“I have been coming to this show ever since it opened and the preview is a real treat, as are the dealer booths,” a lady in line on Friday, August 18, said as she waited with a large group to enter the show at 5:30 pm. Seventy dealers, with a wide variety of interests, filled the Fish Center at Tabor Academy and were ready for the preview guests. The show, now in its 14th year, remained open for the next two days, closing at 5 pm on Sunday.
This year The Sippican Historical & Preservation Society, show sponsor, has mounted at its museum a special exhibition on “The Moorings,” one of the important estates in Marion. Displayed are some of the objects from the original estate, such as the china service from the yacht Parthenia and many early photographs. A number of those photographs were posted in the lobby to the show and a woodland scene, with pond, was recreated by Steve Gonsalves of Eden Landscapes of Marion.
For a number of years Eden Landscapes has redone the front of the Fish Center and this year, “You have outdone yourself,” one visitor told Steve as he entered the show. A small pond, surrounded by several trees, water iris and various grasses, duplicated one of the sites on the Mooring estate. A bridge and bench, made from trees of less than two inches in diameter, completed the picture.
“It was wonderful this year, as it has always been, and a great welcome at the front of the center for the dealers inside, who also put on attractive and interesting displays,” Trisha A. McElroy, show manager, said. The gate was up for the preview and for the overall run of the show, but “most dealers had good shows, but did not report real runaways this year,” Trish said. She noted, however, that even with the economic conditions this time, “None of the dealers said they would not be back and we look forward to having them return, unless we do not invite them.”
Holding down his regular corner booth with many pieces of formal furniture and accessories was Georgian Manor Antiques from nearby Fairhaven, Mass. Shown at the front was a Nineteenth Century desk known as a “Davenport,” with sliding top section decorated with a raised pierced brass gallery. The writing surface was inset with leather, it had ogee bracket feet, and was of English or Anglo Indian origin. An Irish sofa table had a rectangular molded and hinged top, mahogany, two drawers, circa 1870, measuring 29 inches high, 36 inches wide and 30-inch diameter. Open it extended to 58 inches.
One of the best pieces of redware in the show was shown by Brian Cullity of Sagamore, Mass. A large jar with cover, it was decorated with two-color slip, circa 1800–1830, and was from Hagerstown, Md. Of interest was a rare Dutch blown bottle with an intricate marine painting on it, mid Eighteenth Century, in superb condition. Furniture included a birch and bird’s-eye maple card table from central New Hampshire, circa 1790.
“It’s a big old fat boy and a good example of what a surface should be,” Roland Kemble of Norwich, Ohio, said of his large sulky with rider weathervane. This St Julian example, circa 1870, was 39 inches long and 23 inches high, with a fine patina. This booth excelled in the weathervane category with another example, a large ram, New England origin, late Nineteenth Century, 27 inches long and 19 ½ inches high, with original surface and fine condition.
Paulette and Hilary Nolan from Falmouth, Mass., offered a sign that formerly hung on the Orpin Sail Company building in Osterville, Mass., blue with black letters and a ship illustration. Leaning against a green-painted chair table with cutout ends was a very large gathering basket with two handles, near perfect condition.
Collectors of miniature redware had several finds in the booth of Raccoon Creek Antiques of Oley Forge, Penn., including a glazed pitcher, a slip-decorated plate, and a milk pan with two handles. A tall case clock with decorated case, 1830–40, was of Maine origin, and a stoneware pitcher with cobalt decoration was incised with “John Spuck Aug 8th, 1874.”
Debra Queen of Dartmouth, Mass., had a collection of eight cast iron building supports in various shapes and sizes, several of them with painted surfaces, a tree-form hitching post and a nice pair of child’s ice cream chairs. A pair of horse hoof-shaped chairs in walnut, Gansu origin, were at the front of the booth of Old China Trader, Bristol, R.I.
Henry T. Callan of East Sandwich, Mass., always covers his walls with a selection of samplers and this year’s offerings included an alphabet sampler by Mary L. Spearght, aged 12, 1832, and a Pennsylvania sampler in very good condition depicting a house, trees, birds, flowers, a verse and the alphabet executed in 1822. His tables offered a large selection of china and porcelains, including a nice selection of Canton.
If a customer came along and bought the dining room set from Marion Antiques Shop, Marion, Mass., it would clear out the booth by better than half. This set, a mission oak product, circa 1915, from the Lifetime Furniture Co., Hastings, Mich., included a dining table with three leaves, six chairs, a china cabinet, server, sideboard with mirror, and a pair of candlesticks.
A circa 1870 putti supporting a cast iron birdbath in old white paint was shown by Brennan & Mouilleseaux, Northfield, Conn., along with other garden pieces including a cast iron bench of English origin, circa 1870, in the bleeding heart pattern.
The Village Braider, Plymouth, Mass., sold a large marble and bronze fountain, a long farm table, a nice center table on wrought iron base and a number of smalls, resulting in a good show, according to Bruce Emond. “My Marion show is good and consistent from year to year,” Bruce said, and “it is close to home so the traveling is easy.” The fountain, which will probably end up in Florida, was by the Italian American artist G. Cipriani.
Eric D. Wohl of Pomfret Center, Conn., offered an Eighteenth Century Queen Anne tavern table with one drawer and one leaf, two-board top with breadboard ends, in maple and pine, and a Queen Anne looking glass dating from the Eighteenth Century.
A Nineteenth Century tall case clock with floral and bird decorated face, cherrywood case, possibly Providence, R.I., was shown along side another Rhode Island piece, a circa 1790 tall chest also in cherrywood, in the booth of the John Goddard Shop, Portsmouth, N.H. A Pilgrim Century great chair in ash, knife blade arms, was from Eastern Connecticut.
William Nickerson, Orleans, Mass., showed a one-drawer tavern table in pine and cherrywood, circa 1790, and a Queen Anne flat-top highboy in cherrywood, New England, circa 1760. An oil on canvas depicted the English ship Rescue, Captain J. Travis, signed by the artist, R. Chappell.
A large booth was filled to capacity by Zane Moss of New York City. His furniture included a yew wood Carlton House desk with pierced brass gallery on a curved top, tapered legs ending in casters, and a figured mahogany bank of chemist’s drawers from England, circa 1880. This pieces measured 49 by 38 by 10 inches and each drawer retained the original label and glass pull.
Brookline, Mass., exhibitor David Beauchamp showed a pair of Empire side chairs, “gondola style,” in mahogany, circa 1830–40, and an American Sheraton sofa, circa 1820–40, with the original horse hair stuffing, hand carved frame, with yellow and off-white fabric. He encouraged sales with several well-placed signs about his booth, one reading, “Your husband called — he said go ahead and buy it.”
A classical worktable in mahogany with drop leaves, two drawers, sabre legs, circa 1820 with New York providence, was shown by Jaffe and Thurston of Wawarsing, N.Y. An oil on canvas, “Dusk in Venice from St. Mark’s,” 18 by 24 inches, was by Warren Sheppard (1858–1937).
“The Public Garden, 1924,” a large oil on canvas by Giovanni (John) Castano, hung in the booth of Langenbach’s Fine Art & Antiques of Kingston, Mass. A village scene depicting houses, horse and wagon and cows in the foreground, 12 by 20 inches, circa 1865, was by John White Allen Scott (1815–1907), while other works of art related to views of the Catskills, White Mountains and the Berkshires.
Bradford Trust Fine Art of Harwichport, Mass., offered many paintings including “Monhegan Island,” a watercolor measuring 10 by 15 inches by Sears Gallagher, and a “View of Venice, 1897,” an oil on canvas, 22 by 28 ½ inches, by Walter Lansil (1846–1925).
An interesting piece in the booth of Essex Antiquarians, Essex, Mass., was a Georgian doctor’s case that had seen use in the Civil War. Made of wood, this case opened out revealing three levels of glass medicine bottles and drawers for small implements. A three-part campaign desk in camphorwood and brass was fresh out of a Massachusetts estate, and several racks of walking sticks were displayed with ivory, bone, wood and brass heads.
Trisha will be busy again during the middle of September when she manages the Newport Antiques Show on the 15th–17th. “It is going to be in two of the town’s historic buildings, the Old Meeting House and the Colony House, both in downtown Newport and it will be a benefit for the Newport Historical Society.”
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