Elevated on supports, the second story screened porch forms a canopy over the entrance to the gallery below, making it possible to load both in and out in inclement weather.
he house is a revelation for those who know the dealers mainly from antiques shows. Room-setting displays allow exhibitors to advertise their taste and expertise while revealing their personal style and talent for design. But, as Eaton and Brownstein demonstrate, you can't always tell a dealer by his or her booth.
A specialist in New England furniture for the past 36 years, Eaton is particularly known for William and Mary and country Queen Anne pieces. Over the years, Brownstein has honed her reputation for New England folk painting, especially portraits and miniatures.
Their 24-by-24-foot showroom is on the first floor of the house. Their spacious, high-ceilinged private quarters above provide an au courant lesson in living with antiques.
"People frequently ask us, 'How do you mix old and new? How do you update an interior?' We believe that quality is the common denominator. Things tat have good form can be displayed side by side," says Eaton, whose love of architecture is evident even in the candlesticks that he collects.
"We wanted to create a space where you can see every object," says Brownstein, persuaded that art shines against a simple backdrop.
Completed in 2002, the house features vertical siding of white-stained cedar and banks of windows on its exterior. The interior combines white walls with pale birch floors and black granite countertops.
Like many dealers, Eaton and Brownstein bring to their work varied interests, talents and experiences. Both have graduate degrees and formerly taught. Brownstein is a painter who supported herself as a working artist before devoting herself full-time to antiques. Her abstract landscapes - achieved by diluting acrylic paints, then carefully pouring the paint over the canvas to build depth - revel in color and texture.
"Specific landscapes don't intrigue me. I'm interested in creating a sense of deep space abstractly, a more geologic or topographical approach to landscape painting," she explains.
The couple, who first met professionally in 1980, is drawn to airy, open spaces bathed in natural light. In the mid-1980s, Eaton purchased and renovated an 1851 brick commercial building on State Street in Newburyport. His capacious second-story showroom had 16-foot-high ceilings. Eaton lived on the third floor, with a circular staircase that ascended to a rooftop terrace with harbor views.
"I got tired of bar patrons on the street below, parking difficulties and carrying furniture upstairs," Eaton said of his life downtown. When he decided to move, the dealer, who grew up in Newbury, first investigated a lodge hall in Merrimack and a barn on the New Hampshire border, then bought land from his mother that his parents had owned since 1961.
"My father used to hit golf balls from the bottom of the hill," recalls Eaton, who still occasionally finds balls in his lawn.
"We were interested in how the interior space would feel," says Brownstein, describing the design origins of their 5,300-square-foot residence. The couple admires the work of Richard Meier, the Pritzker Prize-winning architect best known for the Getty Center in Los Angeles and the High Museum in Atlanta. Like the dealers, Meier is preoccupied with the subtle, transitory effects of light over time.
