Danbury Gets Its First Great Antiques Fair

DANBURY, CONN.

:The Great Danbury Antiques Fair debuted April 15-17 inside the spacious PAL Building across from Candlewood Lake. A thinly attended preview party on Friday night benefiting the Danbury Museum and Historical Society will probably not be repeated next year, according to show promoter Vivien Cord of Cord Shows Ltd. "The show turned out fairly well," said Ms Cord. "The gate was not exactly earth-shattering, but the buying was surprisingly good. We had just over 600 people on Saturday and around 500 on Sunday. It finally occurred to all of us why we were not as busy as we had expected; this is spring break for the kids and many people were away."

Certainly, when people are at home, the Danbury area, like many of the other Cord show venues, mostly in Westchester County, N.Y., is a trifecta of location, affluence and historical resonance - the basic building blocks that go into making a good antiques showing and selling experience. The new Cord venture has all the makings of such an event - quality dealers, a venue that is spacious and logistically equipped (if somewhat out of the way) and an energetic couple of promoters in the guise of Ms Cord and her partner, Ed McClure, who have been running successful antiques and collectibles shows since 1970.

Jim Shaffer and Lew Alessio of Plenty and Grace Be To This Place, who traveled from Greene, Maine, to participate in the show, said they believe "this is a show to watch. It has all the makings of a major show: great location; young, enthusiastic, energetic show committee; a beginning cadre of excellent dealers; and a top notch, experienced show promoter."

The dealers, who specialize in country American antiques that exhibit "personality and a human quality," said they had a chance to talk at length with several of the committee members who were on site the entire weekend. "With this initial venture, they were just testing the waters and were watching carefully, ready to learn," the dealers said. "Vivien has three decades of experience and the combination of her wisdom and personality and the committee's energy will put this show on the New England map very quickly.

"We had a good show ourselves," they continued. "An easy load-in and setup, wonderful dealer dinner and solid sales. Our largest sales were early furniture in original paint and garden and home accessories. The buyers were also young and enthusiastic. How many times does a dealer get hugged because the buyers are so excited with their purchases? We are very pleased to get in on the ground level here and add this show to our touring schedule. Great, genuine people all around."

Charles and Lucille Berg of Easton, Mass., also were upbeat in their assessment. "We were satisfied with the gate for Saturday, given that this was the first year for the show," they said. "Vivien and Ed did their usual great job in promoting the show. Our sales of American country furniture and related decorative objects were moderate, most shoppers being very price conscious. We sold a small two-drawer stand in old paint and a country wall shelf in a dark finish, but most of our sales were of country smalls, in the $100 to $300 range."

"The show was up to our expectations," said Susan and James Vatell, Fine Arts Ltd, Greenwich, Conn. The couple specializes in jewelry and paintings, respectively, and characterized the inaugural effort as "well organized and run, with quality dealers. We feel confident about the show's future," said Ms Vatell, adding, "Gold cufflinks seemed to be the hot item."

Mysteriously, silver - in terms of jewelry and English decorative arts - seemed to vary in attraction at this show. Vicki Turbeville, New York City, who brought a dazzling display of old Navajo and southwestern jewelry, noted that her sales over the weekend were tepid, not "typical at all of the shows I've recently participated in since turquoise and Native American jewelry are so in fashion right now." That popularity was recently underlined by the cover of the February 2005 issue of Elle magazine, which featured actress Uma Thurman decked out in a sultry gaze and one of Ms Turbeville's belts. "The best sale of the weekend, though small, was to an avid collector who bought three pieces," said Ms Turbeville.

Meanwhile, Ilene Africk and Judy Moniz, whose business, Africk/Moniz Fine Antique Silver, Armonk, N.Y., scours shops in England one or two times a year for the best in English antique silver, Sheffield plate and silver plate - usually in the form of "useful" items, such as wine coasters, zipper pulls and sugar nips - were nonplussed that despite the convenient venue, the diligent efforts of the show promoters and the conventional wisdom that silver always does well at historical society shows, Danbury seems not to be a place "where people shop for silver." Yet Louis Beauchamp of Witchtree Antiques, Woodbury, Conn., reported selling "lots of English silver" along with small pieces of furniture.

Ms Cord provided details on a number of dealers' sales that were gleaned from a postshow survey: Art Finkel, Vintage Poster Art, Monroe Township, N.J., sold a 1929 Mather work incentive poster. At Home en Provence, Kristine Lardner of Montauk, N.Y., sold cottage furniture, lamps and French decorative arts. Rick Fuller and Annette Coletti of Hand Picked, Stowe, Vt., sold a 1920s quilt, an 1840s quilt, plus decoys ranging in price from $75 to $350.

Bob Baker of Poverty Hollow Enterprises, Redding Ridge, Conn., sold a large Nineteenth Century pine sideboard, English platters, majolica plates and small accessories. Jane Brymer from Newtown, Conn., sold a woman's black felt hat form, a black walnut framed mirror and a wooden hat mold. Ms Brymer specializes in "made in Connecticut" antiques, among which she displayed Danbury hats (of course) and hat forms, a coffee grinder, waffle iron, Erector set, hair curling irons, a clock and shoe stretchers.

Ellen Asbell, Boyertown, Penn., sold a child's 1910 rocker, a 1920s buffet mirror, a pair of needlework pictures from the 1930s, a Depression-era glass bowl, plus pottery, buttons, sewing items, costume jewelry, hankies and tinsel art (mostly in the less expensive range). Bob Schicke of Reclaimed Memories, Denville, N.J., sold an oak stack bookcase, a banded mahogany tea cart, a walnut Empire game table and a mahogany coffee table. John Tyler of Colophon Books, Layton, N.J., a rare book and scientific instruments dealer, sold several Connecticut volumes and a few early science volumes. He also sold a set of Nineteenth Century chromolithographs.

Diane Davis, of D&D Antiques, Ridgefield, Conn., sold a small desk, 12 knife rests, a brass muffineer, porcelain ginger jar and a pair of Bohemian vases. Roz Marett and M.J. Fribush of W. Gilgo, N.Y., sold art pottery and porcelain. The Hennemans of Pegasus Antiques, Wappingers Falls, N.Y., said they had the second best show of the year. Among their sales were two statues of Chairman Mao Tse-tung, the communist ruler of China from 1949 to 1976.

Kathy Tarr of The Victorian Rose, Wenham, Mass., who celebrated her birthday at the show, sold Royal Winton chintz, Shelley and Nippon. Jim Dolph of JSD Antiques, Durham, N.H., said that he "sold across his whole inventory," which he claimed was a rare occurrence. Specializing in fine Orientalia, Mr Dolph said he sold a Tang dynasty tomb figure to a New York City collector, lots of jade, many netsuke items, snuff bottles, chops (seals) and Limoges. He said that he was very pleased that "for a first show he picked up two new customers and serviced regular customers and made good dealer contacts."

In the same postshow survey, Ms Cord said that many of the dealers indicated that, barring schedule conflicts, they would be interested in participating in a fall version of the show. If that is the case, come October or November Danbury may again be the destination for antiques.

For information, 914-273-4667 or www.cordshows.com.