: The Peabody-Essex Museum Antiques Show
The Peabody Essex Museum's 31st annual antiques show made a
splendid return to the museum this year after a three-year stint
at Salem State College during construction of the museum's new
wing and atrium. Thirty-three dealers exhibited fine American,
English and continental antiques and accessories in artfully
arranged booths up and down around the museum. Dealers set up in
the spectacular new atrium, the gallery and studio area and the
venerable East India Hall.
Northeast Auctions sponsored the elegant preview party for which
The Catered Affair, Boston's preeminent caterer and a museum
supporter, provided excellent sustenance. Northeast Auctions'
associate Albert Sack presented a lecture, "Albert Sack Tells
All," and Chris Jussel, former Antiques Roadshow host and
Northeast associate, covered "Antiquarian on the Road."
The museum remained open during the preview and the rest of the
show, allowing visitors to inspect the museum's dazzling new
addition and to compare wares for sale with those on view.
Proceeds of the preview party and general show admission
benefited the museum's educational programs.
Show manager since the beginning, Christine Crossman Vining works
hard each year to produce a quality show and she commands a loyal
dealer following. The show is elegant. Since setup was on
Thanksgiving Day, there remained the problem of securing the
booths the next day while the museum was open to visitors. The
solution? Shrink-wrap. Not antique, but certainly novel. The
effect was of an avenue of prettily wrapped gift boxes just
waiting for the right hand to open them. Early visitors to the
museum's new atrium saw rows of booths filled with enticing
antiques all behind transparent but very secure shrink-wrap. At
least three museum visitors spotted objects of desire behind the
wrap and came back during the show to buy them.
Fiske & Freeman, Belmont, Vt.
Vining reported that the gate this year was up five times
over last year. She attributed much of the success of the show to
the cooperation of museum staff, particularly Bob Monks of the
facilities department, who, she said, "deserves a halo." She also
said she could not do without the services of Northeast Auctions'
crew, who serve as porters throughout the show.
This year she prevailed upon on her brother, Carl Crossman of
Northeast Auctions, to give a dinner at his New Hampshire home
for the dealers the night before the preview. Thanksgiving dinner
for 60? A snap. From all reports, the evening was a great
success.
Jeremy Taylor of the Taylor Gallery, London, brought coals to
Newcastle. He offered a handsome array of China Trade paintings
of which the museum has a prodigious collection. Two in
particular he bought last spring at Skinner and restored to
stunning condition. The pictures, which simply glow, descended in
the family of Salem China Trade Captain Nathaniel Kinsman, who
was also a highly successful merchant in Macao. One is a highly
detailed, circa 1810-20, view of the hongs at Canton; the other
is a mid-Nineteenth Century depiction of ships at anchor in Hong
Kong Harbor.
Taylor is himself a former China trader; he said it is still in
his blood. He called the hongs at Canton "the best China Trade
picture I've ever seen." He also offered the circa 1850 "A
Clipper Ship, Flying the House Flag of Dent and Co, off the Coast
of China" and the oil on canvas "Portrait of a Tanka Girl" in the
original China Trade wood and gilt frame.
Taylor, who was new to the show this year, did his own setup. He
borrowed a brass bellman's trolley from the Hawthorne Hotel where
he was staying and wheeled some $300,000 in paintings up Essex
Street to the museum.
Sheila and Roy Mennell of The Bradford Trust in Harwichport,
Mass., brought Cape Cod paintings, an arena that is one of their
specialties. The Mennells brought along paintings by some of
their favorite artists such as Charles D. Cahoon, whose work they
collect themselves, and John Whorf. Roy Mennell reported good
buying as early as the preview party and said that in general
2003 was one of their best years yet. They bought several
pictures at the Boston International Fine Art Show several weeks
earlier and they offered them in Salem.
Dealer Richard Vandall of American Decorative Arts of Canaan,
N.H., specializes in farm Staffordshire and Shaker. Vandall said
he has done the Peabody Essex Museum show more times than he can
remember and called show manager Vining, "The reason I do the
show." He referred to himself as "one of Christine's army" of
show regulars.
Maxine and Berthold Schweizer, who run Maxine Antiques of North
Amherst, Mass., brought along a very popular selection of fine
antique jewelry that attracted lively interest. Schweizer herself
wore a delicate necklace of yards of diamonds and pearls that was
simply smashing against her black dress.
Kittery, Maine, ceramics dealer Sarah M. Coito specializes in
Seventeenth to Twentieth Century ceramics. Early in the preview
she had already sold a Chinese yellow monkey.
Also new this year were Helen and Hamilton Meserve of Running
Battle Antiques in Millbrook, N.Y. They showed a very delicately
executed Nineteenth Century China Trade watercolor of a dog
painted in the manner of Guiseppe Castiglione, who was known in
the imperial Chinese court as Lang-Shih-ning. They also showed
English artist John Lynn's "East Indiaman Madagascar off
Berry Head."
Despite being crammed into what Vining said was "the tiniest
booth in the show," the Meserves had one of the most attractive
and did very well.
The Boston Art Club displayed works by late and live member,
including Agnes M. Richmond's "Sewing," a summerlike portrait of
a woman painted in blues and purples in about 1908, and a fine
J.J. Enneking work.
Clock dealer Charles Edwin of Louisa, Va., was also new this
year. He offered one of the showpieces of the sale: an imposing
George II long-case clock with a brass and silvered dial made by
Marmaduke Storr in London in about 1745. The clock is quite
unusual for its japanning against a green ground and the
inclusion of four ships and Middle Eastern scenes in the panels.
Washington, D.C., designer C. Dudley Brown bought it years ago
with his 14th birthday money.
Sarah Coito, Kittery, Me.
Fiske & Freeman of Belmont, Vt., filled a Welsh dresser
with colorful delftware and pewter plates, tankards and porringers.
They specialize in delft, tea caddies, small boxes and pewter.
Rug dealers Landry & Arcari of Boston and Salem offered heaps
of jewel-like rugs that patrons seemed to really like. Buyers
were observed wrestling with prime choices.
Book dealers Fran and Rick Russack from Danville, N.H., sell
books about antiques, and they brought along a full selection.
Vining said they visited the museum several days before the show
to check out the selection of books in the museum's gift shop so
they would not compete with the museum's offerings.
Hanes & Ruskin of Old Lyme, Conn., offered some nice American
and English ceramics and American country pieces, including a
circa 1780 slant lid desk in cherry wood with a lively tiger
maple interior and replaced brasses.
