ADA/Historic Deerfield Antiques Show Runs Like Clockwork

Deerfield, Mass.

:As we write, the Dow is up and we are feeling our collective toes and fingers again. All bets were off, however, on Saturday morning, October 11, when the ADA/Historic Deerfield Antiques Show opened at the Deerfield Academy after the worst week in Wall Street's history. Like anxious hosts, exhibitors wondered whether buyers would show up.

They did, in unprecedented numbers.

"We were up about ten percent from last year, which was also a record," said the show's director, Old Lyme, Conn., dealer Karen Di Saia, attributing the jump to increased marketing efforts and the show's growing prominence. Attendance was steady on Sunday, suggesting that more visitors are staying through the weekend to enjoy all that this historic area of western Massachusetts has to offer.

"I was personally grateful to the people who walked in that door on Saturday morning," said ADA president John Keith Russell.

The ADA/Historic Deerfield Antiques Show has found its footing, emerging in recent years with a clear identity as a choice, intimate, relaxed venue for upmarket American antiques and fine art, mainly from New England. It now routinely draws collectors from around the country.

While no one can guarantee the weather, Historic Deerfield President Phil Zea, recently named the recipient of the 2009 ADA Award of Merit, is said to have influence. This Columbus Day weekend, always the museum's busiest of the year, was like no other: clear, warm and vividly streaked with red and gold.

The mechanics of the show have been perfected, too. Thanks to the ADA's can-do volunteers, the show is well sign-posted. Parking is ample and efficient. An onsite café offers a limited lunch selection with seating.

Under DiSaia's management, the floor plan has improved and booths have gotten lighter and airier with cutaway walls and pass-throughs to improve traffic flow. Among the 52 exhibitors from 12 states there have been some regrettable departures as well some excellent new additions.

"We now have a big waiting list of dealers wanting to do the show," says DiSaia.

The ADA Historic Deerfield Antiques Show is something of a reunion for those who love Americana. Outside in the parking lot, a country field pressed into service for the weekend, Mike Budrewitz Jr passed out flyers for his new Catamount Auction Company, whose first sale was planned for October 25 in Erving, Mass., 16 miles away. Inside, Ralph Di Saia passed along local dining tips from fellow exhibitor John Suval. Collectors Kendra and Allan Daniel toured the show before heading over to the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, Mass., where 90 illustrations from the Daniels' private collection were on view through October 26.

Elliott and Grace Snyder noted the opening of their new shop, in an old general store on South Egremont, Mass.'s Main Street. Lew and Janet Scranton touted their restored 1810 schoolhouse in Killingworth, Conn., open since March. Philadelphia dealer Amy Finkel shared details of "American Schoolgirl Samplers and Their Family Histories," an exhibition in her gallery timed to coincide with "Whose Your Daddy?," an exhibition and symposium at nearby Winterthur Museum. Elle Shushan disclosed details of the upcoming Harvard-Shushan extravaganza at the Winter Antiques Show in January (rumor is that the duo will recreate Madame Pompadour's boudoir at Malmaison) and acknowledged that both she and fellow ADA dealer Sumpter Priddy will speak at the 2009 Colonial Williamsburg Antiques Forum in February.

Wall Street was on everyone's mind.

"Nobody is coming in the door saying, 'Your tiger maple is down 20 percent.' Our fan base is here. People are getting away from that darn CNN and are out enjoying themselves," said New Hampshire dealer George Spiecker, expressing the group's optimism.

Most dealers reported hesitant buying, but hoped for follow-up sales.

"Three people asked me to take pictures on my camera phone and send them to their spouses. That's never happened," said John Russell.

Major sales around the floor included, at Liverant Antiques, the Rebecca Cowles Hadley chest, inscribed "RC" and illustrated as no. 22 in The Hadley Chest by Clare Luther.

"This is an October 2008 price," said Liverant, who offered the chest, heavily carved and painted red and black, for $85,000.

Grace and Elliott Snyder parted with a circa 1710–30 William and Mary ball-foot chest from eastern Massachusetts.

Stephen-Douglas Antiques sold a shoe-foot hutch table with a scrubbed, oval top.

New England furniture was the ticket at Sumpter Priddy Antiques, where sales included a tall case clock and a simple but elegant Hepplewhite secretary desk from Newburyport, Mass.

A Bird in Hand wrapped up a ship's diorama, a stoneware jug, a folk art carving and several Grenfell mats on Saturday.

Sagamore, Mass., dealer Brian Cullity sold a primitive cupboard with a paneled door; Courcier & Wilkins wrote up a game board, hooked rug and a Kentucky corner cupboard; George Spiecker parted with an outstanding Philadelphia mirror; and Jewett Berdan had luck with two schoolgirl pieces, a bed rug and a great basket. New collectors purchased a runner at Oriental Rugs, Ltd. Lew Scranton sold an important piece of redware that had been in his private collection for 33 years.

Historic Deerfield supports the show by buying from exhibitors. From Arthur Liverant, the museum bought a Queen Anne cherry and birch tall chest on frame. Formerly in the Schoedinger Collection, it was on loan to Historic Deerfield for nine years before its sale at Christie's earlier this year. Only one other example, in a private collection, is known.

"We think it was made somewhere in the foothills of the Berkshires heading west from Northampton. It is a quintessential western Massachusetts object with its scalloped top," said Zea.

Deerfield also bought, from Stephen and Carol Huber, the only known watercolor coat of arms on paper from the Misses Patton School in Hartford, Conn. From M. Finkel & Daughter, the institution got a well-documented Montague, Mass., marking sampler dated 1786.

Sam Herrup sold Historic Deerfield a creamware salt with a history of ownership in Phillipston, Mass., and a neoclassical stand with an interesting inscription that will require further interpretation: "Noah Wells, Shelburne, Mass., June 28, 1834. Start for Attica, N.Y., on Tuesday next the first of July."

The show was rich in Connecticut River valley artifacts. Litchfield, Conn., dealer Jeffrey Tillou featured a Queen Anne high chest, $125,000, attributed by Tillou to the shop of Simeon Pomeroy of nearby Northampton, Mass. Similar features are seen on Pomeroy furniture in Deerfield's collection.

"I've tried to buy this bowl for years," said Brooklyn, N.Y., dealer Steve Powers of a monumental Iroquois ash burl bowl dating from the mid-Eighteenth Century and measuring 27½ inches wide. The bowl was accompanied by a period photograph of the Schoharie, N.Y., house where the bowl long resided.

Marcy Burns, the show's only Native American arts specialist, spotlighted a subtly beautiful Navajo Two Gray Hills blanket, $4,800, dating to circa 1920–30 and woven of natural white, gray and deep brown handspun wools.

"At my first show, I put a pillow in this 18-inch Santo Domingo dough bowl and my little fluffy white fluffy dog slept there all weekend," said Connecticut dealer Barbara Ardizone, who added Pueblo pottery to her varied selection of folk art.

Richard Withington's greatest sale may have been the 1966 auction of the Oliver Williams estate at Pigeon Cove. From the same sale, Sam Herrup featured an exceptional Massachusetts hutch table with red and black painted decoration and a pale honey-colored scrubbed top.

Probably from Connecticut, Peter Eaton's veneered Queen Anne dressing table, $38,000, is one of only four such examples the Newbury, Mass., dealer has owned.

A Dunlap school chest-on-chest was $79,500 at James Kilvington Antiques of Dover, Del.

Robesonia, Penn., dealer Greg Kramer featured a Schoharie, N.Y., paint decorated cupboard, $49,500, illustrated in American Painted Furniture by Shaffner and Klein.

Federal furniture specialist Jesse Goldberg of Artemis Gallery in North Salem, N.Y., flanked a Hepplewhite sideboard, $29,500, with a pair of 1800 Massachusetts serpentine front card tables, $15,500. In perfect condition, the tables have been together for two centuries.

Ted and Jennifer Fuehr of American Spirit, Shawnee Mission, Kan., featured a North Shore, Mass., bowfront card table with triple panel bird's-eye maple veneer and ring-turned and reeded legs.

Woodbury, Conn., dealer Thomas Schwenke sold a petite Maryland sideboard, while Yarmouth Port, Mass., dealers Courcier and Wilkins parted with a Kentucky cherrywood corner cupboard that they sold at the Connecticut Antiques Show years ago and subsequently reacquired.

It was a good year for primitive portraits. Joan Brownstein lined her walls with them, drawing attention to a pair of dramatic circa 1830s oil on poplar likenesses attributed to Milton W. Hopkins.

Groton, Mass., dealer Pam Boynton unveiled a pair of untouched paintings of Major James and Eliza Osgood of Fryburg, Maine, attributed to John Brewster Jr.

Miniatures specialist Elle Shushan featured two rare Rhode Island examples, including "Charles Handy, Jr" by Joseph Dunkerley, circa 1775. Handy, a Newport native, was master of the privateer Yorick based in Providence. The original gold frame may be by Revere.

Whether buying or browsing, Historic Deerfield is a rich repository of textiles. Massachusetts dealer Colette Donovan dressed a primitive poster bed with early crewel embroidered indigo and cream bed hangings and a brilliant indigo colored calamanco quilt.

Pennsylvania dealer Jan Whitlock featured French chintz bed hangings, a superb floral embroidered wool blanket and a table covering made in the Baltimore album quilt style. Applied ruche flowers supplied color and texture. An Eighteenth Century English needlepoint pole-screen cover was a lovely accent at Bettina Krainin, Woodbury, Conn.

Deerfield, Mass., is closer than you think. If you missed "Into The Woods: Furniture History at Historic Deerfield," curator Joshua Lane's exceptional presentation at the Flynt Center, be sure to plan another visit. The long-term exhibition with changing elements continues through 2013.

A related symposium, "Tap of the Hammer, Turn of the Screw: Exploring Antique American Furniture through the Woodworking Trades," is planned for November 14–16 and includes presentations by Philip Zea, Alan Breed, Craig Farrow, Joshua Lane, Ted Ingraham, Bruce Hoadley, Robert Trent, David Barquist, John Vander Sande, Kemble Widmer II and Peter M. Kenny.

Hotels were booked solid north of Hartford and south of Vermont on Columbus Day weekend, so make plans early for the 2009 ADA/Historic Deerfield Antiques Show. The ADA has a list of 30 hotels, inns and B&Bs in the area.

For information, 413-775-7214, www.historic-deerfield.org or www.adadealers.com .