Date: Fri 26-Feb-1999

Publication: Ant

Author: LAURAB

Quick Words:

Armory-Beach

Full Text:

New York Armory Antiques Show

(with cuts)

By Laura Beach

NEW YORK CITY -- One might have predicted that New Yorkers would have been

shopped out by the January antiques blowout, when hundreds of dealers set up

at five major shows around the tiny island of Manhattan.

But exhibitors who returned to the Big Apple for the New York Armory Antiques

Show from February 3-7 were more than pleasantly surprised. The popular event

managed by Diane and Meg Wendy was well attended and, even better, thoroughly

picked over by the time the fair closed on Sunday at 6 pm. Wendy's loyal

audience -- everyone from professional designers to amateur decorators -- made

the February show a success for most of the 100 dealers who set up there.

With business on the upswing, it was a good time to look at trends. "I'm

starting to like things that have really strong forms and raw finishes,

whether in marble, metal or paint," said New York City dealer Lou Marotta. "An

object should have a `discovered' quality about it. It should be more about

what it does for you visually than how much it costs."

Marotta's striking booth in the front of the show included a swivel-top table

made for marble sculpting and an artist's workbench. Swedish and French chairs

had a delicately distressed and timeless air about them.

"We brought quite a lot of painted and gilded furniture from 1820 to 1840,"

said Joel Woldman, a Classical furnishings specialist from Alexandria, Va.

Featured was a card table by Deming & Bulkley, a New York cabinetmaker who

developed an extensive market in Charleston, S.C. The table had penwork,

stenciled, and grained decoration, plus cut-brass inlays.

The Woldmans also offered matched astragal-end work tables from Boston and

Philadelphia; a Meeks lift-top writing table; a pair of Philadelphia rosewood

grained fancy chairs; and a very stylish pair of Philadelphia Federal

portraits of a French emigre and his American-born wife.

The Armory shows are also fortunate to have on hand Charles and Rebekah Clark

of Woodbury, Conn., fine Classical furniture specialists. "It's so hard to

come by good American Gothic," said Rebekah, who had arranged a set of six

Philadelphia Gothic chairs of 1835, $14,000, with a New York Gothic bookcase

of 1850, $16,500. The later was veneered with rosewood and had a satinwood

interior. "The scale and the woods on these pieces are quite different than

the more common church Gothic," the dealer observed.

Richard LaVigne of Knollwood in Lovell Village, Me. built a cozy drawing room

around several plushly upholstered sofas and ottomans. Against an exterior

wall he displayed mirrored furniture and Venetian glass mirrors, both of which

are increasingly turning up at decorative New York fairs.

"We sell every bit of mirrored furniture we can get," the dealer confirmed.

More mirrored furniture was for sale at Objets Trouves, New York City.

"People come to us for trays," said Thelma Anderson of The Anderson Gallery.

The Keene, N.H., dealer also had a wide array of elegant silver serving

pieces, in addition to candelabra, candlesticks, and silver flatware in many

patterns.

"We brought some very special examples of English Regency and Irish

furniture," said Patricia Snead. The McLean, Va., dealer and her husband John

offered an Irish silver table with dish top and shell carving, and a

correspondence table. "We try to stock Irish furniture and clocks because the

carving is so fine."

Merchant Princess' luxurious stand was filled with Nineteenth Century

furnishing fabrics and unusual lighting. "We've been selling ottomans," said

Macon, Ga., dealer Jim Szabo. "The most interesting thing that we've sold

lately is an upholstered lady's traveling desk." Szabo, who restores some of

the needlework he sells, was finishing a 1950s English needlepoint for a

customer outside Detroit.

"Trends?," asked Mark Schedlbauer. "It's hard to say. At White Plains we sold

furniture. At Morristown we sold smalls." The Massachusetts dealer stocks

plenty of both in his elegant booth of American and European wares.

Painted decoration was in ready supply at Yew Tree House Antiques. New York

City dealer Kevin Kleinbardt combined four Nineteenth Century English

hand-painted decoupage pictures of parrots by William Erskine, $8,400, with

Zuber wallpaper on a panel. A nine-foot oak trestle table with gorgeous

patina, 26 inches wide, was $14,000.

One of the most extraordinary items on the floor was Rus Kendrick's Flemish

tapestry. The Centerville, Ohio, dealer said the brilliant textile dated to

the late Seventeenth or early Eighteenth Century. Never cut or altered, it

measured 50« by 9« inches.

Wilson's Main Line Antiques of Stafford, Penn., put a Connecticut Queen Anne

maple desk-on-frame, $14,500, together with a screen made of Eighteenth

Century Chinese wallpaper, $16,000, and a pair of Nineteenth Century French

bronze setters by Moigniez, $15,000.

A high quality French Art Deco bookcase of rosewood and rosewood veneer was

$18,900 at Les Temps Passes. Miami dealer Nicole Sultan said the piece was

signed Joubert and Peti and dated to 1930.

Magnificent French bronze andirons with silver star mounts, circa 1870, turned

heads in the booth of Spencer Marks, East Walpole, Mass.

"I brought a little bit of everything," said Steuben glass specialist Jeffrey

Purtell of Amherst, N.H. Highlights included "Salmon Run," a semi-abstract

sculpture of 1965 from an edition of 20, $14,000. The ultimate Steuben

candlesticks dated to the 1930s and were $3,750 a pair.

"I had a supremely wonderful first day here," said Edie Rinehart. The Katonah,

N.Y., dealer featured a rare, three-part sea captain's chest fitted for both

dressing and writing, $9,500.

Wendy will return to New York's Seventh Regiment Armory on March 10-14 and

April 28-May 2. The company also hosts shows in White Plains, Purchase, and

Bedford, N.Y.; Morristown, N.J.; and Chicago, Ill.