Jean Sinenberg’s Prestige Shows filled the Bridgehampton Community House with exhibitors offering early home furnishings, antiques for the garden, jewelry and fine art. There were also dealers offering antique Persian rugs and even some fine vintage fashion accessories for the 17th annual Hamptons Antiques Classic & Design Show & Sale held July 10‱3.
The lobby of the 100-year-old Community House was occupied by The Chinese Art Gallery from New York City with a collection of fine Asian art. Offerings included Asian porcelain and earthenware in many usable forms, including urns, vases and food service pieces. There were also fine ceramic art-crafts from the last five centuries, and some late Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century furniture.
Sharing the entryway was Georgica Creek Antiques, Sinenberg’s full-time antiques shop in nearby Wainscott. Her inventory, built up over her nearly 40 years in the business, is vast and varied with furniture from Georgian to Art Deco and Modern. Sinenberg said, “The market here in the Hamptons is dominated by the demand for the fine furniture from these later periods, but the customers still have a desire for some of the early period pieces.”
She exhibited an early Continental mirror over a late pier table with art carved dogs and an ottoman. She also offered a silver gilt foo dog, which was about 4 feet tall. Clearly she was offering something for all the varied desires of her clientele.
Just inside the main room were two dealers with confusingly similar names: Mantiquities from Wainscott and Mantiques Modern from New York City. Mantiquities is the business of Dennis Berger, whose specialty is early clocks. His work includes refurbishing them to good working order, as well as selling them.
Mantiques Modern, on the other hand, comprises three business partners who were offering a variety of art objects. A table modeled from a wallpapering worktable †but with chrome legs and marble top †was their centerpiece, along with chairs in bright metal and upholstered cushions.
Gail Ensinger came to the show from her home in Surfside Beach, S.C., with a collection of furniture and art. Hanging on the back wall of her exhibit was a flat Buddha from Thailand, carved or formed in wood and covered in gold leaf. It was priced at $2,995. Next to it was a pair of carved sandstone windows made in a decorative style. They probably served as ventilation for some ancient building in India, but now are used as attractive table pieces, for $395 each.
Peter Nee, Middleburg, Va., had a house in the Hamptons for the weekend, although it was too small for him to occupy. It was a very attractive Nineteenth Century dollhouse he was offering at the show.
There were flying carpets in Stolp Fraser’s exhibit; at least they flew once, from his source in Turkey to his East Hampton, N.Y., home. Fraser has a second home in Turkey, where he finds most of his collection.
Big sales were recorded by Antiques and Modern Design of Miami. Its collection was primarily Twentieth Century with accessories and fine art filling the largest exhibit in the show. Joe Collins and Tina Hunsinger have been partners in the business and exhibitors at the show for many years, according to Sinenberg, who added, “Their sales were very good.”
Just down from the stage Maurice de Montfalcon was offering a collection of fine small antiques and art. There was a Sheffield plate tea caddy, Georgian period, made with an undertray attached and priced at $375. He was also offering an obelisk, in marble with gold metal decoration signed by the L.C. Tiffany Studios, and many other small antique art objects from his New York City collection.
Robin Rice has an open gallery in Manhattan for the fine art she offered at the show. Gioia, of Southport, Conn., was selling antique and vintage handbags practically as art, and Ellen Nathanson, Amagansett, N.Y., was selling fine art from her collection.
Many of the show’s dealers have been loyal to this market for many years. Court Talmage, from nearby Westhampton, N.Y., has been exhibiting at Sinenberg’s shows for at least 25 years and at this show for all 17 years. His inventory was a mixture of classical antiques and Twentieth Century décor and he had sales in all genres. There was a primitive butcher’s table †long, narrow and tall †which sold; also an iron trolley, as he called it, and a variety of small accessories that become conversation pieces in the upscale Hamptons homes.
Look for Talmage and his collection at Sinenberg’s 42nd annual Original Hampton’s Summer Antique Festival and Sale, August 21′4, also held at the Bridgehampton Community House. Sinenberg also has the outdoor show at Mulford Farm, East Hampton, August 2. More details are available at www.hamptonsantiques.com or 631-537-0333.
