Celebrating 25 Years Of Antiques At Bedford’s Annual Spring Show

Bedford, N.Y.

:After a quarter century of successes, eyebrows would have been raised had the perennially popular Bedford Spring Antiques Show not risen to the occasion for its silver anniversary presentation. Like clockwork, however, the two-day show, a major fundraiser for St Matthew's Church, got underway at the Rippowam Cisqua School on April 10–11 with 29 exhibitors offering room-setting showcases of antiques, fine art and decorative accessories. A veritable army of church committee volunteers, members of the 2010 confirmation class, show manager Michael Jackson and, of course, the dealers themselves, made it happen.

Burnished by a well-attended gala champagne preview party and a special dinner honoring the show's past chairs — both events were conducted the night before the show opened to the public — the two-day event got down to business on Saturday.

For poster specialist Art Finkel, Monroe Township, N.J., that meant flipping though his inventory of original European advertising posters for show patrons and answering their questions. It was his first show in Bedford, and he said he was impressed with the overall quality and booth displays. "I had a few good sales, one of which was "Politiken," a long, narrow poster that represented the masthead of the Danish newspaper," he said. "The customer was going to have it framed and given to her son and daughter-in-law as a Christmas gift." And while the champagne preview is generally less business and more fun, the dealer said he was able to sell two travel posters during a time "when I rarely have sales, so I was glad that there was interest from the attendees."

Also exhibiting at this show for the first time were Susan and Hubert van Asch van Wyck, Washington Depot, Conn. Their business, Black Swan Antiques, specializes in Seventeenth through Nineteenth Century European decorative arts, and their booth showcased a Seventeenth Century French tapestry depicting the Roman god Mercury. Wool on silk, the tapestry measured 6 feet 5½ inches by 9 feet. "The show was very good for us," they said. "We sold not only the armillary sphere that was in our booth but also one that was on the grounds of our shop. We sold two small tables, a painting, four prints, a pair of lamps and some Venetian glass. We also wrote several memos for decorators."

Paulette Peden, antique Swedish furniture specialist from New Preston, Conn., reported one good sale for her business, Dawn Hill Antiques — "a Pennsylvania step back cupboard to a lovely couple who are taking it to Fishers Island. It was just what they had been looking for and she was one of the volunteers at the show."

A 1790 New York 1-gallon ovoid jar attributed to David Morgan of New York City held pride of place at A Bird in Hand Antiques. Florham Park, N.J., dealers Ron and Joyce Bassin show American antiques from the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries, and the dark clay jug incised with hearts was displayed alongside other pottery examples, such as a 2-gallon Norton rabbit jug, Burlington, Vt., circa 1847–50, and a signed Crolius 2-gallon jug, circa 1794–1838, with cloud formation decoration. Other items highlighted in their booth included a 1930s hand carved goose weathervane, found in Connecticut and exhibiting wonderfully delineated wings along with naturally weathered original paint. Among the Bassins' collection of Grenfell mats was a handmade "Dog Sled on Ice Pans" from the 1930s. And a quick sale on preview night was a polychrome sculpture of four birds in a thorn bush from the first half of the Twentieth Century.

From Millwood, Va., Peter Nee came with a selection of Eighteenth Century English antiques and art paired with Midcentury Modern examples. A set of six Louis XVI-style ostrich chairs, a Nineteenth Century cracked finish table from Austria coexisted nicely with a pair of faux ostrich cubes topped by a carved wooden cobra snake and a landscape painting by Twentieth Century California artist Inez Tidwell.

The Willauer family is nearly a founding exhibitor of the Bedford show, and Lynda Willauer Antiques was here again from Nantucket, Mass., with American and English furniture, Chinese Export and majolica. New to the scene, however, was Andy Willauer, who has spun off a new division for the firm, called Sweden Plus. Specializing in Swedish and Scandinavian furniture, paintings and decorative arts from the early 1800s to the mid-1900s, Willauer showcased an 1836 Swedish pitch pine two-piece kitchen cupboard with hand painted floral decoration, a double spoon rack inside, dish shelves and cutlery drawer. Willauer, who said he began the new offshoot last November, has done six shows so far and has had good sales. Much of the furniture he sources appeals to a younger demographic, exemplified by the 1960s leather Danish lounge chairs by Borge-Mogensen and a set of four Hans Wegner teak and beech side chairs.

American lighting enthusiasts are drawn like moths to a flame by the warmly lit space of Jerry and Marsha Rich of J&M Antiques, East Amherst, N.Y. It was the couple's second year at this show, and they brought some stellar examples of Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century American lighting, as well as choice pieces of American furniture on which to display it, such as a cherry Hepplewhite chest with a high apron and extraordinary inlay. A useful piece, according to Jerry Rich, the circa 1815–20 piece could have come from Connecticut, New Hampshire or Boston. Lighting highlights included a Plume & Atwood lamp, circa 1820, with butterscotch overlay shades and that had been properly electrified so that it could revert back to its original oil lamp configuration if desired. Decorative accessories included a pair of Staffordshire collies from the early Nineteenth Century in a rare open legged stance.

New on the scene at this year's show was Imperial Fine Books of New York City with a display of leather bound rare books in all fields and offering custom bookbinding. Inside a showcase were four volumes of Sir Winston Churchill's History of the English People , first edition, all four signed by Churchill himself. Other gems included a first edition of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby that had been rebound in full morocco and a wonderfully bound first edition of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged .

"It's a great time to get started," said Lansing Moore, who with his wife, Iliana, had ventured up from Bronxville, N.Y., to try the show out, one of the first they have done in their home area. Their business, Dongan Antiques, Ltd, hunts out decorative arts of the Seventeenth through Twentieth Century, sometimes pairing works on paper with unique matting and frames to striking effect. Such was the case with a Pennsylvania tramp art frame that surrounded an English watercolor of a hound, 1864, and with a colorful watercolor depiction of the English character Punch, circa 1830, that had been expertly framed. Notable Bedford resident Martha Stewart stopped by the couples' booth on preview night to admire a rare original set of Liberotti's medallions, "Uomini Illustre (100 Famous Men), "made in Rome in about 1835. The medallions curiously — but, remember, they came from Italy — counted only two Americans, George Washington and Benjamin Franklin, among the set's luminaries, and came with the original stacking oak trays with the original green paper backing.

For information, visit www.stmatthewsbedford.org or call 914-234-9636.