Wilton Summer Antiques Show: Not The ‘Old School’ Experience

Wilton, Conn.

:Show promoter Marilyn Gould tried something new this year. With her popular outdoor summer antiques show, a benefit for the Wilton Kiwanis Club, having been on hiatus and her usual indoor venue, the high school's field house just off Route 7, undergoing renovations, she and more than 80 antiques dealers decamped to a new location. On June 27 and 28, the buildings and grounds of the nearby Middlebrook School hosted a two-day showcase of Gould's familiar mix — country and period formal American and European antique furniture, folk art, fine art, ceramics, jewelry, antique prints and maps and more.

Unlike the under-one-roof experience offered by the field house or the literal "level playing field" afforded by her previous outdoor venue, the hybrid event at Middlebrook School presented some challenges in terms of continuity. Inside dealers were set up in three different areas with "More Exhibitors" signs providing the necessary magic breadcrumbs to get show patrons from one area to the next. Some may have found the new location and layout confusing, but Gould was credited by dealers for doing a good job of advertising the show. Those who chose to wend their way through a warren of exhibition rooms were rewarded with quality and variety.

Westport, Conn., dealer J.B. Richardson, for example, curated a small exhibit that included a pair of American weathervanes, one of which was an arrow example with a very sophisticated and delicate design, impressionistically colored with verdigris and real mold spores. It was circa 1880, as was a horse vane. He also had a shapely, delicate one-drawer stand, circa 1830.

Poverty Hollow Enterprises, Stamford and Newtown, Conn., showed a French Beaux Arts composition stone, painted and molded birdhouse from the 1920s, which dealer Bob Baker had purchased in England from a French dealer. A matched pair of English stone lions from the 1920s and an English hand cast and wonderfully painted stork from the 1940s added charm to Baker's usual fastidious display of English and French country furniture, glassware and smalls.

At Red Griffin Antiques, Georgetown, Conn., a signed oil on board by Henry Thomas Alken (1785–1851) titled "Finding the scent" portrayed horse-mounted huntsmen and their hounds seeking their prey in a bucolic country setting. The work by this premier British sporting artist measured 21 by 34 inches in its frame. The dealer also had three aquatints by the same artist on offer in an "equestrian corner," along with another portion of the booth devoted to early American firearms, such as a Kentucky rifle, circa 1836, a couple of Civil War-era carbines, including a Burnside saddle ring example, and a flintlock musket, circa 1812. Antique jewelry from the Eighteenth Century to the Edwardian period, circa 1910, another of the dealer's specialties, included an exceptional swivel memorial ring featuring a reverse double row faceted jet surrounded by hair mementos.

Jewett-Berdan Antiques came down from Newcastle, Maine, with a Maine paint decorated transitional chest with unusual fruit decoration, circa 1835, a set of eight Connecticut fancy chairs in original paint with compote and fruit decoration, circa 1825, and a penny rug with robust colors and its original fringe. "Wilton ended up just fine for us," said Tom Jewett after the show. "We ended up selling the eight fancy chairs, the shell table, a folky one-drawer stand and three good hooked rugs, many smalls and a theorem."

Elinor Penna, Old Westbury, N.Y., is known for her vast collection of Staffordshire figures and she had plenty of these on hand, but her most unusual piece was an English woolwork of George Washington in his familiar pose, circa 1876 or later. Other highlights included a Staffordshire figure of Ben Franklin, circa 1860, and a rare large carpet tile from F.T. Crossley, a prominent English textile manufacturer, circa 1860, also depicting Washington in his stateman's stance.

Douglas Ramsay, Hadley, Mass., was among the outside dealers, experiencing his first Wilton show. Specializing in early painted country furniture and folk art, by early Saturday he had already sold a copper rooster weathervane with original directions, gilt paint and verdigris dating to the 1880s. Connecticut and Yale University history buffs would find great interest in a painting he was showing, an oil on canvas of the Judge John School in Ellington, Conn., done in about 1885. Ramsay explained that Judge Hall was a philanthropist who had a school built and staffed it with former Yale students as a prep school for Yale University. Ramsay also showed a bold lollypop wall box in pine dating from the late Eighteenth Century found in Maine and still having its salmon over original red paint surface.

In addition to her large inventory of Seventeenth, Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century maps, Maile Allen, Colonia, N.J., brought a grouping of S.A. Kilbourne Game Fish of America prints, circa 1879, featuring such examples as the sea bass, red drum fish, bonito and blue fish. A rarity on view was a page out of the Nuremburg Chronicle of 1493 with a panorama illustration of Magdenburg. Local interest was represented by a History of Fairfield County by D. Hamilton Hurd, 1881, illustrated with a great color map of Fairfield County, and a desirable atlas was the Comprehensive Atlas of Western Territories , 1835, by T.G. Bradford.

"Our inventory is fantastic," exclaimed Judy Loto of Russack & Loto Books, Northwood, N.H. She was referring to the dealer's extensive selection of books about antiques, including such classics as The Art and Mystery of Tennessee Furniture and Its Makers Through 1850 by Nathan Harsh and The Furniture of Coastal North Carolina, 1710–1820 by John Bivens Jr, both invaluable resources to the collector of Southern furniture. Of interest to porcelain mavens, the dealer had a copy of The Green Frog Service Wedgwood and Bentley's Imperial Russian Service. Published in 1995 to mark the 200th anniversary of Josiah Wedgwood's death, the lavishly illustrated book details the famous tea service that the Empress Catherine of Russia ordered from Wedgwood in 1774.

The show's sole antique rug dealer, A.E. Runge Jr, Yarmouth, Maine, was offering a "show special," a Heriz example out of an Iowa estate measuring 15 feet 5 inches by 12 feet 2 inches. He also had a great "rescued" Gorevan Heriz, nearly 12 by 10 feet, from northwest Persia, circa 1910. Originally the carpet had been in the family home of John J. Nissen, founder of the Biddeford, Maine, bakery, but Runge had found it in a flea market and after much cleaning and TLC, it looked like it was again fit to enhance a great floor.

For Victor Weinblatt, South Hadley, Mass., the show's atmosphere seemed "upbeat and relaxed." Several items could have sold threefold at early buying, said Weinblatt. "Among our sales were the earliest pair of cast iron duck andirons, circa 1880, with upswept tails and finely modeled heads; a 5-foot-round 'Barbara's Kitchen' iron restaurant sign in canary yellow and crimson; a late Nineteenth Century 'Dance Hall' sign on tin; an Indiana tool sign with hilarious double entendre; a polychrome Chinese checkers game board with the best surface; a children's gilded polychrome Parcheesi; a children's pinstriped Deco polychrome checkerboard; a sleigh-foot blue-green circa 1840 diminutive blanket box; 13 dated 1927 men's suits fashion prints, set at the racetrack, polo field, seashore and university clubs; an early Twentieth Century stuffed cat; a western Massachusetts hill town homemade weathervane; an early Nineteenth Century banded canteen in superb original blue; an oak desktop letter file with beveled glass compartments; a circa 1870 French salesmen's sample clothing mannequin and an eclectic range of smalls."

Known for its collection of American weathervanes and delftware, Autumn Pond, Bolton, Conn., brought many examples of these, but also showcased some Wallace Nutting furniture, which is attracting collectors of late. On offer was a pair of 1925 Wallace Nutting Pennsylvania low back Windsor armchairs with block banded signature and a New England fanback, brace back Winsor armchair, circa 1925–30, also with a block banded signature.

Antique hearth tools were on display at J. Gallagher, Norwich, N.Y., including a rare matched set of large Philadelphia andirons with serpentine fender and tools, circa 1790. "It's the only one I've seen in 30 years," said Jim Gallagher. "I've had similar andirons, perhaps one or two in 20 years, but to have the matching fender and tools is quite unusual." In addition to fireplace items, Gallagher showed a cowhide box, circa 1830–50, with the initials "E.D" formed by tack heads on the top. From a Cooperstown, N.Y., home, such a box may have looked strange according to Twenty-First Century sensibilities, but the boxes were quite common back then, used for storing important personal or family documents.

A red sold tag was affixed to a red tole tray table with fruit decoration around the edges at Stephen-Douglas, Rockingham, Vt., early Saturday morning. Stephen Corrigan and partner Douglas Jackman presided over a well-stocked booth showcasing such treasures as an American painting of a rooster, circa 1900, very bold and graphic; four banister back chairs, probably from Connecticut, circa 1740; and a nice Eighteen Century two-door buffet from Quebec, Canada, topped by a ship's box, circa 1859.

Anyone performing a "Keno Brothers drawer inspection" move on a Queen Anne maple high chest of drawers on view at Heller Washam Antiques, Portland, Maine, and Woodbury, Conn., would have had the pleasant discovery of seeing a Leigh Keno American Antiques sticker inside the drawer. Probably from Connecticut, the circa 1760 chest had a vertical proportion at 72¾ inches and an attenuated stance. It featured a boldly scrolled apron, cabriole legs and Dutch slipper feet. Dealer Don Heller sold a Chippendale figured walnut oxbow secretary he had on the floor, and besides early American furniture, he had several cast iron windmill weights, including a pair of crescent moons, a full moon and a full-bodied bull.

There were also some early furniture gems to be discovered at Anna's Antiques Gallery, Bluffton, S.C., including a federal mahogany D-shaped sideboard attributed to Aaron Chapin, who worked in Connecticut from 1783 to 1813. There was also a Connecticut River Valley Chippendale chest-on-chest in cherrywood with New England white pine as secondary, from Norwich, circa 1790–1795. A corner cupboard in maple with pine secondary came out of Bergen County, N.J., circa 1900–1810. It featured a matchstick cornice top over a 12-light glazed door with all original period glass. The interior shelves were scallop-shaped and in original green paint.

Highlights at Jane McClafferty Antiques, New Canaan, Conn., included a New England tilt top tea table with unusual pad feet and shaped corners, circa 1780, a mid-Nineteenth Century camphorwood campaign desk on a custom stand, a grouping of Nineteenth Century silhouette miniatures, mostly English, and Staffordshire figures and brass smalls.

A carnival atmosphere reigned in the booth set up by Nancy Prince and James LeFurgy, Portland and Wiscasset, Maine. This was due to a pair of turn-of-the-century model circus wagons the dealers had on display, one a wagon with calliope and a wonderful dragon carving, the other with caged polar bears. Prince said the models had been part of an actual circus. "They would charge admission for people to see these very visual models," she said.

The dealers also specialize in early Native American items, such as a pair of bear paw snow shoes, circa 1880–1910, probably Cree, according to LeFurgy, and a set of five woodland splint baskets, circa 1880s, stacked together and in original paint. A round lidded, paint decorated Connecticut splint basket, circa 1875, as well as a Penobscot Indian war club were also on view.

From London, Charles Garland came to this show with a selection of English pottery, including a rare Nottingham salt glaze bear jug, circa 1750, and a creamware jug, circa 1770, with rose floral decoration. Larger items in his booth were a carved regency royal crest, circa 1820, a Nineteenth Century zinc figure of Hebe and a Nineteenth Century carved and gilded eagle.

Looking ahead, Gould is busy planning the 17th annual Wilton Holiday Antiques Show, which will return to the familiar Wilton High School Field House on December 6. And in March or April 2010, Gould will present an American Craftsmanship show, a benefit for the Drum Hill Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. For information, 203-834-9607 or email marilyn@mcgantiquespromotions.com .

Stormy Weather, Can't Keep My Poor Tent Together

Forgive Kensington, Conn., antiques dealer Derik Pulito for singing the blues. His pop-up exhibitor's tent was somehow singled out for punishment by the local weather gods on Friday, June 26, after he and several other dealers had set up outdoors in Wilton and headed home for the day. Rain and wind reared up in a powerful late afternoon storm, blowing in Pulito's tent.

"I got a call at home from one of the other dealers at about 6 pm saying that 'everything's caved in,'" recalled Pulito. He rushed back to Wilton, arriving at about 7:30 pm to find the tangled, soggy remnants of his tent. Fortunately, while he was enroute, fellow dealers Hilary Nolan, Bruce Emond and others were able to move most of his merchandise inside the school building or to Perkins & Menson's tent directly across from his spot.

"I lost a couple of paintings," said Pulito the next day. Sans tent, he was set up in his original space al fresco with his selection of early furniture, paintings and decorative accessories. Nearby, the skeletal backbone of his tent lay in a jumble, looking like a Modern metal lawn sculpture. —WD