It was cold on Wednesday, January 23, in the city, but that did not stop more than 2,000 people, all bundled up, from attending the opening of the Metro Show at the Metropolitan Pavilion on 18th Street. This was the second year for the show, succeeding the folk art show benefiting the American Folk Art Museum, and it was under the management of The Art Fair Company, based in Chicago, Michael Franks, chief operating officer.
The show continued to have a very open and clean look, with front-to-back aisles and several cross aisles separating the booths, most of which had no side walls. It was an attractive layout, easy to navigate, and it increased the exposure of each display.
Thirty-four dealers filled the exhibition area, 15 new to the show this year, and the majority were galleries offering Modern and contemporary works of art. It is no longer a show filled with major pieces of folk sculpture, early fabrics and painted furniture, yet there is a baker’s dozen of antiques dealers who are well respected in the antiques business for the quality pieces they discover and offer. It is an interesting mix of galleries and dealers, hence the name Metro Show, with no mention of antiques. But in the end, most areas of collecting were covered, but not with great depth.
“The show has been wonderful, so far, and we will have to redo the booth before opening day,” Rick Garthoeffner of Garthoeffner Gallery Antiques, Lititz, Penn., said on preview night. Four of the largest-size-known velvet carrots were among a collection of nine, circa 1880, displayed in a basket on an early table at the front of the booth, while on the back wall a pair of oversized handcarved and painted American flags by George Stapf of Lancaster, Penn., was perfectly lighted. Complete with poles, the flags had applied stars and dated 1880. They were among the objects sold preview night.
A carved wood American bald eagle in the original paint rested between the flags, a figure that measured 17 inches tall and was dated 1940. Other objects in the booth that had sold tickets included a Windsor writing armchair, circa 1780; a nautical diorama, circa 1830‱840; a salesman’s sample plow, 1880; a banner weathervane and a wood figure with articulated arms, circa 1820.
Just Folk, dealers from Summerland, Calif., offered a nice, topsy-turvy wood-carved doll, original paint and fabric clothing, dating from the late Nineteenth Century, that came from the Mendelsohn collection. Against one wall was a collection of four Roxbury heads, circa 1870, mortar and stone, that came from the hills of Roxbury, Conn. Measuring 23 inches high and 9½ inches in diameter, these African American fence posts were also once part of the Mendelsohn collection. A wooden rooster weathervane in oak, circa 1880, with traces of white paint was attributed to James Lombard of Bridgton and Brownfield, Maine.
Sales were good for this booth, including a Twentieth Century pointing hand trade sign, a solid brass tailor’s shop sign from the first quarter of the Twentieth Century and a reverse-glass tinsel painting.
“We had one booth last year at this show and did not have room for any folk art, just toys and banks,” Steven Weiss of Gemini Antiques, Oldwick, N.J., said, adding, “This year we have two facing booths.” One side of the aisle was bursting with colorful cast iron toys and building banks †the star of the still banks was the largest version of Old South Church (13 inches tall and the best of the four known examples that sold) ⁷hile across the way Leon Weiss watched over folk art that included a large shooting gallery target that consisted of six comical faces joined together, American, circa 1920, from the collection of Barry Brisken, and a cast bronze woman in classical costume, American, circa 1878.
Of sheet zinc and cast iron was a jewelry trade sign for “Sol Marks,” American, circa 1890, measuring 7 feet tall and 4½ feet in diameter. Sold items included a carved lion’s head, a menagerie wagon medallion, French articulated soldiers, a giant pistol trade sign, a New York barber pole and a palmist trade sign, circa 1895.
“This is a very rare Pennsylvania sampler,” Amy Finkel of M. Finkel & Daughter, Philadelphia, said of a Pennsylvania example by Jane M. Huey, 1840, of the Mary Tidball School, Washington County. Another example of the many that covered the major portion of her walls was a New Jersey sampler by Kiziah Sharp, 1825, of Burlington County, in the original frame and ribbon. This example was published in Betty Ring’s Childhood Embroidery .
One of several pieces of furniture offered was a slant lid desk on frame, New England, and grain painted. This piece, all original, dated circa 1830. Three animal shooting gallery targets dated from the early Twentieth Century and were from an amusement park in Indian Lake, Ohio. Among the sales from this booth was a pair of cast iron gatepost crows, a linked-heart-shape doormat, and samplers made by Kiziah Sharp in 1825 and by Jane M. Huey in 1840.
Hill Gallery of Birmingham, Mich., offered a pair of carved limestone lions from southern Indiana, circa 1870, measuring 21 inches high, 32 inches long and 13 inches deep. The pair sold almost as the preview opened, confirming Tim Hill’s earlier remark that “some people know I have these figures and they are certain to sell early.” The sole object mounted on the wall above the lions was “Blue Mule,” a striking pencil and gouache on cardboard by Bill Traylor (1854‱949) that measured 12 by 14¾ inches sight.
Other works by Traylor hung in the booth of Carl Hammer Gallery, Chicago, “Red Eyed Dog” and “Peg-Legged Man,” both circa 1939‱942, along with four carved and brightly painted articulated figures by Clifton Sulser of Romney, W.Va. The figures, from a body of 50 works, were used to decorate truck stops that were owned by the artist.
Steven S. Powers, Works of Art & Americana, Brooklyn, N.Y., offered a wooden bowl filled with bone dice dating from the late Eighteenth to early Nineteenth Century, titled “Let The Dice Fall Where They May.” The dice measured between 3/16 and half-an-inch and numbered 3,326. “Not a single person at the show doubted my count,” Steven said.
He also had a fine trade sign from a barber shop, white, red and dark blue, circa 1920, that measured 41½ by 30½ by 1¾ inches. At some time in its life the sign had been overpainted and it was possible to read, in the right light, the words “The lowest prices in city.” A round sculpture from the trunk of an elm tree was by Clarke Fitz-Gerald (Maine, 1917′004), titled “Eye of the Needle.” It dated circa 1977 and measured 35 inches wide and 33 inches high.
One of the largest pieces of sculpture in the show was a figurehead of New York origin, maker unknown, circa 1850‱860, in the booth of Ricco/Maresca Gallery, New York City. The figure was of a black man, yellow pine with black pitch, measuring 43 by 29 by 13 inches. Also displayed were several works by Martin Ramirez (1895‱963), “Stag on Mound of Fireworks,” “Madonna” and “Vertical Train with Tunnel.”
Samuel Herrup’s hunt for fine pieces of redware proved successful, as witnessed by a rack of 32 pieces in many different forms, including a shaving mug, plates large and small, jugs, a dog, pitchers and covered jars. The selection drew people into the booth, and the Sheffield, Mass., dealer ended up writing a number of sales slips. A pair of English Gothic carved stone faces, circa 1200, that Sam has had in his collection for many years, measured 15½ inches high and had an old lime wash finish. Minutes into the preview, a Pennsylvania gate leg table in walnut, with poplar and cedar secondary woods, circa 1720‱740, acquired a red sold sticker. The table was of perfect size, 27½ inches high, 36 inches wide, 45 inches in diameter when open, and 15 inches when closed.
In addition to the table and redware, he sold a pair of painted side chairs, circa 1880; a domed top box from New England, circa 1820‱840, and an ebony mirror of Flemish or German origin from the Seventeenth Century.
After many years as an exhibitor at the Winter Antique Show, Fred Giampietro decided it was “time for a venue change” and moved downtown to the Metro Show with fewer pieces of folk art backed up by an extensive selection of contemporary fine art. Well known as a leader in the folk art world, Fred brought to the Metro Show a fine carousel horse by Gustave Dentzel of Philadelphia, circa 1895, measuring 60 by 65 by 13 inches. He also showed a large, very large, galleon weathervane in copper and iron, circa 1890, American, measuring 79 by 55 by 10 inches, and a two-sided game board that would be a credit to any collection.
Partitions in the center of the booth provided him with more wall space to show contemporary art, including “Abstract Cat,” an oil on canvas on panel by Enrico Riley, 72½ by 71 inches. Also needing ample wall space was another oil on canvas on panel, 48 by 36 inches, of “Man Talking With Self, Lebanon, New Haven, Montreal.”
Clifford A. Wallach, Tramp Art, Folk Art & Americana of Manalapan, N.J., offered a rare tramp art artist work desk with lift top working surface, place for tools, sharpening stone and a hole in the working surface to sweep away the chips and shavings into the drawer below. And an additional hole in the drawer to dump the waste away. The bench was found in Williamsport, Penn., and dates circa 1890. A folk art marquetry hall piece, with several photographs of family members fastened along the top, had a tri-fold mirror with a large carved star on top. Among the sold items was a handsome tramp sunflower corner frame by John Zubersky, circa 1910, with tulip surround edges.
A large Nineteenth Century hackney horse weathervane from upstate New York, copper with zinc head, verdigris surface with traces of the original gold showing, 34 inches long and probably by J.W. Fiske, topped off a Queen Anne high chest in walnut, bonnet-top, with burl veneered fronts, in the booth of Gary Sullivan of Sharon, Mass. The high chest was of Boston origin, circa 1740‱760, 76¾ inches high, and sold during the preview. Also sold, from a selection of tall case clocks, was a Queen Anne mahogany example with a case by Gowen Brown, Boston, circa 1760.
One of the star pieces in the booth was a Chippendale bureau table attributed to the shop of Job Townsend Sr of Newport, circa 1745‱760. It is the earliest example of this form and there is only one other known.
Stephen Score of Boston had a booth just inside the floor of the show and offered a collection of folk art, fabrics and decorative objects that won the approval of many of the show’s visitors. A rare Tree of Life quilt top by Elizabeth Springett, Bangor, Mich., circa 1855‱860, was sold, as was a pair of carved wood herons, one measuring 47 by 72 inches and the other 29 by 30 inches, that was found on Martha’s Vineyard. They dated 1950 and held down the front of the booth. A yellow sunburst zinc gate ornament, circa 1920, an Art Deco floor lamp, a wooden carving of a barn owl, circa 1900‱920, and a feathered tunic from the Inca highlands of Peru, circa 1400-1532, were also sold.
David Cook Fine Art, Denver, showed a 90-inch-tall totem by Sam Williams, Nootka, circa 1915, wood with pigments, and an interesting pair of parfleche envelopes, Cheyenne, circa 1890, rawhide with pigments. Each measured 28½ by 15 inches.
An extensive collection of small American baskets, the result of 30 years of collecting, displayed on an elaborate tramp art shelf, was shown by Jeff R. Bridgman American Antiques, York County, Penn., and found a buyer on opening night. Also selling the first day, from a large collection of American flags, was a 13-star US Navy commissioning pennant, circa 1876. Hanging on a side wall was a rare Masonic tracing board, oil on canvas laid over hand planed poplar panels, circa 1815‱840, and on the back wall was a large 1876 Centennial quilt made from various flags, kerchiefs and calico prints, with George Washington and his horse in the center. This quilt was featured in one of Bob Bishop’s books on quilts.
Stephen Romano of Brooklyn showed a pair of Odd Fellow lodge angels, circa 1880, of Midwestern origin, and four engraved charts with hand coloring from The Harmonia Macrocosmica , third edition, Andreas Cellarius (circa 1596‱665), published by Amsterdam, Valk & Schenk, 1708. Sold were several works by outsider artist Charles A.A. Dellschau and Kris Kuksi’s “Venus Admiring Mars Gun,” 2008, mixed media.
A colorful row of five mixed media assemblages by Vanessa German, made up of old advertising tins, dolls, mirrors, toys and flags, was shown by Pavel Zoubok Gallery, New York City. The figures all had names, such as “Tar Baby Jane Rides The Head Of A Monkey On A Cart of Class” and “Ballard of Peggy Jane.”
Listed under Metro Dialogues were a number of lectures, tours, book signings and conversations with gallerists and collectors, including “A Designer’s Perspective” with Ellie Cullman, “Collecting Folk Art in America” with Elizabeth Stillinger, “Circus Folk Art & Design” with Mathew Wittmann, a lecture titled “Crossroads and the Spirit” by Randall Morrisan, Outsider Art Perspective tour with Cara Zimmerman, and a discussion “Crossover: At the Intersection of Art Brut and Contemporary Art,” among others. All three days following the preview opening were filled with events to attend.
