A taste of the American Wing

Magazine Antiques, Jan, 2004 by Allison Eckardt Ledes

New York City in mid-January is surely the best place to be for the aficionado of Americana, and this year is no exception. All the events that have been organized will provide a visual feast for those who like to admire and ample opportunity for those who like to acquire. This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Winter Antiques Show, traditionally the major fund-raising event for its beneficiary--the East Side House Settlement in the South Bronx. The proceeds of the show fund many worthy programs, including the recently established Mott Haven Village Preparatory High School, which serves teenagers living in this struggling community who aspire to a higher education. In honor of the anniversary, the exhibitors have established a new fund named the Elinor Gordon 50th Anniversary Scholarship Fund, which honors Mrs. Gordon, a dealer and expert in Chinese export porcelain and a participant in the show for each of its fifty years. The money raised will help cover the cost of tuition for college-bound students who are alumni of the preparatory programs sponsored by East Side House Settlement.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

This year the antiques show includes seventy-four antiques dealers from the United States, Canada, and Europe who are offering American, European, and Asian fine and decorative arts. The show takes place at the Seventh Regiment Armory from January 16 through January 25.

The Winter Antiques Show has traditionally incorporated a loan exhibition, which this year is a selection of about forty objects drawn from the American Wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art entitled A Celebration of The American Wing of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. It is sponsored by the Chubb Group of Insurance Companies, and includes paintings, furniture, silver, glass, and ceramics made by some of the most revered and accomplished artists and craftsmen of the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries. Among them are Ralph Earl, John Singleton Copley, John Singer Sargent, Honore Lannuier, Herter Brothers, Paul Revere, Myer Myers, Anthony Rasch, and Louis Comfort Tiffany. The objects were selected from some eighteen thousand that currently comprise the collection of the American Wing, which was established within the Metropolitan Museum in 1924.

From Monday through Friday, January 19 to 23 at 2:30 PM each day, the following members of the American Wing's curatorial staff will present a lecture that pertains to an aspect of the American collections over which he or she presides: Morrison H. Heckscher (the history of the American Wing), Alice Cooney Frelinghuysen (Louis C. Tiffany), H. Barbara Weinberg (impressionist paintings), Beth Carver Wees (silver), and Peter M. Kenny (classical furniture). For information about the lectures, to purchase tickets to the preview party that takes place on January 15, or to contribute to the anniversary fund, telephone 718-292-7392 or visit the Web site: www.winterantiques show.com.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Further uptown on Fifth Avenue, at the National Academy of Design, the New York Ceramics Fair celebrates its fifth year. The forty-one exhibitors, who will display their offerings from January 14 to 18 (with the preview party on the evening of January 13), are from Europe, England, and the United States. They are offering American, European, and Asian ceramics and glass ranging in date from antiquity to the present. This year the fair includes a few more dealers who specialize in contemporary works and, like the Winter Antiques Show, the loan show is also from a local institution. Ceramic Highlights from the Museum of Arts and Design includes selections from this institution, which was formerly known as the American Craft Museum, located in midtown Manhattan. The focus of the museum's collection is contemporary. There are some twenty objects in the show ranging in date from the 1960s to the present.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The ceramics fair is known also for its extensive lecture series, for its extensive lecture series, which takes place during the run of the show. Among the sixteen lecture topics are: pottery in the collection of the Barnes Foundation, dining at the White House, Victorian majolica, unusual shapes in Qing dynasty porcelains, early American cut and engraved glass, and North Devon sgraffito slipware in seventeenth-century Virginia. For further information or to reserve a place at any of the lectures, telephone 301-933-6994.

Finally, the American Antiques Show, now in its third year, takes place from January 15 through 18 at the Metropolitan Pavilion on West Eighteenth Street in Chelsea. The benefit preview is on the evening of January 14. Since its inception, the proceeds from the show have benefited the educational and exhibition programs of the American Folk Art Museum located in midtown Manhattan. The forty-five exhibitors are for the most part offering Americana with a particular emphasis on folk art objects made between the eighteenth and the early twentieth century. Educational programming in conjunction with the show includes a guided tour of the show that takes place one morning before it opens to the general public. For more information or to obtain tickets telephone 212-977-7170.