Brimfield Antique Flea Market is back: 'Everybody comes here from all over the world.'

BRIMFIELD ― Deb Gott sat in her chair under a white tent with two fans going, surrounded by hand-sewn quilts and wall hangings that go back decades. A full bed stood in the middle of the tent with layers of quilts.

Gott stood up as soon as customer Tammi Johnson, of Westminster, came to her booth. Gott warmly greeted Johnson and her daughter. Johnson was in the market for a quilt for her daughter, who is moving to college this fall.

Gott is a vendor at the Brimfield Antique Flea Market and has been for over 20 years.

"These people who run this field are the best people. They treat me like gold," Gott, who is from Biddeford, Maine, said. "I can't say enough good things about everybody here."

The market's July show continues through Sunday; it also runs for a week in May and a week in September.

Gott said her husband died three years ago from pancreatic cancer. After that, Gott said, the vendors around her "treated her like family."

Gott became interested in textiles several years ago, she said. She enjoys the work because of the connections she makes with customers.

Johnson, who said she is Osage Native American, looked at a quilt with triangular stitching on it. She said it looked like something from the Osage tribe.

"I did a talk a number of years ago on textiles titled 'The thread that connects us.' That was my connection with that woman (Johnson)," Gott said. "She was really interesting and I wouldn't know that story otherwise. I get really excited about seeing the goods through people's eyes."

A lot of the quilts Gott had on display, she said, are from the first half of the 20th century. She finds them through word of mouth, mostly — or, as she put it: "They find me."

What she meant is that she has connections from being in the business for a long time. At 74, she said, "This is my life." Gott, an antique dealer specializing in antique and ethnic textiles, is also an interior designer. Her mother was a designer, so the art is in her blood.

"I feel like it's my job to keep (antiques and textiles) alive," Gott said.

Gott mostly restores rugs, fine-tuning the edges, and sometimes restores quilts. As an interior designer, for example, Gott sources fabrics and makes bedspreads and bed skirts.

Ibrahim Berthe, another flea market vendor, sat under a tent surrounded by tables full of African artifacts and masks. Last year Berthe came to the flea market to help a friend. This year he traveled from the Bronx to be a vendor. He is originally from Guinea in West Africa.

"Last year I realized that as a helper, I could do this," Berthe said. "This year I got my own."

Although it was a slow day Wednesday, Berthe said the reason he chose to come back this year was to make some extra money.

"Everybody comes here from all over the world," Berthe said. "It's been slow, but this weekend I think it'll pick up."

Ken Labonte, from Hudson, New Hampshire, sat on a white plastic chair outside his tent. Occasionally a customer came up to him to haggle a price, which he said, normally he goes along with.

"I sell everything. All antiques, collectibles, clothing, purses, pocketbooks," Labonte said.

He gets his products from yard sales, other flea markets and thrift stores — some even comes from other Brimfield vendors, he said. This is his 16th year as a vendor at the Brimfield Flea Market.

"You see kids grow up. I met one little girl who used to collect Littlest Pet Shops. She's in college now," Labonte said.

Labonte reiterated what Gott said about the community within the Brimfield Flea Market — that many of the vendors are knowledgeable about their trades.

"There's a marble guy, a cast iron guy, a toy guy. I sell a variety of things and I meet them all," Labonte said. "A lot of people like to share what they know because they're passionate about it so I get to keep learning."