By Laura Beach

PHILADELPHIA, PENN. — Karen and Ralph DiSaia and Diana Bittel, partners in DiSaia-Bittel Management, have had few days off since last spring, when they took on the challenge of rebooting Philadelphia’s best-known antiques show, canceled in 2015 after 53 years. But their hard work is paying off.

In concert with Penn Medicine and show co-chairs Anne Hamilton and Nancy Kneeland, DiSaia-Bittel completed a detailed plan and budget for the event, designed new graphics, launched a promotional campaign, mailed save-the-date cards and overhauled the website. They filled the 58-dealer fair by July and won back most of the prominent specialists who were the backbone of the original show, a magnet for collectors nationally.

Renamed the Philadelphia Antiques & Art Show to reflect its balance of fine and decorative arts, the revamped presentation will open to the general public at The Navy Yard on Friday, April 15, and will continue through the weekend. A deluxe, 132-by-280-foot heated, steel-ribbed tent outfitted with flooring, carpeting, café and room for special events will house the show.

“Penn is providing a shuttle that will go back and forth to 30th Street Station. The Navy Yard also operates a shuttle to and from Center City,” says Bittel, who was busy arranging free self-parking for shoppers when we reached her by phone last week. Valet parking will also be available for a modest charge.

Anne Hamilton and Nancy Kneeland, co-chairs of the Philadelphia Antiques & Art Show.

Sponsored by Altus Partners and the Chubb Group of Insurance Companies, the gala preview party is set for April 14 from 5 to 9 pm. The ticket price for early buyers is $600, $300 for other patrons. The price includes a copy of the redesigned show catalog, which Karen DiSaia says will be more contemporary in its presentation, with less medical advertising and more to interest collectors.

In designing the show, DiSaia-Bittel tried to give each exhibitor what he or she wanted. “The floor plan is not complicated. We haven’t hidden exhibitors away or created alleys. When you walk into the show, you will see the loan exhibition straight ahead, just like in the old days at the 33rd Street Armory,” says DiSaia. The café will be at the far end of the tent, next to lecture spaces and storage.

Exhibitor Ed Hild of Olde Hope Antiques is collaborating with committee head Nancy Taylor to organize the loan exhibition, “Secret Treasures,” drawn from the private collections of exhibitors, many of whom started as collectors themselves.

“‘Secret Treasures’ will showcase one piece, never for sale, from the personal collection of each participant. Some of the pieces are just amazing,” says DiSaia.

In keeping with the theme of the loan show, other programming also explores the nature of collectors and collecting. Interior designer Ellie Cullman, a co-founder of Cullman & Kravis Inc in New York City, kicks off the series on Friday, April 15, at 11 am.

Moderated by editor Johanna McBrien of Antiques and Fine Art magazine, a panel discussion on collecting is planned for 5 pm on April 15. Panelists will include Bruce Coleman Perkins, James Kilvington, Dr Robert Booth, Joan Johnson, Richard Rossello and John Smiraldo.

In a switch from past years, the Antiques Dealers Association of America (ADA) will host its annual Award of Merit dinner on Friday, not Saturday night, starting at 8 pm. The 2016 Award of Merit will be presented to Philadelphians Joan and Victor Johnson, whose collection of Pennsylvania German fraktur is a promised gift to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Joan Johnson chaired the Philadelphia Antiques Show loan show committee for many years. The couple’s daughter, Linda E. Johnson, president and chief executive officer of the Brooklyn Public Library, and Alexandra A. Kirtley, the Montgomery-Garvan associate curator of American decorative arts at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, will speak at the dinner, ADA president James Kilvington confirmed. For ticket information, contact ADA executive director Judith Livingston Loto at 603-942-6498 or info@adadealers.com.

Kirtley will additionally lecture at the show on Saturday, April 16, at 1 pm. She is at work on the display “Classical Splendor: Painted Furniture for A Grand Philadelphia House,” opening at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 2016. Her catalog of the museum’s collection of American furniture from 1650 to 1840 is forthcoming in 2020.

On Sunday, April 17, at 1 pm, Nancy Moses will talk about her new book, Stolen, Smuggled, Sold: On the Hunt for Cultural Treasures. Moses wrote the award-winning volume Lost in the Museum: Hidden Treasures and The Stories They Tell.

Proceeds from the 2016 Philadelphia Antiques & Art Show are earmarked for the Penn Acute Research Collaboration (PARC) at Penn Medicine. The show’s presenting sponsor is the Haverford Trust Company. Other sponsors and supporters are Pook & Pook, Freeman’s Auction, Flather & Perkins Insurance, Antiques and Fine Art and Incollect, The Magazine Antiques and American Fine Art.

“This is going to be a fantastic show. We want people from all over the country to make their plans early,” Karen DiSaia told Antiques and The Arts Weekly. DiSaia-Bittel has negotiated a rate of $169 a night at a nearby hotel, the new Courtyard Philadelphia South at The Navy Yard. There are also a few rooms downtown at The Logan, as the Four Seasons was recently renamed, starting at $269 a night.

Founded in 1962, the original Philadelphia Antiques Show was famous for its army of volunteers. Working with Hamilton and Kneeland, DiSaia-Bittel persuaded many 2014 volunteers to return. In early December, the group was treated to a kick-off party at Valley Forge Flowers, a one-of-a-kind spot for floral and garden creations, design and decoration, gifts and party planning.

“Every committee member was invited and there must have been 100 people there. The food, by 12th Street Catering, who will cater the show and the ADA dinner, was over-the-top delicious and so creative,” says Bittel, adding, “The committees are hard at work planning the preview party and the catalog. I think we are in very good shape.”

The Marine Parade Grounds at The Navy Yard are at 4500 South Broad Street. For information, http://philadelphiaantiquesandartshow.com. Contact the DiSaias at disaiamgt@gmail.com
or 860-908-0076; or Diana Bittel at dhbantique@aol.com or 610-525-1160.