Birchwood Manor Antiques Show

WHIPPANY, N.J.

: Before becoming a rare book dealer, Leonard Brook worked for 30 years as a movie animal trainer (aka wrangler) on 150 films in New York City. One of his film credits was Godfather III, part of the movie saga known for the line, "An offer you can't refuse." Brook certainly exhibited treasures that patrons just couldn't refuse at the July 23-25 Birchwood Manor Antiques Show.

Exhibitor Roger Daye from Lord & Rogers, Lakewood, Ohio, who has been on the road since the last week of June, simply could not refuse the opportunity to show at Birchwood Manor. "I look forward to doing this show. Rona and Jesse care for their dealers and they know how to promote a show."

One "hot" item that Daye offered was a circa 1920s blue willow toaster with a book value of $3,000. He explained that porcelain toasters did not often survive, which makes them sought-after treasures that blue willow collectors can't refuse. Daye also displayed a late 1800s Staffordshire blue willow Toby mug for $800, a Pairpoint cut glass vase, a circa 1950s Herend Blue Garland tureen and liner, a Victorian cranberry glass bride's basket and a very large pair of Duncan & Miller glass candelabra.

Dealer Brian Rizzolo from Aunt Pitty Pat's Antiques in Chester, N.J., sold formal furniture in the upper level salon. She commented, "This great setting works well for me. This is the ideal show for what I sell. And it's also good to see that Rona and Jesse's daughter Alison is active in the business."

As show participants for approximately 20 years, Shirley and Larry Shapiro from Esther Bernard Antiques, Newburgh, N.Y., stressed the "warm and friendly group of dealers" that exhibit at this twice-a-year event.

By Sunday morning the Shapiros had sold an Art Deco sideboard, an Empire drop leaf dining room table, and several bookshelves. A Manhattan collector purchased four artist watercolors of The Plaza, Washington Square Park, the New York City Public Library and Times Square. Two of her Audubon prints are now on their way to a Florida residence.

Antiques of Windermere, Inc, Orlando, Fla., achieved a Winterthur-like room setting with fine Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century furniture and accessories. Among the display's showstoppers was a pair of circa 1775 his and her Chippendale wing chairs that were covered in crewelwork. With provenance stating that they were passed down in the Johnson family at the Antioch Plantation in Powatam County, Va., they were offered to patrons for $49,000.

Dealer Brad Goldberger also exhibited a pair of Eighteenth Century knife boxes complete with their inserts, and inlaid with stars on the front and inside. They carried a price tag of $22,000. A signed George Jones majolica garden seat designed with dragon flies, birds, and lily pads was priced at $16,000 and a Nineteenth Century hand painted, artist signed palace size 46-inch-tall Sevres urn was tagged $22,500.

With a background in interior design, veteran dealer Helena Glick gravitates toward the dramatic. "Design is design. It's just scaled down when it comes to jewelry," she said. She brought a Victorian French enamel three-carat diamond necklace, a circa 1850 ruby and rose-cut diamond pin with an aquamarine center, an Edwardian rose-cut diamond lavaliere and a 17-jewel European Art Deco platinum watch with a Swiss movement. There was a Nineteenth Century handmade Spanish silver bowl with detail that suggests it may have been a commissioned piece.

Helena and her husband Bob of Up, Up, and Away Antiques in Pembroke Pines, Fla., were first-time participants at the show. She said, "We plan to return to this show next year."

Scott Condello from The Sword and Pen in North Wales, Penn., sold an Andrew Jackson autograph, a Civil War bone saw and a set of six Civil War glass apothecary jars with a patent date of 1862 on the first day of the show. Among their ephemera offerings was a framed page from The Pennsylvania Gazette printed by Benjamin Franklin and dated January 9, 1753. A framed front page of a 1912 Harper's Weekly priced at $495 read, "The Lost Titanic. The huge steamship, the newest and greatest of ocean liners which sank off the Newfoundland banks last Monday morning after a collision with an iceberg carrying more than a thousand souls."

Also shown was a Civil War Massachusetts militia musician's shako with Union eagle buttons offered for $1,200, and a United States diplomatic sword with a gold wash hilt, leather scabbard and mother-of-pearl handle marked $1,250.

First-time exhibitor Putnam Antiques from Greenwich, Conn., arrived at the show with an Eighteenth Century English mahogany linen press with two doors (inset with large crotch veneer ovals) over four graduated drawers with banded inlay and brass lion head pulls offered for $14,500. Also shown were a rare Art Deco desk of Palisander wood that was attributed to Dominick for $16,000, a circa 1810-1830 rare German/Aus-trian Baroque burr-walnut gilt and ebonized cabinet for $8,500, and a pair of circa 1920s French walnut chaise longues.

Art & Antique Gallery from Worcester, Mass., exhibited a John George Brown (American, 1831-1931) oil on canvas painting of a young girl with broom in hand looking for alms. Also displayed was a ranch scene with a mountain range in the background by Aldro Hubbard (American, 1886-1972), a John Henry Dolph (American, 1835-1903) oil of cows grazing, and a Frederick F. Martinez (American, late Nineteenth Century) oil of a young lady holding a wide-brimmed hat in one hand and garden flowers in the other.

The next Birchwood Manor Antiques Show will be January 7-9. Jesse and Rona Kohler are also starting a new show called The Garden State Antiques Show this fall on October 2 and 3, at the Rothman Center on the campus of Fairleigh Dickinson University in Hackensack, N.J. For information, call 352-527-6666 or 201-213-2810 or visit www.jmkshows.com.