The Brimfield Report: May 2019

Sorry to have missed you all last week.  I like to post at 8:00AM Eastern Standard Time (US) every Friday, but Flickr, where I keep my pictures for my posts, had a few glitches last week.  It seemed better to save this post as my “outside” photography post for May instead of trying to get it out then.  That’s a definite benefit of not monetizing your blog/hobby—you get to stick to your own time schedule!  This week, we’re talking Brimfield!!!!

Have you heard about the Brimfield Antique Flea Market?  It’s the largest outdoor antiques flea market in the US, and it’s so much fun.  Whenever possible, I try to go once a year.  (You can find my past posts here:  2014, 2015, 2016, 2018.)  It’s helpful that there are three “shows” every year, stretching from a Tuesday to a Sunday in May, July, and September.  These shows turn the small town of Brimfield, MA into a very full town for each of those weeks.  The whole, big show is actually a mile-long strip of road with smaller fields stretching back on either side.

Each field has its own flavor and dealers typically set up in the same spot if they are regulars, so you can often find your favorites again and again.  Oddly enough, my friend and I noticed that a lot of the specific dealers we normally see weren’t there this time.  Was it because they came earlier in the week and didn’t stay until Saturday?  Was it some weird fluke?  Or has something at Brimfield changed this year?  Mysterious!  I plan to ask around at my local flea market to see what I can find out.  We also saw a new field or two that we didn’t fully check out.  I think one of the bigger fields may have gotten divided and perhaps another was added at the end of the row.

I keep notes from year to year in a notebook and store dealers’ business cards in a little accordion file organized by field so that I can find my favorites again the next time I come.  If there is something specific that the dealer sold that I was interested in, I’ll write that on their business card.  All the fields have unique names, like New England Motel, one of my favorites.

My other favorite field is The Meadows, but I also really like Mahogany Ridge, Quaker Acres, Brimfield Barn, Central Park, and Hertan’s.

I love a good treasure hunt, whether for information, foraged plants, or antiques, which is why Brimfield is one of my favorite events.  I like to show up around sun-up or a little after, and walk until everything closes in the late afternoon, stopping now and then for a meal or a snack.  I keep a shopping list and save my Christmas money in a “Brimfield Fund” so that I can buy fun and useful vintage items as well as gifts.

This year I probably bought less than I ever have, but I went with my Best Brimfield Buddy, and we walked all day, checking everything out.  I found gifts for my kids, some jewelry for me, and an enamel bucket to use when gardening.  My favorite things to look for are:

clothes and jewelry,

sewing (and maybe knitting) items,

gardening supplies and plants,

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and kitchen and decor items.

I rarely spend much, but you could furnish a pretty amazing house if you had an unlimited budget and an empty house.

I could go on, but how about some pictures instead?

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(I didn’t buy this antique sewing machine, but it was SO FASCINATING!  And beautiful!)

This was at Jim Nardone’s booth in Quaker Acres.  He had tools and a few sewing machines.  Sadly, he doesn’t have a website on his card, but if this is the machine you have been looking for, I do have his e-mail address.

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Here’s where to find those extra mannequin legs you’ve been looking for!

Maybe I should have gotten this to hold my fabric scraps…

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And here is my food recommendation for you, because if you’re walking all day, you can eat whatever you want!  Faddy’s Doughnuts!

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Behold the most amazing Boston Cream doughnut I have ever had, made fresh for me while I waited.  I had to stop and really focus on eating this so as not to wasted this amazing experience.

And that’s my May 2019 Brimfield round-up.  Have you been?  Do you have any tips or favorite fields?  Share in the comments!  Also, let me know if you have any other favorite antique shows.  If it wasn’t so far away, I would love to go to Round Top in Texas!

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