Charles Pollak at home in his newly-opened Manhattan gallery in the Fuller Building

NEW YORK CITY – As captain of the Brown University crew,Charles Pollak was called “Lightnin” by his fellow oarsmen, anickname that may follow him into his new career as an antiquesdealer. Though his gallery in Manhattan’s Fuller Building onlyopened in August, the 25-year-old South Carolina native and formerOlympics hopeful recently shot to the top of his profession when hewas tapped to exhibit at the 2006 Winter Antiques Show.

“We’re really excited to be adding a young, articulate dealer who is passionate about his calling. Charles is entering his profession at the highest level with a real commitment to quality. I can’t wait until the young collectors meet him,” says the Winter Antiques Show’s executive director Catherine Sweeney Singer. Also enhancing the show’s American core in 2006 will be new exhibitor David Wheatcroft, an established source for American folk art. Pollak and Wheatcroft are filling places vacated by Gary Young and William Guthman, both retiring, and Barry Friedman, who is taking a leave of absence.

With a mild, engaging manner and a youthful enthusiasm much welcome in a field that some fear is graying, Pollak seems suited for the job. For one, the lanky, 6-foot, 6-inch-tall American furniture aficionado makes a highboy seem less of an extravagance than a necessity. He stands eye level to the bonnet of the circa 1745-90 Massachusetts high chest of drawers, one of about a dozen choice pieces he currently has on display.

Like much of Pollak’s stock, the Queen Anne highboy, a “best,” is ex-collection of Israel Sack, Inc. A nearly identical example, also retailed by Sack and once in the C.K. Davis collection, is illustrated in Albert Sack’s Fine Points of Furniture.

“I want to be known for integrity and discretion, for my passion for the material and my focus on quality,” says Pollak, who acknowledges Albert Sack as his mentor and chief role model.

As an undergraduate at Brown, Pollak studied American history and fine art, simultaneously discovering two great Providence resources: Pendleton House at the Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, and the John Brown House. He poured over Israel Sack publications before meeting Albert Sack at Northeast Auctions two years ago. Still busy buying and selling from his home in Hillsborough, N.C., the 90-year-old dealer took Pollak on as an apprentice.

The two went on the road together, to museums and private collections, and Pollak bought with Sack’s advice. A circa 1800-20 shelf clock in a beautifully inlaid case is one trophy that Pollak bagged on his own. “I found it myself and brought it to Albert to show him,” Pollak says proudly.

“Albert taught me about the beauty of line and form, about the significant place of American furniture in our history. Albert learns something new everyday. That’s a huge lesson for me,” says Pollak. The dealers were together in January 2005 when Sotheby’s knocked down to Sack a ball and claw foot Newport tea table made for Nicholas Brown, almost certainly by John Goddard, for $8,416,000. The price is the second-highest ever paid at auction for a piece of American furniture.

“Charles is a passionate young man with the right spirit to succeed in this business. I am happy to work with him in any way that I can,” Sack, who will be exhibiting solo at the Philadelphia Antiques Show in April, says of his now-independent protégé.

Pollak’s other great inspiration was his parents. His father, Peter Pollak, is a real estate developer whose projects range from the Greenbrier Sporting Club in West Virginia to the Turks & Caicos Sporting Club in the British West Indies. His mother, Suzanne Williamson Pollak, is the author of two books on entertaining. In 1996, the senior Pollaks and their four children moved from Hilton Head to nearby Beaufort, S.C., where they purchased a 1787 Federal home that had been, among other things, a Civil War infirmary.

The Pollaks lovingly rebuilt the exquisite home, illustrated in the October 2000 issue of Town & Country, restoring its rare tabby exterior and returning original paneling to its ballroom. Along the way they were bitten by the collecting bug, something they passed along to their son.

Under the banner of “American Masterpieces,” Charles Pollak Antiques and Fine Art’s debut advertisement appeared in The Magazine Antiques in September. The montage included a pair of Seymour side chairs featured in Robert D. Mussey’s definitive book on the Boston furniture makers, and photographs of Monticello and Louis Armstrong. The chairs, exhibited at the Peabody Essex Museum in 2002, once belonged to Sack clients Mr and Mrs Robert Lee Gill.

In addition to fly fishing, the dealer, who lives in Battery Park City in lower Manhattan, loves jazz.

“I don’t collect American furniture. I don’t want to compete with my clients,” says Pollak, who still finds time to row, sometimes with his 6-foot, 8-inch brother Christopher, four years his junior and now taking a year off from Brown to serve as a pilot in the Marines. Like another famous dealer in American furniture, Charles Pollak is a twin. His sister, Caroline, his senior by ten minutes, earned her master’s degree at Brown and is a teacher.

From his small office in the suite of rooms he shares with Art Finance Partners, Pollak – simply dressed in a black Lacoste shirt, matching black khakis and a mildly daring pair of striped socks -wields his cellphone with the assertiveness of any under-30 executive.

“I’m working with young buyers such as yourself, as well as more seasoned collectors,” he tells one caller. After hanging up, he turns and says, “When I make a deal, I like everyone to win. That’s why I’ve had great results.

“Everyone has been so helpful,” continues Pollak, acknowledging the support he has received from the Americana field’s top dealers, auctioneers and curators. Fresh from a lecture at Sotheby’s, furniture scholar Robert Trent happens to be in the gallery that day. “Robert has very kindly looked at some pieces with me,” Pollak explains.

Charles Pollak says he plans to remain on the seventh floor of the Fuller Building, down the hall from Leo Kaplan Modern, in one of New York’s most prestigious addresses for art. He will continue his emphasis on American masterpieces.

“My focus is on quality antiques of any period or price, from William and Mary to Federal. Later on, I’d like to handle paintings,” says the dealer, whose current inventory includes a Boston-area William and Mary walnut ball foot, slant lid desk, circa 1720-35. Israel Sack, Inc, sold the desk to Ralph Carpenter in 1952.

“I’ve always wanted to be in sales, but antique American furniture is my passion,” says Pollak, who has managed to combine the best of both.