American art was one category that fared well at the inaugural Wayside Inn Antiques Show, a benefit for historic Longfellow's Wayside Inn, from May 14 to 16, in Sudbury, Mass.

Sales at the booths of Walker-Cunningham Fine Art, The Cooley Gallery and Vose Galleries, to name a few of the 45 exhibitors, were steady, including a fresh-to-market Marshall Johnson Jr. titled "Bringing in the Catch," which was purchased from Vose on opening night.

Boston-born Marshall Johnson Jr. (1850-1921) is one of those marine artists with a dramatic personal sea story. At age 18, he set sail for South America aboard the doomed ship Sunbeam. The vessel caught fire and burned at sea; Johnson was one of the few survivors. Despite this tragedy, he remained enamored with the sea.

After studying art at the Boston Art Club, Lowell Institute, and under marine artist William E. Norton, with some educational European travel mixed in, Johnson set up a studio on Boston's India Wharf. He became renowned in the city's art cirlces for romantic seascapes and accurate ship portraits.

The Wayside show's gate reached just about 1,800 attendees, but anticipation is high that this annual event will attract even more numbers as it gains momentum over the years.

Read Scudder Smith's review of the show in the BEE.