A good-sized crowd ponied up to the Morristown Armory entrance Saturday morning, February 28, as buyers anxiously waited to get on the floor of the Morristown Antiques Show that opened for its two-day run here. The line was an early indicator that the weekend would reap solid results and serve as a highlight for the show managers, JMK Shows. This is the company’s flagship antiques show.
“The show overall was very successful. We had an excellent gate and there was lots of buying,” exclaimed a delighted show manager, Allison Kohler, after the show.
Stephen M. Foster Fine Arts, Washington, D.C., had a number of fine paintings hung on the walls of its booth, and early in the show, one wall was looking decidedly bare as an important work was sold and being boxed up for transport to its new home.
Standouts in the booth included George W. Picknell’s oil on canvas “Salt Marshes, Etaples, Normandy” †the artist is well known for his French countryside landscapes, as well as those set in New England †a 1923 work by A. Heinrich Claus Hansen (Danish, 1859‱925), “Palace Interior,” and Raoul Van Maldere’s “Village Scene in Provence.”
Kathy Jansen, Green Village, N.Y., had a good show, with the standout being a Third Phase Navajo chief’s blanket that was displayed prominently on one wall in her booth. The circa 1890 blanket was a rare and unusual item that attracted much interest and sold “right out of the chute,” Jansen said. Similar examples that were sometimes woven as rugs rather than wearable blankets are in the collection of the Arizona State Museum.
Jansen said she saw “steady traffic” all weekend, and the unusual items were the ones to sell. She also wrote up a ticket for an English fireman’s trophy/plaque, circa 1920s, that was 2 feet across.
Jim Emele of Emele’s Antiques, Dublin, Penn., offered a clean and unfettered booth focusing on choice examples of furniture, including a rare mahogany Chippendale dining table with single-board leaves, circa 1760‸0; a lipped Pennsylvania Chippendale high chest in walnut, three over five, with fluted quarter columns, ogee feet and original brasses, circa 1790‱800. A standout among smalls was a Steiff rattler Schnauzer, 7 inches, with brown-tipped blond mohair, circa 1930.
Yosha Graphics, Merrick, N.Y., was showing here for only the second time, having had success in its debut last fall, and dealer Mike Yosha was pleased to report after the show, “It was fantastic †our best show ever.”
He described the show as well-run and said they saw varied interest in their booth throughout the weekend. Sales were across the board and included a number of advertising pieces, mainly automobiles and “spirits” from the 1930s, as well as Art Nouveau aquarelle floral motifs and a series of Art Deco lithographs, circa 1920s.
The booth of The Country Squire, Milton, Mass., was, as usual, a study in elegance, with fine library furniture and toleware. Furniture standouts included an English mahogany library table, circa 1860‸0, featuring an inset-tooled black leather top over three drawers, as well as an early Victorian Chesterfield sofa, circa 1845, with scrolled arms and turned legs.
Mimi Gunn, Chatham, N.J., filled her eclectic booth with an eye toward fun. The affable dealer is usually smiling and always appears to be enjoying herself when participating in antiques shows. Visitors can count on seeing a carefully thought-out but quirky mix of items designed to attract a wide range of buyers. She offered a blanket chest with a row of carvings across its front, as well as an oversized mosaic of a landscape and a wooden puzzle-style depiction of the United States with each state made up of a different wood species.
George’s Art and Antiques, Wading River, N.Y., offered several Native American items, including a late Nineteentharly Twentieth Century Native American dress, perhaps from Chief Red Cloud’s family, and a Navajo powder horn with traditional Navajo symbols, circa 1820‱840.
The dealer also offered traditional antiques in the way of a Massachusetts painted document box with a rare slide top, dating to the early Nineteenth Century; a French bombe chest, circa 1930s‱940s, purchased through the Parke-Bernet Galleries in 1956; and a Nineteenth Century peg and dowel country cupboard, Eastern Shore, Md., circa 1870.
Textiles were well represented in several booths at the show, creating one-stop shopping for aficionados.
Marie A. Bradley, New York City, offered a pleasing mix of vintage lace and linens, as well as women’s fashion accessories, such as shoes and a fetching pair of shiny gold-toned hand gloves, elbow-length, by Elliot.
Over at Marilyn Hitchcock Vintage Fashions, Riverdale, N.Y., a display offering various styles of pocketbooks from sparkly and bejeweled clutches to a full-size bag with pink flowers against a black ground vied for attention with ladies’ fashions, including a stunning sleeveless purple sheath with several ruffled layers.
Material Pleasures had all manner of textiles, both great and small, from hankies to quilts, which came in an abundance of colors and styles from wedding ring styles to crazy quilt styles, an 1870s album quilt from Bergen County, N.J., with family names and even an 1870s feathered diamond example from Lancaster, Penn.
Elegant Reflections filled its booth with fine lighting, porcelain urns and vases, choice mantel clocks and marble stands. Highlights included a hand painted Royal Bonn vase, circa 1880, and a Sevres urn, circa 1760.
Wilson’s Main Line Antiques, Strafford, Penn., offered a pair of Nineteenth Century Chinese temple jars, a Louis XVI-style lady’s writing desk, circa 1890, and a rare two-piece Irish highboy, circa 1790. A fetching painting hung in the booth was Hungarian artist Laszlo Neogrady’s “Blossoming Trees.”
Richard A. Smith Antiques, Camden, Maine, presented an attractive booth of choice furniture and paintings, led by a Chippendale secretary from Massachusetts, circa 1770‱780, in mahogany with “feather-figured” doors and a scalloped border, as well as a Philadelphia lowboy, circa 1770s, with a great scalloped apron and claw and ball feet and what appear to be original brasses.
Fine art offerings in his booth were led by a quartet of Maine artist John Dehlinger’s tempera and watercolor paintings, hung together in the booth. They were “Sudden Squall,” “Passing the Oven,” “Morning Flurries off Tenant’s Harbor, Maine” and “The Dream.” Of the Brandywine School, Dehlinger was known for his depictions of the Maine coast.
Nicholas D. Riccio Rare Books & Prints, Florham Park, N.J., showed a variety of botanical lithographs, wood engravings and books. Highlights included Johann Baptist Homann’s circa 1873 double-engraved map of “Africae” and a bright yellow advertisement for Hall’s Vegetable Sicilian Hair Renewal that claimed to be “the best hair dressing ever compounded” that would restore gray hair to its natural color and cure itching and all scalp diseases.
Highlights in the booth of J&M Antiques, East Amherst, N.Y., included a Federal cherry corner cabinet in original paint and glass, circa 1810, mid-Atlantic region, and a fine Horner blockfront slant desk with excellent brass and mother-of-pearl inlay, circa 1900.
The promoter’s next show will be an outdoor affair, under tents, titled Antiques At Ramapo College, May 30 and 31. The Morristown show returns November 7 and 8. For information, www.jmkshows.com or 973-927-2794.
