Chester County Antiques Show Embraces History In New Venue

Westtown, Penn.

:The Chester County Antiques Show dazzled the large crowds in attendance in its new home at the historic Westtown School over the weekend of March 20–22. The show has utilized several venues in its 27-year history. While the Chester County Historical Society, which presents the show, was still tallying numbers at press time, it announced its net for the weekend was already over 50 percent more than the previous year.

"Westtown School couldn't have been a better venue. Our success this year has proven to be a sign of many good things to come," said society president Kim Hall.

The Westtown School, founded in 1799 by Philadelphia Quakers, has a rich and storied history and is a most apropos location for this antiques show. Sewing for girls was part of the curriculum here until 1843, and the school has a wonderful collection of more than 130 flat samplers made at the school.

Sampler specialist Ruth Van Tassel of Van Tassel Baumann Antiques was particularly thrilled with the decision to move the show here to the county's "historical gem," as she referred to the school.

Highlights in her booth showcasing fine samplers and furniture were an important Delaware Valley floral sampler that Hannah Knight worked in 1837, a rural figured walnut chest on frame with a two-over-four drawer case, circa 1770, as well as a rare and early walnut William and Mary daybed, 1730–50, mid-Atlantic states.

An unscientific survey of dealers during Friday's preview revealed many dealers were excited about the new venue. As the bulk of the core of loyal dealers who do this show, and have done it for many years, are from Pennsylvania, the show is rich in Pennsylvania furniture and items with local significance.

Emele's Antiques, Dublin, Penn., showed a bench table with a scrubbed two-board top on a red painted base, a set of six fiddle back plank seat Pennsylvania chairs in a rare chrome yellow paint, signed "Swint," circa 1830–40, and a decorated 12-pane corner cupboard, circa 1825, Lancaster County.

James Kilvington, Dover, Del., showed a 1920s work by Walter W. Josephs (b 1887, Philadelphia) depicting the Chester County summer home of US Senator Norris W. Wright. He also was offering a walnut Queen Anne side chair, Philadelphia, circa 1775, as well as "A Winter Morning" on North New Street Road in West Chester, Penn., painted by Chester County artist Barclay Lawrence Jacob Rubincam.

A grain-painted pine mill desk attracted attention in the booth of Don and Pat Clegg, East Berlin, Penn. The piece was attributed to John Rupp of Hanover, Penn., mid-Nineteenth Century.

Continuing the trend of offering local antiques was Sidney Gecker American Folk Art, New York City, who showed an Eighteenth Century sawbuck table from Berks County, circa 1780–1790, 33 by 58½ by 29 inches, as well as a Soap Hollow paint decorated chest of drawers, 1870, marked with the initials M.B., with hearts and star-like rosettes on the stenciled gallery. He also featured in his booth a rare oversized cow weathervane with original gilt surface, attributed to Cushing & White, Waltham, Mass., circa 1870.

Furniture was not the only show standout, however, choice textiles and rugs were sprinkled around the show like gems for an eagle-eyed buyer to ferret out. Holly Peters Oriental Rugs, Chadds Ford, Penn., showed many fine rugs, including a Persian Serapi in rust and navy, measuring 4 feet 8 inches by 6 feet 4 inches.

Known for textiles as well as American country antiques, Colette Donovan, Merrimacport, Mass., hung on the wall of her booth a considerable blue linsey-woolsey that served as an attractive backdrop for showcasing a wonderful splint basket that was 43 inches long.

English furniture is the specialty of Roger D. Winter, Solebury, Penn., who showed a pair of Queen Anne walnut side chairs with a fiddle back splat over a balloon seat, a Queen Anne card table in walnut with a burled and line inlaid top, circa 1700–1720, and a George III writing table in the Hepplewhite style.

A Bird In Hand Antiques, Florham Park, N.J., featured a sublime full-bodied running horse and jockey weathervane, circa 1880, that is similar to an example pictured in Robert Bishop's A Gallery of American Weathervanes and Whirligigs . Furniture standouts were led by a chair table with a scrubbed pine top and retaining its original red paint on the table edge and base, New Hampshire, circa 1780–1820.

Irvin and Dolores Boyd, Fort Washington, Penn., offered an English bowfront chest of drawers in mahogany, an early New England chair table in maple and pine, a circa 1840 rosewood lingerie chest and a matched pair of Wedgwood charger tables.

SAJE Americana, Short Hills, N.J., displayed an Eighteenth Century tape loom from New England, a pair of over mantel Hudson River School oil on board paintings, circa 1830, in frames made from old wainscoting.

Standouts at T.L. Dwyer, Barto, Penn., were a New England carved pine pilot house eagle with outstretched wings, circa 1860–1880, and a rare York County sgrafitto decorated dower chest, circa 1790, a carved and polychromed Parcheesi board, late Nineteenth Century, and a Shenandoah Valley, Va., pie safe in walnut, in untouched condition.

Paul J. DeCoste, West Newbury, Mass., showed a New England Chippendale grain-painted tall chest in tiger maple, circa 1760–90, (ex Olmstead collection from the John Randall estate), a Pilgrim Century quartered oak chest with side hung drawer, Cambridge, Mass., circa 1670–90, one of three known, and an American whale ivory and bone swift on a wooden stand, circa 1850.

From Philadelphia, Washington Square Gallery aptly showed an uncolored copperplate cornerstone engraving of the City of Philadelphia by Samuel Seymour and published in Thomas Birch's The City of Philadelphia in the State of Pennsylvania North America , circa 1820. The dealers also offered a sepia lithograph by David Roberts from Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt and Nubia, from drawings made on the spot by David Roberts,… published in London, 1842.

Offering a mix of furniture and decorative art, Brian Cullity Antiques, Sagamore, Mass., had an intriguing smalls display in the way of an assembled pair of enameled tiebacks depicting Commodore Truxton, circa 1800. Also on view were an Eighteenth Century mahogany carved bust of John Milton that was either English or American and a maple and birch chest of drawers from Vermont, circa 1830.

The Hanebergs, East Lyme, Conn., offered a cherry serpentine front chest of drawers attributed to Felix Huntington, Norwich, Conn., circa 1790, as well as an important reverse serpentine four-drawer chest with canted corners, circa 1785, that was originally owned by Capt. Joseph Peabody, an East India shipping merchant from Salem, Mass.

The dealers also showed a cherry Queen Anne highboy with five drawers over four that descended from a Suffield. Conn., family and a painting, "The Bark Earl Cadogan " signed Reginald Arthur Borstel, depicting the 1892 British ship.

Hepplewhite furniture was a highlight at Edward J. Rayeur Antiques, Bethlehem, Penn., which featured a Federal period Hepplewhite maple chest of drawers from New England, circa 1800, with an oblong top over a case with four scratch beaded and graduating drawers, original brasses and a Pennsylvania Hepplewhite inlaid walnut chest of drawers, circa 1790, retaining an old finish.

Dixon-Hall Fine Art, Phoenixville, Penn., filled its booth with its usual selection of fine paintings that it offers at this show, including a charming oil on canvas by W.R. Waters (British, active 1838–1867), "A Child and Their Dog"; a work by Samuel S. West, "Portrait of a Lady (Sara Pyle Bush, 1804–1859)" dated 1830; and Helen Kiner McCarthy's "Mayview Road."

Apropos to the venue, a student-drawn map of Westtown School, showing school buildings, public roads and Chester Creek, was on view at R.M. Worth Antiques, Chadds Ford, Penn., which also showed a cherry Chippendale tilt top tea table with birdcage and baluster pedestal, circa 1770, along with a rare set of ten bow back Windsor side chairs, with circa 1840 yellow paint over the original green paint and signed Thomas Cotton Hayward. The dealer had artfully hung seven of the chairs on his sidewall in his booth.

Vying for attention at H.L. Chalfant Antiques, West Chester, Penn., were a painted plant stand with early blue paint and yellow varnish, circa 1830–40; a rare and small poplar Queen Anne blanket chest with old red paint and a flushed drawer over bootjack feet; and a rare walnut Queen Anne inlaid dartboard spice box with vine-and-berry and herringbone inlay, Chester County, Penn., circa 1740.

Otto and Susan Hart, Arlington, Vt., offered an interesting shell-encrusted table from the Nineteenth Century with an hourglass pedestal base, a relief-carved presidential seal with a wreath of 48 stars, showing an eagle under a canopy of 13 stylized clouds and clutching 13 arrows, as well as a circa 1900 cigar store Indian warrior with tomahawk and tobacco leaves.

Furniture standouts at Wesley T. Sessa & Son Antiques, Pottstown, Penn., included a Connecticut Valley seven-drawer high chest with sculptural bracket feet, a William and Mary oak gate leg drop leaf table and a two-piece Pennsylvania Dutch cupboard.

Douglas Constant, Orient, N.Y., offered a Chippendale mahogany serpentine chest of drawers, Boston, circa 1765, in a compact size, a carved walnut Queen Anne side chair with a bead molded crest and a "cherrywood" Dutch cupboard in two parts that was tagged with a red dot during preview.

The Fassnachts, Canandaigua, N.Y., showed a sublime Queen Anne slant lid desk, circa 1750, that had been in the Blaisdell family of Pimaquid, Maine, since it was made, as well as a work by Charles W. Hargens Jr (1893–1997), the long-lived artist who was known for his Western art, book illustrations and advertising.

A specialist in books and works on paper, William Hutchison, Mendenhall, Penn., offered up a fetching copy of A Dog's Day , published 1902 with original drawings by Cecil Aldin.

A red Dutch cupboard, circa 1840, with exceptional form and proportions, was an attention-grabber at Joseph J. Lodge, Lederach, Penn., which also showed the painting, "Heading Home" by Carl Peters, a Kazak prayer rug from the Fachlaro region, circa 1895, and a lifetime collection of Pennsylvania German, heart-decorated slaw boards, Nineteenth Century.

Pennsylvania brown furniture was a specialty at Thurston Nichols American Antiques, Breinigsville, Penn., which showed a stretcher base table in walnut with a three-board top from Bucks County, circa 1750, and a decorated dower chest with a horse and rider central tombstone panel, Berks County, in a rare form. The dealer also offered a carved eagle trade sign with old white paint over original gold leaf, Virginia, circa 1880.

Fine paintings at Pennsylvania Art Conservatory, Berwyn, Penn., included "Bucks County Hillside" by S. George Phillips (1890–1965), "Children's Frolics, 1861," by Charles Hunt II (1829–1900), and "Panorama, Manayunk," by Giovanni Martino (1908–1998).

Hanes & Ruskin, Old Lyme, Conn., featured a rare 12-arm Nineteenth Century Dutch chandelier, a Queen Anne mahogany porringer-top tea table, a circa 1790 Philadelphia-form gentleman's chest and bookcase and a portrait of an unknown sitter that the dealers fondly tagged with the line "Will You Adopt This Homeless Man?" They said he has been hanging around since the 1820s and is at home surrounded by fine antiques.

Heller-Washam Antiques, Portland, Maine, featured a figured mahogany three-tiered dumbwaiter, probably English, circa 1770, and a Queen Anne burl-maple highboy that had contrasting walnut herring bone inlays, hailing from the southeastern coast of Massachusetts, circa 1740.

The Pembroke Shop, Wayne, Penn., offered a pleasing booth showcasing traditional furniture, a few choice examples of Chinese Export porcelain, fine art and a fireplace surround, while Fiske & Freeman, Ipswich, Mass., featured items from across the pond with an English three-drawer chest in native woods, a small wainscot chair, Welsh or English, circa 1690, and a stumpwork pillow showing a mother and two children with birds and flowers, circa 1680.

A standout at Paul & Cheryl Scott, Hillsborough, N.H., was a New Hampshire maple chest-on-chest or highboy, Dunlap School, circa 1800, and several fine vanes, including a prancing horse, a whale and several arrow examples with heart and star motifs.

Newsom & Berdan, Thomasville, Penn., showed a Philadelphia four-drawer mahogany chest with a rare 34-inch case width, while Wayne and Phyllis Hilt, Haddam Neck, Conn., offered a colorful booth with several choice quilts and textiles prominently displayed.

An early Eighteenth Century walnut tavern table with an oval top and block and turned medial stretcher, circa 1740, was displayed at Hilary and Paulette Nolan, Falmouth, Mass., while a highlight in the booth of Chuck White Folk Art & Antiques, Warwick, N.Y., were two oil portraits of young brothers by Joseph Goodhue Chandler (1812–1884), circa 1840, that placed the brothers against an interesting Hudson River Valley background.

For more information, www.cchs-pa.org or 610-692-4800.