: In a serious bid to make Naples a March Mecca for antique buyers,
the Naples Woman's Club sponsored a new antiques show featuring
well-known quality dealers in its own facility at 570 Park
Street, on March 9-11.
The Naples Woman's Club clubhouse is located just off fashionable
5th Avenue South in the beautiful downtown historic district of
Naples. Built in 1951, the clubhouse is a spacious and
exceptionally attractive and comfortable one-level building with
adjacent parking for customers.
Planned to follow the opening of the well-known
Trinity-by-the-Cove Naples Antiques Show & Sale by one day,
the club plans its show to become a yearly charitable event,
bringing quality and diversified national antiques dealers to
Naples. The two Naples antiques shows are located just a few
miles apart, and many visitors reported they made the trip to
enjoy both.
Opening on Thursday evening, March 9, for early buyers, the
preview party was well attended by both the local community and
visitors. The club members graciously made every effort to create
a beautiful preview party with a friendly and comfortable
ambience. It was sponsored by several local business groups.
Both national dealers and exhibitors from throughout Florida
created a high quality show. The event was carefully planned by
Kathleen Pica, show manager, and by Thomas Moser, chairman of
dealers, to include major specialties with a focus on Eighteenth
and Nineteenth Century antiques and fine art.
A pair of Victorian gold bracelets with black enamel ivy
pattern, in the original box, by Crosby & Morse, Boston,
circa 1864-68, was in the booth of Suzanne Marshall of Naples.
Louis J. Dianni of Sunrise, Fla., displayed a selection of
antique and marine art, including an oil on canvas of the American
ship Isaac Reed by Chinese artist Pun Woo, active 1870-80s,
circa 1878, priced $14,500. Oil paintings by Florida highwaymen,
including A.E. "Bean" Bakus, attracted much attention, and one
Backus oil painting sold to a local collector who visited the show
with his family.
Arthur J. Connolly of Naples set up an elegant room-style display
featuring Eighteenth Century English furniture. Accessories
included Eighteenth Century brass and a collection of early
Staffordshire ironstone.
Sterling, coin silver and antique porcelain were displayed by
Nancy A. Morrill of Bonita Springs, Fla., who described the show
as, "A complete small show of quality. The potential is
tremendous and it should be continued for years to come!"
American furniture and choice smalls were offered by Patricia
Anne Reed, located in Florida for winter shows and in her
Damariscotta, Maine, shop during the summer. Some of her items
included Eighteenth Century Vermont marbleized pedestals, a circa
1795 English card table, a Nineteenth Century ship and other
paintings and Civil War swords.
A corner of the booth of Patricia Anne Reed of Damariscotta,
Maine.
Antique bamboo furniture, Satsuma and Staffordshire were
featured by Lana Harper of Westmount, Quebec, and Palm Beach
Gardens, Fla., who also showed a collection of Victorian children's
books.
Kate Alex from Warren, N.H., had an indoor-outdoor exhibit of
architectural antiques and garden furniture. Her inside display
opened to an outside patio complete with butterfly garden and
flowers in bloom, where she featured wrought iron furniture and
garden accents.
Thos Moser Antiques of Naples brought Eighteenth and early
Nineteenth Century American antiques, including an American
miniature chest with whalebone details.
European Art Nouveau pottery was shown in a large display by
Pieter Oosthuizen, Naples, whose sales included a rare and
significant, large Gouda vase.
Suzanne Marshall, Naples, featured her specialty, antique and
estate jewelry, and did good business throughout the show.
Marshall also offered autographed copies of her book, 200
Years of American Manufactured Jewelry & Accessories, and
presented a brief verbal history to interested visitors about
Attleboro jewelry from circa 1790 to present, about which her
book describes and pictures in-depth. More than 200 jewelry
makers operated in Attleboro, producing a fascinating variety of
jewelry, early buttons, match safes, mesh purses and other
accessories.
Peter Oosthuizen of Naples with a large temple jar and lid in
the Art Nouveau style made by the Regina factory in Gouda in
1925.
Deborah Crompton displayed estate jewelry and shared a booth
with Sandy Winfield, who carries elegant white linens for the home.
Both dealers are from Naples. Winfield is also an interior
decorator and her experience in this field showed through in her
choice of inventory and display. In addition to jewelry, Crompton
displayed an Unger Brothers Art Nouveau sterling five-piece dresser
set and other choice collectible silver, including a sterling
cigarette case with colorful, realistic enameled fish made by
Charles Thomae for Tiffany & Co.
Janet K. Fanto traveled from Easton, Md., with antique furniture,
art, rare books and showcased bibliotheque. Her display included
a pair of art glass candelabra and paintings by Clarence Montfort
Gihou, 1871-1929, and Corwin Knapp Linson, 1864-1959, from
Pennsylvania and New Jersey respectively.
Hugh J. Beardslee, Antiques for the Home and Garden, brought a
large and fascinating collection of antique decorative art and
accessories, including early wall art and frames, silver, mercury
glass and ceramics. This couple is from Moss Point, Miss., and
Franklin, Tenn.
John Tompkins of Arcadian Antiques traveled from New Orleans to
display period furniture and early ceramics.
The finest and largest antique majolica collection that one might
imagine was shown by Jerry S. Hayes of Oklahoma City, Okla.
Specializing in antique majolica, this dealer displayed hundreds
of exceptional forms.
Gabor Varga, Timeless Treasures of Naples, offered American and
European fine art. His booth included an original painting by
British Pre-Raphaelite artist John Roddam Spencer Stanhope in
original artist made frame. Varga said, "This painting bears the
original artist gallery label from Florence, Italy. Stanhope is
considered to be in the first tier of Pre-Raphaelites and one of
the original artists in the movement. It is rare that a painting
from this movement comes available on the market."
Derek G.C. Hamilton of H and H Antiques, Naples, brought a
sparkling collection of sterling and coin silver flatware and
hollowware, include a coin coffeepot by Meadows Co.,
Philadelphia, circa 1835, that Hamilton described as "a nice pot
with good crisp details," $3,200.
Plans are underway for the 2007 Naples Woman's Club Antiques Show
& Sale, a charitable fundraiser.
