Nevermind the tree lighting across town at Rockefeller Center, the Park Avenue Armory shone the brightest on December 2 as it hosted a glittering preview attended by a who’s who of New York society and celebrities and, of course, antiques and art collectors at the newly rebranded show, Avenue Antiques & Art at the Armory, now under the sole management of Avenue magazine and its publisher, Manhattan Media.
The show, which ran through December 6, featured around 60 top dealers, showcasing choice antique furniture, paintings, silver and fine decorative arts, rugs, porcelain, rare books, vintage handbags and more. The preview gala benefited the American Cancer Society’s Hope Lodge here.
At the gala, dealers, clad in cocktail attire, dressed up their booths with cream-of-the-crop items †showstoppers like the German field armor on a mannequin atop a full-size horse figure and a sleek and sophisticated silver solid silver epergne by Matthew Boulton †befitting the venue and the clientele.
During preview, careful staging at Ophir Gallery, Englewood, N.J., showed off a rare 18-stem Tiffany Lily lamp along with a Jo Davidson sculpture, Jean-Leon Gerome’s gilt bronze, “Bacchante and the Infant,” circa 1900, and Demetre H. Chiparus’s “Tender Promises,” a cold painted and parcel-silvered bronze and ivory on an onyx and marble base with foundry mark.
A sparkling booth of small treasures was seen at The Antique Enamel Company, London, which offered an English George III perfume necessaire in gold and agate, circa 1765; a Viennese silver and enamel neff by Rudolph Linky; a five-piece desk set of silver gilt, lapis and ivory in a presentation case that was a wedding gift by Austrian Emperor Franz-Josef I to Count Edward Clam-Gallas and his wife, Countess Klothide Dietrichein.
Viennese highlights included an important silver and lapis desk set by Franz Jauner, circa 1850, a silver and enamel cup and cover by Karl Banks and a rock crystal tazza by Herman Ratzersdorpher.
Midori Gallery, Coconut Grove, Fla., showed a fetching porcelain figure of a woman holding a woven leash attached to a porcelain dog, as well as a Japanese temple structure of a standing “Jizo,” the bodhisattva of compassion, dating to the Taisho period, 1912‱5, and a select grouping of choice Japanese ikebana baskets.
Fine paintings were attractively displayed at Schillay Fine Art, Inc, New York City, including Johann Berthelsen’s oil on canvas “Times Square,” Jean Charles Cazin’s “The Harvest” and Thomas Luny’s “Bombardment of Algiers,” signed and dated 1822.
Fireplace tools and brassware are de riguer at J. Gallagher, North Norwich, N.Y., led by a grouping of American or British brass doorstops, circa 1880‱890, and a rare brass cutwork log holder, but the dealer also offered several choice examples of Sheraton furniture, including a mahogany two-drawer lamp table, circa 1810, with sublime bulbous reeded legs and a molded cookie corner top and a mahogany chest of drawers, circa 1810, from Boston or Salem, with high reeded turned feet and delicate apron.
Zane Moss Antiques, New York City, offered a large apothecary chest in walnut, retaining its original labels, circa 1875, a fine Nineteenth Century buttoned leather ottoman, with lift-off top and on mahogany feet, circa 1875, and a fine Irish bureau, circa 1780.
Hunting art offerings included an oil on canvas by Alphonse Gaudefroy (1845‱936), “Interior Scene with Hunter and Hounds,” and E.H. Herberte’s colorful painting “Morning of The Hunt,” painted when fox hunting was its peak.
City Arts Gallery, New York City, featured the work of New York artists, including Max Tzinman, whose photorealism works transcend the moment and contemplate what comes next; Alan Peckolick, graphic designer turned painter; Stephanie Rauschenbusch, whose still life tableau featuring a bowl of strawberries, a teapot and two violins was eye-catching; and a quartet of compelling yet disquieting anthropomorphic works by Von Schmidt.
Imperial Fine Books, New York City, featured a rebound first edition of Ian Fleming’s first novel, Casino Royale ; a six-volume, first edition set of Sir Winston Churchill’s Second World War , bound in full red calf by Bayntun; a copy of Mother Goose illustrated in color and signed by Arthur Rackham; and a five-volume, first edition set of Marshall’s Life of Washington , full tan calf binding, 12 maps included. A copy of Peter Pan , bound in full red Morocco by Bayntun, included color plates done by Rackham.
Harvey Weinstein Fine Antiques, New York City, specializes in Tiffany lamps and at the show featured several choice table examples, as well as Op Art by Richard Anuszkiewicz and a mixed media collage by Larry Rivers (1923′002) that was created for Leonard Bernstein.
Sylvia Powell Decorative Arts, London, offered Jacques Nam’s circa 1925 painting “Cats,” several Dennis China works designed by Sally Tuffin, Flower Fairy silk paintings after a design by Walter Crane that were probably made by Thomas Wardle & Co. for the retail market, as well as a pair of carved polychrome tile panels modeled in relief, designed and made by Halsey Ricardo, “Sabine Farm,” and “Troytown.”
The dealer also offered a Martin Brothers face jug, circa 1898, and a rare stoneware eagle, works of which Powell said were given a human face and modeled after political figures of that era.
M.S. Rau Antiques, New Orleans, La., offered a booth of standouts, including a Maximillian-style field armor that was draped on a mannequin perched on a steed, German, circa 1850; and a wall-size William-Adolphe Bouguereau painting, “Alma Parens (The Motherland),” of a serene mother and her young children that was around 8 feet tall. Other highlights included a Tiffany Chrysanthemum pattern 152-piece flatware service for 12; a minister’s surprise chair, English, circa 1885; and Federico Del Campo’s signed oil “Venice,” circa 1914.
Eye candy in the booth of Asiantiques, Winter Park, Fla., included a pair of large export Canton enameled vases, Qing dynasty, in the Rose Mandarin pattern; a six-fold screen with gold leaf and polychrome pigments on paper, Japanese, Edo period; and a pair of lacquered huanghuali cabinets, Qing dynasty, later decorated with jade carvings.
The Silver Fund, San Francisco, featured fine sterling silver like a Georg Jensen barometer, design #596, designed by Johan Rohde in the 1920s and produced circa 1940s, as well as exemplar Murano pieces such as a large red vase with applied lines of glass, designed by Ercole Varovier and a Dino Martens Oriente vase, cased glass with aventurine inclusions and pinwheel.
Antique American Wicker, Nashua, N.H., which specializes in stick wicker and rattan furniture, offered a fine seating suite, while Hollis Reh & Shariff, Southampton, N.Y., featured a Buccellati suite in 18K gold with diamonds and sapphires, circa 1920s.
Standouts at Derek & Tina Rayment Antiques, Cheshire, United Kingdom, included a Louis XVI oval French antique barometer with black frame and blue painted dial, signed Robert Passage, circa 1780; a Louis XVI giltwood French barometer carved with lovebirds an dolphins, circa 1775; and another French giltwood barometer with center dial, the case decorated with dolphins, torchieres and garlands, circa 1780.
Robert Lloyd, New York City, offered a solid silver epergne, by Matthew Boulton, Birmingham, UK, 1811; an oversized and rare candelabrum in solid silver with 13 lights, George Borley, London, 1904; and a New York flat top tankard made by Simeon Soumaine, circa 1730.
Rounding out the show offerings were fine casino antiques at Daniels Antiques, Hallandale, Fla., dog paintings and fine micromosaics of dogs at Hamshere Gallery, London, and a collection of antique articulated artists’ figures at Marion Harris, New York City.
For more information, www.avenueshows.com or 646-442-1626.
