It is with giddy anticipation that the New York Ceramics Fair opens annually for six days at the National Academy of Design on Fifth Avenue at 89th Street. As the first in a series of such events around the city, the show’s Tuesday night preview, this year on January 17, is a bellwether for the week to come.

It is the norm to see customers lining up to buy tickets in the academy’s narrow entrance and waiting impatiently for the velvet ropes barring the stairs to the displays to be drawn back. When top collectors and their dealers at last brush past drinks tables and hors d’oeuvres trays to reach their favorite exhibitors, Americana Week has officially begun.

According to promoter Caskey-Lees of Topanga, Calif., results were especially good this year.

“The gate was considerably up,” said Bill Caskey. “We more than doubled our attendance on Saturday and Sunday. Exhibitors made big sales up until the last hour of the show. Almost everyone did well and nearly everyone is coming back.” Caskey-Lees recently bought out its partner in the event, Frank Farbenbloom of Shador Inc.

Wilton, Conn., dealer Peter Warren with an English creamware stirrup cup of circa 1770.

Arranged on four wings of two, split-level floors, the NewYork Ceramics Fair reduced its number to 33 exhibitors this year.New additions to the expo’s increasingly lively contemporarycomponent were Cavin Morris Gallery of New York, with contemporaryJapanese art pottery; German ceramist Hinrich Kroeger, who sold outhalf of his booth; and Greg Kuharic, whose hand thrown stonewaregourds are a pleasing innovation.

Caskey-Lees also cut the number of lectures this year to seven, which, given the hectic pace of Americana Week, seemed sensible. The well-attended talks ranged from Philadelphia Museum of Art curator Alexandra Kirtley’s presentation on Bonnin & Morris porcelain to University of Hawaii instructor Bob Moe’s address on traditional Japanese tea wares versus modern mingei pottery. Jonathan Rickard’s new book, Mocha, and Chipstone Foundation’s recently released journal Ceramics in America were also bestsellers, said Ceramics in America editor Rob Hunter.

The New York Ceramics Fair combines several distinct disciplines, the most popular of which are English pottery, American pottery, Chinese Export porcelain and, increasingly, contemporary ceramics.

On opening night, the English pottery buyers, many of whom are also collectors of American furniture, rush to the floor shared by specialists Leo Kaplan Ltd, Garry Atkins & Roderick Jellicoe, Jonathan Horne, and John Howard.

Famille rose three-piece garniture, early Qianlong period. Imperial Oriental Art, New York City.

A Woodstock, UK, dealer in Staffordshire figures, Howard saidhis best day was Wednesday, when he sold a rare pair of circa 1855black and white decorated hounds in a recumbent position.

Another Staffordshire dealer, Eleanor Penna of Old Westbury, N.Y., sold her 15-inch George Washington figure, $9,000, of circa 1860 by Thomas Parr to a prominent collector soon after the show opened. Penna’s other sales included a large hen-on-nest and a pearlware horse of circa 1815.

“We have two Manhattan shops so we bring material reflecting the spectrum of our inventory, from early English pottery to contemporary glass paperweights,” said Alan Kaplan of Leo Kaplan, Ltd. Standouts included a monumental 1813 Liverpool creamware Napoleonic jug, $17,500, with inscriptions in Russian and English, and several superb examples of Fairyland lustre.

Garry Atkins sold more than 17 pieces on opening night. Business was steady through the fair for this key source in early English pottery.

Alan Kaplan of Leo Kaplan, Ltd, New York City, with a monumental Liverpool creamware Napoleonic jug with inscriptions in Russian and English.

Wilton, Conn., dealer Peter Warren sold several teapots fromhis varied display of Eighteenth Century English pottery.

“We do a lot with English pottery so we thought we’d give the show a try,” said Woodbury, Conn., dealer Paul Winsor, who featured a large Staffordshire flower pot modeled as a tree trunk, $6,500, and four late Eighteenth Century Spanish Talavera shaped tiles, $4,800.

“People come from all over the country for this show,” said Marcia Moylan and Jackie Smelkinson of The Spare Room, for the past 26 years specialists in Japanese-pattern English ceramics made between 1750 to 1810. The Baltimore dealers featured a 60-piece Coalport part-dessert service. Individual pieces in the “Bow” and “Finger and Bow” pattern were priced from $375.

Janice Paull, a Portugal and New Jersey-based specialist in Mason’s ironstone, sold a circa 1820 dinner service and two three-piece coolers. Her colorful display included a pair of ironstone “Orange Leaf” vases, $16,000, and Mason’s “Scroll” and “Table and Flower Pot” alcove vases, $25,500.

Manhattan dealer Paul Vandekar of Earle Vandekar of Knightsbridge and new exhibitor James M. Labaugh Antiques of Pound Ridge, N.Y., combined Chinese Export porcelain with European wares. Labaugh said his strongest sales were in English and Continental porcelain.

Though a small category, American ceramics were a big draw. Yorktown, Va., dealer Rob Hunter’s major sales included a Moravian punch bowl and a New Jersey whiteware pitcher with a Castle Garden transfer. Still unsold was an important Upstate New York decorated redware presentation jar of 1830 by David Mandeville.

Jonathan Horne Antiques, Ltd, London

Manhattan dealers Gary and Diana Stradling also sold animportant piece of Moravian pottery, a green-glazed squirrel flaskof circa 1810-20. A new discovery in their booth was a redwaretwo-handled jar with mottled yellow and green glaze, inciseddecoration and applied ruffles. Gary Stradling and researchdirector Joanna Pessa have concluded that the 1825-35 jar, $46,000,stamped E.W. Ferrar, is the earliest known piece of documentedVermont pottery.

Pennsylvania dealers William and Teresa Kurau sold their catalog piece, a circa 1825 Enoch Wood & Sons Historical Blue Staffordshire platter with the transfer pattern “Christianburg, Danish Settlement Off The Gold Coast of Africa.” Also sold was a 101/2-inch American ship Liverpool jug and the Staffordshire soup tureen, “Belleville on Passaic River.”

Santos, the London dealers in Chinese Export porcelain, missed opening night after their crates were delayed by customs officials. The prominent specialists recovered from their setback, opening to the general public on Wednesday.

Their colleague Cohen and Cohen of London said sales were improved versus a year ago. Their aristocratic offerings included a circa 1740 Chinese armorial meat dish, $32,500, decorated with the arms of Hertug Christian Ludwig II of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1683-1756).

Fredericksburg, Va., dealer John Suval sold blue and white porcelain, Chinese animal figures and some rare famille rose. Made for the French market, his large, circa 1770 punch pot with a crab-stock handle and spout was $9,500.

George Washington figures and memorabilia abounded at the 2006 Americana Week shows and sales. One of the first examples sold was this 1860 Staffordshire figure by Thomas Parr at Elinor Penna, Old Westbury, N.Y.

Perhaps copied from a piece of Portuguese silver, a colorfulQianlong Canton ewer and basin was $15,000 at new exhibitor VintageInteriors II, Potomac, Md.

Late Nineteenth Century ceramics ranged from circa 1880 William de Morgan glazed tile panels at Sylvia Powell Decorative Arts of London to a monumental Wedgwood majolica vase and cover of circa 1880, one of only three known, at Broadway, UK, dealer Nicolaus Boston. Chappaqua, N.Y., majolica specialist Charles Washburne sold his catalog piece, a Copeland majolica Centennial eagle ewer of circa 1876.

Yorktown, Va., potter Michelle Erickson is admired for her brilliant combination of contemporary subjects and antique styles and techniques. Her “Texas Tea Party,” $15,000, was political satire in the form of a traditional Staffordshire figural group. Erickson’s sales included “Liberty,” on view in the fair’s loan show, “Collector’s Choice,” and her slipware bust, “Virginia.”

Katherine Houston, a North Andover, Mass., artist who has been working in porcelain for the past 18 years, made a major sale on Sunday. She used this year’s fair to present new porcelain centerpieces inspired by Flemish still life painting. “Dresden Garlands,” a rope of exotic vegetables and fruits, was $18,000.

Caskey-Lees returns to Manhattan on March 29 with New York Arts of Pacific Asia.