Dealers and collectors defied the prevailing economic climate as they streamed into the Greater Boston Antiques Festival for New England Antiques Show’s October 18 and 19 event. Once inside, they continued their defiance, buying across the board. The result: an exceptionally pleasant and uplifting show.
As is his wont, show manager Marvin Getman advertised heavily, set up a handsome show and attended to the least detail that makes for a successful show. Movers from Gentle Giant Moving Company were available. While they may not have been as busy as in previous shows, they certainly were not idle. Music provided by keyboardist Lou Yelle, whose wife Jan deals in antique jewelry, energized show visitors who hummed along.
This year 161 dealers, including 15 new ones, from 10 states set up in the cavernous Shriners Auditorium. Affable Shriners were on hand, staffing the popcorn maker and assisting elsewhere as needed.
Hard by the entrance was Lin’s Quilt Source, the Baltic, Conn., dealer who displayed racks and racks of colorful antique quilts in a double-sized booth. Despite the extra space, the booth was crowded for much of the show since Lin Stebbins and her husband Gil had decided to make the Wilmington show her last one. She is recovering from surgery and she will archive her quilts until retirement. And then, she says, “We’ll see!”
Buyers were eager to take advantage of the fine selection she presented and sales were brisk. Stebbins, who has dealt in quilts for more than 20 years, also sells quilting supplies and they, too, attracted steady interest. Stebbins said she had lowered her prices for the show and that the results made for one of her best shows ever.
A gilt gesso and white onyx table by W.B. Moses and Sons of Washington, D.C., held pride of place in the booth of West Roxbury, Mass., dealer Peter D. Murphy. Desirable lamps, including jasperware and tole examples, resulted in good sales. Other attention-getters included porcelain, glass and silver.
A deacon’s bench from Carol and Ed Correia’s Under the Pine Antiques of Sterling, Conn., is headed to Japan. Carol Correia was not surprised. She said that they have had sales to other Japanese buyers in the past. They considered the economy and brought along a selection of smalls †with good results. Sales included a whale print in a molded rope and wood frame that had hung above their own fireplace until the night before they packed up for Wilmington. They also had sales of paintings, prints and glass.
Saturday Evening Girls, Newcomb, Grueby, Weller, Rookwood and Hampshire pottery overflowed the shelves in the booth of Buxton, Maine, dealer Laurel Antiques of Maine. The booth was also filled with the bright pastels of American Belleek, porcelain from Limoges and other wares that drew attentive collectors.
Early in the show, Martha Caverly of Portsmouth, N.H., had already rung up sales of jewelry and an iron Christmas tree fence, and decoys from Michigan and Wisconsin were being packed up. Among some antique toys were a rare German or American double-faced papier mache squeak toy with a man and a woman and a sewing machine in a case.
Susan and David Ryan brought interesting smalls from Harwinton, Conn., which resulted in a steady pace of sales of tools, blue and white, a large mechanical cork screw and a buckboard seat that had been refinished and supplemented. A pair of andirons was under consideration by buyers. Of particular interest was a bone of ivory letter set that would probably have been used as a learning aid.
American prints and drawings at the Northfield, Mass., dealer Ingeborg included works by Mortimer Borne, Norman Merritt, Stow Wengenroth, New Yorker illustrator Esther Pressoir, Grace Albee and Maitland de Gorgoza.
The tempo was brisk in the booth where Antique Maps and Prints of Cotuit, Mass., exhibited prints, photographs and maps of New England cities and towns and county indexes.
Partridge Hollow Antiques of Milton, Vt., had stoneware, an example advertising “The Fair,” made around 1875 by Stein and Blau of Springfield, Mass., and an assortment of good flasks and jugs. They showed a small match holder attributed to White’s of Utica, N.Y., which was solid enough not to move around and had a clean striking surface. Other smalls included gleaming chocolate molds and silver; interest was lively.
“So far, so good!” said Robert Girvin, who operated Rowfant Antiques of Charlton, Mass. He said sales were strong and that he was selling top-of-the-line objects, such as a Ming vase. Fine silver stimulating interest among booth visitors included an Eighteenth Century German Augsberg wine tasting cup made with an angel on the handle, a late Seventeenth Century sugar sifter and a cutwork and wirework bowl, along with some early spoons. An Imperial Japanese platter with blue decoration held pride of place.
Westfield, Mass., dealers Fred and Janice Pugliano offered an eclectic array that ranged from a lard lamp to beaded Eastern Woodlands Indian hats, beaded pouches, Indian dolls, engraved powder horns and excellent silver.
Rose Medallion and Mutani ware were available from Edith G. Harris of Swampscott, Mass., who also had some highly decorative Nippon tea strainers, a punch bowl made in Limoges and sparkling cut glass, such as a lamp, candlesticks and vases.
One woman bought a pair of candlesticks to use at a dinner party that night from East Falmouth, Mass., dealer Keepers of the Past. A pair of English mahogany bachelor chests was garnering much interest, as was a fine card table and an easy chair upholstered in crewel work.
Warm colors characterized the offerings from Falmouth, Maine, dealer Vos Antiques, which had for sale tie backs of every variety, andirons, cinnabar boxes and cases, cloisonné, impressive valances, a coal hod, candlesticks and Asian metalware.
A pie safe was sold and buyers were eyeing a workbench and a maple and pine drafting table for sale from Redding, Conn., dealer Sport Hill Antiques, exhibiting for the first time at Wilmington. A distinctive 1930s trade sign of the head of the Indian Chief Pontiac advertised automobiles of the same name; it hung on the same wall as a leaping deer weathervane resembling Bambi. Other vanes included an example in the form of the horse Smuggles attributed to L.W. Cushing, and another in the form of a horse with a jockey aboard from Thomas W. Jones. Baking boards, decoys and a child’s rocking horse were other objects of interest. Case pieces ran to a highboy and a lift top blanket chest.
Upon visiting the booth of Tradewinds Fine Arts of Narragansett, R.I., blank spaces on the walls told the story of sales already made.
Dovetailed blanket chests, Sheraton chests and a cherry card table signed by Vermont dealer E.J. Townsend presented buyers with much from which to choose in the booth of Martin J. Ferrick of Lincolnville, Maine.
Medfield, Mass., dealer Bert Rosengarten experienced good results from the selection of jewelry he had available.
Fine quality silver, stoneware and glassware available from Gloucester, Mass., dealer Quelle Surprise included a signed Tiffany Favrile bowl, aurene glass and a pair of Steuben ivrene glass low candlesticks with a spill vase. A circa 1870 Sandwich Glass clambroth bread plate had a raised image of a dog swimming in pursuit of a duck on the rim of the plate. Quelle Surprise also showed an abundance of blue and white and Staffordshire.
Bob Frishman of Bell-Time Clocks shared a booth with Lance Fromme Antiques, mixing clocks with appealing antique furniture and smalls. The Andover, Mass., dealers had lots of interest and some sales.
Purchases were being wrapped early in the show at the booth of Pioneer Folk Antiques of Ellsworth, Maine. A whirligig was gone, as was a trade sign. An apple green drop leaf table was for sale, along with two celluloid horse ornaments with hearts †normally seen in brass †a bird’s-eye view of Marblehead, a decoratively painted blanket chest and other desirable painted furniture.
The centerpiece in the booth of Wayne Barron and Robin Lloyd of Cambridge, Mass., was a contemporary burl redwood low table by Duncan Temple of Salisbury, Mass. Atop it was a green ceramic lamp in the form of a woman and a faun leaping that may been made by Cowan. The dealers, who were new to the show this time, also had a good selection of toleware, stoneware, paintings and prints, all displayed with the rugs for which the dealers are known.
Also new to the show was Downer Art and Antiques of Wayland, Mass., who had a very desirable selection of paintings. The Downers are known and respected for their good eye for good pictures. Ellen and her son, Joe Downer, were managing the booth.
An opium tree was among the more unusual offerings of the show. A group of opium bottles, some with a dark sticky looking residue, was mounted in a metal tree by Matt King and Camille Buda of Sandwich, Mass. The also showed a pair of late China Trade wall urns made early in the Twentieth Century, in a tin wash over brass. A shelf full of purple bottles caught the light and drew many eyes.
Interest was high in the furniture shown by Miller-Robinson Antiques of Ashfield, Mass., but it was the blue and white Canton porcelain that descended from the Eighteenth Century Maryland sea captain and ship owner Charles Ridgely that garnered the most attention. The porcelain had been packed away for at least 65 years, so was fresh to the market.
Also new to the show were Marblehead, Mass., dealers Sandy Jacobs and Scott Bassoff, who had a fine maple and tiger maple Shaker ministry rocker that was probably from New Lebanon. One wall was occupied by a pretty quilt appliquéd with a border and three horizontal rows of pastel flowers that was made in the 1930s. A group of framed daguerreotypes hung side-by-side with some miniature portraits, a Victorian display of taxidermy birds, an architectural mirror and a brass Dutchman. Jacobs said the show was nicely productive for them. They also had some strong jewelry sales.
A tall case clock made in Drumfries, Scotland, by Robert McAdam, a Seth Thomas eight-day gong strike tall case clock and a Riley Whiting tall clock were for sale from Harry Hepburn of Harrison, Maine. He also showed a New England Sheraton desk, a step back cupboard, some nice country chairs, quilts and carpets. He said he had already sold “a bunch of smalls.”
The next Greater Boston Antiques Festival is January 17 and 18. For information about New England Antique Shows, 781-862-4039 or www.neantiqueshows.com .
