Fox Valley show offers networking, knowledge about antiques
A well-curated trip back in time is what suburban antiques collector Linda Buehrer is expecting from the 38th Fall Fox Valley Antiques Show.
A Windsor chair, a wood carrier, a Hopi seed basket, a cherry tea table and several watercolor paintings are among the antique finds Buehrer has brought home from Fox Valley Antiques Shows past. She said she’s looking forward to the next show Oct. 20 and 21 and the dealers who will bring a wide range of items from bygone eras.
She considers the show, held at the Kane County Fairgrounds in St. Charles, as “the highlight of fall.”
Buehrer and the Fox Valley show actually have plenty in common.
The event offers a variety of items from the 1600s to the early 1900s including furniture, folk art, paintings, porcelain, jewelry, textiles and toys. Buehrer decorates her Downers Grove home with items from as far back as the 1700s.
“I’m all over the board with what I collect,” Buehrer said. “I’m not a purist.”
Her home, painted in “happy colors” of red and gold, also is adorned with hand-painted portraits from the 1800s, Pennsylvania German watercolors and wooden furniture from the late 1700s. One of her favorites is a 1780s Windsor chair she appreciates for its craftsmanship, as it likely was made with four different types of wood.
“I’ve always been enamored of them. Maybe some of it is the construction,” Buehrer said.
Many of her favorite pieces have come from trips she’s made to the Fox Valley Antiques Show. She’s developed a strategy of only buying items from dealers she knows.
“I have favorite dealers there,” she said. “You kind of rush to them first.”
Buehrer isn’t the only antiques show patron who picks favorites among the 55 dealers from 14 states expected to display their wares, said Donna Finegan, chairwoman of the Fall Fox Valley Antiques Show, which is produced by the Chicago Suburban Antiques Dealers Association.
“We have a lot of repeat customers and they come specifically to see certain dealers that they build up a rapport with,” Finegan said. “It’s a learning process for a lot of people.”
Finegan, who is an antiques dealer herself and will be selling items at the show, said her learning process expanded her interests from textiles to antiques. Buehrer’s learning process took her back further in time.
“You keep wanting something older,” said Buehrer, who began collecting items from the early 1900s, and now focuses her antiques hunt on pieces originating in the 1830s or 1840s. “Your collections and your interests change.”
For novices to the world of everything old, discussions with antique dealers at the show can help form a basis of knowledge.
“It’s a great place to network, to learn about antiques,” Finegan said.
If you go
38th Fall Fox Valley Antiques Show
When: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 20 and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 21
Where: Kane County Fairgrounds, 525 S. Randall Road, St. Charles
Who: Produced by the Chicago Suburban Antiques Dealers Association with 55 dealers from 14 states
Cost: $8
Info: csada.com