The Round Top Antiques Extravaganza

Twice a year, antiques aficionados (and folks with simply too much time and money on their hands as well) make the pilgrimage to the antiques shows and fairs around Round Top, Texas. The town itself (with population of less than 100) is one you commonly miss as you travel Texas on the faster and more convenient interstate highways. But for two weeks a year, this prototypical sleeping hamlet becomes clogged with cars full of shoppers looking for bargains.

The phenomenon that captures the imagination of so many today is the almost 40-year-old brainchild of promoter Emma Lee Turney. Founded in 1968, her shows were what drew me to make my first antiques road trip to this mecca of Americana almost 15 years ago. Back then, the places to go (for museum-quality American and primitive antiques) were the Round Top Rifle Hall (and the "big white tent" behind it) and the Carmine Rifle Hall--with a few satellite markets and sales in the area. Today, the "original" sites are just a part of a HUGE metropolis of tents and fields full of vendors from across the country. Even the Turney empire (now owned by a new set of promoters) has expanded to numerous venues.

I made my first antiques trek south in several years this past Thursday, and was amazed to see how things had changed. Hopefully, my report will inspire some of you to make the trek to the next market in the spring. Or to create your own adventures closer to home.

Of course, the ride itself deserves mention. Round Top is located between Houston and Austin, and you really can't get there from Dallas on the interstate. Forced to take a smaller highway south once you hit Waco, you find yourself observing the landscape and culture that central Texas is known for. Plenty of small towns, lots of cows (and even a llama or two!) grazing, and intermittent rolling hills to break up the landscape. And, of course, place names you simply can't forget. I always am tempted to turn off the highway at the sign pointing to "Old Dime Box"--would love to know what that town is all about. The whole journey really puts you in the mood to find treasures from the past.

Once I arrived and as I wandered the buildings, tents, and fields, I tried to take it all in. (And there is much more than you can possibly take in in four days, much less the six hours I had allotted myself.) There were gorgeous Pennsylvania corner cabinets and Victorian dressers. Delicate glassware and china from the nineteenth century on. And stuff I, quite frankly, couldn't figure out what was. Of course, we all have our personal tastes, and I'm always drawn to simple pieces of American furniture with clean lines and dark woods. To advertising signs and old-time store fixtures. (I've decided I want to use an old general store counter for a kitchen island. Lottery, here I come.) To tool boxes and farm implements. I had to laugh when I found a booth full of things I coveted and was intrigued by...the owners had perceptively named themselves "Mantiques."

But you can expand your horizons well beyond your personal tastes as well. Learn about English stoneware...or wicker...or English armoires...or Victorian flower wreathes under glass made of hair that women collected from their nightly brushings. If you look carefully and explore, it's a great experience.

On this particular trip, I found several treasures. Four or five pieces of pyrographic (wood-burning) art to add to my growing collection. (More on that later.) An interesting double wash tub on a stand to use on the deck--we plan to fill it with plants most days and use it for beer and soft drinks at parties.

And discovered a piece that can only be described as unique. (It's in the photo above.) It grabbed me as soon as I walked by it. (And I've learned that those are the things you simply CANNOT walk away from.) It's a double-sided "display cabinet" that the dealer and her husband had found in Iowa. With drawers and sliding doors that open to both sides, it's a stepped pyramid about 16 inches tall. Upon discussion, our mutual best guess was that it sat on a store counter somewhere with display examples on its "shelves" and stock items in the drawers underneath. When I learned that the dealer had almost not brought it because she wanted to keep it for herself, I knew I had to have it. I wasn't even sure where I would put it, but it's now working perfectly on our coffee table--with autumn and Halloween things on it. It's even more interesting to me since there are stories behind it...both its past "life" and the adventure I had in finding it. With antiques I found at bargain prices throughout our house, there are plenty of those kinds of stories. Too many of my friends have been subjected to them!

So, when was the last time YOU went on a similar treasure hunt? It doesn't have to be a road trip...and it doesn't even have to be for something antique. It just has to be fun and cause you to challenge your imagination. Go to a garage sale, to a thrift store, even to EBay...and see if you can't come up with something unique to add to your own life and environment. I would love to hear about (and see) what you've found. Happy hunting!