Now in its fourth year, the Main Line Antiques Show is gaining popularity with collectors and holiday gift seekers who want a variety of styles at reasonable prices.

More than 30 fine exhibitors will gather this weekend in Wayne for this event to benefit Surrey Services for Seniors in Berwyn, which provides transportation and support for senior citizens.

Offerings range from popular antique furniture and decorative arts to interesting specialties such as Japanese ceramics, historic autographs and documents, and estate jewelry.

This year, a major draw is the loan exhibit "Dinner Is Served: 200 Years of Entertaining at the White House," pieces displayed from the impressive presidential china collection of Mr. and Mrs. Set Charles Momjian. The display features historic china from the 19th-century services of Presidents James Polk, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, and Benjamin Harrison, as well as 20th-century designs that graced the tables of Presidents Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Harry S Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon B. Johnson. Also on view are crystal, silver, and menus from inaugural and state dinners.

Momjian, a retired Ford Motor executive, is an energetic collector in this region who has been enthusiastically pursuing significant examples for the last 50 years. He came in direct contact with White House history when he served as a presidential adviser and as a representative to the United Nations during President Jimmy Carter's administration.

Gail Momjian, the collector's daughter-in-law, shares his passion; she is the founder of ArtSource Appraisal & Consulting, which is based locally, and she is a former museum curator.

"I thought it was great because I love antiques," Gail Momjian said. "I feel really privileged to take it on."

Her featured lecture at 10 a.m. tomorrow will reveal the secrets of "Entertaining at the White House" and explain what influenced the first ladies' choices in table settings. Reservations are required for the event, which will be held at the St. Davids Golf Club near the antiques show venue.

"It's an illustrated lecture. I show pictures of all the china as well as historical engravings and photographs of entertaining at the White House," Gail Momjian said. "My talk focuses on two different things. I talk a lot about the china, but I also talk about presidential entertaining styles.

"For example, I share anecdotes about [first lady] Dolley Madison and how flamboyant she was," she said. "Then, when the Monroes came in, things changed. They were very low-key and didn't do a lot of entertaining. It's similar to the way things go through cycles in politics - one extreme to another. The same thing happened to White House entertaining."

The earliest example in the exhibit is from the china selected by James Polk (1845-1849), but her favorite pattern is the American wildlife service commissioned by Rutherford B. Hayes (1877-1881) from the porcelain works in Limoges, France.

"It was made at the end of the Victorian era," Gail Momjian said. "The designs were created by Theodore R. Davis and made by Haviland. It has 130 different images of American flora and fauna. The turkey platter in the collection has curved edges and a huge image of a turkey against a sunset. There are 12 different kinds of fowl plates with different birds on them, 12 different fish plates. Every piece is different."

The exhibition and lecture are the kind of catalyst that will send collectors onto the show floor, searching for their own treasures. New York dealer Paul Vandekar, who also appears in the Philadelphia Antiques Show, is back for a second year on the Main Line. He enjoys the opportunity to meet with Philadelphia-area friends and clients and had a great show last year.

"I'm bringing a very large collection of sailors' wool works - the 'woollies.' There are some very nice ones. A lot of local people collect these," Vandekar said. "We have some rare engravings of horses, published in 1747, showing dressage techniques - very elegant.

"In ceramics, I have a pair of Chamberlain's Worcester candlesticks with griffins supporting the candleholders. They're absolutely knock-your-socks-off beautiful objects made around 1805-1810. And I'll bring a fantastic Chinese Export tureen in underglaze blue," he said.

Also returning is exhibitor Sheila Ferguson of Chestnut Hill, who specializes in mid-19th-century English Staffordshire figures, animals, and cottage-shaped pastille burners. Among the animals she offers are decorative pairs of Victorian pottery dogs.

"I have a good private collection of them," Ferguson said. "The Staffordshire dogs that were made were only the breeds owned at that time - spaniels, dalmatians, poodles, whippets. I also have historical figures. Queen Victoria was popular and they made figures of the royal children. Prices start around $250."

New to the show this year are several well-known dealers in Americana. Coming down from Maine will be Bill Schwind, who carries period furniture, paintings, glass, ceramics, and hooked rugs.

"We've all been aching for a venue on the Main Line and this seems like a perfect location," Schwind said. Like Vandekar, Schwind does the Philadelphia Show in April but hopes to reach a new group of collectors.

A strong furniture dealer, Schwind will create a room-setting booth featuring an 18th-century tiger maple slant-front desk from Rhode Island and a Massachusetts Hepplewhite wing chair. "Another specialty of mine is hooked rugs, and I have a fabulous, room-sized one I'm going to bring," he said.

George Allen of Raccoon Creek Antiques in Oley, Pa., says the dealer will be bringing a large full-figure cow weathervane, a selection of redware including bicolor pieces, and a group of stoneware pitchers with cobalt decoration. Also look for the open-top pewter cupboards, a great Amish quilt, and an interesting example of needlework.

Antiques: Main Line Antiques Show

The Main Line Antiques Show, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. tomorrow and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday in Mellon Hall at the Valley Forge Military Academy, 1001 Eagle Rd., Wayne.

Admission: $8 for the weekend. "Entertaining at the White House" is at 10 a.m. tomorrow at the St. Davids Golf Club, 845 Radnor St. Tickets: $35 includes continental breakfast and two-day show admission, reservations are required.

Information: 610-647-8632 or www.MLAS.org.