Now in its 14th year, the New York Ceramics Fair was the first of the shows to officially kick off Americana Week in New York. The event, produced by Caskey Lees, Inc, opened for a gala preview on Tuesday evening, January 22, and continued on a four-day run, closing Sunday.
Conducted at Bohemian National Hall on the upper East Side of Manhattan, the show was presented in the semi-tight confines of the fourth floor ballroom and the fifth floor balcony overlooking the main exhibition area. Sparkling with brightly colored ceramic glazes that spanned the centuries, from examples of glazed pottery that predated the Common era to freshly thrown and decorated vessels, plaques and sculpture, the show looked grand. Also a well-known hot-spot for antique glass, the selection was once again pleasing †although comparatively limited agewise †works spanned from the Roman era through the Nineteenth Century.
Additionally, the lecture series was fulfilling, comprising eight talks taking place over three days. Lectures were presented by experts, such as several members of the curatorial and teaching staff from Colonial Williamsburg, including Suzanne Hood’s “More than ‘Sundry Old China Cups and Saucers:’ Examining the Evidence for Chinese Porcelain in Virginia” and “Simply Riveting: A Look at Broken and Mended Ceramics” by Angelika Kuettner. The retired director of museum collections at Winterthur, Patricia Halfpenny, spoke about “Staffordshire in the Colonies,” and Winterthur’s senior curator Leslie Grisby presented “Always Time for Wine! A History of Ceramic Drinking Vessels.”
Also lecturing was the editor of Chipstone’s Ceramics in America, Rob Hunter, Ron Fuchs II curator of the Reeves Collection at Washington and Lee University in Virginia, and Angelina Howard discussed “From Canton to the City: Export Porcelain for London.” Other talks included contemporary ceramics with Leslie Ferrin discussing Covet, a series of ceramic related events that took place in the Berkshires last summer.
A large crowd was on hand for the Tuesday night preview party, and as elevator after elevator shuttled people from the ground floor to the fourth, the crowd expanded at a rapid pace. Buyers were often lined up several deep in the stands of prominent dealers as they attempted to take in the large variety of wares presented.
London dealer George Kingham was exhibiting at the Ceramics Fair for the first time, pulling out all the stops with a tremendous selection of English wares. Doing business as Kingham Pottery, Gloucestershire, U.K., the dealer offered a rare grouping of grotesque bird sculptures (tobacco jars), five in all, that ranged in price from $32,000 to $90,000. “That one is a ‘barrister’ (a British lawyer),” said the dealer of one example sporting a tie-wig and an exaggerated bill. “They made relatively few of them, and they are considered to be quite rare, which somewhat explains the price ($90,000) I have on it,” he said. The dealer also offered a selection of Wedgwood pots in the Fairyland Lustre pattern, including a large vase with “Imps on Bridge, Tree House” design that was stickered at $70,000.
Across the aisle was the stand of Manhattan dealers Garrison and Diana Stradling and Ian Simmons of Carlisle, Penn. The display was riddled with rarities that ranged from redware and Parian to early American examples of table glass. Standouts included a redware inkwell in the form of a heart, with green and yellow slip decoration and impressed with the mark of Adam Ownhouse. Stradling related that it is one of four known examples by the Pennsylvania potter, which includes a bird whistle from the Edwin Atlee Barber collection (now part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collection), a small plate previously owned by the dealers and another inkwell that sold at a Maryland auction. Other redware included two rare Farrar jars by Caleb and potted in Middlebury, Vt., as well as a Rockingham figure of a Highland Lassie by William Farrar, Geddes, N.Y.
It was the glass that was the true standout in the booth, however, with dealer Ian Simmonds proclaiming the engraved sugar bowl by Bakewell, Page and Bakewell to be one of “perhaps a dozen known examples. Corning has one,” said the dealer, “so does Yale and the Met.” With classic engraved floral decoration, the sugar bowl dates to circa 1820″5. A daisy diamond flask by Manheim, Penn., glassmaker Henry William Stiegel was displayed alongside the sugar bowl and a wonderful sapphire colored decanter, circa 1828‴0, was thought by the dealer to have been made at Sandwich.
Chinese porcelains were prominently displayed by Peter Rosenberg, Vallin Galleries, Wilton, Conn., with a large Chinese three-colored sancai stoneware sculpture of Gaundi (the God of War) positioned at the forefront of the booth. A large Han dynasty watchtower sculpture in green glaze was another of the monumental works exhibited. Blue and white porcelains in the booth included a pair of Chinese Qing dynasty sleeve vases with tree peonies and bird decoration that had been deaccessioned from the Lehigh University Museum and a rare, triple-gourd-shaped vase with the “100 Antiques” decoration on the lower portion and floral cartouches above.
New York dealer Paul Vandekar presented a varied selection of ceramics, with a rare pair of Chinese Export elephant candlesticks capturing the attention of collectors. With trunks turned up, the famille rose decorated elephants were a true pair as they faced each other, $18,000. Trading as Earl D. Vandekar of Knightsbridge, Maryknoll, N.Y., the dealer also offered an elegant pair of Chinese Imari leaf-shaped sauce boats, Kangxi period, circa 1720, that resembled sailing vessels. “They almost float,” stated Vandekar. From the opposite end of the spectrum came a rare set of 12 plates depicting Eve by Piero Fornasetti. Designed in 1954, the black and white transfer plates were each decorated with different parts of Eve’s anatomy, including one simply decorated with her hand and the “apple.”
Contemporary ceramic art by Jose Arias, sparse humanoid figures with Aboriginal-type glazed decoration, filled the shelves at Martin Cohen, New York City. “We had a few of these at last year’s show, and they were very well received,” he said. A greater assortment of figures, some in spherical shapes, captured the eyes of collectors once again. Other items of interest included a Venini Pezzato vase, with the patchwork glass varying in color from green to blue to red; an Eighteenth Century Castelli tile by Nicola Cappelletti; and a set of six blown Tiffany Favrile glasses with applied decoration.
“I have never seen a more beautiful example,” commented exhibitor John Suval in regards to the rare Eighteenth Century China Trade plate featuring a design by Dutch botanist Maria Sibylla Merian. Trading as Phillip Suval, Fredericksburg, Va., the dealer commented that his large-sized blue and white example with gold highlights comprised the iris and caterpillar decoration with butterfly. Several pieces of Fitzhugh were also offered, with a pair of green plates with American eagles among the assortment. The dealer thought the plates, circa 1810, were from a service executed for the state department. “Yellow Fitzhugh is the hardest color to find,” stated the dealer as he pointed out a plate measuring roughly 8 inches in diameter. A pink example, made for the Portugal market, was also available.
Leo Kaplan has been exhibiting at the Ceramics Fair since its inception, and in typical fashion, the jovial dealer was on hand once again to greet long-standing clients †as well as a host of new ones. The New York City dealer brought along a stellar assortment of English agateware, Pratt ware, creamware, Whieldon and a selection of Tobys, but it was the collection of paperweights that seemed to make his eye twinkle. Examples by Paul Stankard, Melissa Ayotte and a host of others were available, as well as pieces from the St Louis school and from firms such as Baccarat.
The next show in Caskey Lees’ arsenal will be the San Francisco Tribal & Textile Show, February 8‱0. The New York Arts of Pacific Asia will not be produced this March because a suitable venue for the show is not available during Spring Asia Week. For additional information, www.caskeylees.com or 310-455-2886.
