Date: Fri 10-Apr-1998

Publication: Ant

Author: LAURAB

Quick Words:

Greenwich

Full Text:

2 Greenwich Antiques Shows

w/cuts

GREENWICH, CONN. -- Antiques shows come and go, but the Greenwich Antiques

Show endures. Managed by Hal McLane, in business as long as anyone can

remember, the formal presentation at the Greenwich Civic Center sets up twice

a year, offering just what many affluent Fairfield County residents are

looking for: elegant, comfortable furniture and decorations at moderate

prices.

There's a friendliness and simplicity to the event that pleases exhibitors and

customers alike, many of whom are regulars. "It's just a nice show," signed a

veteran of the circuit, David Good of Good & Hutchinson & Associates. By all

accounts, the Sheffield, Mass., dealers sold steadily through the weekend,

parting with gleaming mahogany furniture, brass lighting and fireplace

equipment, and Chinese export porcelains.

"I started in business in 1966. The first show I ran was in New Canaan, Conn.,

in 1974," McLane recalled mid-morning, over a cup of coffee in a sunny

lunchroom off the main exhibit floor.

"Little things pay. Don't eliminate much. Just keep advertising," he said,

outlining a formula that has worked well for more than two decades. McLane's

theory of show management involves careful consideration of four components:

the manager, the sponsor, the dealers, and the shopping public. Salesmanship

is a critical and sometimes overlooked part of the business. "An exhibitor has

to have a warm personality. Even if a dealer has great material, I don't want

him here if he isn't good with the public."

McHugh's broad advertising program draws customers from as far away as Maine,

Pennsylvania, and Ohio. "I'll try new approaches, such as smaller ads on

consecutive pages in one publication, or new markets. I've advertised in

Cleveland and Philadelphia. Sometimes it pays off. WGCH radio in Greenwich is

an interesting station that transmits right over Long Island. As a result, we

get some visitors from Long Island."

The latest Greenwich Antiques Show on March 7 and 8 featured 60 exhibitors

from Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey

and Maine. "We're back in Greenwich for our first time in eight or nine

years," said Canandaigua, N.Y., dealer Ann Fassnacht, who had bumped into Hal

McLane at a York, Penn., antiques show several months before.

Sampler specialists, the Fassnachts set off needlework and embroidery with a

few nice pieces of country furniture, such as Burlington County, N.J., cherry

and tiger fall-front secretary signed by a father and son, George W. Dobbins

and H. Howard Dobbins, $3,200. "A sampler is one of the few things that still

lets you get right back to the little person who made it," Ann Fassnacht said,

explaining her passion. "We have them all professionally conserved. We do the

genealogy ourselves," she added. Especially large and beautiful was a sampler

by Eliza Emery of Sanbornton, N.H., dated 1820, $15,000. A Baltimore sampler,

chenille on black silk, was $2,400.

Another handsome stand belonged to William Nickerson, a dealer of Eighteenth

and Nineteenth Century American furniture from Yarmouthport, Mass. Nickerson

assembled Federal and early Classical secretaries, stands, and card tables,

eglomise looking glasses, and paintings. A circa 1850 Empire cherry and flame

mahogany New England casepiece was $2,200; a Federal cherry and bird's-eye

maple chest, $3,500.

Blue House Antiques of Wilton, Conn., arrayed Eighteenth and Nineteenth

Century formal furniture and accessories, English boxes, fine arts and prints,

and an 1880 French automaton singing in a brass cage. One of their more

playful offerings was a cased game set, made in England sometime in the last

century. Containing dominoes, card press, and gutta percha poker chips, the

elaborate item was $4,415.

Newfane, Vt., dealer Richard Hall used his impressively long, booth to display

bonnet-top and flat-top highboys, a sideboard, gilded looking glasses, and

porcelains. Of note were eight painted balloon-seat chairs, two arms and six

sides. The decorated set, which once belonged to Lillian Hellman and Dashiel

Hammett, was $18,500. The chairs were paired with a 14« foot long banquet

table.

Before the fair opened on Saturday morning, McLane convened dealers on the

floor. Cordially and with clipboard in hand, the gentlemanly coach briefed his

team. He ended with a remembrance. "Russell Carrell did this show years ago,"

McLane recalled, offering a few words of tribute to the colorful show manager

who died February 19, having blazed the trail for others who followed.