine and antiques….

Little Compton: Sakonnet Vineyards

          Imagine a pristine strip of Rhode Island, right across the Sakonnet river from Newport, and joining Massachusetts.  Here are miles and miles of green farms, neat slate fences, and fine old homes.  Everything in order—not a blade of grass is out of place.  This is Little Compton, summer refuge for wealthy old Providence families.

            In the middle of this rolling green paradise are Sakonnet Vineyards, with acres of immaculately groomed grapevines. 

           

            Marty and I took part in a very nice antiques show last weekend, under tents right in the middle of Sakonnet Vineyards. 

            The opening event was a reception with elaborate hors d’œuvres and lots of glasses of Sakonnet’s proudest products, like Vidal Blanc 2010 and Petite White, America’s Cup Red and White, and Cabernet Franc 2010.

            There’s nothing like a glass of crisp Petite White to make you appreciate antiques, and these fine people were excellent customers.  I still have a picture in my mind of ladies in filmy, summery dresses, followed by gentlemen in their salmon-colored trousers and loafers, many with rosy cheeks from the Petite White.

            Brian Ferguson and Tom D’Arruda, who own an antiques shop on Wickenden Street in Providence, have been the Little Compton antique show’s promoters for ten years, and they do it with style.  This show benefited Preserve Rhode Island.

            As an indication of  “doing it with style” I was amazed at the roach coach that they brought to the antiques show.  Plouf Plouf Gastronomie appeared in a bright red truck.  This very French, very elegant, upscale mobile eatery was not into plebian American hot dogs and hand sandwiches.  Mais, non!  This truck sold escargots, duck confit, and crème brûlée, goat cheese and beet salad, poulet rôti with mushrooms and a side of pomme frites.

            The truck usually sells its cuisine near the Brown University campus, at Thayer and Waterman streets in Providence.

            Does Boston have a food truck like this?

Plouf Plouf Gastronomie truck

Center of our booth at Sakonnet Vineyards

            On the way to the show:  Friday, August 3^rd, I picked up a rental van from Enterprise and commenced to load it. Son Mark helped with this.  It was a hot day, in the 90s, and by the time the truck was loaded, I was dripping with sweat.  Ahead of us was a two-hour drive to Rhode Island, then two to three hours of unloading* and putting our booth together for the show. 

            Marty ordered me to take a swim, while she finished her preparations.  I took seven minutes to swim at Front Beach in that beautiful, 66-degree water, and that was enough to make me forget all the heat and the sweat. 

  *Son-in-law Ted Mocarski came over to Little Compton to help us unload.

            We’re doing our next antiques show Thursday, August 16^th down at Osterville, MA on Cape Cod.  Osterville is a beautiful little enclave near Hyannis.   That is a one-day show, from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.  Located on the grounds of the Osterville Historical Society, the show benefits the Society. 

Our booth, with Ginger Jars at left, water color by Mary Robbins Murphy in center, and antique silver at right.

The Personal Navigator offers these books and papers:

American Mercury, The,  A Monthly Review Edited by H.L. Mencken & George Jean Nathan, January 1924; Vol. I No. 1, First Issue Mencken, H.L., Editor 1924 New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf. With Mencken as editor one might expect brilliance, and this inaugural  issue has it. The Editorial announces the intent of the new magazine to devote itself pleasantly to exposing the nonsensicality of hallucinations of utopianism and the lot.  The lead article "TheLincoln Legend" by Isaac R. Pennypacker, gives a new and more robust look at the life of President Abraham Lincoln.  His forefathers were iron-masters, capable leaders in their communities, giving a lie to the myth of the simple railsplitter.  As a war leader, Pennypacker compares him with Jefferson Davis, and Lincoln comes up far superior. "The Drool Method in History" by Harry E. Barnes is a humorous attack on purveyors of "pure history" --- the superiority of the Aryans, the discovery of America was by well-meaning religious people; the sole cause of our ancestors' embarking upon wintry seas to come to the New World was religious freedom; Loyalists in the Revolution were a gang of degenerate drunkards and perverts, etc.  "The Tragic Hiram" by John W. Owens is contemporary political commentary, about Borah, La Follette, Hoover and Harding-- but skewering Johnson.  144 pp. 17 x 25 cm. Magazine, writing on advertisement, first page of magazine: "Ruth Schliveh's shower Jan. 19, 1924"… and "Bill Paxton Brown U. 1924."  Very good. (7663) $76.00. Literature/History

Cuban Scouts Going on Outpost Duty

Rough Riders at Camp Wikoff

Cannons and Camera: Sea and Land Battles of the Spanish-American War in Cuba, Camp Life, and the Return of the Soldiers; First Edition Photographs and Narrative by Hemment, John C.1898. New York, NY: D. Appleton & Co. This book has been widely reproduced. In this book War Artist John C. Hemment has captured the War in Cuba in excellent, sharp photographs and accompanying text.   Introduction by W.I. Lincoln Adams. Hemment had earlier photographed the Battleship Maine extensively, and when he arrived inCuba he found she had just been blown up. His description of the Spaniards and the Cubans is colorful and portrays the sharp enmity between Americans and Spaniards. Interesting and detailed photos of recovery of parts of Maine, life in American soldiers' camp,  off to the seat of war in Santiago by seagoing transport...  Life with General Shafter and his staff.  Description of photography and developing of film, etc. under combat conditions.  Firing on Morro Castle. Among the Cuban pickets.  About mules in the campaign. Siege of Santiago. The Charge at El Caney.  Our Bold Rough Riders.and Colonel Roosevelt. Return of the Rough Riders. With appendix and index.  . 282 pp. 13.5 x 20 cm. Red cloth on board with decoration on cover showing a sailor cleaning a naval gun; gilt lettering. Edges worn, binding weak, spine faded. Inscription dated 1898 on ffep. Fair. (5261) $42.00. History/Spanish-American War

Our Katie

Our Katie; or, The Grateful Orphan, A Story for Children , with three illustrations by Myers, Sarah A.  1859             New York, NY: Carlton & Porter, Sunday-School Union. Author writes of her childhood and poor Katie, whose mother died, then her father. Author's family took in Katie…Katie in Disgrace….Katie's Reward.  Morality tale. 90 pp. 10 x 15.2 cm.        Dark cloth on board with blindstamped design and gilt lettering on spine. On front free endpaper is "No. 41 Chesterfield Facty S.S. Jan. 1868" 2 cm piece missing from rear spine. Good. (8196) $40.00. Children's

Dartmouth, The, April 1874; published by the students of Dartmouth College and edited by the senior class 1874 Hanover, NH: Dartmouth College. Publication features literary genius of Dartmouth students. Hamilton as a Young Writer describes Alexander Hamilton as a revolutionary pamphleteer.  "A Proposition" by Franz Boyd is humorous piece that suggests boxing up 300 Chinamen and smuggling them through the Upernavik custom-house. "Mr. Webster in Court" relates story of celebrated divorce case (and others) with Webster as counsel, in 1848.  156 pp. 14 x 22 cm. (6502) $32.00. Printed Matter/Educational

India: Map of the Western Railway Showing Mileage of Stations from BombayCentral  ca. 1960 Bombay, India: Survey of India Offices. Map of Western Railway scale 1 inch = 40 miles, shows broad and narrow gauge lines, foreign railways from Mathura in NE toOkha Port and Runn of Kutch in W to Churchgate and Bombay Central in S.  On reverse is map of India showing Western Railway with other foreign lines, and annotation in ink of 25 locations, from Colombo and Kandy to Bombay.  map 44 x 62 cm. Paper map, annotations on India map side list 25 cities with numbers at their location on map.  Good. (8212) $16.00. Maps     

Sweden: Vägvisare Sundsvall och dess Omnejd-- Almänna Norrländska Industri-och Landtbruks-Utställningen I Sundsvall, 1882 [General  Northern Industrial and Agricultural Exhibition,  Sundsvall, Sweden, 1882]  1882 Stockholm, Sweden: P.A. Norstedt & Söner. Folded map and program for  Almänna Norrländska Industri-och Landtbruks-Utställningen I Sundsvall, 1882 [General  Northern Industrial and Agricultural Exhibition, Sundsvall, Sweden, 1882]. Includes price for tickets to events, local points of interest, map of Exhibition grounds, City and area in Sweden including northern part of Gulf of Bothnia, also ads for hotels and other tourist services. In Swedish. 18 panels    9 c 17.2 cm.           Paper on cloth, lightly soiled, very good. (8211) $38.00. Maps/Travel       

Ponkapog Papers, First Edition by Aldrich, Thomas Bailey 1903 Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Co. Former editor of Atlantic Monthly published this delightful, if scattered, collection of thoughts, comments and witticisms, written on former Indian reservation near Boston. 195 pp. 11 x 19 cm. Cloth on board, excellent. Ex-lib: Oak Grove School Library. (1242) $28.00. Humor/Literature. 

Rejected Addresses: or the New Theatrum Poetarum,  Tenth Edition 1813 London,England: John Miller, 25, Bow-Street.  Collection of bizarre "addresses" on the occasion of the reopening of Drury Lane Theatre, completely rebuilt after a fire. Funny, disrespectful, shameless humor.  It is interesting to see how much of this is still funny, nearly two centuries later!  In "'Hampshire Farmer's Address"  there's reference to cheap soup: "soup for the poor at a penny a quart, ...mixture of horse's legs, brick dust and old shoes." 'England is a large earthen-ware pipkin.  John Bull is the beef thrown into it. Taxes are the hot water he boils in. Rotten boroughs are the fuel that blazes under this same pipkin..." 127 + 5 pp. adv. 10 x 16.2 cm. Quarter leather, marbled boards, worn. On front pastedown is bookplate (oriental motif)  of Russell Gray pasted over fine signature of Henry Wilkinson, and on front free endpaper is name, "Russell Gray 1883--" [Russell Gray was Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, noted for his ruling granting citizenship to the children born in the U.S. to Chinese immigrants working on the railroads.]  Good. (5246) $30.00. Humor

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