The Greenwich Civic Center was filled into the lobby with very small antiques, collectibles and jewelry at Cord Shows Ltd’s 23rd annual Stocking Stuffers Show and Sale on December 14. The idea, according to show manager Vivien Cord, is to allow for “Christmas and Chanukah shopping, just for last-minute, small things that could fit into the stocking hung by the chimney.”
She began the show as a late-in-the-year event for dealers to get in a few last sales before they and their customers would be too distracted by the holidays. It is an easy show for all the participants to do; most only make one or two trips from their cars or vans with a hand cart filled with banana boxes, for there is nothing allowed bigger than 6 by 6 inches, unless it is silver. “No furniture” is a caption in the show’s advertisements.
This unusual format creates a unique shopping experience, one that has customers arriving early and spending hours poring over vast collections of very small objects. Many exhibitors have only one, 8-foot table with some elevated stands, covered with as many as 1,000 objects for sale.
The nature of the show allows many jewelry dealers, but Cord does place some limits on how many are allowed to exhibit. She searches for dealers who can offer other unusual small antiques. Rudolf Stumpf, Lambertville, N.J., for example, had several showcases filled with small tools. Some were for engineering †measuring devices such as antique micrometers. There were brass gauges for measuring gaps in spark plugs, and he had some small rulers for measuring lengths and widths. There were spirit levels and plumb bobs, trigger guards and calipers, even a few very small trowels that were used by artist masons in creating mosaics for floors and walls.
Rose Cabot is a contemporary potter known for the very unusual and difficult form of bud vases she creates. Shaped like a turnip, the top tapers to only about an eighth of an inch in diameter. They are made in many colors. Bruce Block, a Syracuse, N.Y., dealer had many examples of her work for sale.
Willingham Antiques & Interiors was offering a large collection of fine dining table accessories that the owner, Suzanne Branch of Greenwich, Conn., finds on her many shopping trips to Europe.
There were a great many pieces of Austrian silver offered by Israel Levin, a Brooklyn, N.Y., dealer. He was also offering a very fine and rare English tortoiseshell inkwell with Birmingham marks on the sterling silver parts of the piece. It was offered at $425.
Court Street Place Antiques is the business of Graham and Jacqui Nye of Cranston, R.I. Their sales were sufficient for the market as Graham said, “The turnout was a good crowd.” Flora Haller, owner of Antique Trails, Chappaqua, N.Y., was in agreement, selling from her collection of mostly English smalls.
Lyme Creamery Antiques, Lyme, N.H., usually offers early American and English furniture when exhibiting at shows, but for this one they cleared the shelves of the shop of their small antiques. There were muffin pans, cruet sets, feather tree villages, brass and silver candlesticks and silver table services. There were tea caddies in Old Sheffield silver, wood and pewter. A few other types of early lighting were also offered.
Toys from the last three centuries were available. There was a windup zebra, believed to be Fleischmann from Germany, many examples of handmade Raggedy Ann dolls, and several dealers were offering a large collection of early toys. Gilann Books of Darien, Conn., had as many early toys as they did books. There were some Noah’s Ark animals, an assortment of Santas, Raggedy Ann and her pal, Andy and several early motor vehicles.
Early Twentieth Century figural candles featuring Christmas and winter themes were available from Unni Wyller of Yonkers, N.Y. Tamara Greeman, Larchmont, N.Y., was selling picture frames in silver, gold and brass for miniatures. At Sage Antiques, Susan Goldsweig of Yonkers, N.Y., was showing all kinds of small folk art objects, which appealed to her personally as well as being good merchandise for the show.
Joyce and Gary Seaman, Bethel, Conn., offered a variety of silver items, including wearing apparel and jewelry, while Charles Cohn of Elkins Park, Penn., was selling large silver pieces. Sports memorabilia was very large in the smalls offered by Albert Joseph Antiques from Woodbury, Conn.
Vivien Cord and her partner, Ed McClure, have many shows throughout the year. For further information, visit www.cordshows.com or call 914-273-4667.
