I always enjoy a trip to The Winter Show at the Park Avenue Armory during the cold, dark days of January to see some beautiful things and escape the state of current affairs. This was the 72nd year of the show, with over 70 international dealers presenting art, antiques, jewelry and furniture -- truly a cornucopia of riches. And it supports a good cause too. Proceeds from the ticket sales and benefit events go to the East Side Settlement House, the community organization that which provides education, development and resources for residents of the Bronx.
My favorite dealer off the bat was Robert Young Antiques from London, which sells wonderful folk art. The booth was light and cheerful with a wood plank floor and delicately stenciled walls. I love folk art, which has a simplicity and humbleness but also can be refined and graceful.
This jolly butcher's shop diorama was so delightful with the child-like whimsy of a doll house. Inside the wooden box, the waving butcher is surrounded by hanging carcasses and joints and of handcarved, painted wood. It was made in England c. 1884 and had already been sold by the time I viewed it.
The colorful wedding chest was made in Norway in 1832. The handpainting inside the lid features a happy landscape and the exterior is covered in decorative swirls. The bride must have been delighted to use such a chest! In the gallery, above it hung an eighteenth century equestrian portrait, the colors of which perfectly complemented the chest .
These six humorous metal penguins squatted happily on a wood trestle table. Made of painted and weathered sheet metal in France in the late twentieth century, they looked like they were ready to waddle away. Hanging above them was an English private road sign that listed toll road charges and was dated September 1898.
I chatted a bit with the proprietor Robert Young about the appeal of folk art. We both lamented the destruction of the wonderful Folk Art Museum building on West 53rd Street which was designed by architects by Tod Williams & Billie Tsien in 2001 and then demolished by the Museum of Modern Art in 2014 to make way for its own expansion.
When I was an art history major in college, I wrote a paper about elegant Greek lekythos vases and so I was delighted to see this lovely specimen featured in the Hixenbaugh Ancient Art gallery. The lekythos vase was used to hold oil and had a signature tall, graceful shape that was decorated with fine, line painting that perfectly fit the vase's profile. The gallery founder Randall Hixenbaugh told me that this vase was created in Athens, Greece, circa 480 BC by one of the finest vase painters who is called the Berlin Painter. This one features Eros, the god of love, flying away but looking back at the work he has done so in one gesture, it tells a little story.
At the Thomsen Gallery, I admired these small, exquisite Japanese tea caddies. Erik Thomsen explained to me that they were gold lacquer on wood. The fine decoration and gleaming surfaces made them look like pieces of jewelry. These tea caddies reminded me of Jayne Wrightsman's collection of small, gorgeous snuff boxes that I wrote about for Cottages and Gardens magazine –
In contrast to these fanciful decorations was this simple pine chair in the striking, dark gallery of prominent English designer Rose Uniacke, who is debuting this year at the Winter Show. One of a set of eight, the Swedish chair made circa 1932 features a handsome, smooth wood grain and blackened iron rivets paired with a soft velvet cushion for a striking mix of natural and elegant, the best combination.
