Set 18 pt head

Presentation Made April 14 In Philadelphia

Ada dinner  cutlines

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Dean, enjoying his trophy.

 

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Brooke Prestano and Colin Failey, children of Dean and Marie Failey, spoke at the dinner.

 

Dean, together with John Hays, deputy chairman, American Furniture and Folk Art Department, Christie’s, who spoke at the dinner.

 

Dean with Lincoln Sander, executive director of ADA, center, and John Keith Russell, ADA president.

 

Dean, shortly after the presentation of the award by Samuel Herrup, ADA board secretary. The hand is unidentified.

 

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Dean with, from left, wife Marie, Betty Ring, past ADA winner; Elinor Gordon, past ADA winner; and Wendy Cooper, curator of furniture, Winterthur, speaker at the dinner.

 

 

By Laura Beach

Photos By R. Scudder Smith

SLUG: ADA HONORS DEAN F. FAILEY WITH 2007 AWARD OF MERIT/WITH CUTS

Byline?

PHILADELPHIA, PENN. — On Saturday evening, April 14, the Antiques Dealers’ Association of America (ADA) honored Dean F. Failey, whose 36-year career has been notable for its integrity, honesty and ethical conduct, the principles on which the ADA was founded.

Failey, a historian, author and scholar who has spent much of his career at Christie’s in New York, received the 2007 Award of Merit at a dinner at the 33rd Street Armory, where the Philadelphia Antiques Show continued through April 17.

The evening began with remarks from ADA President John Keith Russell, who acknowledged “six years of stalwart help” from Greta Greenacre and the Philadelphia Antiques Show committee in helping to arrange the dinner.

Russell said later, “The ADA never gives the award for a single accomplishment. The ADA is above all interested in an individual’s character. We consider a person’s body of work and the way that work has been carried out. Dean always took time, shared with others, and has given back immeasurably to this business.”

Samuel Herrup, ADA board secretary and the evening’s master of ceremonies, described meeting Failey at “Long Island Is My Nation,” the exhibition that Failey, a curator at the time, organized for the Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities in 1976.

“For the past 30 years, I’ve been able to turn to Dean and ask, ‘What do you think of this object?” said Herrup. “Dean always had time and always gave me the straight story.”

“We applaud the purpose of why we are here tonight. Dean’s election for this award is an example of how we can work together in this field,” said John Hays, Christie’s deputy chairman for American furniture and folk art.

“There are so many stories, so many business-getting trips we wish we never made,” quipped Hays, offering a gentle send-up of his colleague.

Hays concluded, “I can think of no better mentor, partner and friend. Dean, thank you for 25 years.”

Brooke Prestano and Colin Failey, daughter and son of Dean and Marie Failey, provided an affectionate look at life with their father. Describing history-oriented family vacations, they joked, “We feared the big three — Colonial Williamsburg, Sturbridge and Old Bethpage Village.” The Failey children ended by thanking their father for the “love and attention he always gave to us.”

Wendy Cooper, the Lois F. and Henry S. McNeil curator of furniture at Winterthur Museum, described her longtime friendship with Dean Failey, her classmate at Winterthur, and his family. Cooper was offered the spot at Christie’s in 1979. Occupied with organizing “In Praise of America: Masterworks of American Decorative Arts, 1650–1830” at the National Gallery of Art, she declined the auction house’s offer but encouraged Failey to take the job instead.

Cooper cited the “passion and knowledge Dean has brought to everything he has done” and described his “humor and humility.”

“Stunned is the only word I can use to describe how I felt when Skip Chalfant called me in December to tell me that I was receiving the ADA Award of Merit,” said Failey, stepping to the podium.

“I didn’t have a master plan. Many good friends and colleagues have assisted me and deserve thanks,” he said.

Failey individually acknowledged his teachers at Winterthur and singled out one in particular: Charles F. Montgomery, “a dealer turned scholar by the intensity of his passion for antiques.” Failey recalled that, early in his career, Montgomery “liked to come to New York with $2 in his pocket, walk up and down Second Avenue buying and selling, and finish the day with $100, a good object and a good meal.”

Failey’s respect for the antiques trade was heightened by his curatorial stint at Bayou Bend in Houston, where he was privy to decades worth of correspondence between the country’s leading dealers and Ima Hogg, a prominent collector.

Failey graciously concluded, “There is so much we all have in common, including a love of objects and an appreciation of heritage. Thank you, ADA, for your much-appreciated award.”