Ellis Boston Antiques Show Celebrates Its Third Birthday

October 24th, 2013

Boston, Massachusetts

The third annual Ellis Boston Antiques Show, held at the Cyclorama in the city’s South End October 24-27, 2013, began with a bang-up gala, whose proceeds benefited the charity that lends the show its name. The city’s oldest settlement house, Ellis Memorial, got an infusion of “almost exactly” $100,000 that Thursday evening, according to the show’s promoters, Tony Fusco and Robert Four.

New to the 2013 gala was a presenting sponsor, BNY Mellon Wealth Management. “They literally paid for the whole thing,” said Fusco. “So every dollar of tickets that the Ellis sold went directly into programs.” Those programs have been tending to the needs for children, disabled adults, elders, and families in the South End and adjacent neighborhoods since 1885. Money from the gala preview for the old Ellis Antiques Show, which died in 2008 after a nearly 50-year run, went to the same cause.

Among the more than 300 gala-goers were several curators from Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA). That’s typical. Not so typical was that even the MFA’s director, Malcolm Rogers, turned out for this one. Lydia Shire, a luminary Boston chef and collector of mid-century Modernism who usually attends, was in the crowd, along with many other collectors. Also on hand were representatives of local auction houses, preservation organizations, and historical societies. The rest were Ellis supporters and people simply interested in going to a good party with great food, a full bar, and live music.

A few sales took place that night. W.M. Schwind Jr. sold a pair of English upholstered side chairs with Chippendale legs. Robert Lloyd sold a silver porringer made by Paul Revere Sr. Michael Buehler of Boston Rare Maps sold a rare sampler ofBoston Harbour. Dated February 27, 1800, the map of silk floss on silk satin was worked by Sally Dodge at Mrs. Rowson’s Academy of Boston and Medford, Massachusetts. According to Betty Ring’s Girlhood Embroidery: American Samplers & Pictorial Needlework 1650-1850, it is one of only two known. The other is in the collection of the Bostonian Society.

Largely, however, real shoppers waited for the weekend when, according to Fusco, William Vareika sold a major painting and Charles Washburne sold a serious piece of majolica, a rare Minton majolica “ice stand” with a hunt theme. Washburne had chosen that item to be the illustration on his page in the show program. There were also multiple sales in the booths of Knollwood Antiques, Old Village Antiques, Margaret Doyle Antiques, and Bell-Time Clocks (in the interest of full disclosure, this reporter’s husband). These all were under $3000.

Dealers overall said it was difficult to sell items more expensive than that. “There’s no doubt about it,” said Fusco. “There was a hesitancy on the part of buyers” to spend larger amounts. “Certainly there were people in the room who could have easily afforded to buy anything they wanted to buy. I mean, we even had a Saudi prince, who has recently bought a penthouse on the [Boston] waterfront. He was one of the clients a designer brought through.”

Of course, those folks may well spend big after the show. Bostonians are famous for mulling over their buying decisions, large and small. And the designers who came to the show need to consider even more factors than private collectors do. We often hear about post-show sales occurring months after each of the three Boston shows promoted by Fusco & Four. (The other two are the Boston International Fine Arts Show in November and AD20/21 in the spring.) So we’ll have to wait to report that news.

In the meantime, what we found most newsworthy about the Ellis in its third year was its extreme eclecticism. As for prices, things went from a mammoth (approximately 6' x 5') knockout of a Boston school painting in the booth of Vose Galleries, Boston, for more than $1 million, all the way down to lithographs by Minetta Good and Victoria Hutson Huntley. Found in the bins of The Philadelphia Print Shop, they were marked $1600 and $950, respectively. The age of material was just as broad. We noted an 800-760 B.C. Greek geometric amphora offered by Hixenbaugh Ancient Art. We also saw watercolors of antiquities by Wendy Artin (b. 1963), an American who lives in Rome, Italy, on view in the booth of Gurari Collections.

As for styles and sensibilities, perhaps two sets of radically different seating in the same booth, that of Lynda Willauer Antiques, said it best. One was a pair of circa 1780 French walnut armchairs upholstered with Aubusson tapestry. The other was a pair of mid-century modern Swedish swivel chairs in chrome-plated steel and what was described as “apricot” leather upholstery.

“We got a lot of comments on the mix, and I was pleased, because we worked really hard to create that,” Fusco said. “We don’t want dealers who all look alike. We aim for different specializations, eras, and looks, and I think we got there this year. In a show of this size, it’s hard to get the array of dealers we want.”

Speaking of size, the show hosted just 32 exhibitors, down from the 40-dealer roster of previous years. Several other antiques shows fell on the same weekend, said Fusco. “It was one of the bigger issues we faced.” Among those in direct conflict with the Ellis were the San Francisco Fall Antiques Show, the International Art & Antiques Show at the Park Avenue Armory, and the Morristown Armory Antiques Show in New Jersey. “We were also the week after Winnetka,” (i.e., Antiques + Modernism Winnetka) “and dealers who wanted to do that show logistically just couldn’t do ours too.” Another priority was to avoid such events as Boston’s Head of the Charles Regatta, held on the weekend before the show. In 2012, when the show and the regatta coincided, the promoters discovered it was not only a distraction but made hotel rooms scarce.

Some people were happy about the unprecedented amount of 20th-century material. (According to our assessment, it predominated in ten booths and was a factor in several others.) “You know me,” said Fusco. “I always say that the market shapes the show. And that’s why we added more twentieth century—because people were asking for it.”

Traditionalists weren’t so sure what to make of it. Judging from their comments, they were still adjusting to the idea, missing the booths that used to be filled with Americana and 18th- and 19th-century Continental antiques. In the latter category, Georgian Manor and Alfred Bullard did not return this time.

One dealer opined that the show was experiencing “growing pains.” He meant it as a positive statement, since literally the pains in the fast-growing limbs of adolescents are a healthy stage of life. In our opinion, the eclecticism of the Ellis reflects not merely this show’s development but the evolution of the antiques business as a whole. The formal, period room is no longer the goal of many collectors. Mixing is the norm. An exemplar of this philosophy, Eric Cohler, was invited by the promoters to have a book signing at the show on Sunday. Author of Cohler on Design, the New Yorker has been dubbed “the Mixmaster” by design industry pundits, and his Web site (www.ericcohler.com) praises his ability to “fuse classical and contemporary elements.” Cohler also blends high end with low end, just as this show did.

One shopper, newly transplanted from Manhattan to Boston, had a good one-word description of the show. He praised it for being “approachable,” especially as compared to the Winter Antiques Show in his former city. “You can actually buy things here,” he said.

For more information, phone (617) 363-0405 or see the Web site (www.EllisBoston.com).

Originally published in the January 2014 issue of Maine Antique Digest. © 2013 Maine Antique Digest