About one hour before the preview party on Thursday, May 5, for the Antique Garden Furniture Show at The New York Botanical Garden was to begin, the skies to the west began to darken and the wind picked up quickly. Trees and bushes bent from the force and workers inside the large exhibition tent watched as the side walls swayed back and forth and the canvas roof rippled slightly from the strong gusts. And just about all of the price tags in the booth of Jef and Terri Steingrebe blew to the floor as people came and went through the door opposite their display.

By show time, however, the weather had changed and the commotion outside had moved inside the tent as preview guests dashed about the floor, rapidly buying from the displays of the 34 exhibitors in the show. “It was great, an exciting opening night and the best one I have ever had,” Gregg Randall of R.T. Facts in Kent, Conn., said. Red sold tags appeared rapidly throughout the tent, fastened to cast iron urns, cement planters, ornate mirrors, animals large and small, fountains, and early garden tools.

Catherine Sweeney Singer, who was in her sixth year as manager of the show, noted that close to 1,000 tickets had been sold for the preview and “most of them came out to enjoy the evening.” Drinks flowed freely, food stations were laden with tasty treats, and young ladies seemed to be everywhere with trays of finger food. When the preview ended, one dealer remarked “if I don’t sell another thing in the next three days, I will still have had a great show.”

“We did our homework this year and it paid off,” Catherine Sweeney Singer said. “We placed more advertising and let people know that a ticket to the gardens was good for entrance to the show.” As a result, a record gate was recorded and Sunday was the best last day of the show in its 13 years. On that day just over 1,000 visitors came to the show.

A wonderful pair of large barn doors found in upstate New York, decorated with carved sunbursts and diamonds, provided a backdrop for other objects in the booth of Jeffery Henkel of Pennington, N.J. Fiske was represented in the booth by a pair of cast iron curly coated dogs, 42 inches long, Nineteenth Century, and a pair of late Nineteenth Century recumbent lions, European, 29 inches long, was of carved marble.

Canyan Antiques of New York City showed an industrial table from Belgium, circa 1940, and a 1930 sleeping dog in stone from the south of France, while across the aisle Blanchard, Ltd., of London offered a Nineteenth Century oval table from France, gray painted surface, and a large metal bird, circa 1960, resembling an ostrich.

Last fall Jef and Terri Steingrebe of New London, N.H., were invited to participate in the show and “we began immediately buying things and putting them away for this spring,” Jef said. He was able to amass a collection of 45 flower oriented doorstops, half of which sold at the show, along with an interesting sign from Rochester, N.H., that read “Pansies – 100 Yards.” The trade sign had black lettering on a white tin ground, wooden frame, and sold opening night. A large and very heavy cast stone eagle also sold during the preview, as did a pair of cast iron lion head hitching posts, Nineteenth Century, mounted on white marble. Before the weekend was over, sales also included a pair of lead planters, a marble bench, three out of four cast iron urns, a selection of vintage garden books, two lanterns and a selection of art pottery flower vases. “We were thrilled to get into the show, and equally thrilled with the end results,” Terri said. Towards the end of the show, as the walls became bare when objects were sold, they ended up hanging many of the doorstops to fill in the holes.

“This is the best pair of garden benches I have ever owned or seen,” Tracey Young of The Elemental Garden,. Woodbury, Conn., said of her pair of Neo-Classical demi-lune carved marble benches of Italian origin. “They came from an estate in Italy in 1903 and have spent the last 100 years on an estate in Greenwich, Conn.,” she said. Each measured 7 feet long, 42 inches deep, and 37 1/2 inches high and were in excellent condition and surface. A pair of recumbent bronze lions, each stamped “Alfred Corneau, Charleville,” had good patination.

A pair of Indian maiden sconces in plaster from a movie theatre in Rochester, N.Y., each holding a pair of lamps, polychromed, circa 1920’s, hung on the outside wall of the booth of Brennan & Mouilleseaux of Litchfield, Conn. Ten-year veterans of this show, David Mouilleseaux said “it was excellent for us, even better than last year.” Accounting for this successful show were the sales of a number of lamps, three pairs of cast iron urns with good decoration, a tilt-top iron garden table, a patio set went to a Buffalo couple, several armillary spheres, and a large wooden trade sign in the form of a lyre. “The trade sign came from a New England music store, and it sold to a lady who owns a music store,” Tim Brennan said. One of the pairs of cast iron urns, on plinths, was marked “Kramer Bros,” and dated circa 1880.

Bob and Debbie Withington of York, Maine, showed a collection of over fifty flower frogs in many shapes including animals, flowers, swans, turtles and crabs. A working fountain featured a child holding a fish, and a pair of frogs, seated on a bench near the water, were spouting into the basin and adding to the splashing.

“There is lots of interest in garden things,” Judy Milne of New York City said, “and we did very well. Jim and I went to the show with two truck loads of inventory on Wednesday, and came back Sunday night with one truck only half filled.” On display were four faux bois chairs, two arms and two sides, surrounding a round table of the same style and period, circa 1940, and the major part of one of the walls was taken up by a Nineteenth Century garden gate in cast iron, dated 1859, from New York State and measuring ten feet tall. Among the objects sold were a pair of cast stone recumbent lions, circa 1880, a pair of faux bois chairs, a pair of cast iron chairs with floral decoration, a pair of large standing lamps made from cast iron architectural elements, several planters on stands, four garden tables, three urns, and a number of small cast stone animals. “Usually Saturday is an off day for us, but this year we were very busy,” Judy said. Jim commented “that’s a new one on me” after watching a man come into his booth during the preview, hunt about for an empty electrical plug, pop in his cell phone, and left saying “it needs a charge, I will be back for it.”

Fleur, Mt Kisco, N.Y.

“We have been buying garden antiques for 27 years in Englandand we like to present an English garden look at shows,” Anne Roweof The Sugarplum, Wilmot, N.H., said. Apparently it is the rightformula, for “we sold tons of things, both literally andfiguratively, including cast animal figures, six or eight pairs ofplanters, early garden tools, terra cotta pots and a pair of caststone foals, English, circa 1940,” she said. “We save for the showand offer thing that have never been out before,” Anne said,including a figure of a standing rabbit, about 18 inches tall, withsome of the polychrome decoration remaining. “In all of our yearsin the business, it is the first rabbit in the form we have everseen, and we could have sold it several times over,” Anne said

She commented on the good job the show committee did, “listening to some of the concerns we expressed last year.” As a result, attendance was up, vetting was improved, and a real effort was made to make the people who came out just to visit the gardens aware of the show as well. “On Sunday we sold to some people who came to see the gardens and when they learned about the show, visited the tent as well,” Anne said. Anne and Garrett Rowe arrive at the show in two trucks, 25 feet and 18 feet, and because of strong selling the 18-footer went home on Saturday.

“The preview was like a whirlwind, people were at the show to buy and we had the best opening ever,” said Gregg Randall of R.T. Facts, Kent, Conn. Several urns, a piece of modern sculpture, wall sconces, two cast iron tables, chandeliers, and a wonderful pair of griffins in zinc, dating from the Nineteenth Century, signed Fiske, made up a portion of the preview sales. Greg, who has been doing the show for the past eight years, said some of the things he thought would sell right away did not move at all. He mentioned a cast iron life-size horse head that was of French origin and came from a stable. It weighed in at about 400 pounds and dated from the Nineteenth Century. In the center of his booth was a carved marble fountain of a dolphin on a rock, Nineteenth Century, Italian. “It came right off an estate in Palm Beach and is very heavy,” Gregg noted. During the move-in the weight caused one of the wheels on the pallet jack to fall through the floor of the tent. A pair of cast iron Nineteenth Century whippets was stretched out on a pair of Russo Verona benches, Italian, early Twentieth Century, with scroll base supports. “It would make a great ship’s anchor,” Greg said of his solid cast iron figure of Mercury, French, Nineteenth Century, when mentioning the weight of this six-foot tall statue.

A life-size animal figure standing in the center of the booth of Joan Evans, Lambertville, N.J., had the name “Rohrer’s” spelled across its cast stone body. “This came from a sheep farm in Ohio and I agree, it does not really look like a sheep,” Joan said of the white painted piece. She also offered a selection of lighting, including a handsome pair of lamps made from architectural elements, French, cast cement dating from the early Twentieth Century.

“The show was incredible, more interesting than in past years, and I felt the shoppers were really very up-beat,” Michael Trapp of West Cornwall, Conn., said. Michael, the master of display, offered a pair of Dutch Colonial benches dating from the Nineteenth Century. One of the benches rested on the floor, the other hung above it, suspended from the top of the booth. Other objects included a pair of giant clam shells, two large limestone balls measuring 18 inches in diameter, and a collection of close to three dozen shipwreck Sung bowls was neatly displayed on several shelves, each with a green apple in front. A large packing crate with four Vietnamese jars, Nineteenth Century, hung on a side wall and sold early in the show. “A couple bought them, taking no time to decide on the purchase, but the real discussion concerned how to show them. Should they be left in the packing crate or displayed separately,” Michael said. At the end of the show on Sunday very little was left in the booth. “We came about as close as you can to selling out,” he said.

Treillage, Ltd, of New York City again put together a handsome booth with cherry tree branches in full bloom carefully arranged in a tall French cast iron urn dating from the Nineteenth Century. An imposing pair of antique cast stone faux bois planters, 24 inches high and 25 inches square, were at the front of the booth, and a pair of French raised jardinieres, circa 1940, measured 90 inches tall.

A double horse trough and a triangular basin, both in granite and of French origin, were shown in the booth of Joseph Stannard Antiques of Norfolk, Conn. Dominating the back wall of the booth was a large clock face of stone, zinc and iron, French, late Nineteenth Century, in functioning order.

“The show was so much better this year, well-placed advertising brought in new people, and there was good follow-up in the days after the show,” Barbara Israel of Katonah, N.Y., said. She added “we seemed to have had an animal thing going this year as we sold a turtle, snail, toad, lizard, a large reclining deer of composition stone, English, circa 1880, and a carved stone owl, rustic form, 26 inches high, English, and dating from the late Nineteenth Century.” A pair of large urns, a wire bench, D-shaped trough and three curved benches were also sold by the end of Saturday. A cast iron seated retriever by Robert Wood & Co., Philadelphia, circa 1866-79, was shown with a faller woodcock at its feet. The bird had been separated from the base of the piece so “we can remove it for those who do not like the sight of a dead bird,” Barbara said.

“This was only my second year in the show, and it was great,” Bruce Emond of Village Braider, Plymouth, Mass., said. “We had sales every day, Saturday was strong, and we did two and a half times better than last year.” Among his sales were an Italian carved limestone figure in the form of a pirate, several stone benches, a wrought iron arch to be used in a rose garden, a large garden table, late Nineteenth Century window covers in iron from New York City, a pair of large spread-wing eagles from Mt Airy Lodge in the Poconos, a set of the Four Seasons in carved Italian limestone, an English cast iron white-painted Regency settee during the last hour of the show, and a Sicilian paint decorated cart to Barry and Nancy Nelson.

“This year the show was head and shoulders above last year and Catherine Sweeney Singer did a job to end all jobs,” Eleanor Billet of New York City said. “Last year we sold at the preview, and that was it. This year we sold right up to the end of the show on Sunday.” She told of a couple who came to New York for a concert, saw an ad for the show, came out and bought a few things. “We are shipping to Indiana as a result of their visit,” Eleanor said. With her husband David, the Billets partial sold list included a blue-painted oysterman’s table of French origin with good surface and patina, four planters, two pairs of urns, and a set of four two-part composition stone garden chairs, French origin, circa 1900.

Large artist-made copper-clad doors, circa 1940, found in Palm Beach, measured 72 by 79 1/2 inches, attracted lots of interest but did not sell from the booth of Kate Alex of Warner, N.H. “I was hoping they would find a buyer,” Kate said of the 800 pound piece, “but I was very glad they had strong porters at the show.” Also on the heavy side was a cast bronze relief from the Woolworth Building, circa 1930. Sales included many pieces of cast stone including a large bench, an 1840 Sheraton reeded park bench, cast iron urns and “heaps of smalls.” “The show was well run, management did a great job, and the preview party was a smash,” she said. Completing her sixth year at the show, she found people went for off-beat things and favored the Classical look.

Waterford Gardens of Saddle River, N.J., showed a collection of about 15 metal chairs, each with a cushion of white carnations. “We started plugging in the flowers last week and I know before this show is over someone is going to think it is fabric and sit on the flowers,” Mike Bartholome said. And from a distance it did appear each piece was outfitted with a comfortable cushion.

Mark Morris Home & Garden Collection, Dayton, Ohio.

French furniture in the booth of AvantGarden, Pound Ridge,N.Y., included a white oak coffee table from the south of France,circa 1950, great surface; a late Nineteenth Century cast irontable with marble top, and a pair of 1930 dish planters marked St.Andre. Fleur of Mount Kisco, N.Y., showed more French piecesincluding a faux bois twig armchair, circa 1890, and a faux boisbench, circa 1860-80.

“This is the largest pair of Galloway terra cotta urns we have ever owned,” said Howard Stern of Solebury, Pa. They dated circa 1910, about the same period as a pair of American carved limestone ram’s head urns. Linda Stern said their interest in Philadelphia pieces resulted in offering a pair of cast iron armchairs, black painted, that dated circa 1850-60.

Among the items in the well-lit booth of Dawn Hill Antiques, New Preston, Conn., were a large iron table with curved base and pierced top, white-painted, circa 1940, measuring 34 by 71 1/2 inches and 29 inches high; a console table from Provence in old green paint, carved apron, square column base late Nineteenth Century, 75 by 26 inch top, 38 inches high, and a pair of English Neo-Classical urns of the Georgian period, on stands with lion’s heads, domed covers with acorn finials, measuring 46 inches tall.

“We had a happy bunch of exhibitors and this year my award for having the fewest number of things in the booth at the end of the show went to Mark Morris who sold all but four things,” Catherine Sweeney Singer said. And are all of the exhibitors looking forward to returning next year? “Everyone said good-bye on the way out, and that’s a very positive sign,” Catherine added.