NEW YORK CITY – It was years in the planning and months in the execution. The carefully crafted Spring Show NYC closed at New York’s Park Avenue Armory on May 2, having demonstrated all the benefits of experience plus some of the vexing limitations of today’s market for traditional art and antiques.
Spring Show NYC is owned and organized by the 85-year-old Art and Antique Dealers League of America, which counts many second and third-generation dealers among its 110 member firms. A decade ago, the League launched the Connoisseur’s Antiques Fair, which struggled to find its footing in a downtown setting in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. The show closed after its fourth year in 2005.
This time, the League got the details right. It secured New York’s premier venue and booked good dates: not too cold, not too hot, and immediately prior to the big Impressionist and Modern art auctions. Mayor Bloomberg declared an “Art and Antiques Week,” a proclamation organizers hope to build on next year to attract more buyers.
Avoiding the missteps of many dealer-run fairs, the League chose the Art Fair Company to manage Spring Show NYC. Headed by Michael Franks and Mark Lyman - two former DMG World Media execs who mount the SOFA and Intuit fairs in New York, Chicago and Santa Fe – the Art Fair Company produces visually arresting, top-drawer events with that desperately needed ingredient, youth appeal.
“We believe that there is room in New York for a third event that complements the Winter and International shows,” said League president Clinton Howell, the English furniture specialist who has staked his reputation and much of his time on Spring Show NYC.
League members gave serious thought to the look of their fair. Large, high-walled booths painted in vivid colors opened to the soaring Armory ceiling, lit to dramatic effect on opening night.
“We wanted to keep the show fresh, bright and cheerful,” Franks explained. Lars Bolander, best known for his airy, Swedish interiors, contributed to the overall design, which presented mostly traditional fare in clean, contemporary settings. For this venture, Bolander channeled pared-down, 20th century classicism, a timeless look well-suited to urban living. With a nod to the trend-conscious, many of the show’s 65 exhibitors projected a timely mix of antique and modern in their own presentations.
The get-out-the-gate effort - sponsored by Antiques & Fine Art Magazine - included Arts’ Night Out on Friday, April 29, which drew members of young patrons’ groups from 19 participating institutions. Two nights earlier, Wednesday’s sold-out preview party benefitting ASPCA was also well attended, attracting 1,500 visitors.
Looking to lose its rarified image, the decidedly high-end Spring Show NYC tempted buyers with affordably priced pieces. Westport, Ct., dealer George Subkoff brought miniature furniture, marked from $2,800 to $28,000. Questroyal’s offerings ranged from a $4,000 flower painting by Hayley Lever to a $475,000 oil on canvas seascape by Alfred Thomas Bricher. Exhibitors say that lower booth rents allow them to pass savings on to their customers. Including paint, lights and carpet, a 20-by-12 foot booth at Spring Show NYC costs $16,500.
One of the most striking stands belonged to Carlton Hobbs, who split his dimly lit interior into separate displays, one devoted to an 18th century Spanish tile mural, $220,000, attributed to Vincente Navarro; the other to four early 18th century marquetry pictures, $485,000, done after engravings of the gardens at Nymphenburg Palace.
Silver specialists Spencer Marks scored one of the night’s biggest successes.
“They are as spectacular as anything that came out of his shop and they have never been on the market,” Spencer Gordon said of two silver and gold altar vases made by Arthur J. Stone and Herbert Taylor for the Pomfret School in Connecticut in 1915. The pair of vases was taken for consideration by a major museum.
Other sales included a signed and dated patriotic crib quilt at Jeff R. Bridgman and a Boston Classical work table at Charles & Rebekah Clark. Bridgman and the Clarks were among the handful of Americana dealers in the show.
“We are encouraged,” said New York dealer Paul Vandekar, who sold a set of 18 framed engravings of birds by Seligmann after Catesby, sailors’ woolworks and Flight & Barr Worcester porcelain.
Two well-represented categories, English furniture and American art, dominated sales. Michael Pashby sold a late 17th century coaching table. Kentshire Galleries wrote up a pair of George III armchairs. Philip Colleck, Ltd., placed a pair of satinwood cabinets with rosewood banding and G. Sergeant Antiques found a new home for a partner’s desk.
At Questroyal, a couple purchased “New York City Women” by Reginald Marsh. Avery Galleries sold "Summer by the Ocean" by Lillian Westcott Hale. Schiller & Bodo marked up Edmond Charles Kayser’s “Interior with Cacti and Two Cats” and Thomas Colville parted with John LaFarge watercolors and a Joseph Stella drawing.
Was it all enough?
It will have to be for now. If attendance and sales fell short of the spectacular, the League would do well to remember that the current crop of leading fairs, from East Side to Maastricht, took decades to build. That said, Spring Show NYC is off to a very good start.
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