A perfect outdoor market day greeted antiques dealers and shoppers on June 7 at this year’s edition of the Darien Historical Society’s Antiques & Garden Elements show. For the second year, the market was set up around Tilley Pond park, an idyllic tree-lined setting that is convenient to both the Metro-North railway station and the I-95 exit.
An hour before early buying was set to start at 9 am., show managers Brian Ferguson and Tom D’Arruda were busy directing dealer vans and box trucks through the narrow roadway winding through the park from West Avenue. They were anticipating some 53 dealers who had signed up for the one-day show †”more than last year,” according to D’Arruda.
For many years, the historical society had presented a fall show, Antiques Al Fresco, around the grounds of the Scofield House. In 2007, when planned construction involving the house museum made hosting the show there impossible, the society planned this new fundraiser for the Tilley Pond site. Both show organizers and dealers seem very happy with the new location for the show, which allows meandering setups under the shade of the park’s many trees, with a cooling breeze wafting over the pond.
Gleaming silver lay just down the path where Bill Scott and David Chita from Danielson, Conn., were setting out their inventory of silver matching services and mementoes. In business for 35 years, the dealers said they had had a good outing here the previous year and were looking forward to making good sales from their steady customers. Among their top American silver was a Wallace Grand Baroque service for 24, a Reed & Barton Francis I set, a service for 24 in “Chantilly” by Gorham and a Gorham “Decor” service.
Garden antiques were clearly the focus for first-time exhibitor Joseph Ransohoff of Middlefield, Conn., who has specialized in this area, as well as furniture restoration, for some 30 years. “It [the show] turned out well for me,” said the dealer, who made good sales as well as good connections with potential new customers. Offering everything from the traditional cast iron benches to the unusual †a 1940s‱950s Sears model tricycle with a white wicker basket full of posies, for example †Ransohoff, whose business name is JR Garden Antiques, pointed out another unusual find. It was a wall fountain that had doubled as an advertisement for Viennese pipe maker Julius Klanert around the turn of the Nineteenth Century. Ransohoff had filled it with colorful petunias to inspire a modern-day garden decorative use. The dealer also sold two nice cast iron window grates that the purchaser was going to use to train vines in his garden, a garden gate, a couple of Victorian plant stands, as well as various smalls like finials and watering cans.
An hour before early buying commenced, Gail Ensinger of Surfside Beach, S.C., was setting out smalls on a table, including an English traveling case, circa 1840, and a Chinese master tea caddy with pewter inserts, also circa 1840.
A nice pine hutch table from around 1730 that had come out of a house in Manchester-by-the-Sea, Mass., was getting a lot of attention, as Brookline, N.H., dealer David Beauchamp put it through its paces, demonstrating the piece’s great lift seat. It was priced at a reasonable $1,200.
American turn-of-the-century design was on view at Karen and Paul Wendhiser’s space in the form of a late Nineteenth Century wrought iron parrot cage from New York state †the real deal, according to Karen Wendhiser, who said she has seen a lot of reproductions. “A parrot really did live in it,” she said.
For more than 25 years, John Edward Clark, Westport, Conn., has relied on client word of mouth and old European and museum methods of antique furniture restoration to cultivate his business. At this show, his calling card was several examples of his handiwork, including an English writing desk from the Eighteenth Century with replaced leather top and inlay marquetry.
David Virrill, Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y., is known for an extensive selection of ice fishing decoys. There was an entire table filled with the colorful collectibles, some signed by their makers. Virrill and his wife Diana have participated in the Darien shows since their inception.
And although conventional wisdom says that “serious” antiques do not like outdoor shows, Derek Pulito, a dealer from Kensington, Conn., defied convention by showing a rare Hartford County bow back, comb back Windsor chair dating from 1780. All original, it was refinished in the 1920s and came with great provenance, on display in a collection of Jamestown, Va., for years. Pulito, who specializes in Eighteenth Century New England furniture and fine art, was trying out the show for the first time.
“The show went pretty well,” said D’Arruda in summary. “Steady, not record breaking.”
For information, 401-273-5550 or historical.darien.org
