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NEW YORK CITY — The second annual New York/New Year Antiques & Fine Art Festival will be at the Seventh Regiment Armory, Park Avenue at 67th Street, January 7–9, with a new and different gathering of world-class dealers committed to making this a standout event for the new year. A special preview day will be January 6 when showgoers will find a veritable feast of treasures that span the centuries and circle the globe. The festival is a celebration of history, beauty and quality — all brought within reach of every collector.

Show organizer Martin Ellis, a veteran of numerous successful, bicoastal events, recognized a real opportunity to kickoff the New Year with a show that brings together turn-of-the-century Art Nouveau and Art Deco decorative and fine art, Scandinavian art glass, Japanese textiles and furniture, erotic prints as well as rare books and investment-quality jewelry.

The festival fills a void in the New York antiques marketplace by opening up the well-established resources of the Park Avenue Armory to a new group of dealers who have saved their best pieces. “The festival offers a new look at fresh players,” says dealer Bill Alexander, who plans a presentation of archaeological Chinese antiquities as well as exquisite world-class pieces of Chinese pottery.

Many luxury items will be surprisingly affordable — well within the $1,000 to $5,000 range. As dealer Jason Jacques deftly phrases it, “Visitors to the New York/New Year Antiques & Fine Art Festival can purchase a magnificent period work of art by an important artist for $2,500 and a masterpiece for $50,000.” In particular, Jacques notes that “Austrian art is seeing unprecedented interest. Soaring auction prices prove that now is the time to have a collection of major Vienna Secession artists.” His booth will feature Art Nouveau and Japonist ceramics by museum-quality artists, as well as rare erotic prints by Klimt and Schiele.

Dealers at the festival will celebrate the silversmith’s art with booths filled with grandly gleaming flatware and hollowware. From naturalistic Nineteenth Century pieces of figurative silver to the Art Nouveau and Art Deco styles, to Danish early modern patterns, silver can be an exquisitely practical collectible. London’s The Silver Fund is the resource for setting the table with Twentieth Century estate silver in like-new condition. The company specializes in the masterful early modern designs of Georg Jensen, one of the finest silversmiths of the last 300 years, who was so very influential on much of Twentieth Century design.

A welcome sight at the New York/New Year Antiques & Fine Art Festival will be the number of experts specializing in Asian antiques — Japanese, Chinese and Korean. Recent finds, especially in China, have rekindled interest in this category.

As dealer Bill Alexander, one of the key exhibitors in the upcoming festival, notes, “New York is one of the strongest markets for Asian antiques.” The festival promises to engage new collectors and seasoned connoisseurs with a rich breadth of Oriental objects, from items for personal enjoyment to investment-quality antiques.

The 50 or 60 pieces of bronzes and pottery that Alexander will bring comprise $1.5 million worth of archaeological finds from Ancient China. Entry-level collectors can invest in a small, unglazed T’ang horse for $2,5/5,000, and begin to build an impressive collection. Besides his horses, Alexander’s booth features highly collectible Han Dynasty Neolithic pots, dating from the time of Christ, for around $1,500, to an extraordinary pair of terra-cotta Heavenly Beings for $100,000.

Stuart and Barbara Hilbert of The Flying Dragon, specialists in Chinese artifacts, carry a coveted carved ivory Daoist set of all the lohans (eight in all). Teachers living in Japan and the Republic of China for seven years, the Hilberts trace their fascination with Asian art back 30 years. The Hilberts’ collection will include Chinese porcelains, export silver, Peking glass, snuff bottles and scholar’s desk items. Outstanding items coming into the show include a Ming dynasty cloisonné vase and sculptural pieces from the Ming dynasty such as the iron Buddha head, both dating back to the Sixteenth Century.

Netsuke, the best of Japanese craftsmanship in its smallest form, will be available at Phyllis Lieberman and Jeffrey Klotz’s booth. A scholarly team who has published on the topic of Japanese antiques, they specialize in these tiny, exquisitely detailed carvings. Netsuke are like miniature pieces of sculpture that can be held in a hand and appreciated from all sides for their minutely breathtaking detail. First created as functional toggles that hold a pouch on a kimono sash, and used from the early Seventeenth through the Nineteenth Century, Netsuke evolved into more and more elaborately detailed masterpieces of artistry. As they carved boxwood, cherrywood, boar’s tusk, bone, ivory and even fruit seeds into serviceable toggles that slid up and down cords, Japanese artisans expressed astonishing creativity within the confines of the tiny form.

The brooch, that quintessential vintage accessory, has moved from the bottom of grandma’s jewelry box to the top of the must-have accessory list.

“For the longest time, you couldn’t sell brooches to the young set,” says Leah Gordon, whose fine line of jewelry encompasses most periods from the Georgian era, 1790, all the way through the 1950s. “Now they’re flying off the shelf! A brooch is the must-have accessory for the 2005 winter/spring season!”

As designers and celebrities have shown, the secret to looking fashionable this time around lies in where a broach is worn; on a poncho, tweed jacket, belt, shoe or in the hair.

Floral inspired brooches are particularly hot this season. A bold accent piece for those wishing to have some “blooming” fun offered by Gordon is a jewel encrusted, nature-inspired pin such as a 1950s “rose” brooch, embellished with a diamond dewdrop, and set on a stem of one carat diamonds and 28 emeralds, by Garrard & Co. of London.

“Eyes have a continuing fascination for artists,” says Gordon. “Portrait miniatures mounted as brooches were popular in the Eighteenth Century. The lover’s eye brooch was an unusual variation that became quite fashionable. The Prince of Wales — later George IV — and his friend Mrs Fitzherbert wanted to exchange portrait miniatures. But, alas Mrs Fitzherbert was a Catholic widow. Their romance had to be kept secret. One of the court miniaturists came up with the idea of painting just an eye; the intent was to keep the lover’s identity secret by not revealing the whole face. Only the wearer would know whose eye it really was. The prince was a leader of fashion, so this type of brooch became very trendy.”

“We’re seeing a younger type of customer,” says Roy Rover, a dealer in vintage costume jewelry. “Brooches are so all the rage this season that I have been working around the clock to fill the demand, to find the high-grade goods, that are becoming more scarce. Because of the retro look in fashion, the time was ripe for brooches to become fashionable again. They’re a lot of fun; something to talk about, and guess what — a lot of women have looked into the jewelry box, and discovered that they don’t have any.”

Rover will be highlighting more than 1,000 pieces of vintage fashion jewelry, with a focus on brooches in the $100 to $5,000 price range. The grouping includes many signed fashion pieces from the 20s through the 60s by sought-after designers like Trifari, Mario Buccellatti and R. DeRosa. Included are pieces by the House of Gripoix, which created haute couture jewelry for Chanel, the designer credited with making costume jewelry not only acceptable but desirable.

Betty Bresler Inc will bring together an extraordinary selection from today’s most admired designers. And because her jewelry is previously owned she can offer prices 25-40 percent below retail. Enhance a sweater, jacket or coat with a great signature piece — an 18K white gold spider with a diamond head and a body of blue sapphires. Or, pin a bumble bee on a bonnet in 18K yellow gold with 49 diamonds and emerald eyes, circa 1970s.

In 1904 the first George Jensen store opened in Copenhagen and from that moment on, Georg Jensen set an enduring standard for Twentieth Century design excellence, while inspiring several generations of talented designers.

The Silver Fund, the world’s largest source for estate Georg Jensen silver jewelry, hollowware and flatware, will bring an outstanding collection to the festival, drawing from its 50,000-piece inventory of the most sought-after designs, including items from the original 33 patterns, ten of which are still made.

According to Michael James, managing director of the London-based firm, “Jensen silver is one of the best and most secure investments to be made today.” Recent research, commissioned by the Silver Fund, shows that prices have been increasing steadily since the mid 1990s, with just the right degree of appreciation to inspire confidence.

The research, conducted by Jeremy Eckstein, a leading art and antiques analyst, who was instrumental in creating Sotheby’s art index, demonstrates that Jensen silver has all of the characteristics of classic alternative hard asset classes — good long-term performance potential, absence of short-term volatility and strictly limited downside vulnerability.

Eckstein notes in his report that “the appeal of Jensen silver tends to be timeless; prices do not fluctuate wildly with changes in fashion and taste. There always has been a demand for these iconic pieces and there is no reason to think that the situation will change.”

William Drucker of Drucker Antiques will also be showing rare and extraordinary pieces of vintage Jensen silver. “The 100th year anniversary was truly important,” says Drucker, whose mother, Janet, wrote two major books on Jensen, “moving Jensen silver into a different realm.” This occasion created heightened interest in Jensen, especially for those who view Twentieth Century design not as genuine as those eras that predate it. “People love beautiful, well-made things,” adds Drucker, “and it doesn’t get any better than this.”

Drucker will be exhibiting many museum-quality pieces. “The mixture will illustrate the different style, periods and designers of Jensen through the decades,” he says. There will be mixed pieces of “first period” jewelry from about 1907, a grape compote from the 1920s, early tea strainers from 1908 to 1915, a flatware set and many others to complete the look of Jensen throughout. “The market value for these Jensen pieces has been increasing over the last few years,” Drucker says, “and the earlier pieces have increased at phenomenal rates. Pieces done by hand command far more than they did 60 years ago. New Jensen is more expensive than ever,” he notes.

The New York/New Year Antiques & Fine Art Festival takes place January 7–9. A collector’s preview will be Thursday, January 6, 6 to 9 pm. The $35 fee includes admission to the festival for the entire weekend. Hours are Friday and Saturday, 1 to 9 pm, and Sunday, 1 to 6 pm, with general admission of only $12.

For information, 310-287-1896.