As dangerous as superlatives are, it’s tempting to say that this year the Philadelphia Antiques Show earned the right to call itself the best show anywhere for American antiques. At the 33rd Street Armory from April 7 to 11, the 45th annual fair yielded exceptional American objects across a spectrum of specialties, from furniture and painting to folk art. Record attendance contributed to banner sales for some of the show’s 56 exhibitors.

“The show was really strong,” agreed chairman Christine L. Smith. “We had 230 serious collectors, a new high, at our earliest opening at 4:30 pm on Friday. Our Young Collectors night on Saturday was also very well attended. We were joined Saturday night by about a hundred people who were in town for the Decorative Arts Trust symposium.” Preview attendance is generally around 1,600, Smith said.

Smith presides over one of the biggest and most effective committees around. In addition to a 52-person executive board, there are 200 volunteers overseeing everything from catalog advertising to underwriting.

“It’s because of the committee that this show is such a well-oiled machine,” said longtime exhibitor Arthur Liverant. Known for New England furniture in original surface, the Colchester, Conn., dealer sold his centerpiece, a late Eighteenth Century Chippendale mahogany tall case clock with a solid silver dial signed by Abishai Woodward of Preston, Conn. A similar clock by Woodward, now at the Detroit Institute of Art, is categorized as a masterpiece in Albert Sack’s New Fine Points of Furniture.

Christopher T. Rebollo Antiques, Mechanicsville, Penn.

Liverant’s other show-stopper was a painted and vinedecorated Taunton, Mass., blanket chest by Robert Crosman. Datedand initialed, a small Crosman chest from the collection of NatalieBlair achieved $2.9 million at Christie’s in January.

“Our chest costs a fraction of what the sales tax alone was on the Blair chest,” Liverant laughed.

Visitors to Albert Sack’s booth were treated to a Chippendale ball and claw foot wing chair, $550,000, ex-collection of Mrs Breckinridge Long, a pioneering collector. With the chair, which sold during the show, was a pair of Philadelphia Chippendale ball and claw feet side chairs, $485,000; a Boston Chippendale chair, loaned to Washington, with its original needlepoint cover, $110,000; a veneered Salem, Mass., Queen Anne lowboy with a gilt shell, $485,000; and a brass inlaid classical marble-top urn stand, $125,000, attributed to Lannuier.

Sack was one of five new exhibitors who added stature and diversity to the ensemble presentation.

“We were warmly received,” said Janet Calderwood, a Philadelphia dealer in French Art Deco and Moderne design who displayed an Eduardo Colonna wardrobe with leaded glass panels and a gilded Follot suite.

David Wheatcroft, Westborough, Mass.

New exhibitors Charles and Rebekah Clark of Woodbury, Conn.,broadened the selection of American classical furniture andaccessories, offering a Philadelphia parlor suite of circa 1825.Associated with Michael Bouvier, the set was $45,000.

A new category was sporting art, offered for the first time by Stephen O’Brien Jr. Highlights of the Boston dealer’s handsome display included a large, vigorous relief carving of two cod and a lobster, $40,000, by New Bedford, Mass., artist Leander Allen Plummer, and a sensitive 1936 Frank Benson inkwash, “Dowitchers,” $185,000.

Christopher Rebollo, who cut his teeth working for Phillip Bradley Antiques in the 1990s, sold needlework, silver, glass and brass, as well as a pair of New Jersey Queen Anne Chairs, and a Philadelphia highboy, lowboy and chair. A Philadelphia Federal desk-and-bookcase in the Mechanicsville, Penn., dealer’s stand was labeled “Property of Mrs Rubens Peale.”

“The label tipped us off to the fact that it’s the same secretary that is pictured in his self portrait, ‘The Artist in His Studio,'” said Rebollo.

The most talked about piece in the show was Guy Bush’s circa 1725 Philadelphia desk-and-bookcase with mirrored, paneled doors and an eight-point star inlaid in its cornice. A closely related secretary, now at James Logan’s home, Stenton, is pictured on the cover of Worldly Goods: The Arts of Early Pennsylvania, 1680-1758. Bush was asking $1.25 million for the case piece, previously thought to be English, that was discovered in Los Angeles. The New York dealer’s conservators have been removing Nineteenth Century japanning, returning the secretary to its Eighteenth Century surface.

Elliott & Grace Snyder, South Egremont, Mass.

Also widely admired was H.L. Chalfant’s 1760 tall case clockwith movement by Augustine Neyser of Germantown. The case, which,unusually, still has its original cartouche, is attributed to theGarvan Carver.

Another great clock, by John Wood Sr of Philadelphia, was $135,000 at James Kilvington. The Dover, Del., dealer also featured an unusual Eastern Shore, Va., paneled cupboard in blue and white paint, $110,000.

Across the aisle, Jim and Nancy Glazer impressed visitors with an 11-foot-long architectural room end, $75,000, including a glass-door cupboard, fireplace and mantel, from Maryland’s Eastern Shore.

One of the rarest items at Philip Bradley Antiques was a mid-Eighteenth Century poplar trestle table from Ephrata Cloiser, Penn.

Joe Kindig Antiques’ sumptuous display ranged from a Philadelphia Queen Anne piecrust birdcage ball and claw foot tea table, $495,000, to a walnut shell-carved Philadelphia Chippendale high chest of drawers, $285,000.

Among three dealers with American Classical furniture was Carswell Rush Berlin, who displayed an important Philadelphia carved mahogany cylinder secretary bookcase of 1830; and Hirschl & Adler, with a brass inlaid Quervelle center table, $235,000.

H.L. Chalfant Antiques, West Chester, Penn.

“We had a good show, certainly better than last year,” saidBerlin, who sold to New Yorkers and Bostonians, but noPhiladelphians.

Several paint decorated Dutch cupboards, including a smoke-decorated red and yellow Lancaster County case piece, $185,000, completed Greg Kramer’s stand, where a full-bodied copper sculpture of Mercury, ex-collection of Merritt’s Museum in Douglasville, Penn., was $85,000.

The show’s two needlework specialists brought important Pennsylvania material. Stephen and Carol Huber showcased a keystone work, a 1713 sampler made in Elizabeth Marsh’s school in England before Marsh taught embroidery in Philadelphia. At the center of the Old Saybrook, Conn., dealers’ display was a striking Lititz, Penn., silk and watercolor memorial, $34,000, notable for its bold color, texture and graphic architectural detail.

“We had a fabulous show. Of the five important pieces we sold, two were from Pennsylvania, two from New England and one from England,” said Philadelphia dealer Amy Finkel, who saw no regional trends in her sales. “We had brand-new customers. One, a 75-year-old woman, told us that she had recently decided to collect. We loved that.”

Nathan Liverant and Son, Colchester, Conn.

Portraiture was another strength. Leigh Keno featured oil oncanvas likenesses of an unusually beautiful New York State couple,David and Elizabeth Hunter, $295,000, portrayed by Ammi Phillips in1820. Accompanying Elizabeth’s portrait is her tortoiseshell comb,passed down in the family.

Joan Brownstein’s powerful “Portrait of A Woman” by Erastus Salisbury Field, $148,000, dated to circa 1775 and was from the Connecticut River Valley.

Also of note was Samuel Herrup’s “Portrait of a Gentleman,” $85,000, attributed to John Johnston (1743-1818), a Boston artist clearly influenced by Copley.

The Schwarz Gallery’s sales included paintings by James, Rubens and Rembrandt Peale, three of Philadelphia’s most famous early Nineteenth Century artists.

“I had a really terrific show,” said Elle Shushan, the Philadelphia based specialist in miniatures. Her catalog piece, Anson Dickinson’s portrait of a young Washington Irving, is going to an institution on approval.

Olde Hope Antiques, Inc, New Hope,. Penn.

“Folk art, especially sculpture, is the hot ticket. That iswhat gets the most attention,” said Pat Bell of Olde Hope Antiques.As in past years, folk art sold exceptionally well.

One compelling folk sculpture was Allan Katz’s expressive portrait bust of Boston thespian George Fox as Humpty Dumpty.

At Hyland Granby, a carved and painted life-sized figure of a woman, possibly by Samuel Robb, was $145,000.

“Almost every weathervane on the floor sold tonight. They are the single most popular item right now,” said Bell’s partner, Ed Hild. Olde Hope sold three weathervanes on opening night. A 64-inch-long molded farmer, plow and horse weathervane, $82,000, of circa 1850-60, was loved by all.

Another great weathervane was David Wheatcroft’s Jewell steeple horse and gate. It was one of the Westboro, Mass., dealer’s many opening night sales.

“It may have been our best show ever,” said Elliott Snyder. “We sold a highboy, a pair of Spanish brush-foot chairs, a hanging cupboard, a Windsor chair in green paint, two pairs of candlesticks, one of Paktong, an ivory portrait miniature, a mortar and pestle, a gigantic hourglass and a clock.”

Samuel Herrup Antiques, Sheffield, Mass.

Notable Shaker furniture included an unusual Enfield, N.H.,octagonal-top worktable with four drawers and a detachable top atElliott and Grace Snyder; and a 92 1/4-inch-long classic Shakertailoring counter from New Lebanon, N.Y., at Courcier &Wilkins, Yarmouth Port, Mass.

“We’ve had a very good response,” said Ricky Goytizolo of Georgian Manor Antiques, one of only three dealers in English furniture. The show’s other specialists include Alfred Bullard, Inc, with a gilded George II cartel clock by Theodore Cuthbert, $35,000, and John Alexander, whose display of late Nineteenth Century art furniture included a worn leather chair from a design by Pugin.

Among Asian art dealers, top China Trade paintings dealer Martyn Gregory of London offered a set of eight circa 1780 gouache on silk views of Macau and the Pearl River. With original glass and early frames, they were $270,000. E&J Frankel’s catalog piece was an especially lovely Thirteenth Century carved and painted Bodhisattva, 48 inches high. Ralph M. Chait galleries of New York featured a glazed Tang dynasty pottery figure of a Ferghana horse.

The Schwarz Gallery, Philadelphia

Always upping the ante with her displays, Barbara Israelrecreated the Olmstead Brothers’ garden Boxly in Chestnut Hillusing real vines, branches, leaves and running water that generateda pleasant mist. The New York dealer sold a Bacchus figure, aNineteenth Century American copper stork, an owl, and a staddlestone. Advertised in Antiques and The Arts Weekly’sshowsection, a cupid was snapped up before it could leave her truck.

“The show went phenomenally well in every respect. It’s already acknowledged as great, but this year it reached a new height,” said Josh Wainwright, who manages the event with his wife, Sandy.

The Philadelphia Antiques Show will return to the 33rd Street Armory in 2007 from April 13 to 17.