A successful day at Renningers

With an unexpected day off from work Friday, I drove to the (November) Renningers Extravaganza being held in Mt. Dora, Florida. This is a three-day event, held annually in November, January and February. I arrived just as they opened for the first of the three days. The Seller attendance seemed good, with dealers set up over much of the 117 acres.

I hoped to score at least one nice trivet, iron, piece of wireware, or other interesting laundry go-with. Within the first 90 minutes I had found four of the five treasures pictured above! I continued exploring for a total of 4 1/2 hours until my legs gave out, discovering the combination fluter/sad iron on my way back to my car.

The wireware was a wonderful find, offered by an established dealer who attends every Extravaganza. She had recently purchased it out of a Pennsylvania estate collection. There were about a dozen pieces in all; I should have bought more of these pieces. By the time I revisited her booth in the afternoon, most of them had been sold.

By midday the shopping carts being pulled by fellow antiquers were getting fuller and heavier. Renningers Mt Dora is on beautiful undeveloped land, very old Florida with mossy scrub oaks and sandy soil. But that sandiness makes it difficult to pull a heavy cart over the trails. Plus the area is quite hilly for Florida, so anyone unused to uneven terrain soon finds their legs aching!

So today I’m going to clean and season the swan iron. The other four pieces are in display ready condition and have already joined my collection. Yes, Friday was truly a successful day at Renningers!

The Finds:

* Large Swan Iron: sole-plate 6 3/8 x 3 1/2″; height 4″; weight 4 pounds. I’m not sure if this is an iron or a paperweight … a recent vs an old casting … but regardless, I think it’s so neat! I found it within a display of antique duck decoys.

* Combination Iron (pressing iron/fluter), 7″ long, nicely nickeled, signed FEB 28, 1874 (150L, p.57 of Irons by Irons). This iron is in perfect shape, complete with the wire latch.

* Wireware Cracker Piercer, used to pierce the tops of home-made soda crackers before baking. There were three sizes offered in wire, and several others with wooden handles. I could only afford one, so I picked the one I liked best!

* An interesting Wireware Kitchen Scoop, unlike any I have seen before.

* And a most wonderful Wireware Trivet, intricately styled, and probably now the nicest antique wireware trivet in my collection.

Check out the 2022 Renningers Extravaganza on YouTube!

Revised 3/18/22