NATCHEZ — After taking a few years’ hiatus, the Antiques Forum is revamped, revitalized and ready to roll.

The ladies of the Pilgrimage Garden Club have been working tirelessly and rightfully so.

Historically known as not only one of the major bread winning fundraisers for the garden club, the event is also what forum board member Jeanette Feltus called one of the most outstanding antiques forums in the south.

And she should know. Entering into its 31st year, Feltus was the first chairman of the forum, when the garden club needed to restore King’s Tavern.

According one of this year’s chairmen Elaine Gemmell, Feltus has been itching these past five years for the event’s return.

“Jeanette was the driving force in wanting to get it back,” she said.

From its genesis, the forum has been orchestrated largely in part to antiques guru Wendell Garrett, who works at Sotheby’s and is also the editor-at-large for The Magazine Antiques.

Gemmell said Garrett is known as the “Dean of American Antiques.”

With this help, they’ve been able to invite well-known speakers to the events through the years, especially this one.

“We have wonderful speakers this year,” Gemmell said.

These include Wendy Cooper of Winterthur Museum, Carrier Barratt of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and more.

And Natchez will see one of its own giving lectures — Ron Miller of the Historic Natchez Foundation.

Garrett is also slated to give a lecture, as well.

“Wendell Garrett is probably the biggest draw,” Gemmell said. “He’s just a charming, charming man.”

With the money raised, the Pilgrimage Garden Club is hoping to restore draperies at Stanton Hall.

An original panel of drapes was found and the women want to use that panel to create a full-sized reproduction of the drapes.

Another chairman of the event, Gwen Ball said the way this came about is an interesting story.

“These draperies were kind of accidentally discovered,” she said.

Gemmell said the restoration is expensive.

“We’re literally talking thousands of dollars,” she said.

The ladies of Pilgrimage Garden Club have been working more than a year on the forum forming 27 committees to get the job done.

Ball said it takes so much manpower because there are so many different facets to the events.

“We’re having all these people coming from out of town and we’re entertaining them,” she said referring to the speakers.

She said the speakers will partake in several coffees in between events and go on home tours.

And then just preparing for all the participants takes a lot of effort.

“We get these people registered, someone’s keeping up with that, assigning them to their luncheon sites, meal preparations, refreshment preparations, security,” she said.

But all that is handled smoothly, she said.

“I think that the garden club has really had a good history of doing this in a well-organized and efficient manner from year to year,” Ball said.

The three-day event, from Sept. 11 through Sept. 13, will not only feature lectures but also a progressive lunch at four different antebellum houses and an evening of antiques shopping on Franklin Street with music.

Gemmell said she hopes for 200 participants.

“We’ve had really good early registration,” Gemmell said.

“We do have a lot of people from out of town who look forward to it,” she said. “It’s actually a very well-known antiques forum, something Natchez can be proud of.”

Ball said the public is invited to purchase tickets online at www.natchezpilgrimage.com.