Instilling a positive atmosphere into the antiques show marketplace at the end of 2007, and providing a solid finale to the season for many of the 115-plus dealers, the Wilton Holiday Antiques Show on December 2 proved once again to be a hot spot for buyers. Managed by Marilyn Gould, the event transformed the field house at Wilton High School into a festive showcase of antiques.
An eye-dazzler of an event, the Wilton show has evolved over the years, presenting its well established offering of prime country wares from some of the top Americana dealers in the country, alongside Orientalia, Arts and Crafts, Modernist art and couture.
Reports of a heavy winter storm, which never materialized, ultimately kept some shoppers from the show, but a host of die-hard Wilton buyers traipsed through the light snow that fell in the area and made their presence known, leaving behind a wake of red tags as they hit the floor.
While the gate was off slightly from last year, according to Gould, there was still an enthusiastic crowd on hand for early buying and steady attendance throughout the day. Another positive note, according to the manager, “were the many new faces” in attendance. “A younger crowd that I hope to get to know,” stated Gould.
“There was a better feeling at Wilton than there has been for a long time” stated Camden, Maine, dealer Rufus Foshee, adding that the snow “gave the show an uplifting feeling.” Foshee noted that he saw “more serious buyers” at Wilton than he has seen recently, some of whom did some “serious buying. I sold to more new customers than I have ever sold to at a Wilton show, and they bought very substantial things.”
One new customer had just purchased a cupboard from another booth and wanted to fill it up with some of Foshee’s “pretty things.” The dealer reported, “She bought 17 pieces of moderately priced pottery that tallied more than $10,000. There is no accounting for who shows up, or for what reason, but the atmosphere was just very good.”
Bob Baker, Poverty Hollow Enterprises, Stamford and Redding Ridge, Conn., echoed those sentiments. “It’s always easy to blame the weather, and this time it certainly must have kept some people home, but I found that those who braved the roads came to buy. I was fortunate to have a good show at Wilton.” And sell Baker did: “My booth was set up as a cluttered English living room. I sold a late Nineteenth Century farm table, two mid-Nineteenth Century copper kettles, two early Twentieth Century oil paintings, a collection of 1930s brass chain link frames, a circa 1840 small stand, candelabras from the 1930s, several late Nineteenth Century lamps, a set of circa 1920 Wedgwood china, 12 lovely mid-Nineteenth Century dinner plates, a circa 1900 coal scuttle, a pair of Staffordshire goats with children, circa 1860, and various other objects that folks seemed to be buying as gifts,” stated the dealer.
Other booths were decorated with the holidays in mind, and many dealers said they brought merchandise to appeal to holiday shoppers as well as a younger crowd, which was exactly who filled the aisles †couples with young children and many 30-something shoppers.
“I am looking for something unique to give my sister,” said Susan Powell from Silvermine, Conn., who had a small child in a stroller. “She just bought a house and loves art and pottery.” She had the bottom of the stroller well packed with several items: a pair of pewter candlesticks, a piece of yellowware and an art print, she recounted.
Powell joined others to look at Gladstone, N.J., dealer, Marc Witus’s outside wall, which sported a set of ten advertising prints, circa 1943. The signed art prints were made for the Wickwire Spencer Steel Co., as advertising/propaganda prints incorporating something the company made with the faces of the Axis leaders: Hitler, Hirohito and Mussolini. One showed a conveyor belt with a chicken stretched out on it †with two heads, one Hitler and one Mussolini; the tail was Hirohito.
Many reported that “smalls” were selling well. Individually framed quilt squares or blocks called “friendship quilts” were moving quickly at David Thompson Antiques, Stockbridge, Mass. The single-framed, roughly 8-by-8-inch squares were made as gifts in the late Nineteenth Century. Thompson also had a large, early (1859) and very colorful map of Connecticut covering one wall.
Other smalls could be found at J. LiaBraaten’s booth in the form of an English redware molded tea caddy with original cover, which the Annandale, Va., dealer noted especially as a rarity for a tea caddy from between 1750 and 1800. He also pointed out a not-so-small Wedgwood pearlware candlestick †actually the largest he has ever offered †about 18 inches tall and from the late Eighteenth Century.
Fine art could be seen in several locations, but especially at Leonard Fox’s booth. From New York City, Fox and associate Cecily Dyer were showing Matisse, Léger and Dali prints and paintings. A Fernand Léger gouache on paper from 1938 was $10,000 and a Gerda Wegener watercolor on paper, “Women with Flowers,” signed and dated 1928, was $40,000. “I thought it would be different to offer this type of art,” said Fox. “The buyers seem to appreciate it.”
In the other half of the space, Dyer was offering Sirooni gouaches from the first half of the Twentieth Century. Originally prepared as designs for fabric or wall paper, they came from a museum collection and historical references in the form of portfolio books that were being thumbed by many lookers.
The stand of Blue Heron Fine Art, Cohasset, Mass., was filled with Nineteenth and Twentieth Century art. Displayed prominently in the center was a good-sized Gustave Wiegand, “Summer Landscape,” priced at $9,500. A classic Nineteenth Century snow scene by William Preston Phelps featured finely painted people in the snowy landscape, unusual for the genre; it was $15,000. Dealer Shelly Brown pointed out a Carl Ringius painting of Gloucester that was unusual for this artist, better known for his landscapes.
Art of a different sort was available at The Country Squire Antiques, Milton, Mass. Among the English leather chairs and Eighteenth Century block front desk were papier mache and Tole trays. One, with a gilt edge, had a black center and was stamped “Jennens & Bettridge / Makers to the Queen,” circa 1840‶0, for $2,500; a parrot tray featured a bright green parrot looking out a window with flowers in the foreground was $4,500. Randy Farrar also had a pair of carved wood and polychrome cigar store Indian children with feather headdresses and skirts. Each was carrying a basket on its back; the pair was $12,500.
Marie Miller of Dorset, Vt., had quilts all around her booth. A couple was admiring a large checker-board trapunto and appliquéd quilt from around 1860 that was signed Jacob Whitmore. She also had a majolica bird pattern plate and basket weave and floral syrup pitcher with a pewter lid, roughly 1880, for $295.
Charles and Barbara Adams from South Yarmouth, Mass., reported a good day. “We sold a good oil on canvas of a Vermont scene. Also, a miniature dovetail blanket box with till. It was early Nineteenth Century and in original green paint. Also, a decorated cane in old paint with turtles, alligators and snakes on it. We sold several bottle brush Christmas trees and some ornaments,” Barbara said after the show, “and many smalls.”
Robesonia, Penn., dealer Greg Kramer noted sales of “a mix of items, mostly smalls †and only one piece of painted furniture,” but there was “lots of serious interest and we expect after show sales,” he said.
Kramer’s large corner booth was decorated for the holidays and a stately, large seven-story diorama doll house, from the Merritt Doll Museum, sported formal grounds, fencing and figures. Signed and dated by Charles Grant, May 20, 1876, the encased estate incorporated real bumblebees and moths and flowers, as well as a fully decorated interior.
Americana ruled the day at many booths. An 1840‶0 Pennsylvania Dutch cupboard with original blue paint interior was filled with Norwalk slipware plates. At Raccoon Creek, Oley, Penn., the dealers also were showing lovely period homespun linen from the 1820s.
Michael and Lucinda Seward brought a primitive portrait of two girls titled “Portrait of Abby Aldrich & her Aunt,” 1830‴0, $28,000; a Shaker candlestick marked $4,900 and, in an unusual twist for the Pittsford, Vt., dealers, a wonderful assortment of vintage jewelry.
Derek Pulito was showing a Nelson Augustus Moore painting from 1863 titled “Upper Mill Pond, Kensington, Vt.,” as well as a paint decorated blanket box, an apothecary chest and an Eighteenth Century oval spice box in untouched condition with rosehead nails.
Funky wrought iron Christmas tree lawn ornaments joined game boards, weathervanes and painted furniture at Russ and Karen Goldberger’s RJG Antiques. A late Nineteenth Century backgammon board hung alongside brightly painted Parcheesi and checkerboards. The Rye, N.H., dealers said they love game boards, calling them “wall folk art.” The dealers were quick to point out a vibrantly decorated Nineteenth Century “Mill Game” board. Karen admitted she had no idea how the game was played, but it made a wonderful wall hanging.
At Otto and Susan Hart’s, the center of attention was a folk art clock, made from 114 working parts, that had reportedly been constructed by a teenaged boy as a science project in 1917. From Pennsylvania, the 4-foot-plus-high musical mechanical clock still keeps time. “But I think the boy might’ve had some help with the project,” Susan said. “His father was an engineer!”
Charles Breuel from Glenmont, N.Y., specializes in clocks, like the 1805‱0 extremely rare tall clock he found in Upstate New York. With blue glass over the dial, it had an Eli Terry movement in a pine case with a Prussian blue finish. The workings in the 30-hour clock were made of wood with a bell striking the hour. Another shelf-sized pyramid clock, also a 30-hour type with wooden works, had a beautiful stenciled case.
American presidents are the focal point of Patsy and Robert Hasset’s American Memories shop from Wyncote, Penn. They provide a veritable visual history of the presidents, and Patsy is a font of knowledge on all of them. She pointed out a black folk art watercolor depicting Abe Lincoln in chains with a text saying, “Mr Lincoln we’ll never forget you.”
A folk art table from the Spanish-American war with military emblems inlaid on the top representing all of the service branches was sold early in the day. Other items of interest included a majolica pitcher decorated with an image of President Ulysses S. Grant and a reverse painting on glass of Lafayette celebrating his return to America in 1824 as the last of the Revolutionary War heroes.
Far removed from the traditional Americana for which Wilton has long been known, D.N. Salken Antiques exemplified the diversity of materials exhibited around the show floor. The Philadelphia dealer offered a wide selection of rare Oriental furniture, including chairs, cupboards and tables, as well as art and accessories. Highlighted was a pair of unusual Nineteenth Century Shanxi pottery foo dogs with original lacquer. Also offered was an early Nineteenth Century coffer that retained its original back, side and hardware.
The next antiques show to be presented by the Wilton Historical Society will take place March 30. For information, 203-762-7257.
