Antiques hunters flock to Blue Hill > Annual fair benefits Scouting programs

BLUE HILL — Beth Murdaugh set out early Sunday morning in search of a mate.

Not a match for herself, but for the cozy Morris-style chair everyone at her house is always fighting over.

Her quest led her from her summer place in Salsbury Cove to the Blue Hill Fairgrounds, where a gathering of nearly 60 antique vendors from throughout the Northeast was the day’s hottest ticket in town, if not in Hancock County.

The occasion was the seventh Downeast Antique Fair, a daylong event sponsored by the Katahdin Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America. The show benefits the more than 6,000 youths who participate in Scouting programs in a six-county area, said organizer Mike Cuskelly of Ellsworth.

One Massachusetts dealer set up outdoors said he’d rather be swimming at Cape Cod. “It’d be about as warm,” he grumbled.

Despite gusts of wind strong enough to rattle the pottery on one dealer’s shelves, many people pronounced the weather perfect for perusing the items displayed both indoors and out.

“We kind of pray for an overcast day so people don’t go to the beach,” said dealer Xenophon Beake, who got up at 4 a.m. to travel from Rockport in time for the early bird opening.

By noon, ticket sales appeared to be up, Cuskelly said, and scores of people were wandering through booths stocked with everything from practical furniture items to whimsies such as a whale’s tooth and a gramophone.

As luck would have it, Murdaugh nabbed her Morris chair early Sunday morning. Unfortunately, the massive piece would not cooperate when she and John Gallini of Cambridge, Mass., tried to shoehorn it into her Toyota.

After several failed tries, two strangers offered to transport it in their Isuzu Trooper. “Only in Maine,” said a grateful Murdaugh.

With prices starting as low as a few dollars for antique postcards and the like, many people’s purchases were relatively modest.

The Wight family of Penobscot was captivated by a weathered yet comely croquet set for sale by Robert Purvis of Bar Harbor.

“Come on, can’t we buy it?” 4-year-old Zachary Wight begged his mother, as 9-month-old Jacob fingered the mallets from his stroller. For $10, their mother relented without so much as a dicker.

A first-time merchant at the fair, Purvis said he has previously attended as a patron. “I’ve been up here shopping many times. It’s a wonderful place to shop,” he added.

With 59 vendors this year, the fair is modest in size compared with the mammoth Maine Antiques Festival in Union, which will feature 350 dealers, in August. Yet some dealers appreciate the Blue Hill event’s smaller scale and slower pace.

“This is a little more laid back than Union. But it’s the same quality of merchandise and some of the same vendors,” said Beake.

Cuskelly conceived of the idea for the event from his own experience accompanying his dealer wife, Chris, to other antique fairs.

“I didn’t necessarily like the way dealers were treated,” said Cuskelly. “We try to treat them well.”

The antique fair is a major fund-raising event for the Katahdin Area Council. Proceeds from ticket sales and booth rentals “enhance, maintain and advance” council programs, Cuskelly said.

In addition to recognizing the role of the all-volunteer effort led by Mike Locke, Cuskelly credited Dwight Webber of the Hancock County Agricultural Society for preparing the Blue Hill Fairgrounds, and local 4-H members for running the food concession.