Farewell Walter; The Last Walter Larsen Antique Show

After doing the Walter Larsen Antique show, two shows a year for a mere 3 years, its time to say goodbye.  The Fall show this year was Walter's last in Salt Lake City.  The show was sold to a gal from Denver who has lots of experience, so its probably a good change, but its always a little hard to make transitions.  I have been attending this antique show for nearly 20 years, I have seen it change over the years as well, which just shows you change is inevitable, and should be accepted and not regretted.  I choose to recall the good things about this last show.

 This is the set up for the last show.  I do it with Bruce A. who is also one of our flea.o.logy dealers, so we decided to put up the flea.o.logy banner.  Three adorable 20 somethings came by and saw the banner and having seen us at the Avenues Street Fair said we 'looked different'.  I explained that there are about 30 flea.o.logy dealers, and this was just two of us, probably two of the most serious 'antiquers' and that is why it looked different.

Of course every antique show/flea market/flea.ette/street fair is also different because we sell our goodies, which is sometimes a little hard, since we often become attached.  We all know we cannot keep it all, but this sweet tatted baby hat from the 19teens or 20's sold this show, so I was glad I had a picture of it.  I definitely wanted to include it in this blog just to remember it.

 Another sale I made at this show was my funky set of metal cake stands.  They don't sell for a lot, since I make them essentially from collected junque, but they are still a fond part of my goodies.  This is the only set I didn't sell at its first sale, it took three exposures to the public to sell them.  They are my fifth set to sell this year.

 

Here are more fun items from the show.  Neither the hat nor the stand sold, but both are among my favorites, and I wanted to remember them anyway.  The black and red felt hat has a 'Whoville' look about it with its curling apparatus and big five petal flowers.  The painted 30's hat stand looks adorable peeking out from under it, don't you think?  The other two pics, the Halloween bottles and the trophies all found new homes (Well some of the bottles, the rest will go to the flea.ette we are doing this weekend.  To learn more about our flea.ette click on the fleaology link on the side bar.)

To the left we see Walter Larsen and his assistant, Bruce, who have run this antique show for 30 some odd years.  There was a bit of a 'thank you' ceremony one morning before the show opened. The Tango dancers entertained us as part of that ceremony.  I liked that because it proves that Antique Dealers do other things, other than dealing antiques.  Besides she had amazing polka dot shoes...

 Of Course our customers at the show are also often friends.  I saw many customers from Treasures and several dealers as well.  I decided not to take pictures of friends and dealers nor even my sister this time, but when De De, a fellow dealer at Treasures, looked so adorable I had to relent.

In the next picture is one of my favorite kinds of customers, the kind that buys lots of goodies.  In their basket are the stool AND the scooter I had for sale.  As you know I also have a soft spot for wheeled mart baskets.

Last of all are two customers who just looked adorable.  I love it when girls come shopping at shows or at the antique mall dressed in retro attire.  I thought this girl was extra fun because her friend has such a different style, yet both are adorable!!

Well that does it for the final Walter Larsen Show.  Its been a blast and I look forward to working with the new show organizer.  Her first show, which will be called The Original Salt Lake Antique Show will have its debut next fall.  Fortunately we know there are lots of other great sales to keep us busy while we wait ...

Starting with our first flea.ette sale this Saturday from 9-3 in Pleasant Grove at Simply Splendid.