Date: Fri 05-Jun-1998

Publication: Ant

Author: LIZAM

Quick Words:

WhitePlains

Full Text:

White Plains Antiques Show

w/cuts

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. -- The White Plains Antiques Show is "America's longest

running" antiques event, come hell or high water.

The May 8 to 10 edition held at the Westchester County Center by Wendy

Management experienced both in the form of torrential rain; the meteorological

outburst peaked on Saturday afternoon and certainly created a hellish ride for

patrons as it threatened to wash out sections of Route 684 from Connecticut

and 287 from New York City and New Jersey.

After one dodged umbrellas and strollers to the center's front doors, it was

immediately apparent that the chaos without belied the tranquil atmosphere

within. A large crowd waited patiently for entrance, while just past the

show's threshold, wide aisles and elegant booths held an astonishing number of

attendees.

Neither wind nor rain, it seems can keep patrons from the White Plains

tradition and the reputation its dealers and management strive to uphold.

A deviation to that tradition this year were not only the show's dates --

originally slated April 24-26 -- but the event's hours on Friday, changed to 4

to 9 pm rather than the standard 11 am opening, all due to a scheduling

conflict. "The building was needed for a community affair and we were bumped,"

said Diane Wendy. "We took the hours offered to us on Friday to keep the show

alive."

As dealers were prevented from setting up on Thursday, they began bright and

early at 6 am on Friday and worked furiously throughout the day to meet the

deadline.

"If you see many of us leaning or sitting on our merchandise, its because

we're too tired to stand up right now," said Warren, Mass., dealer Randall E.

Decoteau on Saturday afternoon, who still managed to smile about the

situation. "We strove to get the results you see around you because it's White

Plains. It's a show that deserves everything we've got."

"I think there was an apprehension on everyone's part," echoed Wendy. "But it

turned out very well."

Although many exhibitors described Friday's attendance as somewhat diminished

in comparison to previous years, fewer patrons did not mean fewer sales. John

Tompkins and William Germain of Arcadian Antiques, Princess Anne, Md., for

example, sold five items during the preview.

"The people you see on the floor are buyers," said Wendy. "We bring in an

interested and intelligent attendance. The public loves the show, and that

includes a lot of young people who are more sophisticated in taste these days.

They don't want just country, so the show is very eclectic."

White Plains' offerings run the gamut, from Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century

American and European formal and country furniture and decorative art to

vintage posters and Orientalia. Keeping with this eclectic feel, Arcadian

offered one of the more striking items on the floor: a circa 1856

paint-decorated bed and dresser set, in excellent condition, inlaid with

mother-of-pearl. Most memorable were the set's circular panels (five on the

dresser; two on the bed), also handpainted, fea turing scenes of what Tompkins

and Germain believe are English and Scottish landscapes with castles, as well

as what looked to be a view of Mt Vernon.

"We're pretty sure it was made for a child," said Germain, pointing out the

bed's largest panel, a charming work that depicted "Night" rocking two babies

to sleep. A scrap of a Boston, Mass., newspaper tucked beneath one of the

dresser's panels helped the two exhibitors determine the set's date and place

of origin. It was offered for $14,500.

Don Roberts Antiques of New Hope, Pa., exhibited another lovely place to lay

one's head: an American Nineteenth Century walnut tester bed with delicate,

flowing lines and what appeared to be a period canopy. It was tagged with a

tempting price of $4,500. Roberts was also among those dealers who enjoyed a

"good preview."

It was a self-described "Sideboard City" in the booth of Greenwich, Conn.'s

Tudor House Antiques, which offered no less than three examples of this form,

while gracing Jason Samuel Antiques, of Milford, N.H., was a circa 1750-70 New

Hampshire tiger maple and pine high chest for $32,000.

On a much more massive scale was Bijon European Antiques' late

Eighteenth/early Nineteenth Century cherry and elm buffet vaissellier in three

parts, 114 inches high and 84 inches wide, with original verge escapement,

topped by a clock signed "Chauvet a Condrieux" on its enamel face and a bronze

eagle finial. The piece, discovered in Leon, France, and shipped over to

Bijon's Ontario, Canada, location, was priced at $32,600.

Unusual decorative items included Knollwood's large and beautiful 1920s

lacquer-over-gesso-over-linen chinoiserie motif panels of birds and flowers,

mounted on board, which the Lovell Village, Me., exhibitors priced at $6,500.

The fine art category was highlighted by Randall Decoteau's rare Emile A.

Gruppe landscape, "The Hills of Vermont," which measured 30 by 36 inches, and

an enormous portrait of a lady placed front and center in the booth of

Scottish Art Heritage, Glasgow, Scotland.

Koko Chinese Antiques, New York City, provided a harmonious blend of the

practical and the fantastic: a watchful pair of mid-Nineteenth Century

ancestral scroll portraits, priced at $2,280, flanked by a red lacquer kitchen

cabinet for $3,800.