Antique Quilts & Vintage Feedsacks from the Living Estate of Sharon Sheehe Stark Included in July Antique & Vintage Quilt Auction

Princeton, NJ: Dana Auctions, LLC today announced their next catalogued textile auction, July Antique & Vintage Quilts & Textiles, will include over 80 cataloged lots of vintage and antique quilts, quilt tops, and printed feedsacks from the Living Estate of noted PA Antique Textile dealer and author, Sharon Sheehe Stark.  Also offered will be a collection of quilts and other bedcoverings and textiles from the late 18th century to the late 20th century. 

This will be the first of their auctions to include textiles from the Living Estate of Sharon Stark.  Sharon was a popular quilt and textile dealer in Berks County, PA for several decades.  She may be best known for her vast knowledge and collection of vintage printed feedsacks.  Her website, no longer available, Rickrack.com hosted her online business Sharon's Antiques Vintage Fabrics and Textiles and was one of the first in its kind to offer not just vintage textiles and hundreds of feedsacks for sale, but also a wealth of information and resources for researchers and collectors.   Printed feedsacks are still highly collectible and Sharon’s inventory always included the most interesting, rare, and desirable in the market.

Prior to selling on eBay in 1997, she sold at local antique markets, while her partner, Bill, operated a used bookstore.  He closed his brick-and-mortar store to move his inventory online, and assisted Sharon with her website.  Keep in mind, there were no cellphones to quickly photograph, all the fabrics had to be scanned.  

Antique and Vintage Quilts

Sharon is also the author of the novel A Wrestling Season and a collection of short stories, The Dealers’ Yard. Her stories have been anthologized in Best American Short Stories, Pushcart Prize Stories, and the O. Henry Prize Stories. “Tunnels and Walls and Other Ways of Getting There,” one of her earliest short stories, explores the convoluted paths the psyche takes in achieving its desires.

Vintage Printed Feedsacks

“I remember meeting Sharon and Bill at a quilt study group in the Emmaus, PA area several years prior to Covid,” says Dana Balsamo, Owner and Auctioneer at Dana Auctions, LLC.  “I felt like I had known Sharon for so long because we had both been members of the early Vintage Fabrics Yahoo Group and I utilized her website several times for research purposes.  She also contributed to the Fabrics.net website on a variety of textile topics.  She was always very generous were her knowledge.  I now consider it an honor and privilege to assist Ms. Stark and her family with offering her inventory to a new group of collectors as well as her long-time clients.”

Dana Auctions, LLC Antique & Vintage Quilt and Textile Auction will be live and simulcasted online on July 29th, starting at 11am ET.  The auction can be viewed at Bidsquare.com

Preview is by appointment from today to July 27thth, and Open House Preview on July 28th from 10 am to 7 pm.