Date: Fri 24-Apr-1998

Publication: Ant

Author: LAURAB

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ConnAntiques

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Connecticut Antiques

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HARTFORD, CONN. -- Dealers have a love-hate relationship with the Connecticut

Antiques Show. Sluggish sales in recent years have been a source of

frustration and concern for all. But no one, least not exhibitors, has wanted

to see Hartford fold.

So many dealers were unhappy with the Antiquarian and Landmark Society's

decision to suspend its October fair that a new fall show has quickly sprung

up in its place. Last week, Linda Turner, the Connecticut Spring Antiques

Show's manager, announced that she had reserved the State Armory in Hartford

for October 3-4. A sponsor has not yet been announced.

Dealers say they are interested in doing Turner's Fall Hartford Antiques Show,

even though the Antique Dealers Association of America will debut its new

event, the ADA Historic Deerfield Antiques Show, just a week later.

Benefiting the Haddam Historical Society, the Connecticut Spring Antiques Show

remains one of the great venues for New England furniture: impressive in its

quality and variety, admirable in its integrity and purism. Despite the

proximity of other Americana shows such as Wilton, which has substantial

exhibitor overlap, there is nothing quite, or even a little, like Hartford.

The Connecticut Spring Antiques Show is also far less expensive than the

buying public imagines. Most of the material on the floor is well under

$10,000. Even the very best pieces are bargains by auction standards.

Leading the pack was Peter Eaton. The Newburyport, Mass., dealer offered a

rare combination, a Queen Anne highboy and matching dropleaf table. Found in

New Hampshire, the stylish country pieces had identical legs, feet, skirt

profiles, carved knee returns, and base coats of deep old red paint. Never out

of the family, the pair was offered at $46,500,

The only known signed Eighteenth Century Connecticut lowboy was offered by

Jeffrey Tillou of Litchfield, Conn., for $68,000. Signed "E. Williams," the

cherry casepiece has a shaped top and skirt, a fan-carved drawer, and cabriole

legs ending in pad feet. Tillou believes the maker is Ebenezer Williams of

East Windsor, Conn., the cousin of Ebenezer Tracy of Lisbon, Conn. The lowboy

sold to a private client following the show.

Another signed piece of furniture turned up in Brian Cullity's stand. The

Sagamore, Mass., dealer featured a serpentine desk inscribed by Nathaniel

Appleton of Ipswich, Mass., $8,500. Cullity augmented his offerings with

choice New England redware, stoneware, and treen.

The Connecticut Spring Antiques Show is a stronghold for Connecticut Valley

furniture, superb examples of which are predictably in store at Nathan

Liverant & Son. This round, the Colchester, Conn., dealers featured a Queen

Anne cherry bonnet-top highboy with a Longmeadow family history, 1750-1770,

$135,000; a five-drawer cherry chest with bold ogee bracket feet, made in the

Connecticut River Valley or New London, Conn., circa 1780, $30,000; and a set

of six Connecticut Windsor bowback chairs, $38,500.

Hartford founding father and Wadsworth Atheneum benefactor came to life in the

booth of Harold Cole. The Woodbury, Conn., dealer displayed a veneered tambour

secretary with glazed double doors, $32,000, once belonging to the art

collector. An early paint-decorated blanket chest made down river in Guilford

or Clinton was $45,000 in the same display.

"Price $3,999,999.99 but will dicker," said the sign posted at Heller-Washam

Antiques. The Connecticut Valley Queen Anne tray table had passed the rigorous

inspection of Pennsylvania conservator Alan Miller. "Tray-top tea tables are a

hundred times rarer than highboys," said Portland, Me., dealer Don Heller, who

considered the piece exceptionally well priced at $58,000.

Woodbury, Conn., dealers Wayne Pratt & Company were out front with a Silas

Cheney sideboard, $65,000. The Litchfield, Conn., casepiece dating to circa

1806, was recorded in Cheney's daybook and had descended in the family of Dr

Aaron Smith.

Joan Brownstein of Ithaca, N.Y., and Mary Sams of Cornwall, Conn., showed a

signed country Sheraton chest with old alligatored surface, $8,200. Probably

made in Vermont, the Connecticut River Valley piece with scrolled skirt dated

to circa 1815-20.

A rare item at South Salem, N.Y., dealer Janice Strauss was a Rhode Island

Windsor brace-back armchair of circa 1780, $7,700. Two Rhode Island braceback

side chairs were featured by Hilary and Paulette Nolan of Falmouth, Mass, for

$7,500.

A set of six Windsor arrowback side chairs with original red and black painted

decoration, $7,200, surrounded a hutch table, $6,500, at Russ and Karen

Goldberger Antiques. The Hampton, N.H., dealers' piece de resistance, however,

was an opened shelved, cant-back pewter cupboard, $22,500. Its blue over red

surface was as mesmerizing as an abstract painting.

"Pound for pound, wood is cheap," said South Salem, N.Y., dealer John Russell,

expounding on the merits of furniture collecting. Early in the show, Russell

sold a soft blue-gray Pennsylvania blanket chest with dovetailed construction

and bracket base. A painted and decorated tall clock with 30-hour mechanism

and wooden works was $13,500.

Other outstanding country pieces included a wonderful painted and stenciled

New England dressing table, circa 1820, $4,800, and a New England hanging

cupboard in old blue paint, circa 1740, $8,500, at Sam Herrup, Sheffield,

Mass. A Massachusetts five-drawer transitional Chippendale Sheraton chest of

circa 1830 was $17,500 at Stephen Garner Antiques, Yarmouthport, Mass.

A rare bun foot chest of drawers in maple and pine, and a banister-back Boston

chair with Spanish feet, circa 1720, $5,500, were on offer at David C. Morey,

Thomaston, Me.; Pam and Martha Boynton's New Hampshire six-drawer chest was

$14,000; and a grained six-board chest by Moses Eaton, Dublin, N.H., was

tagged $4,400, at Pat Guthman Antiques. Eaton is represented by a similar

piece in the collection of the Museum of American Folk Art. Kuttner Antiques

of Sheffield, Mass., retailed six circa 1840 Masonic armchairs with painted

decoration for $4,800.

"We're thinking its going to sell today," South Natick, Mass., dealer Doug

Jenkins said of a Federal carved mahogany sofa of circa 1800, $25,000. An

armchair by same maker is in the celebrated collection of George and Linda

Kaufman. Another chair is in the Green Room of the White House. The sofa

retained much of its original foundations.

Thomas Schwenke of Woodbury, Conn., squared off two handsome inlaid

Hepplewhite sideboards. One, attributed to Langley Boardman, was $18,500. A

Salem, Mass., example, school of Edmund Johnson, was $38,500.

Everything other than furniture at the Connecticut Antiques Show traditionally

falls under the heading of "and appropriate furnishings." Hardly furnishings

but certainly appropriate are the lovely landscapes of the Old Lyme school

painters. Of particular interest was "Bass Rocks" by Guy C. Wiggins. Signed

and dated 1915, the dramatic 76¬ by 88« oil on canvas depicting waves crashing

on rocks was $85,000 at The Cooley Gallery, Old Lyme, Conn.

With temperatures up near 80 degrees on the first beautiful spring weekend of

the year, attendance was affected. Still, says Turner, "Saturday was a very

good gate and Sunday was just okay." Pre-show sales were brisk, with

heightened demand for mid-priced merchandise.

"I had my second best show ever," said Ron Chambers of Higganum, Conn. "The

dealers were really hungry. I did really well with pre-show, mostly with

furniture. Casepieces, shelves -- I hung them up and took them down. I

generally move a lot of pewter. This time pewter was a little soft."

"You can't sell out of an empty station wagon, as they say," noted Virginia

dealer Malcolm Magruder, who packs his booth with choice ceramics, primitive

painting and furniture, and jewelry. "My trick is to have something for

everyone. The jewelry is my most recent addition. I've found a niche in

Eighteenth and early Nineteenth Century jewelry, particularly mourning

jewelry. It's a corner of the market that hasn't really been covered. It sells

real well. Ceramics are not as good in Connecticut as in Ohio or Texas. Maybe

because Connecticut collectors are so advanced."

"Hartford was good for me. Connecticut likes to read books," said Rick

Russack, the Danville, N.H., book dealer. "I sold a copy of Let Virtue Be A

Guide To Thee for $825. We sold a copy last time, too."

"We had a terrific show," said Norma Chick of Autumn Pond and Harold Cole of

Woodbury, Conn. "I was very pleased -- with the gate, with the enthusiasm. I

had a customer come for delft who I haven't seen for three years. We sold a

highboy, paintings."

"We've sold a harvest table so far today," say Ray Van Gelder, off to a good

start. Jeffrey Tillou parted with pair of Massachusetts Chippendale side

chairs in cherry with pierced heart splats. An inlaid Massachusetts Sheraton

four-drawer chest with reeded columns left Kuttner Antiques. Plummer and

Philbrick traded a William and Mary bun-foot chest, and Mary Sams saw a

ebonized folk art carving of a mermaid leave in the arms of Woodbury, Conn.,

dealer David Schorsch. Janice Strauss had a rush of sales before she got to

the show, including a Sheraton mirror purchased from the special advertising

supplement.

"Better furniture was a tougher sell. The fact that it was such a fabulous

weekend worked against us," said Newburyport, Mass., dealer Peter Eaton.

"People were out cleaning the yard or looking at the boat," added Zeke

Liverant. "But the show wasn't bad. There was a lot of activity before the

show opened. Dealers are becoming cognizant that you can't buy enough at

auction to make it worthwhile. So they're buying at shows. A lot of furniture

was being carried from booth to booth."

Hartford's biggest booster continued, "The Connecticut Antiques Show is still

a great show for Americana. Where else are you going to find the range from

modest to wonderful. We meet new people every time we go."

Concluded Turner, "I had people call from Ohio, Illinois, and other Midwestern

states who were looking forward to coming to the show because they had never

been but had heard such good things. One guy heard about us first at Wilton.

He came up and was so impressed that he stayed two days."