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East Side on the West Side

by Lita Solis-Cohen

Collectors with pent-up desires to buy antiques and to support the good works of the East Side House Settlement in New York City's South Bronx formed a long line at 5 p.m. for the earliest preview of the Winter Antiques Show, which this year had moved to the Hilton Hotel on Sixth Avenue because the 67th Regiment Armory on Park Avenue was called into military service after the September 11th disasters.

The preview party on Saturday, January 19, was crowded, and on Sunday the show registered the largest gate for an opening day. The narrow aisles were filled to capacity. During the rest of the week, attendance slowed but picked up on the final Saturday; balmy weather took its toll on Sunday the 27th, but those who returned came to buy. The Winter Antiques Show is a visual treat and good entertainment. You can't go to a museum, handle the objects, and ask how much they are worth.

"Despite the snow and the change in venue, ticket sales for the preview equaled the year before," said Catherine Sweeney Singer, director of the show. "On Sunday over four thousand people bought tickets, making up, in part, for the fact that the show ran for a week instead of ten days."

With increased expenses due to the high cost of overtime for the short buildup and move-in, plus high rent and catering costs, the East Side House Settlement did not make what it counts on from the show this year, but the board was delighted, as were the exhibitors, that the show went on.

Dealers in paintings and Old Master drawings were happy with their sales. Peter Finer, the arms and armor dealer from England, did well. New Hampshire dealer Peter Pap sold rugs; there were red dots on Chinese porcelains in several booths; and Don Ellis, the Canadian dealer in American Indian art, drove back north with very little left unsold.

In spite of the fact that nearly $40 million was spent at the auctions, Americana dealers made many sales. New York City dealer Leigh Keno said he sold eight pieces of furniture, two paintings, and two looking glasses, most in the first three days. Woodbury, Connecticut, dealer Wayne Pratt restocked his booth after opening night after selling ten items, including six pieces of furniture, several weathervanes, and a Prior painting. He continued to sell all week and even after the show. "It was one of the best shows we've ever had," said Mary Beth Keene, vice president of Wayne Pratt, Inc.

Carswell Rush Berlin, the New York City dealer in Classical furniture, said he sold the cellarette he had advertised in The Magazine Antiques the day before the show—it was to have been the centerpiece in his booth—and at the show he sold a bookcase, a pair of Boston chairs, some andirons, and had interest in two other pieces. "The show was a gigantic success," he said. "Catherine Sweeney Singer pulled off a miracle; move-in and move-out was seamless."

Show manager Catherine Sweeney Singer and her husband, architect William Singer, drew a brilliant plan that absorbed the support columns in the booth space so they did not obstruct the aisles. "Everyone who got a column got an extra wall across from their booth," said Sweeney, "and we tried to keep booths the same size so that if the armory became free, we could make use of the plan, and the dealers would not have to redesign their booths."

With careful planning the show was set up in three and a half days; it generally takes a week. Shoppers, nevertheless, complained about having to visit dealers on two levels and that low light level in the aisles made it impossible to read dealers' signs. They did not like the dreary hotel food at the preview, but they liked the bathrooms. Those who love great objects had good things to say about what they saw at the show and about the dealers' presentations. Some took home a treasure or two.

Most dealers said they sold well, but all would prefer to return to the 67th Regiment Armory next year. The armory is apparently not taking firm reservations past June, but there is hope that it will be available. Dealers said they missed the walk-in traffic, those who come to the show every day, and the impulse buyers.

Even though dealers sold well, many masterpieces remained unsold. Don Ellis took home his early Navajo blanket with bands of horizons in brown and deep indigo. He may not have long to enjoy it because soon it will be presented to the trustees of an institution for consideration. "This is the first time in the eight years [at the show] that I have not sold my lead object," said Ellis. No one wrote a check for the $500,000 he was asking for the blanket, which was the most valuable item ever appraised on Antiques Roadshow.

On the other hand, Ellis said this was the first year he made two sales in the days after the show. "On Sunday, between five and five thirty, I did two hundred fifty thousand dollars' worth of business with people who had seen things at the preview. I guess it means people are taking time to consider their purchases," he said. He was not complaining.

Hyland Granby Antiques went back to Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, with the carved and polychromed American eagle by John Haley Bellamy (1836-1914), considered the finest eagle Bellamy ever carved. "It is untouched, fresh to the marketplace; it has not been for sale for many decades," said Alan Granby. "I've never owned anything that created so much excitement. When it was pictured in the show flyer and on our Web site, dealers, scholars, curators, and collectors called and asked the price, and I told them to come to the preview of the Winter Show and they would find out and have a chance to buy it."

Granby said many people tried to negotiate the price, which he would not give for publication, saying only that it was less than $500,000. "When I get something great, it is for sale for a year, and it if does not sell at my asking price, it goes into our private collection. When I see what decoys are selling for, I do not think I am asking too much."

He said he is anxious to share the eagle with the world again, so he will take it to the Philadelphia Antiques Show in April. "It is an icon of American folk art, the greatest Bellamy in the world. Philadelphia is a place to sell high-priced folk art."

Woodbury, Connecticut, dealer David Schorsch, exhibiting at the Winter Antiques Show for the first time, said he was pleased to be there. He sold hooked rugs, a face jug, a painted stand, and paintings. At the opening he sold the Jacob Maentel watercolor of a man seated in a Federal interior that he had bought for $321,500 at Northeast Auctions last November in partnership with Massachusetts dealer David Wheatcroft.

Schorsch was disappointed that he did not sell his painted Bergen County kast, made and signed by Roelof Demarest. "It is the ultimate kast," he said. "It is the only one signed by its maker, and it was in the 1991 exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and was shown at the [1986] Remembrance of Patria exhibition at the Albany Institute [of History and Art]. I have known it for twenty years, and when I got it, I knew I had the cornerstone for my booth." His asking price was $350,000.

Edwin Hild of Olde Hope Antiques, New Hope, Pennsylvania, said he and his partner, Patrick Bell, sold more than 30 items, seven of them hooked rugs, making it a really good show for them. Nevertheless, they went back to their shop with two show-stoppers, the pair of large portraits of the McConnell boys with their pets, possibly by Charles Peale Polk, for which they were asking $1,250,000 and the Pennsylvania Soap Hollow Dutch cupboard signed by John Sala and dated 1875, the largest and finest example of Soap Hollow furniture, priced at $235,000.

"People were not shy about spending money," observed Carol Huber, who with her husband, Stephen, deals in schoolgirl embroideries in Old Saybrook, Connecticut. "We had a really good show," Carol continued. "We sold all our top pieces, more than thirty in all, to people who buy from us regularly and to new collectors. Several people bought three and four pieces, and some bought two!" The Hubers offered nothing under $5000, and many of their needlework pictures were priced over $35,000.

"Going into the show, we had not a clue in the world how it was going to turn out," said Liz Feld of New York City's Hirschl & Adler Galleries. "The crowds were lively and interested, and we sold a mix of fine and decorative arts. Interest continues; we are making follow-up sales. The show was a confidence booster; we were happy to have a place to show our wares."

"People have a short memory," David Schorsch observed. "They seem to forget how paralyzed we were four months ago. It is remarkable that the show took place at all and that so many people walked out with purchases, not just at the Winter Show, but also at the other shows and at the auctions. Look how far we have come."

New York City was ready for a party, and the New York Winter Antiques Show gave everyone a good time. Patriotism may have played a part in the success of Americana Week. It seems that people want to get on with their lives.