The 2007 Palm Beach International Fine Art & Antique Fair, February 1–11, combined the best elements of a top-level museum exhibition with the luscious swish of an exclusive party. Originally known as the Piccadilly Antique Show, the West Palm Beach Antiques & Collectibles Show has been conducted at the South Florida Fairgrounds in a western section of the city for almost 20 years. The February 2–4 show averages about 375 dealers. The Original Miami Beach Antique Show transformed the Miami Beach Convention Center into an antiquing wonderland. The show offered a five-day frenzy of antique shopping January 11–15. The Connecticut Historical Society Museum triumphed at J. Pearson Antiques’ January 27 auction with its winning bid of $41,800 for the magic box recently discovered and offered by the descendents of the magician/farmer Albert Walker.
On a cold and windy winter Sunday morning, January 28, there was plenty of action at the Steenburgh Auctioneers sale in Haverhill’s Alumni Hall. More than 300 lots were sold in approximately three hours by the Steenburgh family. “It was a sale filled with surprises,” commented Cowan’s decorative arts specialist Diane Wachs after the most recent auction of Paintings, Furniture and Decorative Arts on February 17. An exhibition of more than 40 quilts from the Winterthur collection, many of which have never been publicly exhibited before, will go on display at the museum March 10–September 16. The Illinois State Museum Chicago Gallery presents two new exhibits, “John James Audubon: The Birds of America, Prints from the Collection of the Illinois State Museum,” and “While All the Tribes of Birds Sang,” on view March 12—August 24. A public reception will be on Friday, March 30, from 5:30 to 7:30 pm. A new book, Consuming Views: Art & Tourism In the White Mountains 1850–1900, published by the New Hampshire Historical Society details the evolving portrayal of the White Mountains of New Hampshire, which was a mecca for artists and tourists seeking respite from the rigors of Nineteenth Century life.
The New Hampshire Historical Society presents a major new exhibition and publication exploring how artists and consumers perceived the natural wonders of the White Mountains. “Consuming Views: Art and Tourism in the White Mountains, 1850–1900,” is on view at the society’s Museum of New Hampshire History through May 6. The Concord Museum has long been a magnet for antiquarians and other lovers of American history. Founded in 1886 as the Concord Antiquarian Society, it was well known to the earliest antiquers, from collector George Sheldon to the popular writers Esther Singleton and Elizabeth and Robert Shackleton. Home to Paul Revere’s lantern, Henry David Thoreau’s desk and Ralph Waldo Emerson’s study, the Concord was among the first to show American antiques in period-room settings. Currently on view through April 29, Concord’s new and stimulating exhibition, “A Splash of Blue,” features 100 works of art in all media that share one common attribute: they are blue. Brisk late winter winds buffeted patrons entering the Fox Lane High School when the Bedford Hills Antiques Show opened on February 24, but once inside, their pace was leisurely as they perused the 37th edition of this popular fundraiser for the local Lions Club. A cold day in the upper reaches of New England is par for the course at the one-day Cabin Fever Antiques Show, which featured 27 dealers on February 17 showing predominantly New England primitive and colonial period antiques. One would have had to work at it to come away from the February 24 and 25 Holliston Antiques Show empty handed. For four decades, the show has attracted a loyal following of dealers and collectors and this year’s event was no exception. Once again demonstrating their enduring influence — in this case, on collectors — America’s pioneering statesmen made a stellar showing at R&R Enterprises’ first auction of 2007, which closed on January 17. Possibly its most successful winter auction to date, James D. Julia, Inc’s February 2–4 sale of 1,600 lots played to a packed house of active bidders and grossed $2.4 million. On the evening of January 20, the Hyatt Regency was the site of a Western Americana auction conducted by High Noon in which approximately 400 lots brought $3 million. North Carolina’s story during the American Revolution is often overshadowed by better-known events that occurred in its sister colonies. The Society of the Cincinnati sheds light on the Tar Heel State’s participation in the American Revolution with the exhibition, “North Carolina in the American Revolution,” on view through April 25 at Anderson House, the society’s headquarters. “Global Feminisms,” on view March 23–July 1, the exhibition, a large-scale international survey of contemporary art, will inaugurate a study center devoted to art created from a feminist perspective. The Albany Institute of History and Art will open the exhibition “Full Steam Ahead: Robert Fulton and the Age of Steamboats” on Saturday, March 24, commemorating the 200th anniversary of Robert Fulton’s first steamboat voyage of the Clermont in 1807 from New York City to Albany.
A large quantity of books from the library of Harvard philosopher William Ernest Hocking (1873–1966) were stolen from the private library of a local estate during the weekend of February 16–18.
By the close of its February 18 sale, Bonhams & Butterfields’ clients — fans of fine literature, book collectors and an entourage of book dealers bidding on behalf of their private clients — spent more than $1 million for the fine books and manuscripts that were offered. A stately and elegant affair, the Chester County Antiques Show embodies all the maturity one would expect from a show celebrating its 25th anniversary. Aimed at seasoned collectors with discerning wallets, yet enticing young collectors, the March 2-4 show has hit upon a winning formula and looks to have many more good years ahead. The hammer fell and shattered a record at the Rago Arts and Auction Center on March 10, as a rare vase by Frederick H. Rhead, the English “father of Fiesta ware,” sold for $516,000. Pablo Picasso (1881–1973), the towering figure in Twentieth Century art, influenced artists everywhere, particularly in this country. The extent of this modern master’s pervasive influence is documented in the exhibition, “Picasso and American Art” on view at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art through May 28. Comprising more than 100 pieces by American artists, alongside about 40 Picasso works that inspired them, the show offers unique insights into the Spaniard’s profound effect on the course of art in a country he never visited. It was back to the futuristic at the 69th Street Armory on March 2, 3 and 4 as Stella Show Mgmt Co. presented its innovative event, The Modern Show. In the historic First Congregational Church of Darien, a group of more than 30 volunteers worked for almost a year to put together a classic antiques show for the benefit of organizations supported by the church. In its 40th year, the Darien Antiques Show, March 2–4, is like its venue — charming, welcoming and grand. Visitors to the New-York Historical Society will be able to see how legendary artist and naturalist John James Audubon painstakingly reworked a bird’s portrait until the image met with his satisfaction. Forty-three lifelike compositions will go on display March 30 at the N-YHS in “Audubon’s Aviary: Natural Selection.”
The authenticity of a rare suit of armor dating to Sixteenth Century Prussia, one of the powerful states of Germany of the latter Nineteenth and Twentieth Century, was recently established through the use of latest advancement in forensic science. The Princeton University Art Museum' exhibition, “Pop Art at Princeton: Permanent and Promised,” a celebration of the museum’s comprehensive collection of paintings, prints, drawings and sculpture by leading figures of the American Pop Art movement, is on view through August 12. “New Media: When,” on view through May 20 at the Neuberger Museum of Art, invites visitors to interact with and manipulate an artwork, not just passively observe it For the 59th time, Heritage Auction Galleries conducted a sale at the Long Beach Coin Expo, February 14–17. As expected, gold rarities engendered highly competitive bidding, resulting in a total of more than $14 million, once the online portion of the auction closed. The Sally Abney Rose Collection achieved $4.6 million at Brunk Auctions on February 17–18, led by a life portrait of Southern statesman and former Vice President John C. Calhoun that attained $333,500. While achieving premium and record prices paid at auction has become the norm for Ron Bourgeault and the crew at Northeast Auctions, the solid results posted in the February 23-25 New Hampshire Weekend Auction were achieved in somewhat of an atypical fashion. Neal Auction Company’s winter estates auction on February 3–4 served as a demonstration of a healthy marketplace and turnout was unexpectedly high, even on Super Bowl Sunday. Elizabeth W. “Liz” Long, 91, of Heritage Village in Southbury, died March 17 at Danbury Hospital. A resident of Newtown, Conn., for more than 15 years, she owned and operated the Cod Fish Antiques in the Sandy Hook section of Newtown for many years.
The Ann Arbor Antiques Market will kick off its 39th season next month but without its show managers of nearly a decade, Woody and Nancy Straub, who took over the show in the late 1990s. The markets will now be guided by veteran show manager Doug Supinger.
Large crowds were in evidence at the preview party March 1 and at the official opening to Works on Paper the next day. For the past 19 years, promoter Sanford Smith and his cadre of “paper art” dealers have watched Works On Paper evolve from a show that raised few eyebrows during its infancy to a major event in the international art community.
Promising reports from the frontlines of the four-year-old Palm Beach Jewelry, Art & Antiques Show lured us to the capital of luxe over Presidents’ Day weekend. We’re glad we went.
The biting winds that whipped through the city’s canyons on Thursday evening, March 9, seemed custom-ordered to drive first-nighters into the garden fantasies at the Stellas’ eighth annual Gramercy Garden Show.
“No Longer Hidden: Black Cloth Dolls 1870–1930,” an exhibition of black cloth dolls from the Pat Hatch Collection opens Friday, March 30, at the Harvard Historical Society with an opening celebration from 6 to 9 pm. The exhibit is on view through May 13.
Charles Rosen (1878–1950) excelled both at robust Impressionist views of the Pennsylvania countryside while living in New Hope, and at Cubist/realist views of manmade structures after he moved to Woodstock, N.Y. The wonder is that he was so accomplished and so successful in both phases of his career. Rosen was a star of the Pennsylvania Impressionists and then an important figure in the modernist movement in America. The artist’s bifurcated oeuvre and the restless intelligence that led him to shift styles and residences in mid-career is the subject of the exhibition “Form Radiating Life: The Paintings of Charles Rosen,” currently on view through May 20 at the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, State University of New York at New Paltz.
Historic Deerfield will kick off its 55th season with its first exhibition to focus on maps, titled “North by Northeast: Five Centuries of New England Maps,” opening Saturday, March 31, providing access to a world-class collection of antique maps and mapmaking equipment spanning 1540 to 1918.
Everyone who saw it loved the A.L. Jewell copper weathervane in the form of a horse soaring through a hoop, but only one buyer could have it. At Skinner’s February 18 Americana sale, the full bodied vane went to a phone bidder for $160,000.
Bonhams' New York gallery was filled to capacity with dog enthusiasts and collectors in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Dog Sale on February 13 that fetched nearly $1 million.
Auctioneer Peter Stanton Imler was very pleased with sales at his most recent auction, February 20, where the nearly 500 cataloged lots and a few additions sold well,.boasting strong interest from the audience.
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