By: Andrea Valluzzo

TIMONIUM, MD. — The Maryland Antiques Show of Hunt Valley, now in its second year under the auspices of the Antiques Council and the Auxiliary of Family and Children’s Services of Central Maryland, for whom the show has been a longtime fundraiser, proved at its February 21–24 run at the Baltimore Crowne Plaza North that this show keeps getting better and better.

The show’s appearance was impeccable, the preview party seemed well-attended with interested, knowledgeable buyers, and dealers’ booths offered a wide variety of select and interesting merchandise guaranteed to appeal to antiquers across the board.

SAJE Americana, Short Hills, N.J., offered such choice and rare items as a graceful one-drawer serpentine server in mahogany that was well figured; a mahogany Federal ship’s desk in two parts with the writing surface over two dovetailed drawers over two cabinets; and the Joseph Rawson lady’s writing desk and bookcase with Israel Sack provenance. Interestingly, a few feet down the aisle, another Joseph Rawson piece was on offer. Douglas Constant Inc, Orient, N.Y., had an inlaid mahogany and cherry Federal bowfront chest of drawers with their original “basket of flowers” oval brasses, attributed to Rawson.

A small, but nice, selection of metalware was also on offer at SAJE Americana, led by an Eighteenth Century early hearth copper French “daubiere” (a stew pot) with three strong, wrought iron handles.

Other standouts at Douglas Constant Inc included a Federal period crossbanded and richly inlaid mahogany games table; a child’s or sample-size Queen Anne-style wing chair with an arched crest and ogival wings, cabriole legs in front and raked rear legs; and a lovely portrait of an Eighteenth Century girl with her kitten, probably New York State, circa 1750–70.

Highlights in the booth of Washington Square Gallery, Philadelphia, included framed, hand colored lithographs from John Gould’s The Birds of Great Britain, published London, 1862–73; and a copperplate engraving from Dutch botanist Abraham Munting’s Phytographica Curiosa.

Treasures of Imperial Russia, Aliso Viejo, Calif., offered beautiful icons and works of art, such as Virgin of the Fiery Visage, Nineteenth Century, in a gilt heart frame, and a Virgin of Kazan with silver and enamel riza in a carved heart, Moscow, 1885.

Piccolo Art, Wilmington, N.C., featured marine painter Richard Barnett Spencer’s oil on canvas of the three-masted The William Leavitt, inscribed on the obverse to the captain in 1881; and a dramatic Grand Tour gouache on card from the Neapolitan School, circa 1835, showing nine views of the early Nineteenth Century eruption of Mount Vesuvius,

Neverbird Antiques, Surry, Va., displayed a charming and folky New England town scene, third quarter Nineteenth Century, in a period frame; a circa 1820 schoolgirl watercolor and ink drawing of a mother and daughter, New England; and a circa 1815 sampler with rows of alphabet letters above a house flanked by two pairs of trees by Mary Winebrenner, Walkersville, Md.

Cherry Gallery, Damariscotta, Maine, showed off a large sign for Kozy Kottage Tourists, an Old Hickory Furniture Company coffee table, circa 1940, as well as an Old Hickory barrel back armchair with rattan cane weave; a dramatically shaped Eskimo kayak model, circa 1900; and a pair of large painted wood penguins, American, circa 1940.

A Bird in Hand, Florham Park, N.J., highlighted a New Hampshire chair table having well-proportioned turned arms, scrubbed pine top and square lower legs, circa 1780–1820; a pair of cast iron compotes in a zinc finish, circa 1940s; and an important cow weathervane with ample proportions, having cast iron head and horns on a molded copper body.

The dealer also featured choice items from its collection of circa 1930s Grenfell Mission textiles, including a hand hooked depiction of a hunter and dog made from silk stockings, a collaged nursery mat suitable for a child’s room and one showing a dog team racing to a medical emergency.

J. Gallagher Antiques, North Norwich, N.Y., offered a Philadelphia mahogany chest, circa 1820, a Philadelphia classical mahogany three-drawer stand and a half-hull yacht model.

Highlights in the booth of Emele’s Antiques, Dublin, Penn., included a tiger maple sideboard, highly figured, with a nice accent of mahogany banding, beaded drawers and tapered legs, in a good small size at 50 inches wide, circa 1810; Susan C. Waters’ “An Afternoon Rest,” circa 1875, depicting three sheep laying down with another standing guard; and an angel Gabriel weathervane made of sheet iron, circa 1860.

Leatherwood Antiques, Sandwich, Mass., filled its booth with a fine mix of English items, including a mahogany Hepplewhite stand, circa 1805; a Regency X-frame stool, circa 1825; a dramatic oil on canvas exploring the Greek myth of a young Hercules and the lion, circa 1810; and a quartet of hunting scenes painted on thick, beveled board, signed by E.M. O’Dell, dated 1893.

Gemini Antiques Ltd, Oldwick, N.J., is known for cast iron banks and toys, which filled two cases here, but diversified its offerings, featuring a gentleman whirligig, American, circa 1835; an early Civil War-era oil on canvas of the Illinois state seal, circa 1855; and for black memorabilia collectors, there was a pair of “The Couple” trivets or warming cozies, circa 1890, American.

Amid the collection of early American flags at Jeff R. Bridgman American Antiques, York County, Penn., that was led by a Civil War-era flag with 13 stars in the 3rd Maryland pattern, was a rare paint decorated dressing table from Maine with images of two leaping stags, circa 1830.

Featuring many fine antiquities in its booth, Charles Edwin Puckett Gallery, Akron, Ohio, offered a choice and rare pair of silver Byzantine bracelets made of four silver waves entwined, circa Tenth–Twelfth Century; an early Christian cross, made with 22K+ gold with gems that was well preserved; and a silver buckle with cabochon gems, circa Fifth–Sixth Century, with an eagle head and zoomorphic forms, probably once belonging to a Gothic warrior of importance.

The dealers also had a rectangular, sarcophagus panel depicting the god Anubis, carved cypress and polychrome painted over gesso, circa 1070–712 BC, with hieroglyphs, and an ancient Greek column krater showing a youthful satyr, circa 350 BC.

English furniture specialist Roger D. Winter, Solebury, Penn., offered a pleasing serpentine, Hepplewhite sideboard in mahogany with a diminutive size at 54 by 25½ by 36½ inches, having a single board top and crossbanded edges in satinwood, on tapered square legs, circa 1790; and a rare oval tea table in mahogany with a scalloped tray top having a central fan inlay and crossbanding.

Hanes and Ruskin, Old Lyme, Conn., offered a scarce American Nineteenth Century five-arm wood and tin chandelier in original and unwired condition; a lovely oval top Queen Anne table in figured maple, circa 1730­–60; and a paint decorated Federal chest made in Vermont, circa 1810.

Eye candy at Sylvia Antiques, Nantucket, Mass., included a rare Nantucket lightship basket that was presented to Mary Bowitch Forbes by James, H. Woods in 1930, a Nineteenth Century 55-inch mahogany and brass ship’s wheel mounted as a 60-inch custom dining table with a glass top and an apothecary chest with 56 drawers. Most of the interior drawers had been signed and dated by medical students attending the School of Medicine at the University of Maryland, 1822–75.

J&R Ferris Antiques, Boonville, N.Y., offered a colorful crazy quilt, circa 1889–1890, made of silk ribbons, flags, pieces of cloth, tassels and a Stevengraph, about 5½ feet by 5½ feet; a Gilman Joslin terrestrial globe, pre-1889 as North and South Dakota were not yet states; and a Rollo character ventriloquist dummy, circa 1890–1900, about 38½ inches tall.

Standouts at Baldwin House Antiques, Strasburg, Penn., spanned the globe from a rare beaded obas (king’s) tunic, circa 1900, Southwestern Nigeria, and an early Twentieth Century, African Nupe/Lobi terracotta vessel with lizard and toad decoration to a Federal eagle high chest of drawers, circa 1795, from the shop of Emanuel Deyer (Dwyer/Dyer) in Manheim, Penn., and a fine lidded blue painted barrel, mid-Nineteenth Century, American.

Garden antiques specialist Finnegan Gallery of Chicago offered a fine mix of items from stoneware and terracotta urns to a wooden worktable, a large planter in the form of a tree trunk and a French three-piece wrought iron garden seat set with scrolled seats and back (settee and two armchairs), circa 1935.

Jane McClafferty Antiques, Bloomfield, Conn., offered an English creamware lidded compote, circa 1790, and a rare set of six English pearlware children’s plates, the “Progress of the Quartern Loaf,” circa 1815.

Dawn Hill Antiques, New Preston, Conn., known for its stock of Swedish painted furniture, garden antiques and decorative items, offered a rococo period tray table with the original tiles and paint surface, Denmark, circa 1760; a bridal clock from Jamtland, Sweden, with intricate carved floral decoration, circa 1820; and a Gustavian period Swedish settee, circa 1790, with wonderful bow detail on the back and the carved Wasa sheaf of grain finials on each corner. Hung on the center back wall was a wonderful painting by Alix Ayme, “Young Girl Wearing a Blue Dress,” tempera on canvas, that came through the artist’s estate. It was flanked by two choice Gustavian tall clocks.

Among many fine paintings in the booth of Fletcher/Copenhaver Fine Art, Fredericksburg, Va., were John McAuliffe’s oil on canvas “Mr Claflin Driving His Team on the Fleetwood Race Track” and a staple artist of the gallery, Alix Ayme, whose oil on boards “On The Mekong River in Upper Laos” and “Market Scene” were attracting attention.

Cunha-St John Antiques, Charlestown, Mass., mounted a pair of rampant lion coat of arms supports, England, circa 1870, on the upper corner of its booth wall. The dealers also offered a Nineteenth Century pond yacht hull mounted in a custom mahogany coffee table, marquetry wooden tables and items, and carved wood whimsies.

The Silver Vault, Woodstock, Ill., filled its booth with gleaming pieces of silver, including an Old Sheffield plate-covered entrée dish on stand, circa 1815, by T&J Creswick and one found near to home, a sterling water pitcher made in Chicago, circa 1915, by the Kalo Shop.

The Hanebergs Antiques, East Lyme, Conn., featured a diverse booth that included a great little sailor’s ditty box inlaid with exotic woods and red sealing wax, whale ivory and baleen, circa 1840, with its original interior. Other standouts in the booth were a Johann Berthelsen oil on canvas of Central Park in a snowstorm, circa 1940, and an oil on canvas of the tug Samson by “Baltimore port painter” Otto Muhlenfeld.

The Norwoods’ Spirit of America, Timonium, Md., featured a fanciful mid-Nineteenth Century tin figure dubbed the “Tin Man,” likely made to celebrate a tenth wedding anniversary. Mounted on a stand, the figure consisted of a tin hat, tin glasses and a tin bow. Apropos for this show, the dealers also showed a well-executed Baltimore paper cutting made in the late 1800s.

Several fine examples of Asian antiques were offered at Robyn Turner Gallery, New York City, including a Seventeenth Century jade celadon brush rest.

For additional information, www.antiquescouncil.com, www.mashv.org or call Paulette Peden at 917-767-6384.