NEW YORK, NY.- The Winter Antiques Show finished its first week with strong sales and interest among buyers, including established collectors, design professionals and first-time buyers. Sales were robust across all disciplines, including Americana, antiquities, and 20th century fine and decorative arts. All net proceeds from sponsors, special events, and ticket sales support East Side House Settlement, a non-profit in the South Bronx providing social services to community residents.
Among the 20th c. works purchased were a remarkable series of three untitled Alexander Calder standing mobiles, never before seen on the market, and sold as a series by Jonathan Boos to a single collector on opening night. Boos also sold four Calder brooches, also new to the market. At Moderne Gallery, a pair of Wharton Esherick wagon wheel chairs were sold, as well as two Picasso vases and a plate by Peter Voulkos.
American works opened the show strongly, with Alexander Gallery reporting nine sales in the first week, Thomas Colville Fine Art reporting sales of seven paintings, and Joan R. Brownstein and Peter H. Eaton reporting sales of 12 pieces of pottery and eight works of furniture, as well as a painting of the Delaware Water Gap attributed to Thomas Chambers. At Frank & Barbara Pollack, an exceptional portrait by an unknown American artist of a young girl in a red dress c.1840, and a rare painted Parcheesi board from 1875 were sold. Folk art sales were prominent, including at James & Nancy Glazer, where a shell model of Whale’s Back Lighthouse c. 1875-1890, an ocular sign, and double-sided game board c. 1880-1890, were all sold.
Other sales highlights include a remarkably preserved 17th c. English needlework casket depicting scenes from the Book of Esther at Elliott and Grace Snyder, and a Jean Baptiste Jacques Augustin miniature of Ferdinand of Orleans, the Duke of Chartres at 5 years old from Philadelphia dealer Elle Shushan. Barbara Israel Garden Antiques sold several whimsical stone pieces, including a collection of English dwarfs from the 1930’s and a pair of composition stone rabbits by Charles Rudy, as well as a monumental Italian sarcophagus-form planter, depicting the Fall of Phaeton, c. 1900. Rupert Wace Ancient Art Ltd. sold a rare early Greek geometric bronze horse dating from the 8th century BC, while Les Enluminures reported the sales of 12 Renaissance posy rings, and a rare illuminated manuscript made for a Dominican foundation in Bologna and attributed to the Master of 1446, an anonymous Bolognese illuminator.
The Opening Night Party—with Winter Antiques Show Committee Chairman Arie L. Kopelman, Vice Chairs Lucinda C. Ballard and Michael R. Lynch, Honorary Chairmen David Rockefeller, Mark F. Rockefeller, and Charles Rockefeller and Opening Night Chair Keith T. Banks, President, U.S. Trust, presiding—was attended by the Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Diana Taylor, Martha Stewart, and Peter Brant and Stephanie Seymour, among others. The event was attended by nearly 2,000 people.
The 58th annual Winter Antiques Show will be held through January 29, 2011 at the Park Avenue Armory, 67th Street and Park Avenue, New York City. Show hours are from 12 p.m. to 8 p.m. daily, except Sundays and Thursday, 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. General admission to the Show is $20, which includes the Show's award-winning catalogue.
