Hilary and Paulette Nolan, Falmouth, Mass.,
Review and Photos by Andrea Valluzzo
CHADDS FORD, PENN. – The Brandywine River Museum Antiques Show, a Memorial Day weekend tradition, has truly come into its own and is now a compact but highly curated affair featuring fine antiques and attracting a loyal following. The show’s 46th annual edition took place May 27-29.
Aileen Minor Antiques, Centreville, Md.
Pared down a few years ago when it was larger and displaced the artwork in the museum galleries here, the show now offers just 26 dealers while the galleries remain open so visitors can enjoy the Wyeths and other artworks on display.
The show starts in the stone-lined courtyard, where seven dealers are set up al fresco. Americana was prominent, starting with Olson Antiques, Newburgh, N.Y., which had a smattering of furniture, a stack of colorful firkins, stoneware jugs and a Horse Blankets sign. Ayscough Antiques, Chadds Ford, Penn., offered a fine example of the quintessential running horse weathervane
Lisa McAllister, Clear Spring, Md., offered a vibrant booth with eagle-form wall art and a colorful quilt, while Hilary and Paulette Nolan, Falmouth, Mass., had lovely examples of paint decorated furniture as well as chairs in their natural grain surface, along with a pleasing set of blue and white china.
An interesting small at West Pelham Antiques, Pelham, Mass, was a collection of 15 early, handcarved wooden clothespins on custom stands, late Nineteenth-early Twentieth Century, on offer along with a highly unusual American tea caddy in mahogany, dated 1804, with sampler inserts reading “Aged 8 Years 1804” and illegible writing, possibly the name of the girl who wrought the sampler. James M. Kilvington, Inc, Greenville, Del., featured a blacksmith trade sign in the form of a horseshoe, American, circa 1880, and an early millstone, circa 1850.
Aileen Minor Antiques, Centreville, Md., offered her usual choice collection of garden antiques, featuring a swan pedestal sundial, dated 1840, in a lovely mossy, stone surface, and a rare pair of Nineteenth Century wrought steel garden benches or settees with heavyweight and riveted construction, circa 1880, American. The frontispiece in her booth, though, was in the center of the back wall – a pleasing arched, wrought iron, three-piece trellis having a decorative scroll and lattice design, early Twentieth Century. An added bonus was its opening, wide enough to accommodate mowers!
Brennan & Mouilleseaux,
Northfield, Conn.
Inside the museum, traditional upholstered furniture for an elegant parlor was on offer at Dubey’s Art & Antiques, Inc, Baltimore, while The Hanebergs Antiques, East Lyme, Conn., offered a mahogany Pembroke table with great graining, inlaid capital, leg stringing and cuffs, probably New York or Philadelphia.
Several dealers highlighted animals, from land to sea and air, including Tucker Frey Antiques, Woodbury, Conn., which had a mounted game fish on the wall adjacent to a fish on platter still life oil on canvas, while a vibrant green parrot painting was at The Norwoods’ Spirit of America, Timonium, Md., depicting the bird in a parrot house and set in a heart-filled frame. Priscilla Boyd Angelos, Flourtown, Penn., hung a fetching running horse hooked rug, and Joseph J. Lodge, Lederach, Penn., offered a ram vane.
A standout in the booth of W.M. Schwind Jr, Yarmouth, Maine, was a pair of Edwardian wirework terrace chairs in white, Twentieth Century, and a lovely Sheraton dressing table in its original yellow paint with green striping, retaining its original stenciled fruit and leaf decoration and freehand highlights, circa 1830-40, Maine.
J&R Ferris Antiques, Boonville, N.Y., featured fine paintings, including Sally Ladd Cole’s oil on canvas, “Atlantic Wave,” capturing the wonder of nature, and William Zorach’s “Booth Bay Harbor,” a watercolor measuring 12¾ by 19 inches. Brill’s Antiques, Newport News, Va., offered an oak gateleg table, circa 1680, England, and a rare pair of large-size jars, mid-Eighteenth Century, Chinese.
Hanes & Ruskin, Old Lyme, Conn., exhibited a pair of milliner’s heads, complete with a lace cap and in fine original condition, almost as if they were just taken off the shelf of a Paris fashion boutique in the late Nineteenth Century. Also on offer was a distinctive, one-drawer paint-decorated “mule” blanket chest, circa 1720-50.
Dover House Antiques, Louisville, Ky.
White & White, Skaneateles, N.Y., offered Grandma Moses’s view of “Poesenkill,” New York, an oil on board, circa 1952, and a Sheraton three-lobe games table, circa 1790-1815, probably New York or Pennsylvania in a form rarely seen in tiger maple.
Dover House Antiques, Louisville, Ky., offered a Chester County, Penn., hutch table, circa 1830; a stack of graduated sized firkins in original paint, various colors, from the Nineteenth Century; and a Pennsylvania paint decorated settee having stenciled decoration on an apple green ground.
Highlights in the booth of Mark & Marjorie Allen, Gilford, N.H., were a curly maple Pembroke table, circa 1790, having bold figuring and straight tapered legs and a Swedish painted, tall case clock, circa 1820, with original painted decoration in red, white and blue, and a fine needlework, circa 1725, depicting a garden party.
Art glass was prominently displayed at Harley N. Trice, Pittsburgh, which had a pair of blown glass witch balls with vases, circa 1840, Wheeling or Pittsburgh, and a rare free-blown pitcher, Pittsburgh, circa 1840, having a cobalt bowl and cased handle with a looped spout.
Harold E. Cole and Bettina Krainin, Woodbury, Conn., featured a wooden scarecrow with provenance to the Bob Timberlake collection, North Carolina.
For additional information, www.brandywine.org/museum or 610-388-2700.
