Thirty-five antiques dealers from as far away as Florida and Michigan joined dealers from throughout the Northeast to present the 52nd annual Chatham Antiques Show on Friday and Saturday, August 3‴. An attractive antiques show managed by Jackie Sideli, many of the dealers have been participating in the event for decades.
Taking place the week prior to Antiques Week in New Hampshire †the show, combining with auctions and other shows in the region, has been dubbed by Sideli as a part of “Antiques Week at the Cape.” A good variety of merchandise was available around the show, ranging from porcelains to furniture, to artwork and nautical items.
Paintings were offered from several booths, with Louis Dianni offering a large assortment of antique marine art. Ships’ portraits by the likes of Antonio Jacobsen were available, as was the portrait of the American bark Albert, circa 1864, by Liverpool artist John Hughes. “A Great Day,” an oil on canvas by Emile Gruppe, was another attractive painting displayed by the Fishkill, N.Y., dealer. In addition to the selection of paintings, the booth was rounded out with an assortment of compasses, early navigational lamps and a ship’s model of the sternwheeler Delta Queen.
Diamond Fine Arts, West Harwich, Mass., showcased local artists that produced stellar works from Provincetown and throughout the Cape region. Numerous pieces of art by the Cahoon family were offered, with “Outer Beach, Chatham” by Charles Cahoon, a recent acquisition by the dealer, being among the featured items. Ralph Cahoon was represented with several works, including an oil on plywood titled “The Dance,” $15,000, and a Martha Cahoon farm scene was also available.
A good cross-section of merchandise was offered by Mimi’s Antiques, with Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Chinese Export porcelains highlighting the booth. An oversized Rose Medallion punch bowl was a highlight of the Columbia, Md., dealer’s booth, as was a Rose Mandarin hexagonal garden seat.
The vibrantly glazed potteries of Clarice Cliff filled a case in the stand of Cara Antiques, Langhorne, Penn. The brightly colored vessels decorated with florals, fruits, landscapes and geometric patterns came in an equally diverse range of forms from futuristic shaped vases to waisted jars and also large pitchers.
For those that found the Cliff pieces a tad “loud,” the dealers also offered an interesting selection of majolica, Gouda and Moorcroft potteries in subtle colors. Of the more interesting pieces of majolica seen in the booth was a George Jones “Quail and Chick” tureen and a nice three-tier oyster compote †and for those looking for something more intricate, a Palissy ware platter with molded and applied fish, crayfish, snakes and shells was offered.
Furniture and lighting were the mainstay of the booth presented by J&M Antiques, East Amherst, N.Y., and among the arrangement was a Federal mahogany bow front chest with a fan inlay on the cutout skirt, circa 1800, that was thought to be of eastern New England origin. A nice Queen Anne tea table with scalloped base and candle slides on either end was an early seller from the booth. Student lamps are also the dealer’s specialty and examples ranged from a single font brass lamp with a red ribbed glass shade to an ornate double lamp with leaded shades in the “Greek Key” pattern.
A period Hepplewhite sideboard dominated the display of Glenbrook Antiques, Walden, N.Y., graced by a silver plate meat tray and cover by Mathew Boulton and a pair of elegant silver over brass candelabra on the top. A large and colorful Impressionistic painting depicting a riverfront landscape by Ernest Kaufhold hung on the wall above it.
Leatherwood Antiques was on hand with a good selection of Black Forest carvings ranging from an intricate bear-form wall plaque to a large coat rack with a carved eagle perched over a rack containing four stag-horn hooks.
One of the more interesting pieces of folk art on the floor was an “Outsider” style wooden bench whose arms and seat were covered with bottle caps, the back was a “paint-by-numbers” depiction of The Last Supper that was scallop bordered with discarded tin can lids, and the arms were ringed in fringe. Seen in the booth of Antique Underground, Syracuse, N.Y., the bench quickly became a conversation piece.
