Things We Love: Our First Atlantique Antique Show

We're celebrating our 10th anniversary here at EuroLux Antiques and today I'm remembering one of our "Laurel and Hardy moments" at our first Atlantique antique show. It is always fun to look back - to celebrate our successes and laugh at our follies - on our long journey that brought us to where we are today.

Our first Atlantique antique show

As I mentioned last month, we started the business by traveling to antique shows before we actually opened our Gallery. Our very first antique show in Atlanta was a disaster, but we certainly learned from our mistakes, and our next show in Charlotte was smooth sailing.

We did a few more shows in Atlanta and Charlotte before we decided to venture up north to the great big Atlantique antique show in Atlantic City, NJ, in March 2005. It was New Jersey's largest and longest running indoor antique show with more than 500 vendors.

It was known as "the big one" among antique dealers that we met at the time and everyone said we just had to do it. We listened to the stories that old-timers like to tell newbies about wealthy customers sweeping in to the Atlantique antique show and buying up everything in a dealer's booth. It sounded wonderful to us!

So Greg and I bought a 28-foot trailer and loaded it full of antique furniture and away we went, heading north on I-95. We arrived at the Atlantic City Convention Center and were impressed at how well they coordinated the load-in of more than 500 dealers - the sheer volume of antique inventory stretched several football fields!

The Art Deco Sideboard with the fated broken marble

While we were unloading a beautiful Art Deco Sideboard with three big pieces of marble, one of the pieces of marble tumbled out of its packaging and broke in half. Oh no!

Always resourceful, we went out to Lowe's and bought supplies to repair the marble overnight in our hotel room. It was a very clean break, so we were able to glue and clamp it and set it aside to dry.

All seemed well until the next morning, when we realized that we had accidentally glued a big piece of the marble to the glass top table of our hotel room! Oh no again! Now what? (Are you laughing at us? No - we didn't think about how the glue would ooze out of the bottom and adhere to the table! I told you we were green beans!)

We debated whether it was better to break the glass top or just abandon the marble - neither option was ideal. What to do, what to do? The Atlantique antique show was starting soon!

One of our cabinets at Atlantique

Greg decided to take a flathead screwdriver and see if he could gently pry it up without damaging either the glass top or the marble. Fingers and toes crossed and hold your breath! And suddenly, after a few minutes of careful wiggling, we heard a "ssssllllluuuurrrppp" - Greg had released the marble from the glass! What relief! We grabbed the marble and headed off the show, grateful at our dumb luck.

In the end, the Atlantique antique show went well and we did sell quite a few pieces and met some interesting folks too. But nine years later, we still laugh about how we glued that marble to that hotel room table!

Do you have any great stories to share of antique shows you attended? Tell us about them in the space below!