The famed Winter Antiques Show, now in its 63rd year, opened last night at the Park Avenue Armory in New York. One of the world’s premier antiques shows, The Winter Antiques Show benefits the East Side House Settlement, a community-based organization in the South Bronx that works with schools, community centers and other partners to bring quality education and resources to residents of the Bronx and Northern Manhattan. This year’s Antiques Show features seventy world-class dealers showcasing a broad range of exceptional art, antiques and design from antiquity to the present day.
Cohen & Cohen offers a great pair of 18th century Chinese export blue and white porcelain tureens and stands of oval bombe form. Interestingly, this form may be a copy of a Meissen porcelain tureen, which itself was inspired by European silver examples.
Approximately 100 years later, Chamberlain’s Worcester created an impressive pair of porcelain covered urns (height 33 inches) for the 1851 Crystal Palace Exhibition in London. Their highly unusual orange-red ground may have been chosen to coordinate with the Lea & Perrins (Worcestershire Sauce) label – the urns were featured in the steak sauce purveyor’s display, and now can be seen at Hyde Park Antiques.
The contrasting red and black undulating lines of graining on a tall-case clock from Cincinnati, Ohio, at the booth of Elliott & Grace Snyder could serve as a great counterpoint to a contemporary art collection; but don’t miss the rare 17th century Spanish Colonial tooled and painted leather trunk. Decorated allover with carved flowers and animals, this would serve any museum well that is looking to diversify their holdings of decorative arts.
At Nathan Liverant & Son, LLC, a Chippendale cherry chest of drawers from the Connecticut River Valley, circa 1770, has a top with three serpentine sides, projecting front corners, and serpentine drawers. Its sophisticated-country linearity is held in check by Classical fluted corner columns.
Todd Merrill Studio is exhibiting a lounge by a UK craftsman, Marc Fish, who constructs somewhat ambiguous forms (are they materializing or starting to vaporize?) out of the “linear” by hand-bending and then layering thin veneers.
A beautiful carved wood figure of Osiris at Rupert Wace Ancient Art, from 664-332 BC, stands just 18 inches tall but is certainly monumental in feeling.
Peter Pap Oriental Rugs has a striking colorful striped QashQai carpet. The sophisticated design with silk weft and cotton warp was probably made as a high-end trade item and appears to have been influenced by Kashmir shawls.
Apter-Fredericks, Ltd. has a pair of oversize George II walnut stools with carved cabriole legs; pairs of stools are always a great addition to a refined but comfortable room.
An Inca carved stone two-handled mortar (13th-15th century) with coiled snakes peering over the sides possesses gravitas and charm in equal measure. Seen at Throckmorton Fine Art, Inc., this would be great on a modernist console and could even pass for 20th century design, although centuries old.
The Winter Antiques Show runs through January 29.
The Winter Antiques Show 2017
January 20–29
Open Daily Noon–8pm
Sundays & Thursdays Noon–6pm
The Park Avenue Armory
Park Avenue at 67th Street
New York, NY
