Lavish is a word that hardly does it justice. Patronized by the most glittering names in the realms of art, fashion and society and stocked with a fortune in antiques from the galleries of 73 of the most prominent dealers in the world, there is only one word to describe the 34th annual Winter Antiques Show, according to its chairman, Mario Buatta, and that word is ”opulent.”
Aside from such touches as a colonial American garden brimming with blooming dogwoods, daffodils and tulips, a tented tea pavilion worthy of Royal Ascot and a parade of life-size topiary lions that transform the cavernous Seventh Regiment Armory into an extravagant springtime fantasy, the merchandise at this year`s show is, frankly, eye-popping.
From a bronze and ivory bed once belonging to the Emperor Napoleon to dazzling chandeliers, encrusted with cherubs and sphinxes, that once graced the tables of Russian nobility, the booths fairly glow with the sort of glorious objects that can be crafted from gold, silver, marquetry and jewels of every description. Benefiting the East Side House Settlement in the South Bronx, the show is expected to draw more than 30,000 visitors before it winds up its nine-day run today.
”There`s hardly a thing on the floor that isn`t in gilt,” said Buatta, one of America`s leading interior designers, often dubbed the ”prince of chintz.” ”We`re in a period in the 1980s that is a repeat of the 1890s,” he said, referring to the so-called Gilded Age, a period to which the present is often compared in the sense of newly minted fortunes and a marked appetite for the extravagant in fashion, home furnishings and art acquisitions.
Although acknowledging that some feel this comparison ended with last October`s stock market crash, Buatta disagreed. ”In fact, I think it`s going to last a long time. It all has to do with fashion.”
PLENTY OF SALES
Indeed, the world may still be trembling in the wake of the stock market`s Black Monday, but there were plenty of hands steady and willing enough with a checkbook to gladden more than a few dealers` hearts here.
In general, few of the dealers at the show said they had seen an adverse effect on their business so far, pointing to the market in ”mediocre” goods as the area that would be hit first and hardest.
”The only thing I can determine is that there is a tremendous demand for the finest and most expensive objects. Things in seven figures are readily salable; the problem is that they`re not readily available,” said Richard L. Feigen, head of the Chicago and New York galleries bearing his name.
Indeed, in the opening hours of the preview parties on the eve of the show`s official start, Feigen made a number of sales, including a massive oil portrait of George Nugent Grenville by Sir Thomas Lawrence, dated 1813-1820 and tagged at $325,000. The work went, he said discreetly, not to a museum but to a well-known private collector.
Paul Franklin, president of Chicago`s Malcolm Franklin Inc., also had what he called a ”pretty good pre-show,” even before the first of the preview guests arrived. ”I honestly think my customers are recession-proof,” said the dealer. ”I had a good October despite Black Monday. I had a weak November, but December bounced right back.” There seems little doubt that he will be relieved of his favorite objects on display, a $28,000 pair of 18th Century English satinwood and tulipwood consoles, with surfaces like honey-colored silk moire, before the show is over.
As usual, many dealers brought their most special and rare treasures to show off at the armory. Edward Munves, president of James Robinson Inc., is particularly proud of some exquisite 19th Century pieces of jewelry, including a delicate brooch of irises gracefully fashioned in amethyst, platinum, enamel and diamonds, made by Lacloche Freres in Paris in 1895 and tagged at $29,000. ”I know this is kind of punny,” he said with a smile, ”but you know, the 19th Century was sort of the golden age of jewelry because the tools were more sophisticated but not yet mechanized.”
Behind the Greek temple exterior of the booth presented by Russian specialists A La Vieille Russie, the most rare items include a tiny rabbit carved by Faberge from a single smoky blue star sapphire with diamond eyes and tail, probably once given as a love token by a Russian noble and now for sale at about $125,000.
SMALL AND TOUCHING
The rarities offered by Chicago dealer Taylor B. Williams were also small and touching-in everything but price. A specialist in 18th Century English enamel boxes, usually exchanged as trifles between lovers, Williams is showing off a colorful one, featuring a parrot perched on a bowl of fruit, that was tagged at $8,000. Dating from 1760 and made in Bilston, England, this charming box is the only one of its kind known to exist outside one in the Bilston library and another in London`s Victoria & Albert museum, Williams said.
On a larger scale, the offerings at the booth of the Edward H. Merrin Gallery Inc. recall the splendors of the ancient world. The place of honor here this year goes to an Achaemenid amphora, an elaborately carved silver vessel with graceful handles in the shape of the goat-like ibex, dating from 5th Century B.C. Iraq and priced at $1,750,000. ”Any museum in the world would be happy to have this vessel,” said Evan Walker, assistant director of the gallery. For those with budgets on a less regal scale, there are interesting ancient rings, including one with a carved carnelian from 1st Century Rome, starting from about $1,200.
Along with the fabulous booth displays, which range from Greek temples to London townhouses to a charming tableau of ”The Princess and the Pea” fairy tale by a rug dealer, the fact that the elegant goings-on at the Seventh Regiment Armory are spiced by a whiff of ”scandale” among the blossoms this year serves only to heighten the glamor and intrigue of the American antiques world`s most prestigious event.
The controversy centers on Bernard Steinitz, a prominent Paris-based dealer in 17th and 18th Century French furniture and decorative objects, whose prime location booth, guarded by life-sized blackamoors with huge flower arrangements sprouting from their turbaned heads, surely is the most opulent of the opulent this year.
”Have you seen P.T. Barnum down there in front,” said one prominent dealer, jerking his head in the direction of Steinitz`s booth, where the fabulous bed Napoleon once shared with his second empress, Marie Louise, is tagged at $750,000.
OBJECTIONS GALORE
Many of the dealers, some of whom had fought long and hard to be admitted to the select membership of the show, object to the admission of Steinitz, claiming he does not meet the show`s rule that dealers must have American outlets, that he has bypassed others on the show`s waiting list, that he has been allotted a superior location out of turn and, nastiest of all, that aspersions have been cast on his professional behavior. Some have copies of a recent M magazine in which one anonymous source claimed Steinitz had tampered with a set of period chairs and tried to pass them off as originals.
Steinitz denied all of these charges. ”My only defenses are my taste, my knowledge and the confidence of my clients,” he said. ”I am not worried. I know my clients, and I am respected by the best collectors in America. I am not worried. They (the other dealers) are worried because I am coming. It`s jealousy.”
”There is a tremendous uproar going on, and I don`t understand how Buatta can behave this way,” said Richard Feigen.
For his part, Mario Buatta, chairman of the show, firmly dismisses the allegations that Steinitz is unqualified to show or has bypassed others on the waiting list. ”The point of the story is that Mr. Steinitz in November moved to New York and opened at the Place des Antiquaires,” he said, referring to the recent opening of a posh antiques complex at East 57th Street here. ”Any dealer that is in this show has to have a shop or sell in the United States. He had been applying (to show at the armory) for seven years. If they just look at the dates on the letters, they`d see that he had been applying for years.”
”I wanted to get him in this show,” Buatta added. ”Competition is the best thing in the world. –
