Date: Fri 10-Apr-1998

Publication: Ant

Author: LAURAB

Quick Words:

Wilton

Full Text:

In and Out Like A Lion: The March Wilton Opens In A Shower of Snow And Sales

w/cuts

WILTON, CONN. -- At a recent planning meeting for the June 20-21 Wilton

Outdoor Antiques Marketplace, show manager Marilyn Gould told her sponsor,

"The only thing I promise is that it won't snow."

"Never promise anything," a member of Wilton Kiwanis shot back. While it is a

safe bet that temperatures won't drop below freezing for the June event, March

is another story altogether. It came in and out like a lion, depositing snow

and ice on the March 21-22 Wilton Historical Society Antiques Show.

Mind you, it was nothing compared to 1993, when a blizzard closed the show

entirely. Still, inclement weather was enough to delay customers and a few

exhibitors on their ways from western Connecticut and Massachusetts, and New

York City, where La Guardia Airport was shut for a time.

"It was a very strange pattern that affected some areas more radically than

others," Gould admitted. "But we were pretty lucky. We did remarkably well

considering."

She continued, "Early buying was down a little bit, probably in the range of

ten percent. The New Yorkers didn't get here in the quantities they normally

do."

"I think attendance is wholly unrelated to sales," said Jack Van Gelder said

when we caught up with him a week later at the Connecticut Antiques Show. "Get

the right people in the right place at the right time and things sell."

The Van Gelders, of Conway House in Conway, Mass., had their best show ever.

"God's honest truth," said Ray. "And we sold four pricey things afterwards."

She acknowledged, "About nine out of ten shows are good for us. We have enough

variety to satisfy collectors."

The Wilton Historical Society Antiques Show was a festival of superb paint.

The first booth visitors saw as they came in the door belonged to William and

Connie Hayes. The Belleville, Penn., dealers spotlighted a southeastern

Pennsylvania dower chest on ogee bracket feet with geometric sunburst

decoration in red on salmon ground, $12,500. A Columbia County, Penn., painted

pine single-piece corner cupboard in lipstick red with high cutout feet, circa

1820, was $18,000.

A beguiling miniature portrait of a house nestled in trees beside the water

decorated a maple dressmaker's measure, featured by Priscilla Hutchinson,

Wiscasset, Me., for $395. It attracted the notice of Connecticut needlework

authority Glee Krueger, who observed, "They didn't have yard sticks, so

lengths of fabric were irregular."

A stunning smoke-decorated Maine stand in putty and black with red and green

freehand decoration was $17,000 at Stephen-Douglas, Rockingham, Vt. Olde Hope

Antiques, New Hope, Penn., paired a circa 1830 Maine washstand with original

vinegar-grained surface, $5,400, with a charming set of six carved and painted

miniature buildings representing the village of Tecoma. "We think they're from

New York," Ed Hild said.

At Walters-Benisek, Northampton, Mass., a set of six Vermont chairs decorated

in gold, red, black and green was $3,850. A graphic hooked rug, $3,250, of

circa 1930 looked more like a Sonia Delaunay painting of about the same time.

It reflected the dealers' eye for artistic harmonies that cross media and

date.

There was high-powered furniture on the floor, including a Connecticut kas

from the Greenwich/Stamford area. Made by an English cabinetmaker who had

emigrated from Long Island, it was one of the most intriguing items at Wilton.

"A similar example, discovered by Peter Eaton, was featured in the

Metropolitan Museum of Art's kasten show," Richard Rasso said.

New Jersey collectors who made it up despite the weather bought the kas. "They

were taken with it right way. They spent a lot of time, looked at the Met's

catalogue, walked around the floor, and came back," said the East Chatham,

N.Y., dealer, who also parted with a Shaker counter.

Other casepieces included a Chippendale flame birch secretary of circa 1775,

$48,000 at Heller-Washam Antiques, Portland, Me. A Queen Anne tiger maple

highboy was $36,000 and a swirl-and-dot painted New England decorated dome top

box of circa 1820 was $2,300.

Wayne Pratt and Associates displayed a New Hampshire Queen Anne tall chest

from the Dunlap school. The circa 1780-1810 piece in rich red paint was

$68,000. Earlier, the Woodbury, Conn., dealers sold a Rhode Island flat-top

secretary bookcase in tiger maple with red and green painted decoration.

The centerpiece of Peter Eaton's display was a Litchfield County, Conn., chest

on chest of circa 1790. The beautiful tiger maple casepiece was embellished

with shell carving and dentil molding and cost $65,000.

"I haven't sold that yet, but everything else has gone," George Spiecker of

Fine Americana, North Hampton, N.H., said of his Hackensack, N.J., corner

cupboard, $6,800. Missing from his stand was a tavern table and Queen Anne

wing chair sold earlier in the day.

A tiger maple candlestand perfectly balanced on spider legs took center stage

at J.B. Richardson. "It's exquisitely proportioned," said the dealer, who

offered the piece for $2,600. Two figured mahogany Hepplewhite card tables

with sophisticated Greek key inlays were $22,500 at Joel Einhorn, Woodbury,

Conn.

Even the sodium lights couldn't diminish the beautiful, worn patina of a late

Eighteenth Century Hudson Valley bench table, $8,850, at Buckley & Buckley,

Salisbury, Conn. The piece was seven feet long and retained some of its

original red paint.

A rare child's wing chair was $4,700 at Jeffrey Tillou, Litchfield, Conn. Jane

Carden Quinn of Floral Park, N.Y., had a folkier item: a child's Maine Windsor

painted potty chair, marked "Baby," $450.

Clock dealer Gordon Converse, of Strafford, Penn., displayed a rare

advertising wall clock by Seth Thomas for the Baird Company of Philadelphia,

$5,000. "Have You Read Your Times?" the clock asked.

"I think that a fair amount of more formal furniture sold, probably more than

country this time," Gould later said. New to the show was Charles and Rebekah

Clark. Recently of Tennessee, the Classical furniture specialists are now

ensconced at 35 Main Street South in Woodbury, Conn. At Wilton, they featured

ten Philadelphia Classical side chairs, $17,000.

The parade continued upstairs, where, sharing a booth, Mary Sams of Cornwall,

Conn., and Joanne Brownstein of Ithaca, N.Y., tendered a Pennsylvania

Chippendale tiger maple chest of 1770 and a superb Vermont penny rug, $4,900,

with a scattering of strawberries and a sprinkling of gilt thread.

A few days before his opening at the Giampietro Gallery, John Sideli, talented

sculpture and dealer, proffered an oversized tall bench from Pennsylvania,

mid-Nineteenth Century, $5,750. A paint decorated wooden Noah's Arc box from

New York state was $2,650.

Other folk art included a wonderful walnut relief carving of Lincoln,

encircled by a laurel wreath and hovering over a log cabin, $7,500 at Hill

Gallery, Birmingham, Mich. Dealer Tim Hill said the piece signed Carter came

from Illinois. The same display featured a Hessian whirligig of great size and

vivid color from the Barneholtz collection. It was $21,000.

A large, circa 1870, American-made rocking horse with original surface turned

heads at Garthoeffners, who had marked it $13,500. New Hampshire dealer Sandy

Jacobs covered her back wall with a large, colorful Masonic hooked rug, 5 by

8« feet, in perfect condition, $6,500. It bore the name Clifford L. Johnson

and the date 1939.

Nina Hellman displayed four ship's shadow boxes. A model of the pilot boat

"Hermann Oelrichs," depicted in New York harbor with the Sandy Hook lightship,

$4,300, had a contoured interior that artfully suggested the dynamic rhythm of

waves.

Looking as much like a Cy Twombly or Brice Marden canvas as a primitive

textile, an African-American North Carolina quilt on a dark ground with loose,

chalk-colored stitches was $3,250 at Tom and Nikki Deupree, Suffield, Conn.

The dealers paired it with a few pieces of Czech and German Modernist pottery.

Equally compelling as sculpture or lighting device, a 12-light birch-bark

chandelier with a six-foot diameter and mica shades occupied one wall of the

stand of Larch Lodge, Center Strafford, N.H. Exhibitor Bert Savage said the

$1,600 piece came from the Pilgrim Lodge, in Gardiner, Me.

Garden items included a set of Nineteenth Century cast iron Fiske rustic

hitching entwined with vines, $1,900 at Aileen Minor, Princess Anne, Md. At

Steven Rowe, Newton, N.H., a pair of three foot high zinc finials with great

patina were $2,450. The Newton, N.H., dealer also unveiled 29 confectionery

bottles in a variety of shapes and colors from a Chicago company, $2,600.

Hooked rugs are steady sellers in the booth of Judith and James Milne. The New

York dealers tacked a playful "Dancing Bunnies," $985, to the wall, while an

elegant 27 by 2 foot runner in delicate rose and olive was $1,850.

At Plummer and Philbrick, Yarmouth, Me., a rare dometop box covered with silk

embroidered linen was $4,600. Setting it off was a vivid red whole-cloth

quilt. The early Nineteenth Century New England example was $3,800. At Stephen

and Carol Huber, Hepzibah Harrington's striking mourning embroidery stitched

extensively in black and white was $25,000.

There were some flamboyant European pieces on the floor, all offered by

dealers well known for their American specialties. "It's a natural way to go.

It's easy to find good European," said Lahaska, Penn. dealer Jim Hirsheimer,

who displayed a Flemish carving. Across the way at Greg Kramer, Robesonia,

Penn., an exuberantly carved, painted, and gilded Italian bed and valance was

$38,000.

"I got into a large mansion in Providence, R.I.," explained Boston dealer

Stephen Score, who featured a pair of elegantly painted and decorated Italian

Baroque side chairs and a painted fireboard. A vigorously painted cupboard

from Germany, dated 1845, monopolized attention at Samuel Herrup's. The

Sheffield, Mass., dealer had purchased the salmon and sponge decorated

casepiece out of a home in Haddam, Conn., from a family who had owned it since

the 1880s.

"I don't mind having an element of more decorative European things in the

show. It adds interest. We have a substantial New York following. The dealers

realize that and are bringing things to appeal to the New York aesthetic,"

Gould said.

The walls of Pam and Gene Martine's perennially understated display were

looking a bit bare as the dealers sold and removed a large 1850 French clock

face from their stand. An architect's model, $3,200, for the garden pavilion

at the Hershey Hotel, Hershey, Penn., was still a good buy. Six French leather

side chairs of circa 1930 were $2,500.

Landscape art was well represented by the Cooley Gallery of Old Lyme and

Frederic Thaler of Cornwall Bridge, Conn. Cooley's show-stopper was the 60 by

91 inch oil "Abandoned," $175,000, a view of French dwellings in a field

painted by American Charles Harold Davis. Exhibited in Paris, Munich, Boston,

New York and Chicago between 1890-94, it was recently deaccesioned by an Omaha

institution. Thaler created tonal vibrations by placing a John Francis Murphy

1921 autumnal view, $14,000, next to Leon Dabo's later seascape.

Pam and Martha Boynton were well on their way to having a good show before the

first customers hit the floor, having sold a painted and decorated New England

stepback dressing table from the show section. On the floor, they parted with

a set of six thumbback chairs in original yellow paint, a tiger maple

slant-front desk, and a log caliber.

Penny Dionne's guardian mermaid was a slinky looking siren dating to the early

Twentieth Century. Carved and painted black, the folky piece traded to

Cornwall, Conn., dealer Mary Sams, who in turn sold it to David Schorsch at

the Connecticut Spring Antiques Show. "We've sold a ton of smalls," Jean

Sander was overheard to say. Woodbury, Conn., dealer Harold Cole said

follow-up sales of furniture had been good for him.

Gould's enhancements to the show included an electrical upgrade and

wall-to-wall carpeting in plush, silvery gray. Not all exhibitors were happy

with the added expense, though most said they thought it made the show more

attractive and elegant. "When you have 30 or 40 exhibitors renting carpet

anyway, this is a good buy," the manager said. "Carpet's more comfortable to

walk on, it enhances appearance, and I even think it improved lighting

conditions." She added, "This is the only show that we have the opportunity to

carpet. It takes a half day extra time."

Two drawings each day for $100 gift certificates reveal an interesting fact

and prompted some sales. "On Sunday, the first name drawn was from Rochester,

N.Y; the second from Santa Barbara, Calif.; and the third was from Wilton. We

had a total cross-country range," the manager said happily.

Of note, one gift certificate was used toward the purchase of the rare kas

from Richard and Betty Ann Rasso; a second was applied to the price of a

painting from Frederic Thaler; a third was used in the booth of Marlborough,

N.H., dealer Thomas Longacre.

As for next year's Wilton Historical Society Antiques Show, Gould says, "I'm

expecting it to be the exact same weekend next year. Hopefully we'll again

have four days to set up, but hopefully no snow."