To Do: Treasure Hunting
Published: October 1, 2009
New York: International Fine Art & Antique Dealers Show (IFAASD) Run by Haughton International and now in its 21st year, this fair is a Mecca for dealers, collectors and anyone eager to see what museum-quality items have hit the market. Among the 70 dealers setting up shop in the Upper East Side armory this year are 13 newcomers, including Bernd Goeckler, from New York, who carries a range of 18th- to 20th-century objects; Vienna’s Wienerroither & Kohlbacher, specialists in early 20th-century Austrian art from Klimt to Kokoschka; and the Japanese-art dealer Erik Thomsen, of New York. The New York antiquities powerhouse Ariadne Galleries, which is bringing an Etruscan bronze figure of a boy priced at $750,000, is another first-timer, having decided to cast a wider net after participating only in European shows in the past. "Many people are very pessimistic about the economy right now, but I have confidence in the American psyche," says Ariadne president Torkom Demerjian. Among the returning regulars are the downtown New York dealer Antik, which specializes in Scandinavian and American modernism; the antiques giant Mallett, of New York and London; the 19th- and 20th-century fine-art dealer Jill Newhouse; and antique English furniture dealer Ronald Phillips, of London, which is supplying a touch of grandeur with a pair of early 19th-century Regency side cabinets with Greek antique breccia marble tops. It’s not hard to imagine the pieces in Windsor Castle, where they once stood, according to the stamp appearing on each.
San Francisco: San Francisco Fall Antiques Show This elegant fair attracts many dealers from the U.S., with a strong contingent from California. This year several stalwarts from Europe are also on board, including Bernard Steinitz, of Paris, and Axel Vervoordt, of Wijnegem, Belgium (both of whom are also in the IFAADS). Although buyers can still find everything from antique Chinese textiles to fine-art photography, this year’s edition takes as its theme Egyptomania: Nile Style in the Decorative Arts. Displayed in the pavilion are works loaned by Bay Area collections, as well Egypt-inspired furniture and decorative art for sale. San Francisco’s Theiren & Co. has a pair of French terra-cotta sphinx bookends from the 19th century, while New York books, prints and maps dealer Donald A. Heald has an 1800-10 hand-colored etching of the Great Sphinx and Pyramid at Giza after a painting by Louis-François Cassas. The delicate print evokes all the awe and exoticism with which the East was endowed in European minds during the 19th century. Egyptomania has not hit everyone, of course, and a variety of dealers are sticking to their specialties. J. R. Richards, of Los Angeles, has a Chinese Han Dynasty glazed jar that looks surprisingly modern. At the booth of London’s sculpture specialist Robert Bowman Gallery is The Sluggard, a languid yet muscular bronze nude figurine from 1890 by Frederic Lord Leighton, whose Victorian classicism stands in stark contrast to the Orientalism that enthralled his contemporaries. "To Do: Treasure Hunting" originally appeared in the October 2009 issue of Art+Auction. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Art+Auction's 2009 Table of Contents.
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