In 2004, the Winter Antiques Show celebrates 50 years of providing museums, established collectors, dealers, design professionals and first-time buyers with the standard of excellence by which all other antiques shows in America are measured. The fully vetted 2004 event will feature more than 74 U.S. and international dealers in English, American, European and Asian furniture, paintings and decorative arts, including a variety of dealers new to the Winter Antiques Show. The show will be held from January 16 to January 25, 2004 at the Seventh Regiment Armory, 67th Street and Park Avenue, New York City.
The 2004 Special Loan Exhibition will be A Celebration of the American Wing of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The American Wing curators have selected from among their favorite 18th and 19th century paintings, furniture and decorative objects. Included will be paintings by John Singer Sargent and John Singleton Copley, a selection of favrile glass vases by Louis Comfort Tiffany, a Herter Brothers secretary, a Federal period tea table by Charles-Honoré Lannuier and many other pieces. The Loan Exhibition is sponsored by The Chubb Group of Insurance Companies for the eighth consecutive year.
The Winter Antiques Show is unique in that all net proceeds benefit East Side House Settlement, an important community outreach center now serving residents of the country’s poorest congressional district, the Mott Haven section of the South Bronx, where it moved in 1962. East Side House Settlement was founded in 1891 to help immigrants and lower-income families on the East Side of Manhattan.
Exhibitor Highlights:
An exhibitor at the Winter Antiques Show for 50 years, Elinor Gordon Gallery of Villanova, Pennsylvania specializes in antique Chinese Export porcelain from the 18th and 19th centuries. Elinor Gordon will display a porcelain five-piece famille rose garniture with a liver skin finish, circa 1775, in perfect condition.
As the market for fine autographed letters and manuscripts continues to thrive, Kenneth W. Rendell Gallery, Inc. of New York City will unveil a wall devoted to the autographs of 25 newsmakers of the 1950s—the decade when the Winter Antiques Show started. The collection will include politicians, writers, entertainers and inventors who continue to be cultural icons today. Adorning the wall will be letters and signatures of Winston Churchill, Joan Crawford, Harry Truman, Cole Porter, Dwight Eisenhower, Pablo Picasso, Duke Ellington and others. Mr. Rendell will also be offering original Thomas A. Edison drawings for the development of the lightbulb—and an actual early Edison lightbulb, an original F. Scott Fitzgerald short story manuscript and original manuscripts from the Wright Brothers detailing the experiences of their first flights.
A participant in the Winter Antiques Show for the 30th year, Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc. of New York City will feature American and European fine and decorative arts. Among them is the Portrait of George Washington at Yorktown (1780-1782), by Charles Willson Peale. In this painting, Peale created a lifelike image of Washington, achieving for Peale greater fame than any other American artist at that time. This work will be shown publicly in America for the first time since 1975. Another important painting being exhibited is Afternoon by the Sea (Gravesend Bay) by William Merritt Chase.
Carswell Rush Berlin, Inc. of New York City deals in American formal furniture of the classical period (1800-1840) and period decorative arts. They will showcase an extremely rare brass mounted mahogany corner sideboard attributed to Emmons and Archibald of Boston, circa 1820. The quality and matching of the rich flame mahogany veneers on this sideboard, combined with the curved façade, create a piece of unusual sophistication and beauty. Also specializing in 19th and 20th century decorative arts is Geoffrey Diner Gallery, Inc. of Washington, D.C. A major highlight this year will be an early Gustav Stickley oak tall case clock, referred to in Stickley’s 1902 catalog as “Hall Clock No. 3.” The face has retained an excellent original patina, with copper numerals set on a brass face.
Hyde Park Antiques, Ltd. of New York City will offer a Queen Anne mirror-front bureau bookcase, circa 1705. This superb doubld-domed piece boasts an elaborately fitted burr walnut, walnut, and burr maple interior. Hyde Park Antiques is also offering a George III mahogany serpentine commode, circa 1775. Hyde Park Antiques deals in 18th and 19th century English furniture and decorative arts, with an emphasis on the Georgian and Regency periods. Also specializing in English furniture from the 18th and 19th centuries is the Kentshire Galleries, Ltd. of New York City. They will exhibit a rare early 18th century German (probably Dresden) bookcase in the manner of Martin Schnell, circa 1730. The brilliance of the original color palette has been remarkably preserved in this bookcase, and the quality of its decoration is exceptional.
Barry Friedman, Ltd. of New York City will exhibit six side chairs by Gustav Bergström of Sweden constructed of elm wood, circa 1923. In addition to Scandinavian neoclassical furniture from the 1920s, Barry Friedman, Ltd. also deals in European decorative arts, avant-garde paintings from the 1920s and ‘30s, works on paper, sculpture, and vintage and contemporary photography.
Suzanne Courcier ● Robert W. Wilkins of Yarmouth Port, Massachusetts specializes in period American furnishings, including Shaker. Their exhibit includes a rare American miniature settee with original paint and stenciled decoration, from New York or Connecticut, circa 1825. This American “salesman sample” is a precise miniature replica that a furniture salesman would have carried with him as a prototype. They will also offer a 3 5/8 inch Shaker oval box in Chinese red, made in Maine, circa 1850.
The Old Print Shop, Inc. of New York City, a Winter Antiques Show exhibitor for 46 years, will feature Nova Totius Terrarum Orbis Geographica Ac Hydrographica Tabula, with a hand- colored copperplate engraving by William J. Blaeu, circa 1645. Some of the engraved ornamentation includes allegorical representations of the sun, moon and five known planets. The Old Print Shop deals in 18th, 19th and 20th century American prints and antiquarian maps as well as scholarly reference books on the fine arts, illustrated books and color plate books.
Olde Hope Antiques, Inc. of New Hope, Pennsylvania will show an exceptional stuffed-work and embroidered mounted appliqué album quilt, circa 1850. Also on display will be a cobalt-blue decorated salt-glazed crock, stamped “S. Hart, Fulton,” circa 1850, and a Fraktur drawing depicting a pelican piercing its breast to feed its young, circa 1800. Olde Hope Antiques specializes in American country furniture with original paint, folk paintings, weather vanes, folk sculpture, textiles and related country accessories.
Barbara Israel Garden Antiques of Katonah, New York will present, among other items, a stoneware figure of a winged Psyche from the mid-19th century. The figure is marked “Blanchard” but is actually a Coade design. Mark H. Blanchard operated a successful stoneware company and purchased several molds from Coade, an earlier more-celebrated stoneware firm, and continued to produce their designs long after the company was defunct. Barbara Israel Antiques deals in American, English and continental statues, fountains, urns, benches, sundials and other period garden ornaments.
One of the most important antiquities items at this year’s show is the silver appliqué of the goddess Selene, circa 1st century A.D., displayed by London’s Rupert Wace Ancient Art Limited. This intricately sculpted piece was most likely an attachment to a tabletop vessel. Rupert Wace Ancient Art, Limited specializes in Egyptian, Classical, Near Eastern and European Works of Art from prehistoric times until the end of the first millennium A.D.
Offering fine examples of Tiffany masterpieces, the Macklowe Gallery, Ltd. of New York City will feature an extensive collection of Tiffany art glass, including three naturalistic “paperweight” vases made under the artistic direction of Louis Comfort Tiffany and retailed at Tiffany & Co., circa 1910. They will also showcase a French Art Nouveau cabinet designed by Emile Gallé, circa 1900. The walnut cabinet with a carved wheat motif consists of two glass doors and fruitwood marquetry of large leaves and a butterfly.
Les Enluminures, Ltd. in both Paris and Chicago focuses on miniatures, illuminated manuscripts, works of art and rings from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Included in this year’s show is The Falling of Wormwood (recto); and the Eclipse of the Sun and Moon (verso), from Lorraine or perhaps England, circa 1290-1300. This double-sided illumination from the well-known Burckhardt-Wildt Apocalypse illustrates Saint John’s visionary Book of Revelation.
A 20-year exhibitor at the Winter Antiques Show, Joan B. Mirviss, Ltd. of New York City deals in Japanese works of art including woodblock prints, paintings, screens and baskets. Among the works of art that will be featured is Katsushika Hokusai’s Sômayaki, a woodblock print depicting ceramics from Sôma 1822 (the year of the horse). The piece shows a selection of tea implements. An Artia ware porcelain tea container (chaire) and a sôma ware teacup with a running-horse motif are placed before an iron kettle with a bronze handle. A pair of black lacquer and silver chopsticks lies crossed at the center of the composition. Also of New York City, Ralph M. Chait Galleries, Inc., a participant in the Winter Antiques Show for the 45th year, specializes in Chinese works of art, including export porcelain and silver. A rare imperial green ground porcelain and lacquer-on porcelain vase, Daoguang mark and period, A.D. 1821-1850, will be exhibited at the show. The combination of carved lacquer and painted decoration on this vase is extremely rare. The rarity of type and the subject of the decoration of this vase may indicate that it was presented to mark a special occasion, such as an imperial birthday.
New York City’s A La Vieille Russie, Inc., an exhibitor at the Winter Antiques Show for 37 years, will exhibit an American aquamarine (approximately 32 carats) and diamond brooch, circa 1940, and a magnificent pair of gilded and painted porcelain vases with blue ground and neo-classical motifs from the period of Tsar Nicholas I, circa 1829. A La Vieille Russie, Inc. specializes in European and American antique jewelry, Fabergé, gold snuffboxes, objets de vertu and Russian decorative and fine arts.
The 2004 Winter Antiques Show will be held from January 16 to 25, 2004 at the Seventh Regiment Armory, 67th Street and Park Avenue, New York City. The show will be open from noon to 8:30 p.m. daily. Sundays and Thursday, the Show will be open from noon to 6 p.m. Tickets for the Opening Night Party and for Young Collectors’ Night are available by calling (718) 292 - 7392 or by visiting the Show’s web site at www.winterantiquesshow.com. General admission to the show is $16, which includes the Winter Antiques Show catalog.
