Antiques show brings treasure and trinkets to Lodi
Two large halls at the Lodi Grape Festival were filled with 47 vendors and about one million antique items, according to show manager Kris Hegland. They’re all up for sale and exploration for curious shoppers of the Lodi Antiques Show, which opened Friday and will run through the weekend.
Vendors were busy Friday morning putting the final touches on their booths, which ranged from Disney collectible items to vintage clothing, high end antique jewelry to items you may have found in your grandmother’s pantry.
Carole Israel Freeman, with Gary Lickver Antiques, was arranging Hummel Figurines in neat rows on lit glass display cases.
The booth was teeming with a huge range of beautiful antique glass and figurines, including popular Carnival glass from the early 1900s.
Over at the Disney booth, Judith Pansarosa, a retired history teacher, was lining up Disney mugs from the 1984 Olympics, all depicting Sam the Eagle practicing one of the Olympic sports. She said one of the most valuable items for sale in her booth included hand-painted Bratyon Laguna “Angry Donald Duck” pottery figurines from 19381939, and Dumbos from the 1940s. The booth was organized in a chronological manner, starting with the classic cartoon characters to the more recent figurines made for collectors. She said their booth brings back a lot of happy memories for the potential customers.
“When people see our booth, they smile,” Pansarosa said.
Organizer Dennis Canavan said the show has been running for over 30 years, the last six under his watch. He said vendors come from four different states, including Arizona and Oregon. Canavan
and others try to keep the show diverse, with something for everyone, from beginner to advanced collectors.
Ron Keener, with Treasures Now and Again, of Acampo, repurposes old items which have lost their useful purpose, but still have their beauty.
“I create illuminated art,” he said. A retired mechanical engineer, he discovered his creative side later in life. “This artistic thing, I didn’t know I had it!”
He takes everything from old phones, instruments, fans and, his favorite — old projectors — and makes them into lamps.
“The projectors brings back old memories of dad showing us old movies of trips to Africa and China,” he said.
The making of the lamps is a labor intensive process, but very therapeutic for Keener, a Vietnam veteran who suffers from PTSD. “It gets me
into the mix of things, and keep me sane.”
Keener travels over several states with his wife on a treasure hunt to find the items he repurposes. Recently, a trip to a 150-year-old hotel in Colorado resulted in a tall lamp made out of an old water heater, patented in 1907.
Music teacher Cynthia Johnston, who teaches at several local elementary schools, was on the hunt for Tiffany lamps. She hadn’t found any yet, but was also impressed with a huge trunk filled with small cubby holes and compartments and dated back to the 1870s. “It’s in such a good shape,” she said.
Canavan was not worried about the impending rain due to hit the area Saturday. “Let it rain,” he said. “It just makes it better. It gives people something to do when they are stuck inside.”