FOR 1-7

NEW YORK CERAMICS FAIR

tg/lsb set 12-27 #614092

NEW YORK CITY — The New York Ceramics Fair opens Tuesday, January 18, at the National Academy of Design Museum and School of Fine Arts, and includes the fair’s first substantial representation of works from ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome and early Islam; a loan exhibit of important American porcelain from the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art; and a series of 12 lectures to include a talk by renowned contemporary glass artist Paul Stankard.

In a rare fair appearance, Dr Jerome M. Eisenberg’s Royal-Athena Galleries, New York City, shifts the Ceramics Fair’s timeline back into history three millennia with prehistoric pottery from as early as 3500 BC. Mounting the largest selection of Egyptian, Greek, Roman and Islamic ceramics, faience and glass ever offered at an antiques fair, the Royal-Athena Galleries’ booth will then follow pottery and glass back through Egyptian pottery of the fourth millennium BC, including a 7-inch-tall Egyptian turquoise faience reis ushabti of King Pinedjem II of the early Twenty-First Dynasty, circa 1070–1032 BC. Other examples may be found in the Cairo and British Museums.

Among the Greek works to be shown is a super Attic red-figure amphora, circa 455–450 BC, by the Achilles Painter featuring bearded Zeus with spear, pursuing the young Ganymede, who flees to right holding a cockerel. The nude body of Zeus is that of an athlete striding forward with confidence, while the youthful prince of Troy, on the other hand, is unsure and fearful.

Another fair highlight is Elinor Penna’s, Garden City, N.Y., fascinating and rare piece of Staffordshire, “The Wombwell’s Menagerie,” done in early Nineteenth Century English, which portrays Britain’s most famous animal event of the day, the precursor to the modern circus, a touring show of exotic animals mounted by George Wombwell in the first years of the Nineteenth Century. This work is priced in the $50,000 range.

William R. and Teresa F. Kurau of Lampeter, Penn., will show a scarce polychrome and personalized pitcher of Civil War interest, 1861, by the Trenton, N.J., pottery firm of Millington, Astbury and Poulson to commemorate the death of Colonel Elmer E. Ellsworth, one of the first notable Union officers killed in the Civil War.

Another fascinating Staffordshire offering, this by John Howard at Heritage, Woodstock, England, is an usual pair of dogs, not the typical spaniels, but instead, pugs, 10 inches tall and made in 1880, and priced at $4,000. Earl D. Vandekar of Knightsbridge, New York City, will feature a fine Chinese export famille rose punch bowl, Youngzhen period, circa 1735. The bowl is finely enameled in famille rose. The exterior has a continuous design of a white enameled bird among flowers and branches and a second bird with a large insect in its mouth on the reverse. The interior is unusually decorated with a wide banded border and famille rose flowers in the center of the wall.

From an earlier Chinese period, Xangxi, 1662–1723, Vallin Gallery, Wilton, Conn., will highlight a pair of massive Chinese famille verte seated celestial generals. These statues are 27 inches high. Majolica remains a staple at the New York Ceramics Fair and Charles Washburn, of Chappaqua, N.Y., will feature a most unusual and rare Delphin Massier two-piece majolica jardiniere on a stand with heron and butterflies, French, circa 1890, and priced at $54,500.

Glass is also highly popular at the fair and among the more unique works this year will be a pair of acid cut cameo vases made for the 25th Anniversary of the Orient Express, with monogram “WL” for Wagon Lts, Val St Lambert, Belgium, to be shown in the booth of Mark J. West, London.

On the contemporary side, Iznick Classics, Istanbul, Turkey, will show a jar by Adnan Hoca, dated 2004. The jar is polychrome glaze on quartz ceramic with saz leaf motifs pierced by snakes, spring flowers, clouds and stylized birds priced at $7,500. American potter Paul Katrich, Katrich Studios, Dearborn, Mich., will show “Music of Spheres,” a 12½-inch vase priced at $3,000.

The 2005 fair’s loan exhibit, “Altogether American: Tucker Porcelain from the Philadelphia Museum of Art” curated by the Philadelphia Museum of Art, will provide a survey of what is considered the finest porcelain produced in the United States. Now extremely rare, Tucker Porcelain, acclaimed as comparable in quality to Sevres, was produced in Philadelphia in the early Nineteenth Century.

Additionally, the extremely popular Ceramics Fair lecture series will return. This year’s series will consist of 12 lectures including those by Sally Kevill-Davies, BBC Antiques Road Show ceramics specialist; Dean Walker, The Henry P. McIlhenny senior curator of European decorative arts and sculpture at the Philadelphia Museum of Art; Leslie Grigsby, curator of ceramics and glass, Winterthur; Everette James, Jr, MD, specialist in North Carolina Art Pottery; and renowned glass artists Paul J. Stankard.

The New York Ceramics Fair returns to the National Academy of Design Museum and School of Fine Arts, 1083 Fifth Avenue, January 19–23. The Ceramics Fair launches its five-day run on Tuesday, January 18, with a $75 per person preview party from 5 to 9 pm.