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Charleston, South Carolina

The Charleston International Antiques Show

by Pete Prunkl

No other city in the South has a greater reverence for history, devotion to preservation, or appreciation for family heirlooms than Charleston, South Carolina. From its 29 downtown antiques shops to its historic districts with more than 1600 historically significant buildings, this city abounds in cultural and personal treasures. Antiques education thrives too. The College of Charleston School of the Arts has hosted a popular Charleston Antiques Symposium each March for the past seven years (see M.A.D., August 2003, p. 41-D).

With all this enthusiasm, why has this cultured city taken so long to mount a top-quality antiques show?

"That is our most often asked question," said Katharine (Kitty) Robinson, executive director of Historic Charleston Foundation and guiding force behind the Charleston International Antiques Show. Robinson credits brave new leadership and the dedicated commitment of trustees with making it happen. "We haven't had all those pieces in place before."

Decisions concerning the timing and management of the new show, which opened with a preview party on March 18 and continued through March 21, were inspired. Spring is Charleston's high season with jasmine, tulips, saucer magnolias, and camellias in bloom. It is also a time of high activity for the Historic Charleston Foundation. During March and April it conducts the highly successful Festival of Houses and Gardens, now in its 57th year. A mid-March antiques show gave those on the foundation mailing list another reason to come to Charleston. If foundation staff and volunteers felt overworked by these additional responsibilities, they did not show it.

Multiple venues and nonstop events are nothing new to Charleston. Spoleto Festival USA, a celebration of opera, dance, theater, and music, has been doing that each May and June since 1977.

By selecting Josh Wainwright of Keeling Wainwright Associates, Inc. to manage the show, the foundation "started at the top," as one dealer remarked. "He's the best manager in the business," said participating dealer Christopher Rebollo. Wainwright and his wife and partner, Sandra Keeling Wainwright, manage the Philadelphia Antiques Show, Boston's Ellis Memorial Antiques Show, and New York City's The American Antiques Show. He was enthusiastic about the new Charleston show. "I'm thrilled with the quality of the dealers, the merchandise, energy, and the lovely setting," said Wainwright at the preview party, which sold out at 450.

Praise for the committee, setting, management, and crowds was universal. Philip Suval called it "the finest first show with world-class dealers" he had experienced. John Fiske had "an exceptionally energetic preview." George Subkoff liked the area so much he considered moving here from Westport, Connecticut, where snow was falling.

Dorothy Rebollo praised show organizers for training volunteers to lead novice collectors on tours through the show. One volunteer later returned to Rebollo's booth with a male friend and pointed out an item Rebollo had discussed during training. The friend purchased it. "That is like it used to be," said Rebollo, remembering a time when show organizers paid close attention to education and cultivating personal recommendations.

Dealers loved the energy, large crowds, and the foundation's attention to detail, but a few thought the young collector's soirée was more party than selling opportunity and closed shop early. Dealers had been on their feet since morning.

With booth rentals comparable to the Philadelphia Antiques Show and with the added requirement of purchasing a full-page advertisement in the show catalog, dealers had to sell more than smalls to make a profit. Some quickly crossed that line. Julia Santen sold six vintage French posters in one half-hour period on the show's first day. All her buyers had attended the preview. Elle Shushan sold her miniature portrait of Mary, Duchess of Beaufort, circa 1720, on the telephone after a story about the show ran in Charleston's Post and Courier. Sold signs were on three large items in the booth of Judd Gregory Fine Antiques, Dorset, Vermont, within the first hour of the preview party.

The show took place in a building directly behind Historic Charleston Foundation's headquarters, the Captain James Missroon House. The foundation acquired the circa 1808 home in 1996, renovated it as a preservation center, and moved its headquarters there in 2001. Both buildings overlook Charleston Harbor, where porpoises are known to frolic. At 12,500 square feet with a café at the back, the exhibit hall made for a compact show with 31 dealers, probably the maximum for the space. The walk in from South Battery Street and the entrance foyer were carefully designed and beautifully decorated. The organizing committee made dealer booths more room-like with heavy colored wallpaper and wide aisles. No detail was overlooked.

The show's name was carefully chosen. "International" meant that native Charlestonians and others who prefer English and French furniture had not been forgotten. International had nothing to do with any dealer's home country; all dealers represented in this first show were from the United States.

This inaugural event was even more than an antiques show set amidst a home and garden tour. The foundation also included what proved to be a popular lecture luncheon series. Speakers were Jonathan H. Poston, director of museums and preservation initiatives for Historic Charleston Foundation; J. Thomas Savage Jr., director of Sotheby's Institute of Art, New York City; and Carrie Rebora Barratt, curator of American painting and sculpture at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.

At the renovated Art Deco Riviera theater, Poston spoke eloquently without notes about the history of preservation efforts at the foundation's Nathaniel Russell House, now 90% complete. Savage, a Charlestonian who left for the Big Apple, focused on the Charleston antiques that got away to places like New York City, Boston, Dallas, Buffalo, Winterthur, and the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. His slide lecture at the Mills House Hotel was sold out. Barratt's topic centered on Charlestonians as savvy patrons of the arts.

For more information on the March 2005 show, contact Historic Charleston Foundation at (843) 722-3405 or visit (www.historiccharleston.org). First-time visitors to the city where the Ashley and Cooper Rivers meet and flow into the Atlantic Ocean should remember to wear comfortable shoes. Residents of the Downtown Historic District walk everywhere on sometimes uneven cobblestone and slate sidewalks. With limited parking at the show site and an off-site lecture series, it is best to leave your vehicle at the motel and walk through some of this country's most lovingly preserved historic neighborhoods.