During the dog days of summer, the New York City antiques scene disperses. Dealers take Friday afternoons off. Collectors go on vacation, taking their appetites for acquisition with them. Even so, July and August offer fairs to attend, objects to discover, and bargains to be found. You need only know where to look.

And that means a trip outside of New York City — maybe to the Hamptons, where collectors and dealers companionably cohabitate in vacation settings, or Rhinebeck, a small town in Dutchess County. The town hosts a summer sale of American antiques, as well as fairs in fall and spring.

An American folk-art dealer, Judith Milne, who, along with her husband, James Milne, runs a leading Upper East Side antiques store (506 E. 74th St., at York Avenue, 212-472-0107) that bears their name, said that New York’s antique dealers tend to follow their customers — and sales — out of the city. “Anyone with any money isn’t in New York on the weekends,” she said. “They’re at the Hamptons, or they’re upstate, whever their weekend house is.”

The Milnes, who have participated in the Rhinebeck Antiques Fair for 30 years, are showing examples of 19th-century American furniture at Summer Magic, the seasonal iteration of the fair scheduled for Saturday, July 26.

The fair, which is held on the Dutchess County Fairgrounds, typically attracts dealers in American antique furniture and folk art from across New England. Roughly one-fourth are from New York City, Ms. Milne said.

What does the market for American antiques look like? “Anything folk-art or architectural is incredibly hot,” she said. “We’ve been suffering terribly for the past two years since Mid-Century Modern took over and just gobbled up everything, but Mid-Century Modern is dying a very quick death at the moment and American antiques are coming back.”

Ms. Milne will also be showing French garden pieces at the East Hampton Antiques Show. In its second year, the fair is scheduled to run this weekend on July 12 and 13. With more than 60 dealers, the East Hampton show tends toward American and French furniture, with a few funky in-betweens. One such purveyor is Skyscraper (1040 Lexington Avenue at 74th Street, 212-879-2022), which is showing fashion jewelry from the 1970s and ’80s.

Another notable sale is Antiques & Design in the Hamptons, which is scheduled to run from Friday, August 15, to Sunday, August 17, at the Bridge Hampton Historical Society’s Corwith House Museum. With more than 50 exhibitors, Antiques & Design offers everything from folk to Art Deco to British Colonial in a seemingly laid-back atmosphere.

Jan Lee, the owner of the antiques store Sinotique (19A Mott St. at Mosco Street, 212-587-2393), is planning to exhibit at the East Hampton Antiques Show this year after a decade at Antiques & Design. Mr. Lee, who deals in what he describes as “sophisticated-rustic” Southeast Asian, African, and Chinese antique pieces from his store in Chinatown and a warehouse in Brooklyn, said that the vacation air had its advantages for dealers.

“You never know who you’re talking to,” he said of the Hamptons fairs. “People are in shorts and sandals and they’re very relaxed. You’ll find out later that the person you just talked about art with owns a building on 57th Street or is an executive at a Fortune 500 company.”

Of course, there’s always New York. One of the summer’s highlights — and one of the only major antique fairs scheduled in the city during July and August — is the New York Antique Jewelry & Watch Show (dmgantiqueshows.com/ny/intro.html; tickets are $15 and can be bought at the door). Following its debut last year, the show, which is scheduled to run between July 25 and July 28 at the Metropolitan Pavilion, features more than 100 dealers and is expected to attract thousands of visitors. Unlike the nearby JA New York trade show, which opens on July 27, the public is welcome.

The show features a number of expensive jewels. Eric’s Originals and Antiques (4 W. 47th St. at Fifth Avenue, 212-819-9595) is showing an 18th-century suite of rose-cut diamonds, valued at more than $1 million. There will be antique pieces by the 19th-century revivalist Fortunato Pio Castellani as well as jewels by his his protégé, Carlo Giuliano. But there are also deals for more modest collectors.

Neil Marrs, a New York dealer who specializes in collectible jewelry from the in ’60s and ’70s, is returning to the show. Last year, he found a Van Cleef & Arpels sautoir style necklace at a low price, he said. This year, Mr. Marrs plans to show, among others, a pair of serpent ear pendants and a pair of peacock-motif dress clips by the early 20th-century French designer René Boivin.

Mr. Marrs said the sale was an opportunity for collectors to buy “fantastic stuff” at wholesale — not retail — prices. “My colleagues and I all sell to the big department stores and boutiques up and down Madison Avenue,” he said. “If some lady shows up with her husband and she wants a golden-diamond bracelet from the ’50s, she can go to Bergdorf Goodman or she can go to this show and save $20,000.”