NEW YORK CITY — Zane Zell Studenroth Jr of Greenport, N.Y., died on September 17 following a brief hospitalization at Columbia Memorial Hospital.

Zane was born in Philadelphia, on May 12, 1946. An antiquarian for 50 years, he specialized in American furniture, lighting and European decorative arts of the early Nineteenth Century. After receiving a bachelor of fine arts degree in ceramic design from Alfred University in 1969, Zane worked for the New York State Museum as an exhibition specialist. He later worked for the New York State Department of Parks and Recreation measuring and studying historic sites, and later as a cataloger and appraiser for Plaza Galleries in New York. From 1981 onward he acted as a consultant and buying agent of period furnishings for a variety of collectors, museums and dealers.

Over the following three decades, Zane owned a succession of early Nineteenth Century upstate New York homes, and decorated each with appropriate period furnishings. From 1998 until his death he lived at Eastview, an early Hudson Valley villa, also called the “Old Turtle” on account of its unusual oval roof line. His documentation of the house’s history earned its nomination to the National Register of Historic Places in 2000. He was highly regarded for his knowledge of American Federal and neoclassical furniture. From 2000 until his retirement in 2015 he was employed as a sales and buying consultant and part-time conservator of decorative arts by Period Picks in Kinderhook, N.Y.

He will be remembered by many of the Antiques and The Arts Weekly readers, fellow dealers and collectors throughout New England and the mid-Atlantic states for his passionate pursuit of period furnishings and for sharing his knowledge about American decorative arts.

Zane is survived by two brothers, Zachary Studenroth of Southampton, N.Y., Frank Studenroth of Wilton, N.Y., and by nieces and nephews. Donations in his memory may be made to either of two nonprofit organizations that Zane actively supported, Historic Hyde Hall, East Springfield, N.Y., and to the Columbia County Society for Human Treatment of Animals.