Date: Fri 05-Feb-1999

Publication: Ant

Author: LIZAM

Quick Words:

Wilton-Gould-Montgomery

Full Text:

Wilton Antiques Show

(with cuts)

By Liza Montgomery

WILTON, CONN. -- Holiday shopping is a drag, to be sure. It helps to have

truly wonderful things to look at if you are destined to fight a crowd, and

that was certainly the case for patrons who attended the Wilton Holiday

Antiques Marketplace.

While the exhibits were festively decorated and dealers exuded the season's

spirit, the crowd had a serious air: shoppers moved quickly from booth to

booth in search of specific items; no-nonsense buying was the name of the

game.

Perhaps this was due to the sheer number of people who turned up. According to

manager Marilyn Gould, Wilton, on December 6, enjoyed its best early buying

for a one-day show and a better attendance than last year's event until 2 pm.

And if you could fight that crowd to get into the magnificent corner booth of

York, Me.'s Withington Wells, you would have seen the epitome of a good Wilton

exhibit. The booth, divided into sections with the use of French doors, wooden

columns and other architectural elements, featured a lovely mix of garden

items, general antiques and decorative accessories -- such as mirrors -- in a

way that worked best for both presentation and sales.

Heller/Washam Antiques, Portland, Me., also took an aesthetic lead with their

beautiful set-up, which featured a pair of cast iron zinc statues of Flora and

Persephone by Fiske, New York, offered for $19,000, and a zinc dog, probably

Fiske, New York City, circa 1880.

Nearby in another attractive booth, one of the busiest exhibitors was

Leatherwood Antiques, of Sandwich, Mass., who featured a rare and charming

1835 double Adam and Eve sampler which read: "Beauties in vain their/Sparkling

eyes may roll/Charms strike the sight/But merit wins the soul." Also shown was

an American mantel in a light blue-gray finish, and a cast iron umbrella stand

with its original, vibrant mustard paint.

Among outstanding furniture items shown, Peter Eaton, of Newburyport, Mass.,

offered a country Queen Anne maple and pine highboy, New Hampshire, circa

1760-70, for $16,000. Frank Gaglio, Rhinebeck, N.Y., was in the spirit with

his circa 1940 Santa store display atop a great Pennsylvania two-drawer,

pine-top work table, circa 1800, in original finish, deaccessioned from the

Betsey Ross Historic House and priced at $5,800.

Joel J. Einhorn, Woodbury, Conn., displayed a 73-inch high Connecticut Queen

Anne tiger maple flat-top highboy, circa 1760, for $29,500, while a circa

1760, maple and curly maple high chest, Rhode Island school, also stood tall

at 68 inches high in the booth of Peg & Judd Gregory, and was tagged at

$19,500. Cheryl & Paul Scott, Hillsboro, N.H., featured a circa 1790

Massachusetts Chippendale four-drawer red mahogany or walnut chest, with

replaced brasses, for $7,300.

Jeffrey Tillou, of Litchfield, Conn., sold a lovely oval top, turned leg,

stretcher-base Queen Anne tea table during the first five minutes of the

show's early buying.

"We're all going through this thing at every Wilton," said Tillou, "where the

good stuff is bought and sold before show opens. But people still come to buy

things of quality. Our Windsor chairs, children's chairs, and decorative

accessories sold during the show, as did a very good Federal mirror with

eglomise panel by a Boston maker.

"We've done every holiday Wilton for the last five years," he continued. "It's

popular. In demand among dealers. That we buy and sell a tremendous amount

during set-up is a sign of a healthy show."

Canadian furniture is climbing the collecting charts these days, and John

Sideli/Melissa Greene, North Egremont, Mass., were up-to-date with a circa

1820-30 Huron County, Ontario cupboard in black, nicely priced at $9,500. On

the other hand, the American South also made a folky appearance in the form of

a Maryland paint-decorated corner cupboard, circa 1825, in red and black over

poplar, 94 inches high, with scalloped bracket feet, shown by Ballyhack

Antiques/Mary Sams, Cornwall, Conn., for $12,500.

A refreshing break from paint could be found in the booth of Paul & Susan

Kleinwald, Inc., Great Barrington, Mass., who offered wonderful classical

pieces, among other things. An American classical Greco-Roman recamier, circa

1835, was front and center, and sold, along with two George III mirrors in

mahogany, with trailing vines, lots of gilt elements and original beveled

glass.

"We're pleased with the show," said Paul. "We buy things we really like, that

we would like to own -- we don't bring things for the show specifically. And

you don't have to sell a tremendous amount of stuff at Wilton to do well." The

Kleinwalds also sold a Hartford-area Hepplewhite side chair and a pair of

crystal covered sweetmeat dishes, late Nineteenth Century.

Highlighting Harold E. Cole/Autumn Pond Antiques, Woodbury, Conn., was an

English carved, scroll foot, cane-back chair, circa 1670-90, and an "X"

stretcher base, oval top tavern table, New England, first half Eighteenth

Century, with old refinish and some loss to feet (ex. coll. John Walton).

Unusual and whimsical (not to mention delicate), American Sampler,

Barnesville, Md., displayed a circa 1920s, shell-decorated chest of drawers

from a hotel in Galveston, Tex. for $6,500. The thousands of tiny shells which

encrusted the piece, from top to bottom, displayed all the colors of the

rainbow -- a perfect addition to a home on the shores of Long Island.

Among highlights in the categories of fine art and folk art on the floor, the

booth of Julie Lindberg, Radnor, Pa., was dominated by a fabulous folk

portraits of Warren, R.I. sea captain Luther Cole and his wife, by Joseph

Whiting Stock. The pair, painted in 1842 and recorded in the artist's journal,

relined with some restoration, was seen earlier in the year at Ron

Bourgeault's Northeast Auctions.

At James M. Kilvington, of Dover, Del., a George Smith still life, circa 1750,

Chichester, was priced at $18,500, and Hawks Nest, Hinesburg, Vt., was "just

showing off" their Pleissner watercolor of a fisherman and his guide, unusual

for its lack of typical Pleissner detail, tagged at $34,000.

Carter & Kathryn Lavay, of Riverside, Conn., who maintain the "largest

collection of Vanity Fair [fashion] prints" in the country, also featured

vibrant satirical illustrations, and gorgeous original cover art for Fortune

magazine.

Kelter-Malce, New York City, framed a terrific, circa 1845 valentine

watercolor on paper so that one can see reverse side, and offered it for

$5,400. Stephen Score, Boston, Mass., displayed circa 1820 schoolgirl ink and

watercolor works of "Peace," depicting a shepherd and birds, and "Plenty,"

starring acorns, a cornucopia and classical figures, which came out of family

in the Buffalo area. Both were in exceptional condition.

At Hollis Broderick, Portsmouth, N.H., was a Nineteenth Century rare early

reverse painting of George Washington for $895, and John Sideli/Melissa

Greene, North Egremont, Mass., featured an amusing J.D. Clark, circa 1875

watercolor of The Star Inn advertising Georges Stout and Georges Beers, "The

Star Led the Wise Men and It Continues to Lead Them," tagged at $1,600.

Highlights in porcelain and pottery included Jane McClafferty Antiques' rare

English pearlware barber's bowl with an early mend, circa 1790; Peg and Judd

Gregory's wonderful Delft leaping stag jug in salmon, purchased during a

recent buying trip to England; and a delightful, oversized Eighteenth Century

Westerwald salt glaze stoneware jug, with an impressed center "GR" medallion

and rare leaping stags and peacocks below, nicely priced at $3,400 in the

booth of Plummer & Philbrick, Yarmouth, Me.

Among other items of note at this edition of Wilton was a three-masted

merchant sailing vessel model, sailor-made, mid- to late-Nineteenth Century,

at Kuttner Antiques, Sheffield, Mass., offered for $14,500.

"It's the best ship model I have ever seen outside a museum," commented Kathy

Immerman of the shop.

Charles Wilson, of West Chester, Pa., proudly displayed a marvelous "Currier &

Ives" scene hooked rug, circa 1910, found in Maine, featuring a couple in a

sled drawn by two horses, for $650, and an interesting "Eskimo" curlew was

priced $14,000 at Hill Gallery, Birmingham, Mich. Hard to miss at Thomas

Brown, McMurray, Pa., was a pair of WWII tank models used as MGM props.

And if a prize for the Most Sold Tags could be awarded at the show, the booth

of Village Braider Antiques Inc., Plymouth, Mass., would have won hands down.

"We always do well at Wilton," said a modest Anna Emond, who sat surrounded by

a sea of small, red slips of paper.