OF WHIMSIES, WEATHERVANES, AND WINDSOR CHAIRS

Antiquing has become a passionate sport in the Green Mountain state-in all seasons, for all ages. Buyers are not only more numerous, but more savvy, and dealers have sprung up to meet them. In 10 years, the number of fulltime antiques dealers has grown 30 percent, according to Peter Pill, owner of Grafton Gathering Place and former president of the Vermont Antiques Dealers' Association (VADA). He estimates part-time dealers have doubled or even tripled.

With such a wide selection, the challenge for today's antiques treasure-hunter is no longer where to search but how to search most effectively. Everyone-at least according to his store shingle-sells antiques. How do the uninitiated separate the vintage "junque" from items with age and value, museum-quality pieces with five-figure price tags from pieces a novice collector might be able to afford?

This guide is the answer and, like most guides, its purpose is to save you time. It's the result of many hours of prospecting the antiques trail, hours made even more enjoyable because Vermont is designed to be explored by car. Road signs with easy-to-read directions and mileage point motorists to antiques dealers, inns, and restaurants hidden from view off the main highway. Information centers along the way provide travel brochures, maps, and other prospectors' tools. Best of all, Vermonters prefer their mountain vistas uncluttered by billboards.

Still it helps to do your homework before you hit the road. In planning a trip, I rely on VADA's directory of members and regional antiques brochures to locate dealers in a particular area. Then I check to see if those dealers have Websites, which gives me more information about their wares, and how and when to reach them. These "virtual tours" are good preparation for the real thing. When I've mapped out an itinerary I book inn reservations and make appointments with those dealers who request them. Then I pray for clear weather.

When I first began collecting, I remember reasoning: hey, if I don't pay much for an item and it turns out to be worthless, it won't matter. It always matters. So the first step to serious collecting is to buy from reliable dealers. Auctions and flea markets can be fun-if you have the time-but caveat emptor. They offer no guarantees that the piece sold is the genuine article. Believe me, if you invest $1200 in a deacon's bench and a chatty neighbor points out that the wood may be old but it came off the side of a barn, you will want the option of returning it.

VADA members are required to accept returned items within 60 days if a customer can prove that the item is other than the dealer warranted. "Because of the range in what people collect these days, VADA is more concerned with integrity," president Elizabeth Harley told me, "than with how old the piece is. We ask our members to stand behind what they sell and to share as much information as they can." They must clearly mark items as to date and condition (that means any repair or restoration). Furniture made after 1900, for example, must be so marked and displayed in a separate space.

The second step to serious collecting is to buy the best you can afford. As long as you buy wisely-not on impulse-that redware bowl or powder horn will have increased its value when you want, or need, to sell it. But antiques are more than an investment; they have fascinating stories to tell us. That redware bowl once sat on a farmer's kitchen table, the powder horn might have been used by one of Ethan Allen's Green Mountain Boys in Revolutionary War skirmishes. Each played a unique part in the folk life of New England. Thus, the antiques we live with day to day link us to the past in profoundly satisfying ways.

One final word: I have found that some of the state's best dealers don't advertise and often request an appointment. Don't be put off by that request nor by the need to abandon the highway for a side trip up a rutted mountain road. These dealers have chosen their locations for their physical beauty and part of the fun of backroads antiquing is seeking them out (as long as they know you are coming). Their homes are usually as unique as their collections, each with its distinctive personality. Many dealers enjoy sharing their knowledge of the trade with visitors and some are memorable storytellers. It all enhances the experience of antiquing in Vermont.

Happy prospecting!

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