March may come in like a lion, but it was the Chester County Antiques Show that roared into town with a hearty offering of exemplary antiques March 1 and 2.
The 26th annual show, whose theme was “Inspired By Nature: Carved, Stitched, Painted, Crafted,” marked its last edition at the QVC Studio Park due to the TV network’s expansion plans. Show organizers are looking for a new venue for the popular show, a benefit for the Chester County Historical Society.
Passionate collectors, historical society members and dealers all happily mingled at the gala preview party Friday night. The show’s honorary chairman, part-time local resident Tova Borgnine, whose fragrances and beauty products are sold on QVC, socialized with attendees while perusing the lavish booths.
Heavy on Americana, particularly Pennsylvania in origin, Chester County boasts little dealer turnover and features the crème de la crème of furniture, antiques, fine art and decorative arts.
Stellar examples of furniture were around every corner. Roger D. Winter, Solebury, Penn., offered a Chippendale barrel back corner cupboard with corner pilasters supporting the flame mahogany paneled doors, while Newsom & Berdan, Thomasville, Penn., featured a rare blanket chest in red paint with grained decoration and recessed panels relief carved with diamonds from a New York collection.
A folky mix of architectural elements, sculpture and signs marked the booth of Otto & Susan Hart, Arlington, Vt., with two large trade signs, one titled Boots & Shoes, and the other a massive wooden sign featuring a mustard-yellow pair of eyeglasses and a pocket watch that advertised “Glasses Fitted” for a C.L. Gleason. The latter sign had a pleasing shape and took up nearly all of one sidewall in the booth.
Show manager Wesley Sessa’s booth, Antiques At Half Crown Farm, Pottstown, Penn., had a theme going with four choice tilt top tables displayed along one wall and even featured one in miniature, a salesman’s sample table atop an English oak blanket chest. Another standout in the booth was a Pennsylvania knuckle arm sack back chair with early paint. Sales included a tiger maple tavern table, likely Connecticut or Massachusetts, that went to the trade, and a well developed sack back Windsor chair that was down to the old wash.
Being a show for the Chester County Historical Society, many of the dealers, and not just those who are local to these parts, purposely bring merchandise native to this area.
James M. Kilvington Inc, Dover, Del., displayed an important Chester County tea table in walnut, circa 1760, with one of the finest pedestals known for this type of table in this region. The legs were well proportioned, spreading beyond the normal length, the ornaments where the legs meet the pedestal turned upward with a sharply defined upper ring beneath the birdcage. The table had a reverse dish top, unique to Chester County. Kilvington also showed a set of four George III Adams-influenced sterling candlesticks by John Green and Company, Sheffield, England, circa 1794, with original bobeches, and Frank Schoonover’s “Standin’ in the Outer Doorway was the Blackest Dog You Ever Seen.” Schoonover was a pupil of Howard Pyle and a noted member of the Brandywine School.
Don and Pat Clegg, Patricia Clegg Antiques, East Berlin, Penn., listed a set of six painted half spindle, plank seat chairs among their sales. The chairs, circa 1840, were in a lively green with yellow, red and pink polychrome decoration and the dealers attributed them to the Jennersville Chair Manufacturing Company of southern Chester County.
The Norwoods’ Spirit of America, Timonium, Md., sold five well-rendered second quarter Nineteenth Century Chester County portrait miniatures, all from one family.
H.L. Chalfant Antiques, West Chester, Penn., featured an unusual walnut Chippendale chest on frame with seven drawers and bonnet drawer on top, Pennsylvania, circa 1770; a tiger maple Chippendale chest of drawers with molded top, and four drawers and molded base on ogee bracket feet, Pennsylvania, circa 1770; and a rare walnut Queen Anne semi-high chest with molded cornice, nine drawers with double herringbone inlay and original bracket feet, Chester County.
Van Tassel-Baumann American Antiques, Malvern, Penn., offered a rural highly figured walnut chest on frame above cabriole legs with trifid feet and a single drawer in the base, found in southern Delaware and thought to be from that region, circa 1770.
Schoolgirl samplers are another specialty for Van Tassel-Baumann and this show boasted two fine examples, a floral sampler wrought by Hannah Knight in 1837, noteworthy for its color, composition, execution and condition; and a Burlington County, N.J., building sampler, worked by 9-year-old Mary Ann Cross in 1839 with the floral border and cornucopias stitches that was typical of other samplers from the area.
Standing sentry at the booth of Heller-Washam Antiques, Woodbury, Conn., and Portland, Maine, was a carved and polychromed cigar store Indian, probably Cromwell, N.Y., circa 1870. A pair of carved mahogany ship’s gangway boards with eagle and shield and cornucopia with coin motif, a wonderful full-length American portrait of a young girl holding a rose, and a Chippendale figured maple bonnet top chest on chest, probably New Hampshire, circa 1775, were among other items in the booth.
Irvin & Dolores Boyd, Fort Washington, Penn., brought an unusual display case, possibly used as a coffee table, in tiger maple with a lift top and mirrored back, circa 1850, as well as an English drop leaf dining table in pine, circa 1840, with a thick top and old castors, measuring 62 by 53 inches when open.
A new addition to the show, Colette Donovan invigorated the show with a fine-looking booth centering on textiles. The frontispiece of her booth was a well-carved pencil post bed.
Prime examples of Americana were on view at Sidney Gecker American Folk Art, New York City, including a rare dower chest with original bird and flower decoration from western Pennsylvania, and a one-of-a kind rooster figure that possibly was a weathervane, New England, early Nineteenth Century.
Antique metalware specialist Michael J. Whitman Antiques, Fort Washington, Penn., reported solid sales, including two Philadelphia iron garden chairs, an early copper wine cooler and a number of copper items.
James L. Price Antiques, Carlisle, Penn., showcased several outstanding tall case clocks in his booth, including a Federal inlaid cherry clock with scroll pediment and an eight-day brass movement with moon phase sweep second and calendar, Jacob Eby, Manheim, circa 1810; and a Pennsylvania transitional walnut clock, circa 1795. A Queen Anne walnut slant top desk having a stepped interior with a well signed Samuel Carpenter, Lancaster or Chester County, circa 1760, also attracted attention.
Chuck White Folk Art & Antiques, Warwick, N.Y., highlighted an early New England sawbuck table in original red paint, 66 by 30 inches, and a fetching child’s portrait on panel of a Mary Jane Sims of Troy, N.Y., by an unknown artist around 1825.
Thurston Nichols American Antiques, Breinigsville, Penn., offered a two-piece cherry step back cupboard, circa 1830, from southeastern Pennsylvania, and a handsome bronze fountain showing a boy playing a flute. Drawing attendees in for a closer look was an Uncle Sam trade sign, circa 1910, also from southeastern Pennsylvania.
Boston furniture was king for a day at SAJE Americana, Short Hills, N.J., where the offering included an important Lemeul Churchill lolling chair in old surface with molded arm supports and legs, circa 1810, Boston; a Boston Queen Anne side chair with old and original surface, original seat frame; a superb Boston mahogany washstand, as well as an original painted Queen Anne candlestand with a superb pedestal from New Hampshire, also circa 1810.
Standouts at Autumn Pond Antiques, Woodbury, Conn., included a carved mermaid trade sign originally from Connecticut, circa 1900, and ruling the roost among fine weathervanes was a gilded copper rooster vane, circa 1880.
Presenting a different look than fine antiques and art was the stand of Holly Peters Oriental Rugs And Home, Chadds Ford, Penn., where a turn-of-the-century Sarouk rug in an unusual 8-foot-square size, likely a commissioned piece, was offered.
An elegant abundance of Staffordshire and English creamware was presented by Jane McClafferty Antiques, New Canaan, Conn. Hanes & Ruskin, Old Lyme, Conn., sold a cast iron Philadelphia fire mark to a new collector and several silhouettes, including one from the Pew Museum in Philadelphia. A Boston Queen Anne drop leaf table in tiger maple went to a Main Line collector in the final hours of the show, said dealer Lee Hanes.
Other exceptional sales were noted by Paul J. DeCoste, West Newbury, Mass., who has been exhibiting at Chester County since its inception, including a rare and important reflecting telescope by Benjamin Martin, English, circa 1735‱760. Joseph J. Lodge, Lederach, Penn., sold a large rooster vane by J. Howard with wonderful paint surface, along with furniture that either had good paint or fine old surface, as was the case with a walnut Chippendale two-drawer blanket chest.
The booth of Douglas Constant Inc, Orient, N.Y., was as elegant as ever, showcasing fine mahogany furniture from up and down the Eastern seaboard, including an inlaid Pembroke table in a choice small size, Portsmouth, N.H., circa 1790‱810; a set of six brass inlaid carved Federal side chairs, probably Philadelphia; and a rare late Federal dining table in two parts raised on round turned reeded legs, Baltimore, circa 1815. A sideboard that held pride of place against the back wall sold quickly.
Sporting antiques were in abundance, from decoys in the Cleggs’ booth to the sporting jewelry seen at Johanna Antiques, Kingsville, Md., who featured a lovely pair of earrings decorated with a profile of a horse’s head on each, late 1930s‴0s.
William Hutchison Books, Mendenhall, Penn., was pleased with his sales, which included Fraser’s Delftware , the second London of Catlin’s Letters and Notes of the North American Indians , with the rare prospectus tipped in.
For further information, 610-692-4800 or www.ChesterCoHistorical.org .
