decoRATING with Jason Kontos
Yesterday, you heard from Executive Editor Marjorie Gage on the 56th annual Winter Antiques Show, going on now at the Park Avenue Armory (only two days left by the way if you still want to see it).
I also made my way over to this gathering of “old stuff,” as the red head warned NOT to think of it as.
Whether she was referring to the antiques or the attendees, I’m not sure, but despite the sea of bowties and salt-and-pepper locks (my own included), she’s right in stating that it is THE best showing of the “antiques season” we’ve come to know here in New York City as the month of January.
So what’s the best defense when going to see some “old stuff?”…someone young. I took our Web Editor, AnnMarie Marano, along to show her the ins-and-outs of New York dealing and break her of that crazy Surrealist streak she’s got going on. Here’s the wisdom I bestowed unto my design fledgling, and now unto you, our design divas of both young and old, the rookies, the veterans, and any of you in between.
One of the first exhibitors that caught my eye was Elle Shushan of Philadelphia. She’s located near the main entrance and is known for her fine portrait miniatures and portrait waxes. She makes an adorable presentation of them, shown in part in the photo below.
For great examples of the American antique and art revival see G.K.S. Bush (out of Miami Beach, specializing in “18th- and early 19th-century American furniture and decorative arts”) and Bernard Goldberg Fine Arts, LLC (on Madison Avenue, specializing in “American paintings, sculpture, and decorative arts from 1900-1950, including The Eight, Modernism, Social Realism, and Arts and Crafts”).
G.K.S. Bush (above)
You can see Julius Lowy Frame & Restoring Company, Inc. on E. 80th St. for some fabulous mirrors (and frames too of course, as they offer “American and European frames dating from the Renaissance through the 20th century”).
The Fine Art Society PLC from London was showing a great pair of Egyptian stools I wanted to run away with, and I saw a number of grandfather clocks I could live with as well.
The Macklowe Gallery, LTD., also on Madison, does Art Nouveau and does it WELL (“Tiffany Studios lamps, art glass, and bronzes; French Art Nouveau furniture, art glass, lighting, ceramics, and lithographs; important antique and estate jewelry”).
Ralph M. Chait Galleries, Inc. on Fifth Ave. is the authority in New York on Chinese pieces (“Chinese works of art, including porcelain, jade, pottery, sculpture, ceramics, export silver, and Indian Colonial silver”).
Cora Ginsburg LLC on E. 74th St. is famous for her tapestries (“17th- through 20th-century textiles, needlework, and antique clothing”), and we found an amazing brass-mounted Browne & Lambert campaign bed/coffee table (c. 1850) at Associated Artists LLC (“Late 19th- to early 20th-century furniture, accessories, and fine art, featuring Aesthetic era, including Herter Brothers, Pottier and Stymus, Tiffany, Jeckyll, and Pabst”).
Brass-mounted Browne & Lambert campaign bed/coffee table (c. 1850) at Associated Artists LLC
Hyde Park Antiques on Broadway is tried-and-true New York (“Finest English antique furniture from the William and Mary through Regency periods, 1700-1825. Also specializing in 19th-century Chinese export and English porcelain, European and English sporting art”). And those that I also have to call out on their beautiful booth presentations are Daniel Katz Limited in London (“European sculpture and works of art from Medieval to the 19th century, including polychrome wood, Renaissance bronzes, 18th-century terracotta and marble, and 19th-century plaster models”), Hostler Burrows on Franklin St. (“20th-century Scandinavian design and decorative arts with an emphasis on studio ceramics, hand-woven textiles, Swedish Functionalism, and objects of the Danish Cabinetmaker movement”), and Hans P. Kraus Jr. Fine Photographs on Park Ave. (our last stop and “old masters of photography, 19th and early 20th century”). 
Hans P. Kraus Jr. Fine Photographs booth
As I keep stressing, EVERYTHING is an art form. Antiques show us that in the lessons they have to teach their owners from generation to generation. And one of those lessons is that true art never goes out of style--even when its hair goes grey, and it starts sporting a bow tie.
~Jason Kontos
