NEW YORK— A plunging stock market and growing economic uncertainty make right now a dicey time to have an expensive art fair, and reports from the Winter Antiques Show were certainly uneven. The fair, now in its 54th year, opened at the Park Avenue Armory on January 17 with a gala preview that attracted more visitors than last year. Many of the 75 exhibitors reported strong sales on opening night, and the usual crowd of collectors and curators was boosted by an influx of European collectors, likely lured by the favorable (for them) exchange rate. Some dealers said the early days of the fair were slow with sparse attendance, which they blamed on the three-day holiday weekend, and, of course, the sharp downturn on Wall Street, but many reported steady sales so far, though not necessarily of big-ticket items. The fair ends this Sunday. 

The fair, considered to be the best general antiques show in America, is famous for its Americana, but it has extended its global reach considerably. Now there are dealers in antiquities, medieval art, Renaissance sculpture, Chinese art, Japanese prints, books, American Indian art, English and European paintings and furniture, jewelry, and porcelain.

American antiques, however, continue to have pride of place. Leigh Keno and his twin brother, Leslie, who head the American furniture department at Sotheby’s, are the rock stars of the American antiques world, known for their expertise, their books, and their prolific television appearances. Leigh’s booth is always the first one on the right as you walk in, and it is always hard to penetrate the crowd to see his wares. He is consistently a strong seller on opening night, and this year was no different, with many of his best pieces flying out of the booth early. Among them was the Love Wingate Queen Anne birchwood tray-top tea table made in New Hampshire between 1740 and 1770 for Love, one of the eleven children of Col. Joshua and Mary Wingate. The gallery also sold a charming wood box painted by Edward Hicks of Peaceable Kingdom fame; a maple and pine painted decorated chest of drawers from Eastern Massachusetts; and a William and Mary black-painted decorated, carved and turned chair. Leigh also sold a molded and gilded weathervane in the shape of a Native American a couple of days later.

Donald Ellis, a specialist in American Indian and tribal art, also did well at the opening, selling three Eskimo masks, an Eskimo visor, and some smaller pieces. He also sold a painted shirt that carried an asking price of $250,000. In addition, a large wicker basket—“arguably the most important basket in private hands,” according to Ellis—had “essentially sold,” he said. The basket, made in 1921 by the artist Dat So La Lee, a Washoe Indian, carries an asking price of $1.3 million and will go either to a museum or to a private collector, according to the dealer. But despite those sales, Ellis said, “The show is off this year. People who usually do business are still doing business, but it is not the environment for a record year.”

On the other hand, Bernard Karr, the owner of Hyde Park Antiques, which sells English furniture, said he was relieved it was “a good fair. We got off to a good start and kept selling.” One piece he could have sold many times over was a stunning Regency coromondel 50-inch round table with its original fretwork legs, which attracted the attention of nearly everyone who walked by the booth. Another stunner was a large Regency desk with a leather top.  “Someone called it a ‘power desk’” Karr said.  The piece sported eighteen drawers with the original set of locks and a price tag of $280,000.

Throckmorton Fine Art fared well, too, according to Spencer Throckmorton, with appearances by both new clients and old collectors, many of whom also paid a visit to his 57th Street gallery. At the fair, he sold an Aztec stone coyote figure, two Olmec masks, and two important Teotihuacan masks.

Kevin Conru, a dealer in African and Oceanic art also sold a mask—a New Ireland dance mask made around 1900 in Papua New Guinea. Other sales at the booth included a Nakanai cult object, circa 1040, from New Britain, Papua New Guinea. Conru said he sold one-third of his booth at the opening.

London dealer Roger Keverne, who specializes in Chinese art, reported doing business in “all sorts of things,” from cloisonné to sculpture to porcelain and jade. “What makes this fair different from others,” he said, “is that people come themselves to buy things they like for their homes. It is not dominated by decorators.”

Richard Philp, whose specialty is medieval sculpture, said he sold something every day. “While last year’s fair picked up for me at the end, this one has been more consistent,” he added, noting that the works all went to collectors who had bought from him before. His booth this year seemed full of angels—among his sold pieces were a late-15th-century polychrome figure of an angel paying the fiddle, from Southern France, and a drawing of an angel by 16th-century artist Giulio Romano. His major piece, a large limestone angel holding a psalter dating from around 1300, was still waiting for a buyer, but, Philp said, several people have expressed interest.

Antiquities dealer Rupert Wace, who came from London, sold more than 30 pieces by midweek, including an unusual low stone offering table from ancient Egypt that went to a British collector for around $150,000. An Attic terracotta pottery jar depicting an excited satyr about to take advantage of a sleeping maenad sold to a private collector, who intends to loan it to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Japanese art dealer Joan Mirviss, who has participated in the fair for 28 years, sold 43 pieces, but “very few at the top of the economic ladder.” She made a decision, she added, “not to bring, say, half-a-million dollar screens.” She said she sold mostly prints and screens priced under $50,000, but “for the first time, I had European buyers.”