Increasingly International: Decorative Arts and Antiques at Palm Beach

PALM BEACH, Fla.—Expectations were low before the opening of the 12th edition of the Palm Beach | American’s International Fine Art & Antique Fair, which runs February 1 to 10. Last year exhibitors complained of the small advertising budget, weak public relations efforts, and low attendance, and a large number of prestigious galleries did not return, including Axel Vervoordt (Belgium), Bernard Steinitz (Paris), and Phoenix Ancient Art (New York and Geneva). And those who did come still complained, chiefly about the scheduling of the gala dinner at 8:30 pm, coinciding with the opening night vernissage, which was scheduled to run until 10 pm, and about fair director Michael Mezzatesta, whose primary interest, they felt, was not the exhibitors but the the lecture series.

But grumbling aside, the mood was cheerful on the opening weekend of this year’s edition, which looked spectacular. The fair had 90 exhibitors and was very strong in paintings and jewelry, especially large diamonds and other spectacular gems, brought by Graff, Van Cleef & Arpels, Harry Winston, David Morris, and Richters of Palm Beach. On the other hand, furniture dealers were scarce, and some fields, including tribal art, antiquities, silver, and photography, were represented by only one or two galleries.

The addition of seven Spanish dealers, whose stunning booths contained museum-quality Renaissance and Baroque jewelry, ceramics, statuary, and furniture, gave Palm Beach a tremendous boost. The most unusual, in my opinion, was that of Luis Elvira from Oropesa del Mar, who specializes in ironwork, historic jewelry, and medieval art. His offerings included a pair of large Visigothic hoop earrings and a reliquary pendant from 1600 made of gold, enamel, rock crystal, and boxwood. L. Codosero from Madrid bought Spanish sculpture and decorative arts from the medieval to baroque periods, including a rare polychrome-and-gilded-walnut writing cabinet, circa 1620–40. On the fair’s opening night, the gallery sold a pair of 18th-century inlaid and painted cabinets from the Viceroyalty of Peru and a 16th-century polychromed alabaster relief of the Annunciation.

Michael Cohen, of Cohen & Cohen, top dealers in Chinese export porcelain, said that he “always sells better in Palm Beach than in Maastricht.” His booth had a spectacular famille rose monteith (a punch bowl with a notched rim) from the Qing Dynasty, circa 1735, priced at $500,000. The work, which came from a famous Portuguese collection, attracted considerable interest. Cohen said that its polychrome enameling is even better than on the one he sold last year at Palm Beach for $400,000.

Henry Neville, director of Mallett, had a pair of globes from 1863 that measure three feet, six inches in diameter and are the largest made at that time. “There are four others of this size,” he said, “but these are the only pair in perfect condition.” The asking price is more than $1 million. Neville said that he was hopeful about this year’s fair, even though he claimed that his gallery has a great fair only every third year and last year’s was “wonderful.” He reported having had “good conversations at the vernissage,” and made “a few sales,” not for big things, but for what he called “indulgences.”

Michael Playford, of Two Zero C Applied Art, which deals in Art Nouveau and Art Deco furniture, had paid for his booth by the end of the opening night. His sales included an Art Deco dining table and eight chairs made by Michel Dufet. Clayton said a French hotelier and restaurateur expressed “intense interest” in a 1925 suite of Deco furniture by Maurice Dufrene comprising four side chairs, two armchairs, and a sofa.

Benjamin Macklowe of Macklowe Gallery said his “expectations were exceeded.”  During the first few days of the fair he sold two Tiffany lamps, each priced at more than $250,000, a bronze chandelier by Daum, and more than 20 pieces of jewelry to buyers from Belgium, Latin America, and the U.S.

Jerome Eisenberg, the owner of Royal-Athena, one of only two antiquities dealers at the fair, said that the field is “very hot right now,” in part because people are recognizing that they can in fact buy antiquities, at least those with a proper provenance. On the opening night, he sold a large Egyptian bronze cat priced at $485,000. Believing that two cats are better than one, he also has on his stand another Egyptian feline bronze dating from 1089–715 B.C. The work, which at 24 inches high is the largest of its kind in the world, bears a monumental price tag of $2.4 million.