At this painfully sharp point in American history, it’s looking like everybody — yes everybody, from the tippy top on down — could use a refresher in the art the deal. It’s a fine art that appears to have been all but forgotten, despite nearly endless braggadocio.
We have a suggestion: Brush up on the friendly art of bargaining your way to a sincere handshake that breaks no knuckles. While you’re at it, hunt for the perfect addition to your personally prized collection of souvenir spoons, porcelain dolls, paperback potboilers, vintage kitchen gadgetry, costume jewelry — or whatever curios from history you happen to love best.
There’s another way to explore the Clark County Antique & Collectible Show: as a voyage of random discovery. Enjoy surprise after surprise as you make the rounds of 200-plus vendor booths, which will fill the 30,000-square-foot Clark County Event Center at the Fairgrounds to the brim. More than half of those vendors are from Washington, according to event sponsor Christine Palmer & Associates, so you’ll be among neighbors.
The Palmer & Associates organization is based in Portland, but we won’t hold that against it. Even though founding matriarch and antiques evangelist Christine Palmer passed away in 2017, the empire of used-stuff lovers, collectors and dealers that she launched continues to thrive across the Pacific Northwest in a series of big events in Clark County, Puyallup and Portland that are collectively subtitled “America’s Largest Antique & Collectible Shows.”
If You Go
• What: Clark County Antique & Collectible Show.
• When: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Jan. 19; 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Jan. 20.
• Where: Clark County Event Center at the Fairgrounds, 17402 N.E. Delfel Road, Ridgefield.
• Admission: $6, good for both days. Parking $6 per vehicle.
But, surprisingly enough, Palmer herself told The Columbian in 2016 that she was falling out of love with the very word “antique” — because it had started to seem too stuffy and overserious, as if her shows were all china and crystal chandeliers that belong in the ridiculously refined world of “Downton Abbey.”
“Vintage” is the word Palmer was pivoting toward instead, she said back then, because it’s unpretentious and flexible. There’s no shortage of very fine antiques at the show, but its market for pop-culture nostalgia — aka “the fun, funky stuff,” Palmer said — continues to strengthen too.
That can mean everything from small collectibles for your cabinet of curios (wind-up toys, porcelain figurines, TV-show lunchboxes) to big pieces of furniture and decor that can reset the whole look of your home, if you so choose (glass lamps, paintings and prints, metal signs and movie posters).
And there’s no better way to reset than by sealing a reasonably negotiated deal with a friendly handshake. You listening, Washington?
Trash or treasure?
As always, the Clark County Antique & Collectible Show will feature its own live version of what you may know as TV’s “Antiques Road Show.” Experts who are members of the International Society of Appraisers will be on hand to examine and evaluate the personal belonging you bring in, in hopes of confirming that it really is a treasure, not trash. The price is $7 per item.
Got a very large item? Don’t rent a U-Haul — just take lots of photographs and bring those in.
