The Cape Cod Antique Dealers Association Inc offered an elegant and tidy presentation at its 40th annual Cape Cod Antiques Show & Sale at the Nauset Regional Middle School August 6‸.
Making this weekend on the Cape an antiques destination, much like the New Hampshire Antiques Week that would take place to the north the following week, show promoters here and in nearby Chatham conferred as to dates, so the two antiques shows would complement each other, said Barbara Adams, an exhibiting dealer and the association’s recording secretary. The Chatham show opened Thursday, August 5, and also ran through August 8. Show hours there ended Friday at 5 pm, giving the Chatham dealers a chance to shop this show on opening day.
Dealers’ offerings here ran mostly to Americana, with finely crafted case furniture, outstanding paintings and accessories, as folk art and primitives, while also satisfying urges for Asian wares, contemporary art and ephemeral material.
Flanking the lobby entrance were Woodsview Antiques, Norwell, Mass., with fine smalls, baskets and transfer ware, and Witt’s End Antiques, Walkill, N.Y., which showed a circa 1820 Federal New York tiger maple tilt-top candlestand with shaped corners and an Eighteenth Century maple tap table on splay legs with its original oval tiger maple top.
Gail Ensinger, Surfside Beach, S.C., offered a William and Mary cherry three-part highboy with exotic inlays and an Eighteenth Century delft five-piece garniture and a fine six-piece coin silver tea, coffee and hot chocolate service by Meadows & Co. of Philadelphia that was displayed on a Sheffield tray. A colorful standout here, however, was the pair of jade green Chinese ceramic architectural dragons set on plinth bases
Malchione’s Sporting Antiques, Kennett Square, Penn., had a canoe-style display rack set up to show fishing decoys and lures. Booth highlights included a drake redhead decoy by Connecticut carver Roswell E. Bliss, several pairs of creels and a colorful collection of flies.
The Spyglass, Brewster, Mass., offered a rare and large-size reverse painting of the Titanic , circa 1920, a Nineteenth Century China Trade camphor, two-part wood chest, circa 1830, and an early Twentieth Century shadowbox of the three-masted ship Shark . In a nod to the recent shark sightings that closed some area beaches, the accompanying tag said, “This shark will not bite.”
Marsh Hawk Antiques, Eastham, Mass., specializes in chocolate molds, offering several rare examples, as well as a pleasing vignette of red and white napkins and table runners.
Nautical antiques dealers Kenrick A. Claflin & Son, Worcester, Mass., displayed items relating to the US Coast Guard, US Lighthouse Service, US Life-Saving Service and US Revenue Cutter Service, as well as stereoviews and ephemeral items. A standout among the smalls, photos and ephemeral material was a fine oil on board by a local artist of a Coast Guard rescue off the coast of Chatham.
Cummaquid Farms Antiques, Cummaquid, Mass., had a pond boat model, circa 1935, from a Harwichport estate with original finish on the hull, along with a circa 1820 New England Sheraton table entirely made of tiger and bird’s eye maple with turned legs. A real find was a brass and bronze Nineteenth Century ship’s gimbal oil lamp that was likely originally used in the ship’s salon or dining room.
CBC Antiques, Kinnelon, N.J., presented two booths in the show, one filled with jewelry, while the other one featured fine art, furniture and decorative accessories, including a pair of Gothic-style carved chairs and a fine Roseville bowl.
Nautical-themed fine art was liberally sprinkled around the show. Ester Gilbert Antiques, Southampton, Mass., offered a Blakie Hines (b 1949) ship’s portrait of Alden Thomaston out of Maine, while Bradford Trust Fine Arts, Harwich Port, Mass., showed a Ralph Cahoon work of two mermaids flanking King Neptune under two sport fishes with crossing swords. Over at John Tracy Antiques, Fall River, Mass., was another prominently displayed Ralph Cahoon painting, this one of a mermaid under a beached boat with two surprised girls peeking out from behind the boat.
Perry-Joyce Fine Arts, Sawyer, Mich., featured a fetching portrait of Scamperdale in his stall by F. Mabel Hollams (1877‱963), who was known for her paintings of horses.
Two by Two Antiques took its name to heart, proving that good things do come in pairs, showcasing a pair of ornately carved side chairs with floral decorated seats on a blue ground ending in claw feet, a pair of botanical prints, and flanking the booth were a pair of stone planters terminating in swag bases.
Antiques of Hingham (Mass.) offered an eclectic booth from blue and white china to decoys to yellowware, while Denise Scott Antiques, East Greenwich, R.I., embraced a country theme with a case of decoys and smalls and a small, folky painted wooden barber pole.
Rounding out the show were May Ann Robbins Antiques, West Harwich, Mass., with a fine hooked rug of a dog’s profile, a grouping of stoneware crocks at Edward & Charlene Dixon Antiques, Eastham, Mass., and canary Sandwich glass at Old Cape Antiques, South Harwich, Mass.
Standouts in the booth of David Thompson Antiques & Art, Wellfleet and Mashpee, Mass., were a framed color illustration, “The Hay Field,” published by William Spooner in London and a pair of Wedgwood blue pitchers in a small and large size.
Louis Dianni Marine Art & Antiques, Fishkill, N.Y., offered a well-appointed booth of ship paintings and maritime-themed bookends and antiques. Dianni presented a booth chat during the show Sunday on American ship portraiture.
The show will return next summer. For more information, 508-760-3290 or www.ccada.com.
