Date: Fri 08-May-1998

Publication: Ant

Author: LAURAB

Quick Words:

SouthportWestport

Full Text:

Southport Westport Antiques Show

WITH CUTS

WESTPORT, CONN. -- Rain is a traditional wedding blessing in many cultures.

Even though daunting amounts of it fell at the opening and closing of the 1998

Southport Westport Antiques Show, weather seems to have exercised its

primitive magic on the April 23-26 event at the Fairfield County Hunt Club.

By almost every measure, the Antiques Council's flagship fair was an

outstanding success: lushly beautiful, well-balanced and interesting, and

superbly managed by the Near & Far Aid Society, working in conjunction with

Antiques Council liaison Nancy Boyd, and dealers Stuart Horn and Don Auto.

Some exhibitors would like to see Southport Westport shortened by a day;

otherwise, complaints were nil.

"We had two bluebird days," said Boyd, a dealer from East Hampton, N.Y.

Brilliant weather on Friday and Saturday appears, ironically, to have dampened

attendance. After a record preview night, the gate on Friday was slow.

Saturday picked up a bit and Sunday, when it rained buckets, was brisk.

Commercially, Southport Westport remains as unpredictable as the weather.

"It's not what they buy but how they buy it," one dealer said when asked to

characterize sales. "Southport Westport shoppers have eclectic tastes, but

ample means. If they like it, they take it."

That said, English furniture is a steady seller at this fair catering to elite

homeowners from Fairfield and Westchester counties, and Manhattan. "I guess

that's because of the large, formal houses in the area," said Gary Young, a

Centreville, Md., dealer who had his best show ever in the southern

Connecticut venue.

"We sold six major pieces of furniture, including a George III bookcase, a

Regency sofa table, Georgian red-walnut dining table, a Pembroke table, and a

chair. We also sold a Regency scissor-action card table. Buckingham Palace has

a pair in its music room by the same maker," Young continued.

Also in his booth were five carved limestone garden dwarfs, bringing to mind

the hit film, The Full Monty , in which gnomes figure prominently. Whimsical

garden sculpture has been a fixture of the English garden for two hundred

years. In its May 17 sale in Portsmouth, N.H., Northeast Auction will include

an antique English pottery gnome. Older and rarer was Young's carved limestone

set, priced $19,000.

Among its 66 exhibitors, the Southport Westport Antiques Show includes a

number who have well-developed client bases in the area. One of them is George

Subkoff, a longtime dealer in English and Continental furnishings and

accessories whose shop is on the Post Road in Westport.

Subkoff made a major sale of six supremely elegant New York klismos side

chairs pictured in American Painted Furniture by Cynthia V.A. Schaffner and

Susan Klein. "They are going to an old client of mine, a woman who lives in

New York and Southport," explained the dealer, who still owns the dramatic

gold and black recamier from the suite.

Subkoff said that it had been an exceptional show for him. "I always seem to

do well there. I had a very eclectic booth. Some Continental, and some

wonderful painted Tibetan pieces -- trunks or blanket chests with vibrant

paint and early metal work."

Subkoff was not the only one to sell formal American furniture. North Salem,

N.Y., dealer Janice Strauss made a highly successful debut at Southport

Westport. "We were told that country doesn't sell here so we didn't bring

any," said Ted Strauss, rattling off their sales: a pair of Connecticut cherry

Pembroke tables, a Santo Domingan mahogany Pembroke table, a four-drawer

walnut Chippendale chest, iron and brass.

More high-country American furniture sold at Wayne Pratt & Company. The

Woodbury, Conn., and Nantucket, Mass., dealers parted with their centerpiece,

a sumptuous sideboard with dazzling oval inlays.

"The real success of the show is that the birds didn't get our upholstery,"

joked Charles Hollingsworth, who, like other exhibitors, must defend against

the wildlife that roosts in the rafters of the Hunt Club hall. The Washington,

D.C., dealers featured a Salem sideboard, a Portsmouth serpentine front chest

of drawers by Langley Boardman, a Salem secretary by Emery Moulton, a

three-part Massachusetts dining table, and two Newport card tables. Paintings

included a Severin Roesin still life, Thomas Sully portrait, and three Victor

DeGrailley views of the nation's capital.

Four Hartford chairs sold from the Kyser-Hollingsworth stand. A Portsmouth

sofa provided a photo opportunity with Lady Henrietta Spencer-Churchill, who

lectured on classic English style on Saturday. "We got to talking about

Bleinheim Palace, her family home. She was warm and lovely," Hollingsworth

said.

Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon also visited, by way of a photograph

propped up in a Charles II carved and caned walnut child's chair, on offer at

Jackson-Mitchell, Wilmington, Del., for $14,500. What with princess's eyeliner

and Jean Shrimpton-style coif, the photo of the royal couple inspecting the

chair at an antiques show appeared to date to the late sixties. More miniature

furniture was found at Chew & Formicola, where an outstanding Dutch Baroque

secretary with mirrored door, circa 1730, was featured for $18,500.

Sunday was a good day for Pat Guthman, who outfitted an entire fireplace on

the cold afternoon. "The show looked great," said the Southport dealer, an

exhibitor for two decades. "It's a very diversified show. Collectors know the

dealers. There's a lot of buyer confidence." Perfectly suited to the elegant,

horsy style of the show was the large Eighteenth Century famille rose punch

bowl offered by Philip Suval, Inc. Virginia dealer John Suval said the hunt

scenes decorating the perimeter of the bowl, modeled after paintings by James

Seymour, were the most colorful he had ever seen.

"We agonize over dealer selection. We try to put people into spots but because

they are going to round out a show, add diversity, attract a following,"

Antiques Council President Victor Weinblatt said following the fair. "Because

this is the Council's flagship fair, dealers make the effort to save things.

That doesn't happen much anymore because of the economics of holding

inventory. "

Weinblatt and colleagues added 14 new exhibitors this year. Showing for the

first time here were R.T. Facts of Kent, Conn., specializing in architectural

findings; Claverack, N.Y., dealer Michael Dunn, offering Chinese provincial

furniture; Washington, D.C., Kyser Hollingsworth; and Federal furniture

specialist Thomas Schwenke of Woodbury, Conn.

Also new were Americana dealers Curran & Curran from Wilton, Conn., R.M. Worth

of West Chester, Penn., and The Captain's House of Portland, Me.; New

Hampshire dealer Steven Rowe, who devoted his booth to architectural elements

and garden furniture; Shaker furniture specialist John Keith Russell of South

Salem, N.Y.; The Cooley Gallery of Old Lyme, Conn., with American

Impressionist paintings; and jewelry dealer Deborah Bassett.

Most unexpected of the recruits was Marilyn Garrow, a London dealer new to the

American show scene. Garrow, who regularly exhibits at Olympia, was mobbed

with interest in her beautifully embroidered linens, silk damasks, and

handprinted cottons.

Retirements and conflicts with the Philadelphia and Los Angeles Antiques Shows

explained the high exhibitor turnover, Weinblatt said.

Georgian Manor Antiques, Gary Young, Philip Suval, Inc, Peter Eaton, Diana

Bittel, and Nimmo and Hart were among those who packed out of Philadelphia

Wednesday night, only to open in Westport the next day. The quick change was a

particular ordeal for Nimmo and Hart.

The trucker the Middletown Springs, Vt., dealers shared with Jonathan Trace,

Jeffrey Tillou, and two other Philadelphia dealers was hours late.

But back-to-back shows delivered an unexpected bonus to Wynnewood, Penn.,

dealer Diana Bittel. "I got a call from Vermont this week congratulating me on

selling Pennsylvania furniture in Westport," laughed Bittel. Having gone

directly from Philadelphia to Westport, Bittel didn't have time to repack her

truck.

She had her best Westport show ever, selling a high chest, a linen press,

sailors' valentines, tea caddies and a woolie. "Everyone I sold to was a new

customer, New York and Connecticut types," she said.

Though not known as a "country" show, Southport Westport presents some

exceptional country material. One of its most vivid displays belonged to Kathy

Schoemer-DePasquale, who flanked a handsome glazed double-door cupboard with

two flags. With 45 stars, the flag to the right of a cupboard was actually a

quilt.

"It was unusual in that it was not in any way abstract or interpretative,"

said Schoemer-DePasquale, who sold all her stars and spangles as the show

opened. Another country dealer, Nancy Boyd, parted with her set of tiger maple

chairs and an ingrain carpet, which went out under the arm of Martha Stewart.

"We sold across the board -- country furniture, formal furniture, garden

things. It was just a terrific show," said New Hampshire dealer Cheryl Scott.

Across the aisle from Scott, South Hadley, Mass., dealer Victor Weinblatt was

having his best Southport Westport Show ever. "I sold a country store

cupboard, a dough box, an iron umbrella stand, a great pachisi and one other

game board, a lot of small pieces of iron, two hooked rugs, a number of

shutters, and some fragments of an iron fence, and several signs," continued

the dealer. Many visitors admired two turn-of-the-century Scottish fishing

rods with handcarved reels, one of which sold to New York decorator Albert

Hadley.

"There was a great feeling on the floor," concluded Weinblatt. "I think the

Antiques Council has finally come into its own. There are people who devoted

their lives to it and committed themselves even when it was controversial.

Their efforts are coming to fruition."