Pledging Allegiance
Jeff R. Bridgman on American flags, the business of antiques, and the role of the Internet in today’s climate

Jeff Bridgman

Editor’s Note: When it comes to dealers of antique American flags, there is no name in the business as recognizable as Jeff Bridgman. He is, simply put, a dealer’s dealer. He travels like a madman, tirelessly, setting up his stylish displays at antique shows across the nation, tracking down and acquiring superb examples of Old Glory, doing all the footwork and study necessary to authenticate and verify the veracity of all his flags, all the while running his business and remaining a positive force in the business.
To top it all off, besides being a friend to many, Jeff is an excellent writer. What follows is an enlightening, enjoyable e-mail exchange between Jeff and Northeast that is as informative as it is entertaining. We hope you like it, and happy Independence Day!

Northeast (NE): Jeff, you are, of course, known for your American flags. Could you tell Northeast a little about yourself, your entry into the world of antiques and how flags became your specialty?

Jeff Bridgman (JB): Sure. I have always been a collector, for as long as I can remember. Matchbox cars, bottle caps, marbles, you name it. In high school I collected items relating to the author J.R.R. Tolkien and his works. I still collect Tolkien today. In fact, with as many as 350 volumes, I suspect I might have unintentionally amassed the largest collection of Tolkien-related text in any library, private or public. There’s no stopping a collector except money and time.
My next door neighbor while growing up was an antiques dealer and auctioneer. I dug around in his barn and bought bamboo fishing poles, army helmets and patches, old pill bottles, etc. But as for decorative Americana and furniture, I became interested at a very young age also, as my mother, an amateur collector, took me around to antique shops. I couldn’t afford these things, but I paid attention. My dad, a professor, was a well-read student of history and a dual history and math major as an undergrad. As a result of my parents’ related interests, our family vacations surrounded educational things such as museums, historic towns, and many battlegrounds.
When I left Pennsylvania for graduate school in Boston, it is thus that I chose primarily antiques to furnish my first apartment. After a year I switched schools, transferring to Penn State, and with a year off in-between I opened my antiques business. I started very small, buying things at yard sales and small country auctions for .50 cents, $1, $10, $50, and did my best to double my money. I was pretty good at it, as I worked night and day, becoming totally absorbed, as many of us do. This business has a way of sucking you in and never letting go. There is so much intriguing design and character in all manner of early American things, and always a new discovery to be made. As I could afford better things I bought them, but it was eight years before I ever made money. Turning a profit isn’t an easy nut to crack, as most dealers know. It’s easy to get drawn in, but hard to make an antiques business produce anything except an ongoing obsession to buy everything and figure out what to do with it later.
I began doing shows in 1992, I think. My first one was Carlisle. I sold $1,500 and couldn’t believe it. I had never done that much business in a day. I didn’t make much profit, but I did see potential and I had learned that I was probably never going to make real money at small town co-ops in Pennsylvania. I did several shows that year, breaking even at some, losing at others, gaining at a few. I went back to school, graduated, and entered the working world, but kept at the business all the while, doing 12-15 shows each year and maintaining 3 or 4 co-op booths. After several years I was finally was blessed enough to be able to abandon work. That must have been about 1997. I quit the co-ops and upped my number of shows per year from 15 to 40, and though I don’t keep count, I have not lowered that number substantially since. Now I suspect I have done at least 400 shows.
I have worked hard to improve my inventory all along. Every penny (and then some) got poured back into the business, and it is pretty much still that way today. I was always most interested in high quality American country furniture. I specialized in hard woods initially, but moved into painted furniture as I could afford it, drawn by color, surface and folk qualities. I specialized in quilts for some time, and I am a serious collector of them. I also specialized in yellow ware, helping build a large and interesting collection for my mother. And I sold all manner of primitives and country accessories. But as I could afford it I bought more and more folk art, because it was my true love, whether found in furniture or paintings or quilts or sculpture of any media.

NE: Can you describe the first flag you bought, and then the first really good flag you bought, and the difference between the two?

JB: I had always bought flags, and the first was probably a 48-star flag, either sewn of wool or cotton. It would have been plain, the standardized row configuration as dictated by Taft’s executive order of 1912. I probably paid $5 or $10 and sold it for $20.
I never bought what I’d now call interesting flags until much later in my antiques career. I bought some 42 and 45 star flags, and various 13s that probably dated to the 2oth century (with maybe one exception). And then I saw two fantastic ones at a show in Nashville. Both were circle patterns, but I don’t recall their star counts. I had never before seen early circular patterns in flags with star counts higher than 13. Like most Americans, I never even knew they existed. I was blown away by the folk art in their designs and I could not believe that I had never encountered such things before. I ate, slept, lived and breathed antiques and I never saw these things.
Soon after, I was surprised to happen upon another circular pattern flag at a show in New York. It had 38 stars (Colorado statehood, 1876-1889), I bought it, and I was hooked for life, whether I knew it or not. The next week I bought an early mahogany frame with an unusual, exaggeratedly deep cove form at a shop in upstate New York. I had to strip the frame of a coat of white paint, refresh its dark mahogany color, then varnish and wax it. Then I broke the frame down and looked for a local framer who was willing to put this early frame on his chopper or saw. That wasn’t easy for several reasons, but I finally found one and subsequently learned how to have the flag properly conserved. I had this done by a professional and I framed the flag.

NE: Do you have any extra special flags in your inventory right now that you can describe?

JB: I have many. I am particularly fond of a matching pair of hand-made, Civil War period parade flags that I acquired, with 35 stars (1863-65). These came from the collection of Dean Johnson, a former editor for Country Home magazine who had been a long-time flag collector and enthusiast in patriotic
material. These exact flags were published at least once, on page 127 of a Country Living book called “Seasons at Seven Gates Farm,” which was exclusively about Johnson’s Maryland home and his collections.
There are basically two types of flags, printed and sewn. 19th century printed flags are generally small in size (three feet or less). The smaller, printed flags are called parade flags or hand-wavers. These were tacked or glued to a stick and waved at parades and political events. 19th century flags with pieced, sewn stripes and appliquéd stars are generally 7-9 feet long and larger. Sewn flags have many different uses, generally outdoor in nature (with some exceptions, of course).
Small, hand-sewn flags are a hybrid of these two categories and are extremely scarce and desired by collectors. Sometimes parade flags were hand-sewn by women or children. That is the case with these two flags, which are entirely hand-sewn. Finding one hand-made parade flag is unusual enough, especially in this early period. Finding two matching flags is almost unheard-of. I know of only three of four other known pairs.
Another type of tiny, hand-made flag is called a Bible flag. In the 19th century, such flags were made by loved ones to give to soldiers to take away to war. They kept them in their Bibles for safekeeping, where they also sometimes served as bookmarks. I recently acquired a beautiful, Civil War period, Confederate Bible flag in the First National design. Called the Stars & Bars, this flag has a blue canton (union), like the Stars & Stripes, but has only three stripes, two red and one white. The flag is entirely hand-sewn of ladies‚ dress silk and features 11 needlepoint stars, arranged in a wreath of 10 with a central star.

NE: You say on your web site that buying the best in class will never lead to disappointment. Younger collectors often have somewhat less than substantial amounts of money to buy with, though they harbor a strong desire to collect. Where is the best place for neophyte collectors to start collecting flags?

JB: Buy the best you can afford and you will seldom be dismayed, that’s what I usually say. I can’t easily afford to furnish my bedrooms with Mahantango Valley Pennsylvania chests, decorated with birds and angels, but that has never stopped me from collecting. The best is what I aspire to, both as a dealer and as a collector. By that I don’t mean the best in everybody else’s mind, I mean the best in my own mind, given my desires and means. I similarly mean the best in your mind, given your desires and means. Art is a personal thing. We might use antiques, yes, but we don’t need them like we need a car or food. They are generally not necessities. We buy them to enjoy them. I suggest a collector maximizes his enjoyment by buying one great thing, instead of 10 so-so things, unless he is building some artistic display of those 10 things. Dealers and collectors both buy too many things of substandard or mediocre quality. If they pooled their money and bough one or two great things, instead, they’d likely be happier and build a stronger collection of things that they enjoyed more. That’s hard for dealers who are not established and need to keep cash flow going, but it makes sense for collectors.

NE: Jeff, you have quite an extensive web site. Could you talk a little bit about the role the Internet plays in your business? Has it brought in a sizable new clientele, or allowed rare and/or special examples of flags or other antiques to come to you?

JB: The web has been very good to me. I actually paid for my entire site with profits from my first sale. But it was to a person I already knew (and vice-versa). We were several states away and had never had the opportunity to meet. If he had not known me, he probably would not have made such a sizable purchase. So it’s not a panacea and it’s not the only avenue. It’s not even the main avenue for most specialties at present, because many things need to be seen in person, touched and inspected and handled in an interactive manner. Like it or not, however, it’s the way of the future. That was true 10 years ago, and it is still true. For an established dealer, it’s a great way to keep in touch with and sell to your present clientele. It brings new clients who have never heard of you, yes, but it’s even better for working with established customers who can see you only a limited number of times a year.
For buying, you have to be careful on the net, because there are so many frauds and fakes. For example, almost no one in the country understands early flags well enough to sell you one that you can be confident is as-described. If you go to a trusted, knowledgeable dealer, you greatly minimize your risk. And you have a person to talk to who wishes to maintain a positive reputation. So unless you are an expert, go to an established dealer always. If you don’t know a dealer, look to major trade organizations like the Antiques Council (www.AntiquesCouncil.com) and the Antiques Dealers Association of America (www.ADADealers.com). Each maintains a web site with a list of its members, their web sites and phone numbers. These organizations require that dealers stand behind what they sell, and they act as mediators if you cannot arrive at a positive conclusion to any mishaps you might have with one of their dealers.

NE: Where is the farthest away you have either had a client purchase a flag from you, or offer something to you?

JB: It’s interesting that you should ask this question, because after I finish these questions I am on my way to FedEx to ship a beautiful 13 star flag to Sydney, Australia. I have had few international sales, however, and I would advise that a dealer be very prudent when selling outside the U.S. There are also many scams from buyers. Be particularly wary of Nigeria, Indonesia, Italy, and England, which are all places I have faced scams.

NE: What role do you think the Internet in general has played in the evolution of antiques in the last 10 years, and where do you think it is going? Is the Internet good for the industry, overall?

JB: For me, the Internet did for Tolkien books what it did for many other things. Items that I once thought were extremely rare at once became rather common. Their nature was such that they simply were not being sold in a way that made them easy to acquire. The same was probably true for things like Depression glass. The Internet isn’t always good for shows and show dealers, generally speaking, because it encourages people to sit, click their mouse, and buy an antique (or what is hopefully an antique), sitting at home in their bathrobe, from someone they’ve never met. Many times this might be someone they would not be willing to walk down the street with after dark, let alone send a check for $500 before they have the object in hand. Thieves and saints alike start out with an almost equal identity in cyberspace, like they’ve just been re-born. It’s a risky world to experts, yes, but it’s even riskier to those whom have only cursory knowledge.
For the industry, the whole web site concept is new, somewhat unaccepted, somewhat shunned, somewhat scary (especially for older dealers), and very time consuming. Posting items with good enough photographs to sell them is labor-intensive and aggravating work, even to someone like me who has been using computers regularly for 23 years. But as with many things, there are opportunities to be had for those who like to work.

NE: Jeff, please tell Northeast about what shows you will be doing, and where, in July and August.

JB: Thanks for asking. I will be exhibiting at the following shows: Bridgehampton, Long Island, July 14-17 (Jean Sinenberg); Rhinebeck, New York, July 23; Bridgehampton, Long Island, July 29-31 (Stella Shows); Nantucket Historical Association, Nantucket Island, August 4-7; Bridgehampton, Long Island, August 25-28 (Jean Sinenberg).
NE: Thanks, Jeff!

Jeff R. Bridgman American Antiques is located in Histroic York County, PA.
For more information, call (717) 676-0545.
www.jeffbridgman.com

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