Making sense of the new order at the antique shows in Miami this February

My goal is to publish new posts twice a week — Mondays and Thursdays. However, if you don’t see a new post on Thursday, it’s because I was too busy, so please look for a new one the following Monday.


The Miami antique shows will be turned on their heads this year. Here’s my take on what’s to come, but first a little background.

Our booth at a previous Miami Airport show

The date order of two important antique shows in Miami has always been the Airport show first (that’s the one at the Miami Merchandise Mart), followed immediately by the Original Miami Beach Antiques Show at the Miami Beach Convention Center. Over the years, the Airport show shrank until it finally failed and was immediately replaced by a cloned show. The public wasn’t able to tell that anything had changed, but it had behind the scenes. For more about the details, click here for one of my previous blogs. As the Airport show shrank, so did the attendance. Many dealers and many attendees skipped the Airport show altogether and arrived in Miami only for the second show.

An artist’s rendering of the future Miami Beach Convention Center

In the meantime, the second show, the Original Miami Beach Antiques Show, was forced out of the Miami Beach Convention Center because of construction. Click here if you want to read about the details. The transformed new show will change its venue to the Miami-Dade County Fair Expo Center and its name to the Original Miami Antique Show, removing the word Beach from its title. Its dates of February 10 – February 13, 2017 will still follow the Airport show.

Miami-Dade County Fair & Exposition Center

So what has happened and what will happen? Many of the dealers weren’t thrilled by the move to the new venue and have jumped ship, electing instead to exhibit at the Airport show and skip the second show, the Original Miami Antique Show. Other dealers, including myself, are going to give both shows a chance.

Rosemary Krieger, owner and promoter of the Airport show (now named the Miami Antiques + Art + Design Show), told me that the upcoming February, 2017 show has gotten much larger, with plans to get even bigger next year. Last year only 60 dealers exhibited at the Airport show, while this year the entire first floor will be full with 200 dealers. The second floor will have a special exhibition of Art Deco photography (for sale) presented by the Art Deco Buenos Aires Argentina Institute. If things go well this year, the show will expand to the second floor next year, bringing it back full circle to where it was years ago. That would be an exciting and ironic turn of events.

I’m on the fence about the newly relocated Miami Beach show. If the public and the dealers reject the new venue, the show will fail, and the Airport show will benefit. If it does well, the shows will be similar to what they’ve traditionally been. I suggest when you make your plans to visit the shows in Miami next month, you arrive early to include the Airport show. If you miss the first show, you may miss what could become the more exciting and important of the two. Tune in in next month and I’ll let you know how it all shakes out.

The Hammerstein Ballroom at the Manhattan Center

In the meantime, come visit me at the new NYC Big Flea Antiques Market at the Manhattan Center, Historic Hammerstein Ballroom, 34th St. and 8th Ave. in New York City. We’ll be there Thursday – Saturday, January 19-21, 2017.


I just listed this killer Daum Prairie pitcher for sale on my website

I’ve been listing on my website many of the new items I’ve recently purchased and I’ll be listing more in the near future. Please check my site as often as you can.

Click here to check my website for the latest items and to look around. I will update it as often as time permits. We’re still very much in business between shows, so please don’t hesitate to email or call. I always strive to offer the finest objects for sale on my website and at every show. There are many items for sale, sold items with prices and free lessons about glass and lamps. And remember to keep reading my blog.

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