The line for the opening of the Boston Antiques and Design Show and Sale snaked along the side of the building and across the back as buyers arrived to glean the offerings presented by 160 dealers from all over. Results at the show, which ran October 15 and 16 at Shriners Auditorium, were all over the lot, but the gate was up over last year †always good news for dealers.
New Brunswick, Canada, gallery Timber River Farm came to Wilmington with a folky selection of Canadian objects, with a few American objects thrown in for good measure. Proprietor Kathy Consentino said everything in the booth is handmade; the individuality of each piece attests to that. She showed a rocking horse in white paint riding toward a wall full of brightly decorated game boards. Across the back of the booth was a 9-by-12-foot hooked rug with an overall floral decoration and scalloped to simulate waves. It had been hooked by two sisters in Quebec in the late 1950s, who later moved to Nova Scotia.
Fardin’s Antique Rugs of Fairfield, Conn., laid out rugs like gems, with a handsome Uzbekistan example with stars and the sun at the center of the booth.
Talking Leaves, the Hooksett, N.H., bookseller and dealer, offered a rich selection of books on fishing, ornithology and hunting; a compelling exception was A History of the Crown Jewels of Europe , a monumental compilation of regalia and crown jewels of 17 centuries that took author Lord Twining 30 years to complete, and was published in 1960. Talking Leaves also offered a pristine Air Force major’s uniform that had belonged to Richard Gosselin.
Cornish, N.H., dealer Steven J. Rowe displayed an eclectic assortment that ranged from a Japanese screen to a small Boston mahogany circular side table, circa 1830, and a group of signs. Paintings included the oil on board “Trees” by Massachusetts artist Agnes Abbot, an oil on board view of Taormina, Italy, by Earl Henry Brewster and a river landscape by Pennsylvania artist Emma S. Stallman.
It was the first time doing the show for Sage Antiques, and the Yonkers, N.Y., dealer was experiencing good sales of smalls, such as a barber pole, a redware urn, dolls and portrait miniatures.
A group of bird’s-eye maple furniture from the 1920s was selling out of Peter D. Murphy’s booth as fast as buyers could manage. The set, all from the same estate, comprised a chest of drawers with a mirror, a four-drawer chest and a six-drawer chest. The West Roxbury, Mass., dealer enjoyed brisk sales, and also had an industrial table lamp from the 1940s, an annunciator and a Wedgwood clock from the 1870s. A selection of porcelain included a Copeland lazy Susan with a coffee urn in the center, all in the Imari palette, Chinese Export and other Asian ceramics, glass and some good paintings, along with a set of four hunt prints.
Bell-Time Antiques of Andover, Mass., showed a variety of clocks for a variety of tastes that taken together produced a susurrus of ticking. Of interest was a Waltham mahogany banjo clock with a scene of the USS Constitution and the HMS Guerriere , as was an Attleborough (Mass.) wood front banjo clock, a barograph, carriage clocks, shelf clocks and plenty more banjos. There was also a French bracket eight-day clock by Vicenti et Cie, circa 1855, that was retailed by A. Stowell of Boston.
A large gilt eagle from the Boston area dominated the booth of Village Braider, the Plymouth, Mass., dealer doing the show for the first time. It hovered above a carved marble owl and an oil floor lamp atop a bronze ostrich leg, porcelain, pottery and smalls, duck-form napkin rings and a Venetian clock with reverse painted glass. A large train gear in bright yellow paint was graphically appealing.
Ellen Downer of Downer Antiques in Sudbury, Mass., had an array of Dedham pottery, Chinese Export porcelain and glass, including a dandy ruby glass chandelier, one of several for sale. There was an urn decorated with an image of the death of Alexander with snake handles, and a 1923 painting of a bathing beauty by Provincetown artist Vollian Burr Rann was a standout.
An Art Deco oil on canvas painting of exotic birds was front and center in the booth of Seymour, Conn., gallery Yesterday’s Luxuries, which was having a good show. Early on, a table and an armchair were sold, with more to come. The booth was full of good furniture, a number of round tables and stands, a fine rosewood commode, chairs and silver and porcelain.
A Victorian dress form marked the entrance to the booth of Hanes & Ruskin Antiques of Old Lyme Conn., where, once inside, buyers had their choice of fine country antiques, such as a yellow Windsor sack back armchair, circa 1795, a pair of lamps made from brass shoe shine mounts or a Connecticut or Massachusetts Queen Anne oval top tea table with splayed legs. Joy Ruskin Hanes and Lee Hanes were making their debut at Wilmington, and they also brought a Connecticut Queen Anne smoke decorated candlestand from about 1780, a Maine Sheraton drop leaf table with paint decoration and a paint decorated harvest table found in a barn in Brattleboro, Vt. A New York mahogany duet music stand was particularly attractive.
Cape Cod art dealers Roy and Sheila Mennell, who run Bradford Trust Fine Art, had just the right combination of pictures that included work by the Boston and Cape Cod artist Charles D. Cahoon, of whose exhibition at the Cape Cod Museum they were major supporters. They showed “Saquatucket Marsh,” “River Scene” and “The Doryman,” and sold one, so far. The Mennells were instrumental in the 150th retrospective of the artist’s work at the Harwich Historical Society and Brooks Academy Museum. They also brought work by Arthur Vining Diehl, Henry Kallem, Philip Little and Helen Stein, whose “Along the North Shore” was sold early.
Michael and Lucinda Seward, new to the show this year, came from Pittsford, Vt., with a Vermont painted chest and an 1870s Grand Army of the Republic eagle with a 5-foot wingspan found in Benson, Vt. A North Shore, Mass., bowfront mahogany chest with vibrant inlay and ivory escutcheons and a seascape by California artist Richard Kruger, along with a cow-form weathervane, appealed to a variety of tastes.
Bayberry Antiques of Rockland, Mass., had an interesting stand made with a game board top and a Maine olive brown double door cupboard, yellowware molds and bowls and baskets.
A 9-foot, three-board farm table from a camp in Kearsarge, N.H., and a 9-foot store counter from Woodstock, Vt., drew all eyes in the booth of Stone Block Antiques of Vergennes, Vt. Appealing country pieces also included a sturdy grain painted, slant lid desk from eastern Canada with stepped drawers in the grain painted interior and an arched prospect. Paintings included a New York portrait of a woman in a lace collar and a circa woodland landscape with animals and a stream that sold.
Middletown, R.I., dealer Steele & Steele Antiques showed a Victorian reversible game board, circa 1881, which sold, a trestle table made from an old barn door and a Maine shoe rack, circa 1930, from a shoe factory. The dealer also offered a group of four blanket boxes and a pair of green painted cultivator blades with the look of sunbursts, along with country signs that were also of interest.
Maureen Stanton, author of Killer Stuff and Tons of Money , was on hand to sign copies of her books and sold all the ones she brought along.
Martin J. Ferrick of Lincolnville, Maine, said he was experiencing good business. He showed a blanket chest, a Chippendale cherry chest with four graduated drawers and a Hepplewhite mahogany and cherry four-drawer chest on French feet. Paintings included a watercolor by Portland, Maine, artist Alexander Bower and an unsigned portrait of a woman with a fan, circa 1930.
A cast iron locomotive and four cars, with a viewing stand on the last car, a case of Victorian glass tie backs and a group of cinnabar boxes, including a green example, were just a few of the desirable pieces from Vos Antiques. The Falmouth, Maine, dealer had a varied array of Chinese and Japanese cloisonné and a funky wood case of seven boat caulking tools.
A large red and white eight-point star quilt drew visitors into the booth of Newburyport, Mass., dealer Anne B. Russell, where they were presented with bird decoys and fish decoys, wood ware, mirrors and a fancifully wrought oyster knife.
For information, www.neantiqueshows.com or 781-862-4039.
