MADA HISTORY

In 1929, a group of antiques dealers decided to form an association and to promote themselves by organizing an annual show. That first show was held in the Mayfair Room of the Lafayette Hotel in Portland, Maine. Thus with the first fifty-nine dealers displaying their goods, was born the Maine Antiques Dealers Annual Show. Admission that year was twenty-five cents. There were exhibitors from Ohio, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts as well as from Maine.

By 1936, this show was a successful annual event, with at least fifty dealers, always being held at the Lafayette Hotel. According to an early exhibitor, Ione Harlow of Dixfield, Maine, sales were brisk and the atmosphere exciting. She said the shows were attended by most of the well-known antiques dealers and collectors in the Eastern United States. Israel Sack was a regular attendee in those years.

On November 10, 1943, the members of the Maine Antiques Dealers Association held a meeting in the main ballroom of the Eastland Hotel in Portland where they ceremoniously voted to organize into a corporation under the provisions of Chapter 70 of the revised statutes of the State of Maine. The stated purposes of the corporation were:

• To maintain a trade association for those engaged in the business of antiques
• To promote better relations between dealers
• To keep a standard of ethics and practices to inspire the confidence of the public
• To pledge its membership to the highest standards of service
• To secure freedom from unjust or unlawful exactions
• To acquire, preserve, and disseminate valuable trade information
• To seek in every legitimate way, the advancement of its members, and, with a due regard for the public welfare, in every way to defend and preserve the principle of individual merchandising.
• To do any and all things necessary, suitable, and proper for the social, educational, literary and scientific advancement of it's membership.

The corporation was not to engage in any business activities or in any business for gain or profit. At that meeting, in addition to the articles of incorporation, the original by-laws were adopted. These by-laws have been periodically reviewed and revised to reflect changes in the organization and the trade. The most recent by-law changes occurred in 2007, some sixty-five years later. The organization's first Board of Directors included Merton Banks of Bar Harbor, John Keeley of Portland, Charles Ford of Saco, Clarence Flood of Bath, and Lucretia Lamb of Gardner.

In 1998, in order to "pledge its membership to the highest standards of service" the Board of Directors established an endowment fund to promote education in, and the knowledge of, historical Maine arts and decorative arts. Through the years, this program has benefited various Maine museums, historical societies and preservation projects in that endeavor.

This year, we are pleased and excited to announce the new show "Antiques in the Gardens", in partnership with the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens to be held July 16th and 17th on their spectacular grounds in Boothbay.  

We continue to promote the "Coastal Maine Antiques Show", under the sponsorship of the Damariscotta River Association at Roundtop Farm, to be held on Wednesday, August 27th. This has now been a highly successful MADA venue for eleven years.   

Though we have not yet found a new venue for this years "Annual Antiques Show", we anticipate a forthcoming announcement ot its reincarnation in order to continue its 78 year tradition.  

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