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New York City

Sold Tags Tell the Story at Stella's Americana Week Pier Show

by Ed Pfeiffer

In recent years Stella Show Mgmt. Co. has varied the format of the pier shows it holds during Americana Week in Manhattan.

Unusual circumstances influenced the 2002 event scheduled for January, just a few months after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. The New York City Office of Emergency Management's crisis center, located within the ground zero area, was destroyed on September 11, 2001, and some of its staff died in that tragedy. The office was hastily moved to Pier 92. For security reasons, that pier and two others (88 and 90, the ones Stella uses) were cordoned off.

For a while it looked as if there would not be an Americana Week pier show in 2002, but the piers were reopened, and with about 30 days' notice Stella was able to stage an Americana Week event. It turned out to be a remarkably successful one. Many antiques shows had been canceled in the New York metropolitan area in the months after 9/11, and there was a wave of pent-up buying by the overflow crowd at the Stella show.

In 2003 Stella experimented with a new format, bracketing Americana Week with two double-pier shows, one at the beginning of the week and one at the end. There were almost completely different groups of exhibitors at the two shows.

This year, for the first time, they tried yet a different arrangement for January 17 and 18, offering a single 482-dealer triple-pier show during the first weekend of Americana Week. Simultaneously, they staged a separate 85- exhibitor show in the armory at 26th Street and Lexington Avenue. Free shuttle service was offered between the pier and armory shows, and many visitors seemed to be taking advantage of it.

The types of antiques and collectibles offered on each of the piers this year had been organized into three rather general categories: Americana, classic, and modern.

For the most part, dealers on Pier 92, called Americana, displayed folk art and furniture (country, high country, formal, primitive, rustic, and Adirondack); collectibles focused on such categories as quilts, rugs, and stoneware; paintings; garden and architectural artifacts; sporting and fishing items; and toys.

Called Classic, Pier 90 was the place to see formal furniture, glass, ceramics, silver, jewelry, timepieces, paintings and prints, lighting, books, and Asian antiques.

Pier 88, identified as Modern, was keyed to the 20th century: Art Deco, modern, and industrial design furniture and artifacts; textiles; couture and vintage fashions; furs and jewelry; kitchen and barware; artworks; collectibles; and memorabilia.

When the three piers opened at ten on Saturday morning, the aisles quickly filled with visitors. Within the first few hours, it became apparent the crowd was in a buying mood. Many carried small items they had purchased, and larger pieces such as furniture were lined up at the freight elevators waiting to go to vehicles in the lower-level parking lots. Probably the most obvious sign of strong buying was the number of small red sold stickers in many dealers' spaces. They blossomed like dandelions in a springtime meadow. During the first two hours, a round of interviews with exhibitors confirmed the active selling pace.

Thomas Longacre of Marlborough, New Hampshire, summed up his results very simply. "I'm selling like crazy." He had taken orders for a pier table, $2100; an 18th-century corner cabinet, $1850; 20 carved and painted wooden birds, $1950; a circa 1830 grain-painted Connecticut dressing table, $1450; and two wire baskets, $650 for the pair.

Jacqueline Robinson of Miller-Robinson Antiques, Amherst, Massachusetts, said they had sold a Windsor chair, $350; a pintail decoy, $200; a Shaker dipper, $200; and a pier mirror, $400.

Ellen Asbell of Boyertown, Pennsylvania, said she was having "a great day" and had quickly sold a workbench, $2800; a country cupboard, $450; and a trestle table, $750.

Steve and Lorraine German of Mad River Antiques, North Granby, Connecticut, had a long list of sales, including a Queen Anne mirror, $675; four or five banners and flags in the $75 to $150 price range; a half-dozen artistic paper cutouts that had been in the office of The Magazine Antiques, $2195; a hooked rug, $800; a candlestand, $650; plus a number of smalls.

Don Selkirk of Past Pleasures Moderne, Annandale, Virginia, had buyers for a tall 1931 Westinghouse radio, often called a skyscraper type, $1200; an English circa 1930 Art Deco walnut curio cabinet, $950; and a 21 inches diameter 1940's aluminum globe, $650.

On Sunday the visitor traffic and the resulting sales slowed noticeably as chilly weather and snow created a dreary day. Stella staffer Joan Tramontano said that many of the pier show visitors come from the suburbs surrounding Manhattan and were probably discouraged from traveling when three inches of snow was forecast for the city itself and up to seven in outlying areas such as Connecticut. Nevertheless, she reported overall attendance for the two days at 10,000, equaling the turnout for the first weekend in 2003.

Although the pace of sales slowed up on Sunday, most dealers continued to report what Laura Allmond of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, called "good" results. She said her sales at pier shows in previous years had been better but noted that she was on a different pier and felt that change may have affected her results.

Angelique Odekerken of Joli Inc., Atlanta, Georgia, specialists in classic Swedish furniture, reported selling several upper-end pieces, including a Swedish Mora clock, $6900; a circa 1810 Gustavian commode, $4900; and a 1790- 1810 Gustavian sideboard, $6000. She also said she felt the pier show visitors had a "different attitude" than they have had in recent years, perhaps reflecting a more upbeat and optimistic outlook about the economy.

Stella Show Mgmt. Co. stages about 21 antiques shows a year. For more information, call (212) 255-0020 or visit the Web site <->(www.stellashows.com).