Stella Antiques Show Fills Pier 94 With Big Crowd For Fall Event

New York City

:Tastemaker Martha Stewart placed it in "Martha's Calendar" for November: "Pier Antiques Show" — followed, to be sure, by her usual Sunday horseback ride and decorating the house for Thanksgiving. And although no Stewart sightings at Pier 94 were reported, it seemed that much of Manhattan and beyond turned out for Stella Show Mgmt Co.'s Pier Antiques Show, which returned to the Passenger Ship Terminals on November 14 and 15 to present its popular fall edition. Some 500 dealers offered everything from classic and formal antiques, Americana and Twentieth Century Modern to vintage fashions and collectibles.

Stewart is only one of the area's celebrities who makes the Pier show a must-do event. A-list types like Kyra Sedgwick, Kevin Bacon, Hilary Swank and Sarah Jessica Parker have all been spotted making the rounds. Good luck picking them out.

"Everyone was talking about the crowds," said Harry Greenberger, HG Limited. " The aisles were full both Saturday and Sunday." Greenberger, a Bogota, N.J., dealer of gleaming retro collectibles, reported that business was good. "New collectors were buying instant collections, several related objects," he said.

Following the event, Irene Stella said, "We were overwhelmed. The dealers were pleased. It was a shot in the arm we needed."

One dealer told Stella that it was the best show he had done in eight years.

Now whether that means that antiques shows, like the broader economy, are beginning to turn the corner or that the turnout was just a testament to the Stella organization's ability to draw the crowds is not clear. Stella, did add, however, that "while the gate for last year's fall show was strong, too, this year people were buying ."

Don Selkirk, owner of Past Pleasures Moderne, Annandale, Va., concurred. "The November show seemed strong, with many people spending money. [Irene] Stella put on another great one, and she gets the people in. The best item I sold was an orange wooden speed boat, 3 feet long, from the 1940s." Selkirk also said there was quite a bit of interest in his other specialty, postwar O-gauge Streamliner model trains.

There was a lot of Modern furniture seen going out the door, according to Stella.

Mark Fisk, Mainly Art Vintage Home Furnishings, Cincinnati, Ohio, found that there seemed to be a pent up impulse to buy. "We did very well and, talking to other dealers, they felt the same. People are definitely looking for quality and great buys. We did sell quite a bit of furniture, with a pair of 1950s black Milo Baughman chairs selling and a 1960s orange covered stainless steel sofa and a set of six Organic Movement wood and rope chairs."

"Finally! A great show. What energy that show floor had on both Saturday and Sunday! It was packed, just like the good ole days!" exclaimed Janice and Jerry Bonk, decorative arts dealers from Hellertown, Penn. Their business, Bonkey's Treasures, reclaims antique and vintage architectural items and decorative accessories from the United States and Europe and gives them a museum-quality presentation. The couple sold a couple of its signature workbenches and several other pieces, including some of the magnificent building star anchors they had mounted for display. "We put an extraordinary amount of time and effort into our pieces, it is a good feeling to see the positive reactions of our customers," they said.

Antique clock specialist Larry Dalton of Scarsdale, N.Y., said he, too, found the Pier show to be more like the old days. "There was more energy during setup. Lots of people came on Saturday and were buying. Sunday, there were fewer people, but we still had good sales. We sold a beautiful French clock that had an 8-by-10-inch painted porcelain panel in the front, circa 1830. Also, a bird box with engraved case and painted enamel top. Some people we saw Saturday came back Sunday and bought. You never know who you will see shopping the Pier Antiques show. It's a very diversified show, I think that's what makes it interesting. There is something for everyone's taste and budget."

Amid antique treasures in the more traditional aisles — classified as Classic & Formal in the show's floor plan — Harvey and Aleta Weinstein, of Harvey Weinstein Fine Antiques, New York City, presented a glowing parade of Tiffany Studios lamps. "We were very pleased to see the huge attendance all weekend. People were extremely interested in the artistry and workmanship of the Tiffany Studios lamps we brought to the show. Because of our unique selection and 40 years specializing in Tiffany lamps, we were happy to do business with private Tiffany devotees and new clients," the couple said.

Also in this section was Lisa Gaffney, who, as owner of Sharon, Conn.-based Terra Mare Antiques, focuses on ceramic art pottery and decorative arts. She said she noticed a continuing trend of "people doing less casual shopping and buying pieces important to their collections or that they have a specific place in mind for. My fabulous British bronze bat sconces were big attention-getters, but didn't sell in the end because they seemed harder for customers to place in their homes. I sold a gorgeous French iridescent pottery vase with mushroom decoration by Frederic Danton to a customer who had contemplated it at the Modern Show and decided he had to have it and several beautiful Amphora vases with spider web decoration to Amphora collectors."

Those hardy showgoers trekking to the rear of the Classic & Formal aisles were rewarded by finding the antique book and ephemera collection of Bruce Gventer, South Egremont, Mass. One of his best pieces on display was a rare 1260 page from a Psalter done in Flanders in Latin, but he confided that — as he has seen in past recessionary times — his biggest selling items were erotica. "Most of my sales were in the lower price range, but there were many of them," he said. "In today's marketplace, buyers are looking for good deals and if they find them, they will spend. I had sales in all categories, including bindings, art, prints, renaissance pages and antiquarian books, but the largest volume of sales was in erotica."

For a show of its size, there is little turnover among dealers. "About a dozen" were new to the show this year, according to Stella. One of those new faces came all the way from Grant Pass, Ore. DeWayne Lumpkin, whose monothemed display consisted solely of British route signs, calls his business Home Economics. "I was very pleased with the response of buyers at the show," he said. "Several collectors who purchased the British route signs were graphic designers and font designers who appreciated the aesthetic quality of the graphic text and admired the progression of font styles through different periods of the transit system's development."

Other buyers, he said, were New York dealers, who purchased transit signs with the intention of framing them and reselling them. "A few interior decorators purchased route signs for specific clients with large loft spaces and thought they would be a great complement to contemporary art collections — specifically a nice counterpoint to groupings of small-scale black and white photography." Displaced Brits who felt nostalgic for the familiar locations listed as double-decker bus stops provided more sales, and "finally, some high-end retailers expressed interest in larger quantities for flagship stores and showrooms."

And what would the Pier Show be without Fashion Alley? Vintage fashions comprised the floor space to the right of the café with nearly 50 dealers offering everything from mink soles to designer gowns and luxe handbags.

Joy Liotta Horvath, Southport, Conn., after many years away from the Pier Show, decided to exhibit once again. Her business, Gioia Handbags, is a marriage of artistry and vintage handbags, and she found the crowds that began Saturday and continued through Sunday afternoon to be so large that "at times the booth was hard to navigate." Meeting a lot of new customers, she said, "It was very refreshing after almost a year of flat sales. I sold a number of my custom handbags. One was a red silk purse with an antique frame that had a hand painted bird on it, circa 1940. I also sold a very unusual Art Nouveau glass chandelier, French, circa 1920." Horvath, who also provided appraisals, said she will be back for the spring Pier show.

Also at Fashion Alley, Connecticut dealer Pat Frazer of Vintage Couture Jewelry said that the "alley" was "exciting, kooky and had plenty of international and American buyers, dealers and designers to take in the eye candy . I specialize in vintage jewelry that inspires today's styles, so my booth was bustling with fashionistas looking for the next hot look." Frazer said she sold two vintage Stanley Hagler pins for $500 that will be headed for Europe, a huge Czech brooch for $350 that will serve to inspire a purse designer, Vintage Kenneth Jay Lane rings, Chanel and Givenchy clip-on earrings — button earrings are making a comeback — a huge 1960s mixed turquoise glass Cleopatra necklace to a fashionable vice president of design and plenty of long golden chains worn "en masse" for the holidays.

High-end vintage dealer Lisa D'Angelo, owner of Lisa Victoria Vintage, Bogota, N.J., said she derives "a deep sense of pride in offering, in pristine condition, couture and one-of-a-kind garments from the 1800s to the 1980s. Customers have told me that they were drawn into my booth even though they had never purchased a vintage piece before. It is a wonderful feeling to see how happy they are to leave my booth with their purchases. A special sale was when a young woman came into my booth hoping to find a gown for her wedding. She was delighted that she had found the ideal Art Deco wedding gown of her dreams. She also purchased Art Deco earrings to complement her gown, and jewelry for all of her bridesmaids." Among the designer items D'Angelo sold at the show were Dior, Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent and Halston.

Other antiques show promoters could learn from the Stella group's promotional efforts to attract eager young buyers, according to tramp art specialist Clifford Wallach. While the Greenwich, Conn., dealer characterized his results as "good, not our best or worst show at the Piers," he said he was very impressed with the enthusiasm of the crowds at the show. "We sold a fabulous tramp art frame with a Lust family fraktur from 1883, and a wonderful large tramp art mirror frame. Both went to new collectors," he said. "We did sell a bunch of tramp art boxes to a decorator, who bought them for a client in Michigan."

The Pier Antiques Show returns March 13–14. Stella Show Mgmt's next shows are Americana & Antiques at the Pier, January 23–24, and Antiques at the Armory, January 22–24. For information, 973-808-5015 or www.stellashows.com .