Sarah and I just spent the better part of last week going to the 4 major winter antique shows in New York. For my money the hands down winner was The American Antiques Show in the Metropolitan Pavilion on 18th Street to benefit the American Folk Art Museum. Not that the grand dowager Winter Antiques Show at the 67th Street Armory show wasn't impressive, it was. It ALWAYS is. However, for me, seeing small displays of choice Americana beats big shiny Regency anytime.
We didn't get much (2 signs and a cane) until Pier 91 on the Hudson River opened on Saturday. Then we had fun and did a lot of buying. The Pier show is enormous with hundreds of dealers from as far away as Lyons, France and Santa Monica, California. The new "thing" this year seemed to be metal furniture from defunct factories. We bought a very heavy small square steel cart, quite low and with a great patina, that was used in a tannery to bring the newly cured hides to the tables where shoes were made. It will make a great coffee table for someone. In the same vein we also bought a very small working safe that will make a great side table, not to mention a terrific spot to keep one's single malt scotch out of harms way. Probably my favorite purchase of all was a long very simple two board console table from Belgium on lovely turned thin iron legs. Sarah bought a great collection of Lea Stein pins from from some very nice english dealers. (See photo)
The weather in New York that week was, as they say in Maine, wicked cold. I am reminded however that here at home fisherman and loggers have jobs where bad weather can kill them whereas in the Big Apple a winter storm makes it hard to get a cab. By the way if you haven't checked out the Whole Foods market downstairs at the Time-Warner Center on Columbus Circle you should. It's worth seeing how brilliant the art of selling good food can be and I am delighted to report that by the time you read this there will be a new Whole Foods market just opened in Portland, Maine. It would seem we're getting mighty "big city" around these parts lately.
