A hallowed hall in Salem was the site of the 35th annual Peabody Essex Museum Antiques Show on Thanksgiving. Many of the dealers participating in the revered show displayed their wares in the 1825 East India Marine Hall, surrounded by Nineteenth Century figureheads, sea captains’ portraits and early American marine artifacts.
The building was erected to provide a meeting space for the East India Marine Society and has been the site of grand events ever since. The timing of the antiques show, Thanksgiving weekend, lends a festive air to the proceedings. And, many dealers find that the crowd here is savvier about the material than at other antiques shows.
Christine Crossman Vining has managed the show since its inception and dealers attribute the smoothness of the show to her efforts. Vining, in turn, commends the museum staff and the show committee who make it all more than seamless. The consensus is that from load in to pack out the show is a pleasure. There is plenty of porter assistance and even better, plenty of food.
The show committee, whose members, particularly Joanie Ingraham and Alan Collichicco, make much of the food, offer a changing menu for each day of the event. Vining also credits her Peabody Essex Museum counterpart Betsy Weisman, without whom she says the show would be impossible.
Vining, who has pretty much retired from dealing, but not from managing the Peabody Essex show, spends much of the year in Wellington, Fla., where she is establishing a polo library at the International Polo Club. She has become an avid player of semiprofessional poker.
Marjorie and Michael Whitman of Fort Washington, Penn., said it all in an email after the show, “We had our best Peabody Essex show ever (our 4th year there). The crowd was wonderful, the preview was lovely and we had good sales over the weekend. Everyone works very hard to make it possible!” Their booth, Michael J. Whitman Antiques, was ablaze with the stellar range of brass, copper, silver and other metalwares from the Gothic period to the Twentieth Century in which they specialize.
The booth of F. Russack Books, Danville, N.H., attracted high traffic and Rick Russack reported sales of books on silver, English ceramics and marine art.
David Brooker Fine Art of Woodbury, Conn., had a portrait of the vessel British Empire along with fine portraits of dogs and farm animals, “Homeward Bound” by English artist George Shalders and two works by Thomas A. Luny. “Things went well; we saw a number of our client from the past,” stated Brooker in the days following the show.
Yarmouth, Maine, dealer W.M. Schwind Jr reported “an excellent show this year.” He provided show visitors with a variety of estimable antiques: fine estate jewelry, a circa 1780 pair of New England chairs with Spanish feet, a China Trade sewing table and a vibrant Pennsylvania crazy quilt with embroidery and pronounced tassels. He hung a group of interrelated paintings that included “Maine Landscape” by Douglas Volk, a portrait of Douglas Volk by Wyatt Eaton and two works by Jessie Volk, daughter-in-law of Douglas and an accomplished artist in her own right.
Running Battle Antiques brought some fine China Trade material, with particular relevance to the Salem audience. A group of 12 gouache on pith paintings from the studio of Sun Qua sold in the last hour of the show. They were bought by someone who plans to donate them to the Peabody Essex Museum. Of a group of 24 pith paintings from two China Trade albums bearing the label of Sing Fat and Co. of San Francisco, three sold during the show. Four China Trade paintings †”View of Playa Grande, Macao,” “View of Whampoa Anchorage,” “Portrait of the American Clipper Paul Revere off the Coast of China” and “Portrait of the bark May Queen in rough seas off China” ttracted serious interest that may result in future sales.
Running Battle sold two chairs, a coffer and a plate rack and offered an Eighteenth Century Chinese yellow cypress single plank altar table, a British colonial mahogany spice chest that was probably made in India, a pair of oak back stools and a William and Mary oak dresser. Speaking after the show, dealer Hamilton Meserve said that in the five or six years he and Helen have done the show, they observed a conservative but highly knowledgeable group of collectors.
Country Squire Antiques of Milton, Mass., sold a Regency mahogany center table early in the show. The booth was filled with an inviting selection of Victorian papier mache that included an elegant tray with birds and flowers on a green ground, fans, a desk set and a much admired lap desk. A pair of Oak wine coolers with brass handles and copper binding was of interest as well, along with miniatures and imposing cigar store Indians. Dealer Randy Farrar said he, too, was struck by the high degree of knowledge about the objects for sale on the part of show visitors.
Cape Cod’s East Dennis Antiques offered a fine New England Hepplewhite cherry bow front bureau on French feet with mahogany veneer and string inlay that was made around 1790‱800. An assembled set of eight Hitchcock chairs with cornucopia decoration to the back slats and Sheraton-style front stretchers from about 1830 was also noteworthy. A circa 1880 landscape with a river and mountains by English artist Cecil A. Wallinger was attractive, as were the selection of animal figures, doorstops and a doll bed for sale.
Essex (Mass.) Antiquarians exhibited an impressive pair of Irish mahogany console tables from the latter part of the Nineteenth Century. A mahogany wine cooler was also Irish and had come from the collection at an Irish house museum. There was also a Queen Anne leather wing chair and an English rosewood sewing stand.
The booth was filled with such intriguing niceties as a robust mahogany plate holder, an English rosewood sewing stand and Georgian tea caddies. A selection of Wedgwood fairy lusterware included three octagonal bowls.
David A. Weston came from Cranbrook in southeastern England with an impressive range of sailor-made straw work, including a depiction of the warship that transported Napoleon to Elba, along with scrimshaw, including a scrimshaw drinking vessel, and woolies such as the example with a royal coat of arms. He offered a portrait of an America’s Cup contender by Thomas Willis that had silk sails and threadwork rigging. Lithographs by Matisse, Klee, Picasso, Dufy, Chagall and Cocteau were also for sale. “Rain at Sunset” by R. Hayley Lever was additionally on offer.
Bfine Art of Beverly, Mass., trades in prints of every variety. The walls of the booth danced with botanicals, nautical, natural history, architectural and sporting subjects. A set of six Japanese woodblock prints, “Women of the Court,” with decoupage frames piqued interest, as did another group of 12 Chinese floral watercolors on pith paper that were especially vivid. A set of six images on pith paper depicted ladies engaged in work.
Canaan, N.H., dealer Dick Vandall has done the Peabody Essex show for 22 years. Doing business as American Decorative Arts, the dealer offered a nice selection of Shaker sewing articles for which the shop is known. He is also noted for a selection of Arts and Crafts furniture, such as the Limbert oval table and the Stickley settee with matching armchair for sale in the booth, spiced up with a turquoise Fulper bowl and “At Fall” by Ada Dice.
Cape Cod’s Bradford Trust Fine Art has done the Peabody Essex Show for about ten years and has enjoyed consistent sales over the decade. This year Roy and Sheila Mennell, who celebrated their 31st wedding anniversary two days before the show, offered a Western watercolor, “Mountain Ranch” by Frederick Montague Charman that sold, but that they said “could have sold two or three times over.” Roy Mennell said he was not planning to bring the picture to Salem, but that Sheila had suggested doing so. They also offered two paintings by Clement Drew of Boston clipper ships built in 1855 in Maine and both of which were much admired. They were views of the Criterion and the Comet, the latter of which sold Saturday. The Mennells also hung James King Bonnar’s “Dockside Gloucester” and Charles Cahoon’s evocative “Shipwreck near Gay Head.”
Bradford Trust also brought “Commercial Street, Provincetown” by Philadelphia Ten artist Nancy Maybin Ferguson, who also painted the Outer Cape. An eye-catching Chinese library table on tripod legs with an inset Rose Medallion platter sold to an Asian consul in Boston.
Jane McClafferty came from New Canaan, Conn., with impressive Staffordshire that included three beautifully painted pearlware vases. In keeping with the Salem setting, she also brought fine brass work, a pair of portraits of Chinese officials and a fine sea chest.
Birchknoll Antiques of Wolfeboro, N.H., featured two landscapes by Everett Longley Warner of Westmoreland, N.H., the area in which he settled in later life. The oil on board “Spring Landscape” depicted what is thought to be the Old Bridge, while “Snowy Hilltop,” an oil on cardboard, is an image of an local area with the Connecticut River in the background. Warner, trained as an artist as early as high school, served in both world wars engaged in ship camouflage. He was also among the first artists to execute aerial paintings. “Lighthouse off the Coast” by Taber Sears was also on view
Carole and Neil Greco additionally displayed a Regency mahogany server, a coastal Queen Ann pine highboy, a North Shore Hepplewhite mahogany sideboard from about 1790 and a handsome Federal mahogany Pembroke table from about 1800.
Boston’s Beacon Hill Asian Art dealer Polly Latham is a reliable source for fine porcelain. She exhibited some fine blue and white Wan Li plates from about 1620 that were made in China for the Japanese trade, elegant orange Fitzhugh, including a tea set modeled after the English silver form, and a pair of elephant-form candlesticks. Latham had cases filled with Chinese Imari, Kangxi wares, Yongzheng famille rose and armorial porcelain. A Queen Anne burl walnut desk with a nicely fitted interior sold to a curator from another museum.
Show manager Christine Crossman Vining shared her booth this year with her brother Carl Crossman. They had portraits by Salem artist Benjamin Blythe in frames by Paul Revere and a Hauptmann snow scene. A Chinese lacquer games box and a Twentieth Century glazed turquoise pot attracted many eyes, and a China Trade carved cupboard was of interest. As Carl Crossman is emptying his Portsmouth house in aid of moving to Florida, he offered a wide array of blue and white porcelain from his own collection.
A raven-haired woman in a bright red cape summoned visitors to the booth of Hanes and Ruskin. The portrait hung in the original gilt frame and the back of the canvas bore the stamp a New York vendor, but nothing further is known about the artist or the sitter. Hanes and Ruskin also displayed a selection of silhouettes, a circa 1820 pastel portrait of a Dutch naval officer with curly locks and some good needlework. A New England tiger maple chest was of interest. There was also a group of Windsor chairs that included a fine comb back example, taverns tables and an 1856 carved and painted game board that was dated and marked “W.B.B.”
New this year was Marblehead, Mass., dealer Sandy Jacobs, who displayed a folky Ohio marquetry mantel flush with pinwheels, flowers and flying geese. Jacobs also had an 1858 China Trade portrait of the ship Southern Cross and another China Trade view of an unidentified vessel by Calcutta pierhead Lai Fong. The walls of the booth held a circa 1830 pair of miniature portraits of James and Mary Whiton and the picture “Peaceable Kingdom.” Furniture included a set of six oversize ribbon back Chippendale chairs, a two-part glazed door cabinet with paint decoration and a clock by Henry Ham of Portsmouth, N.H., in the form of an eagle on a ball holding the clock in its beak.
For information regarding the Peabody Essex Museum Antiques Show, 978-745-9500.
