Date: Fri 01-Oct-1999

Publication: Ant

Author: SHIRLE

Quick Words:

Knight-Putnam-Cottage

Full Text:

Putnam Cottage Antiques Show

(with 36 cuts)

By Whit Knight

OLD GREENWICH, CONN. -- "We are the carnival people of fine things. It's

back-breaking work. You're on the highway, sharing the road with 18-wheelers,

going someplace you're not sure how to get to, arriving there and being

embraced by 40 people you haven't seen since Miami."

Westport, Conn. fine arts dealer Jesslyn James was describing her fellow

antiques dealers, forty-some of whom attended the 24th Annual Putnam Cottage

Antiques Show, September 11-12.

The show is sponsored by the Putnam Hill chapter/National Society of Daughters

of the American Revolution, and the Israel Putnam House Association. Proceeds

from the show go towards the maintenance and furnishings of Greenwich landmark

Putnam Cottage, as well as other DAR educational projects.

Show committee member Marie Preucil explained that the show had originally

started out in Christ Church, Greenwich, back in 1975.

"It got bigger and bigger," she said, adding, "this is the first indoor show

of the season" in this area.

Show chairman Sabrina Pray credited her father, Malcolm, with encouraging her

to get involved in charity work. She has been involved in fundraising for 15

years, on behalf of such organizations as the American Red Cross, Boy Scouts

of America and the Westchester Childrens' Hospital. Pray had spent about eight

years helping with set-up for various functions, when "last year I was offered

the opportunity to manage." This year's Putnam Cottage show was her first

antiques show.

Judy Greason, from Rye, N.Y., a dealer in fine estate linens, offered an array

of hand-made American and European linens. Greason, a self-described

seamstress, does her own repairs. "I was trained to be a designer; I've always

worked with fabrics," she explained.

Among her wares were silk hangings, chenille bedspreads, quilts and fabric

decorated with candle wicks. A customer admired a linen vest Greason had made

for herself and was wearing, and promptly asked Greason to make one for her.

In her free time at the show, Greason explained the techniques involved in

some of the more intricately-detailed pieces.

Margo Hasson, of West Hartford, Conn., offered specialties in cast iron,

mostly dating from the Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries. Among the

items for sale were paperweights, doorstops, bookends, doorknockers and bottle

openers shaped like animals.

Her wares, she said, were "tendered toward the collector" because of their

particular specialty. Unique among the cast iron were two dolls that disguised

the fact that they were pincushions. Both had porcelain torsos, and the

cushions were covered by lovely dresses. One figure Hasson could positively

identify as German in origin; the other she thought might have been Japanese.

The latter dated to the 1920s.

Hasson's neighbor was Dora Connolly, the owner of Antiques Folly in New

Market, Md. This was her first show. Connolly said that during the late 60s,

she had been a hostess at the Keeler Tavern in Ridgefield, Conn. The tavern

had been a site of the Battle of Ridgefield in 1777. Two cannon balls fired

during that part of the battle can still be seen: one in the side of the

tavern, the other in the front lawn.

Moving into the Nineteenth Century, Connolly described at length the story

behind a portrait of Jerome Bonaparte (Napoleon's brother) and his American

bride, a young woman from a prominent Maryland family. Sadly, Jerome had been

ordered by his brother to give up his American wife and marry someone else.

Apparently, though, there is a happy ending: Jerome's son by his American wife

settled in Maryland, and his descendants still live there.

Among Connolly's treasures for sale (the story was free) were figures by

Hummel and Royal Doulton; Wedgwood dinnerware; and Oriental furnishings. She

also had a wide selection of ephemera, among them watercolors and

chromolithographs, multicolor prints that were popular during the Victorian

era. Also available were colorful produce labels that had graced old-time

wooden packing crates.

Conveniently located near the dining area, appraisers had set up shop to serve

the needs of the curious, who wanted to know the worth of their curios.

Holding court were Appraisals of Distinction, owned by "Ned" and Stephanie

Clayton of Old Greenwich, Conn.; and The Golden Horn (White Plains, N.Y.),

owned by Selek Artas, whose specialty was Oriental carpets. His colleagues,

Ali Aydemar and Samet Durmus, were restoring two carpets, entirely by hand.

Artas said his business was "a family tradition," handed down from father to

son. Tools of the trade included vegetable dyes and hand spanners.

Other dealers offered a great profusion of Nineteenth and Twentieth Century

furnishings, Impressionist paintings, Oriental furnishings and votive figures,

as well as Oriental carpets. Standing out from the sumptuous gathering were

examples of marine mammal teeth and tusks that had been intricately etched or

carved by sailors in days gone by.

Overall, the mood both days of the show was upbeat, especially on Saturday,

when word got out that a noted talk show hostess was buying. That, and the

ambience of camaraderie collectors and dealers seem to have everywhere fine

things are to be had.