Kemble's, Norwich,
Ohio.
By Laura Beach
HARTFORD, CONN. -- The Connecticut Spring Antiques Show has been
around so long -- 30 years to be exact -- that the question of
whether it is up or down no longer seems relevant. Year in and
year out, through good times and bad, in up economies and down,
during war and at peace, the fair delivers a quality selection of
early New England furniture and choice accessories. Dedicated
collectors are always there to buy.
The surprise this year was how good the show was with so much in
the world so bad. When the Connecticut Spring Antiques Show
opened at the Connecticut Expo Center at 9 am on Saturday, March
22, the usual number of hardcore shoppers filed in. But at 10:30
am, when general admission began, the crowd swelled.
"Saturday was terrific. The people just didn't stop coming in.
They kept coming until around 2 pm, and we got another little
surge after that," reported show manager Linda Turner. "I'm
thankful to the dealers, who all put in their best efforts, and
to those who came and bought. We were all holding our breaths."
With nearly 70 exhibitors, the Connecticut Spring Antiques Show
maintains its longtime emphasis on pre-1840 American furniture,
which is perhaps one reason why furniture sold well in the show's
latest installment.
"What's moving is the best," said Salisbury, Conn., dealer Don
Buckley, who advertised that he was bringing a perfect Durand
banister back side chair but sold it before he could get it onto
the floor.
"I sold a couple of items in the five figures and a few items in
the four figures. Most of my higher-end stuff went. That's where
the market is," agreed Mercer, Penn., dealer Chuck White, who
paired a petite cigar store Indian maiden, $52,000, with a
Lancaster County tall-case clock, $24,500, and a New Hampshire
barrel back corner cupboard, $11,500.
"It was an expensive little thing, but it sold immediately after
the doors opened," Woodbury, Conn., dealer Harold Cole said of
the William and Mary transitional to Queen Anne high chest of
drawers, marked $48,000, from eastern Connecticut. The piece was
made of tulip wood, or yellow poplar, and boasted old surface and
brasses.
"It was a good show," Peter Eaton said with considerable
understatement. The Newburyport, Mass., dealer confessed sales of
a two-slat Pilgrim Century child's chair, a four-slat New York
State armchair, a New Hampshire card table, three candlestands,
two mirrors and a country server.
One of the most intriguing items in Eaton's booth, an "as found"
chest with frame, made in the first quarter of the Eighteenth
Century and possessing its original stile back feet and
ball-turned front feet, also sold. The eastern pine piece, marked
$28,000, was from Connecticut and had been first purchased by
Eaton from Jewett City, Conn., dealer John Walton in the 1980s.
Another piece that never made it onto the show floor was a circa
1725-35 Boston William and Mary daybed that Eaton recently
advertised and was bringing to Hartford as the centerpiece of his
booth. "A man saw the ad, called me in my truck on the way down,
and said he'd take it. It's that kind of business. The really
good things, reasonably priced, sell," explained the dealer.
One person who was disappointed not to see Eaton's daybed was
Merrimacport, Mass., dealer Colette Donovan, who had the perfect
yarn-sewn bed rug to go with the daybed. Decorated in satin
stitch in a loose, colorful pattern of leaves and flowers on a
patched, homespun wool blanket, the exceedingly rare circa
1780-90 textile was $18,000.
"I really love the patch. It's such a thrifty, New Englandy,
make-do or do-without idea," Donovan, a bona fide folk art
fanatic, confessed.
Whether Hartford is a buyer's market or a seller's market is hard
to say, since the buyers and sellers here are often
interchangeable. John Keith Russell of South Salem, N.Y.,
withdrew this time as an exhibitor but, like many of his
colleagues in the trade, came to buy. Meanwhile, dealers such as
Stephen-Douglas of Rockingham, Vt., returned as exhibitors.
Stephen-Douglas's colorful booth was full of folk painting,
notably a portrait on panel Masonic sign, possibly by Jonathan
Poore of Maine; and a bootmaker's trade sign, marked L. Porter,
$6,250.
John Philbrick explains the finer points of a gateleg table to
a client.
Also new to the show were noted Washington Boro, Penn., dealer
and show promoter Jim Burk and the Captain's Quarters. The
Amherst, Mass., specialists in marine and China Trade art and
antiques arrayed a set of four deeply carved Chinese rosewood
chairs for the Western market, and a pair of matched China Trade
views, $14,000, of the USS Wachusett, on view in Hong Kong
harbor, the other in a Pacific storm.
"Hartford is a great buying show for us. There is wonderful
quality and variety on the floor," said Ohio dealer David Good.
Good and his booth mate Sam Forsythe, also an Ohio dealer, were
having trouble keeping redware in stock.
Brian Cullity anchored his display with a pair of full-length,
watercolor on paper portraits by Jacob Maentel, $25,000, that he
snapped up on the floor only hours earlier. Inscribed on the back
side of the frames, the likenesses depict Samuel Richardson and
Lida Ernest, married in 1812 or 1815, in York, Penn. The Maentel
portraits flanked two choice pieces of redware, a boldly
decorated Maryland plate and slip decorated covered jar from
Maryland or the Shenandoah Valley.
Gloria and Jim Hagadone of Charlottesville, Va., sold four hoop
back Windsor side chairs to a customer who acquired two more
across the aisle from Ron and Penny Dionne to create an assembled
set of six chairs. The Dionnes also had luck with redware,
selling a vase-shaped jar, $16,000, from southeastern
Massachusetts.
"It's almost pale turquoise and has emerald green splotches. I've
only known three pieces like this one in 25 years. One is in my
cupboard at home, another is in private collection," said Penny
Dionne, who also sold a two-drawer blanket chest, a demilune
table, a candlestand, a chest of drawers and a Queen Anne table.
"I sold the world's greatest drying rack, shoe-footed and made of
mahogany, and a Connecticut blue blanket chest," said Janice
Strauss, just as the doors were opening on Saturday. The South
Salem, N.Y., dealer featured a Boston fall front desk with
waterfall interior and hidden document drawers, $27,500, and a
choice Connecticut River Valley Hepplewhite cherry Pembroke table
with simulated inlays, $4,250.
From a fellow exhibitor, Rye Beach, N.H., dealer Joan Brownstein
acquired a pen and ink family record that, remarkably, appears to
be from the same school as the large, unusual schoolgirl
painting, $58,000, suspended on the back wall of her booth. About
five feet square, the colorful map of the world, made of paper
laid down on linen and acid-free board, is inscribed "Harriet
Abbey Monson 1820." Brownstein also featured two thumb back
Windsor side chairs, $9,800, with town's capes painted on their
crests. Similar chairs are in the collection of the Museum of
American Folk Art and are illustrated in American Painted
Furniture by Schaffner and Klein.
"I sold a big cupboard -- a pot bank, as the Dutch called it --
with shelves for cooking, two blanket chests and the painted bed
that was in the middle of my booth," said Sam Herrup. The
Sheffield, Mass., dealer also parted with several ceramics and a
circa 1770 embroidered bed cover from the Demarest family of New
Jersey.
A cupboard in old mustard paint with a big "v" cutout in the base
left Daniel and Karen Olson's stand. "We sold it to a collector
who bought a set of Windsors from us as well," said Karen Olson.
"This was the best Hartford we ever had."
Ron Chambers, a pewter specialist from Higganum, Conn., parted
with one of his best pieces, a pair of American pipe tongs.
Across the aisle, Wallingford, Conn., dealer Jane Wargo was off
to a good start, having sold an early settle and a Nineteenth
Century game board.
"We sold this clock 17 years ago and just got it back," Ohio
dealer Warren Kemble said of a Levi Hutchins of Concord, N.H.,
dwarf timepiece, $65,000, with original dial and eight-day
movement.
Lewis Scranton of Killingworth, Conn., had no trouble selling his
Middletown, Conn., two-drawer blanket chest in red paint and a
slip decorated redware dish inscribed "Aunt Sally."
Nathan Liverant and Son sold what might have been the fair's
emblem, a superb cast-bronze statue of Connecticut patriot Nathan
Hale by American master sculptor Frederick MacMonnies
(1863-1937). The beautifully articulated figure was cast at the
Jaboeuf and Rouard foundry in Paris around 1890. Around the
state, programs are being planned to commemorate the 250th
anniversary of Hale's birth in 2005.
In the same stand, four coastal Massachusetts side chairs with
deep carved volutes and great old color were $72,500; a Rhode
Island tavern table with super turnings was $45,000. The
Colchester, Conn., dealers also unveiled an impressive tall-case
clock by William Burr of Fairfield. Its brass dial is engraved
with charming pastoral views reminiscent of needlework of the
period.
Kirt Crump of Madison, Conn., featured another appealing
Connecticut tall-case clock, an elegantly simple flat-top example
in cherry wood by Samuel Stiles of Windsor, circa 1785, $22,500,
with an engraved, silvered-brass dial.
Daniel and Karen Olson, Newburgh, N.Y.
Litchfield, Conn., dealer Jeffrey Tillou's rare Hartford
blockfront cherry chest of drawers with a conforming, molded top
seemed like a bargain at $48,000, after the $669,500 paid for a
Connecticut block and shell-carved chest with shaped top at
Christie's in January.
Other items of Connecticut interest included a cast-iron gate,
marked Lincoln & Co, $1,500, at Paul and Karen Wendhiser,
Ellington, Conn.; a Norwich, Conn., cherry serpentine front high
chest of drawers, $89,000 at the Kembles; and a Connecticut River
Valley banister back side chair, $3,900 from the Spencer school,
at James Kilvington, Dover, Del.
"As far as I could see, it was the biggest gate in four or five
years," said Peter Eaton, who occupies the front center booth and
is one of four exhibitors who has been in the show since its
beginning. "I saw all the early buyers come in. I didn't know
half of them. It's encouraging to think that we're attracting new
people."
Forbes & Turner Antiques Shows return to the Connecticut Expo
Center September 20-21 for the Fall Hartford Antiques Show. Also
managed by Forbes & Turner, the Dorset Antiques Show is
planned for July 12. The Riverside Antiques Show in Manchester,
N.H., is set for August 5-7.
