Gramercy Garden and Antiques Show Provides a Taste of Spring

NEW YORK CITY - A small taste of spring amidst the wintry weather was experienced by the throngs of people that attended the Gramercy Garden and Antiques Show over the weekend of March 4. The show opened with a lively preview party on Thursday evening, March 3, a benefit for the Brooklyn Botanical Garden.

A huge crowd looking for a break from the winter doldrums made their way into the show for preview to shop for a wide variety of garden and architectural ornamentation that ranged from flowerpots to fountains and urns to arbors. Sales during preview were spirited as decorators, designers and garden enthusiasts planned for the upcoming season.

The show opened to the general public on Friday with Stella Show Mgmt Co. reporting a steady crowd throughout the day and weekend. Once again sales were strong with garden ornaments and figural pieces garnering most of the attention.

Garden seminars were presented daily by both Brooklyn Botanical Garden and Garden Design Magazine with the likes of Cole Burrell, co-author of Intimate gardens, Guy Wolff and Stephen Block presenting lectures throughout the weekend. A walk-through-the-show hosted by Donna Dorian, style and design editor at Garden Design Magazine, proved a popular event on both Saturday and Sunday afternoon.

While the show contained a number of booths that offered nongarden oriented stylish antiques only, the garden ornaments were the clear favorites. Rockville Centre dealer Joan Bogart displayed a traditional assortment of classical cast iron garden elements from her stand including four signed pieces by Fiske. The centerpiece of her booth was an extremely rare signed Fiske boot boy fountain that depicts a Nineteenth Century lad holding one boot in his hand from which the water drains. The classic figure was in an old paint and was attracting serious attention from many in the crowd. The dealer also offered a fountain with two kids holding an umbrella that had the water cascading down from it and two signed Fiske aquariums. Other items in the booth included a medium-sized pair of terra-cotta seated dogs and a large pair of sewer tile urns with trunk-form bases and intertwined stick-form urns.

A large pair of classical limestone urns was a quick seller from the booth of Pine Plains, N.Y., dealer Balsamo Antiques. The capped urns were one of several pairs offered, with a large pair of French Modern urns flanking the entrance to the booth, while an English stone urn with mythological style rams heads stood in the center. Another item in the booth that was garnering a great deal of attention was a monumental inverted granite cone-form fountain that had water dramatically trickling from its peak and rippling down the piece.

Wells, Maine, dealer Bob Withington always prepares a wonderful display for the show and this year was no exception as he offered a massive limestone fountain that measured more than 16 feet in diameter when fully constructed. Due to space constraints the dealer had only partially mounted his fountain display, using only about half of the pieces, yet it was still stunning with a figural boy with fish fountain in the center. A nice small room had also been formed at the front of his booth that was filled with a massive cast iron stag's head with an enormous rack of antlers.

The Finnegan Gallery, Chicago, also presented one of the most dramatic booths in the show with an oversized cast stone windmill in the forefront, along with an unusual cast leopard with weather paint that vaguely resembled an Orphan Annie feline. A wonderful pair of French composition planters was also displayed with unusual tree trunk base extending upwards to support large bowls with relief decoration featuring full leaved branches. A pair of classical French cast iron urns with fancy handles was also offered by the dealers. In a wonderful old rust colored paint, the pair still retained their original rare winter covers with finial caps.

Collins and McCullough displayed a diverse assortment of garden items and eclectic antiques such as a carved figure of a top-hatted man, as well as a modernist carved sculptural fountain with "Goldbergesque" attachments. The most stimulating piece in the booth swept across the rear wall as a wrought iron wind-blown tree-form flower pot holder more than 5 feet in height and 7 feet long attracted attention.

The stylish booth of More and More invited patrons into the show with a striking display that closely resembled a cottage whose front door was covered with a magnificent wrought iron canopy with decorative wall supports.

Next door was the booth of Manhattan garden specialists Treliage with their prominent display accentuated with a backdrop of three large wrought iron trellises in old paint that were surrounded by planters and urns in all shapes and sizes that were filled with flora and fauna.

Large and heavy things were featured in the booth of Bridges Over Time, Walden, N.Y., including a monumental zinc park-size fountain depicting two boys with a swan. A pair of terra-cotta thrones with stylized winged griffins forming the arms and legs were also offered from the stand as was a wonderful architectural Italian limestone model of a cathedral with columns and crests.

Several sets of Faux Bois cement furniture were available from a variety of booths around the floor. None, however, measured up to the classic set offered by R.E. Steele. The rare set had an Adirondacky feely to it with a polychromed slab tabletop complete with painted bark edges, growth rings and heartwood. The top was supported by a stump and branch pedestal-style base and had four large stump-form chairs, also paint decorated.

Several items sold from the booth of Village Braider as the show opened to the public with a pair of half-round benches selling right off the bat, as did an oversized pair of stone capitals, a small grouping of cast stone toadstools and a cast iron pelican. It was not long before a monumental carved Gothic mirror was also sporting a sold tag with the five-figure item selling to a buyer that was shipping it to Ireland.

Nancy Wells was turning heads with her unique and elaborate wrought iron swan-form wheelbarrow. "It was made by a guy that sold flowers in the Boston Park," explained the dealer, "and the swan form was made to emulate the swan boats that were so popular there." The piece had terrific form and a wonderful old paint accentuated by rust. Items that sported sold tags early on in the show included a twig-form étagère, a pair of large paint decorated demilune tables and a set of four carved loon decorative decoys.

The Gramercy Garden and Antiques Show completed its eighth run in seven years and will be welcomed back into the 26th Street and Lexington armory again next March. The next show for the Stellas will be the Chicago Garden Show on April 15-17.