Cape Cod Antiques Show Scorches On A Fine Summer Weekend

Orleans, Mass.

:Strategically placed fans, at least a half dozen, were working hard, keeping temperatures bearable inside the main gym at Nauset Regional Middle School July 31, but it was the choice antiques on display that were red-hot at the Cape Cod Antiques Dealers Association's antiques show opening at 5 pm for its three-day run.

Apropos to the show's venue, many dealers stocked their booths with Americana, particularly with an eye toward the nautical. A pleasing selection of ship models, ship paintings and other marine-inspired antiques or art were liberally sprinkled around the show. Yet, the eagle-eyed shopper could also find Asian antiques, as well as European and other items purposely chosen to entice those merely visiting the Cape or whose other homes reflect a more contemporary bent.

Davidian Americana, Dennis, Mass., showed a fine selection of furniture, including a Nineteenth Century New England hutch table, a pair of Massachusetts ladder back chairs, maple, circa 1800, in original surface, as well as a New England dry sink in original surface featuring red over dark blue milk paint.

Hanging on the booth walls were a colorful silk log cabin quilt, a pair of ancestral portraits of a man and woman by Richard Bonington, signed and dated 1806, and a Cape Cod hooked rug, circa 1930, depicting two sailboats, a lighthouse and a compass symbol.

William H. Wibel Antiques, Brewster, Mass., who specializes in Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century material culture, as well as Nineteenth–Twentieth Century folk art and fine art, was featuring a well-rounded collection of Nineteenth Century sailmaking tools, including several seamers with whale bone, fine examples of intricate ropework and several wooden cases to hold needles that sailors would use to mend their sails. He also offered several fine framed watercolors of sailing ships and a harbor scene.

Among the nautical items in the booth of Charles and Barbara Adams, South Yarmouth, Mass., was an antique sextant in a case retaining a paper label from the C.R. Sherman & Co. of New Bedford, Mass., dealers in nautical, mathematical and optical instruments, as well as charts and nautical books. A case full of Bennington pottery from pitchers to Toby jugs and platters was also on display.

Henry T. Callan Antiques, East Sandwich, Mass., is known for samplers as well as Chinese Export. At the show, he had a lovely Connecticut sampler wrought by Mary Thurston on December 11, 1848; a pair of armorial dishes dating to 1805 and a rare and highly desirable orange Fitzhugh platter dating to 1790.

Sandwich glass was also highlighted, of course, in the form of a finger bowl with an undertray with a continuous threaded border. Callan's collection of tiny Battersea boxes was also drawing attention. With inscriptions such as "A Trifle from Bath" and some with mirrors, the boxes — once given out as inexpensive tokens of affection, "trifles" — are charming smalls affordably priced today at $300/600.

The booth of Betsy Hewlett Antiques, Harwich Port, Mass., positively sparkled as it was filled with hundreds of choice examples of Sandwich and other early American pattern glass, circa 1840–1890. Dealing in this genre since 1969, Hewlett offered a well-stocked booth.

Witt's End Antiques, Wallkill, N.Y., offered a circa 1820–30 Sheraton wingback rocker chair in a lovely yellow brocade upholstery, an early Eighteenth Century diminutive oak drop leaf table with a stretcher base, a circa 1820s bootjack end, six-board blanket box with fine paint decoration, as well as a Nineteenth Century New Hampshire six-drawer bottle-legged stand in its original red paint.

In its spot near the show entrance, Ten-Mile Antiques, Attleboro, Mass., offered Wedgwood and English pottery and jewelry.

David Beauchamp, Brookline, N.H., had elegant case furniture, but it was the smaller dresser boxes sitting atop chests and tables, all featuring fine inlay, woodwork and delicate carving, that caught one's eye.

Judy Wheeler, Chatham, Mass., offered a sparse but select booth in shades of white and cream, featuring lacy textiles, antique dresses, several ladies' hats topped with silk flowers and a pair of dolls perched in wicker chairs.

Highlights at Charles and Frances Szeglin Antiques, Eastham, Mass., included a Windsor sack back rocking chair, circa 1790–1820, New England; an early Nineteenth Century New England piggin; a collection of cookware, such as an early Nineteenth Century copper teakettle; and an Eighteenth Century wrought iron spider.

Among the Chinese Export and fine china on view, Quimper specialist East Chesterfield Antiques, Sudbury, Mass., was showing a broderie pattern example, which is rare as the high cost of this pattern's production led to its run being short-lived. Dealer Susan Bistany said she has been doing the show for around 30 years because of the quality of merchandise here, noting that the show is mostly country and primitives. "We don't fit in," she said with a laugh, but noted that they do well with the buyers who are looking for items other than country and Americana.

Good things evidently come in twos as evidenced at The Ensinger Collection, Surfside Beach, S.C., which offered a pair of hand carved architectural window shutters from China, a pair of green glazed terracotta balcony railings that had been mounted as lamps, a pair of American vintage red leather lamp tables in mahogany and a Nineteenth Century pair of massive Mason's ironstone pitchers, English.

Chinese Export highlights included a black lacquer and gilt master tea caddy with its original single pewter caddy, circa 1840; a shallow rose famille bowl, circa 1745; and a 5-inch-tall tankard showing several mandarins on a veranda, circa 1760.

The Odd Chair and The Old Crock, Mashpee, Mass., showed a fine gray blanket box, a trio of stoneware jugs and few examples of early lighting.

Marsh Hawk Antiques, Eastham, Mass., offered hundreds of chocolate molds, including a rare pig playing a saxophone, a mint scallop shell mold that was French, circa 1950s, and an Anton Reicha fisherman holding a fish, as well as a rare Eppelsheimer & Co. ice cream mold.

Standouts at Mad River Antiques, North Granby, Conn., were a set of four matching Sheraton chairs, circa 1830, with stenciled decoration and rush seats; a mid-Nineteenth Century red and black grain painted blanket box with superb cutouts on the front and sides, along with a striking mid-Nineteenth Century red and black grain painted cupboard of square nail construction.

The dealers also offered a fine Nineteenth Century band sampler with whitework. The polychrome bands were silk-stitched on a linen ground, while the sampler featured geometric, floral and animal designs.

Cummaquid Farm Antiques, Cummaquid, Mass., had on view a fine oil on canvas by John Clinton Spencer (American, 1861–1919), depicting a string of trout, a circa 1800 chimney cupboard in the original putty/gray paint, a classical pier table in mahogany with a central drawer over ionic columns and a pair of seated Staffordshire spaniels in cream with peach and rust accents.

Christine Ehret Antiques, Barnstable, Mass., featured a pleasing collection of blue and white china and pewter, while Derik Pulito, Kensington, Conn., showed a stack of six round mustard boxes, some signed, a lovely still life with fruit by Chapin Bryant from the Fall River School and a rare, circa 1840 primitive portrait of a young girl holding a cat on her lap that was found in a Scituate, Mass., barn and restored.

Past Tense Antiques, Osterville, Mass., filled its booth with paintings, including works by Henry Hensche, Antonio Cirino and George Howell Gay.

Ed and Charlene Dixon specialize in nautical, stoneware and country. At the show, the Eastham, Mass., dealers offered a vintage Cape Cod fishing trawler model and several hooked rugs with nautical themes.

David Thompson Antiques and Art, Middlebury, Vt., had on display a pond boat model, circa 1910, with a lead-weighted deep keel in original paint; a circa 1800 Connecticut double wheel chair flax wheel and an 1854 coastal chart by Charles Copley, hydrographer.

Bradford Trust Antiques, Harwich Port, Mass., covered its booth walls with a fine selection of paintings, most relating to Cape Cod, including "Joaquin's Farm, Truro" by Helen Sawyer (1900–1999) and Jane Gage's "Miller's Hill, Provincetown," with the latter noteworthy as it was painted as a view from east Provincetown.

A small case of firearms at Ester Gilbert Antiques, Southampton, Mass., included such gems as an 1852 Navy Colt, a rare 1849 Colt Wells Fargo model and a Civil War pepperbox.

Rounding out the show offerings were an antique toy boat, The Libertania , at Antiques of Hingham, a lovely silver service at Richard Tetlow Antiques, Desert Hot Springs, Calif., and a collection of nautical cast iron doorstops in fine paint at Bayberry Antiques, Orleans, Mass.

For information about the Cape Cod Antiques Dealers Association, visit www.ccada.com .