The NYBG Antique Garden Furniture Fair
April 28th, 2016
New York Botanical Garden Antique Garden Furniture Fair, Bronx, New York
The 25th anniversary of the New York Botanical Garden (NYBG)’s Antique Garden Furniture Fair was a blooming success from the April 28 opening through May 1. Bringing the outdoors inside was achieved by filling a 10,000-square-foot tent with flowering plants, leafage, foliage, blossoms, grasses, branches, and a 10' high beehive installation with a towering wall of florals, cohabiting with 28 exhibitors who offered outdoor sculpture, gates, sundials, botanical prints, birdbaths, fountains, urns and planters, garden benches, and architectural ornaments.
The benefit preview party included a plant sale; all the plants were grown by NYBG.
“I’ve never seen so much selling at a preview,” declared show manager Karen DiSaia. “There were red dots everywhere.”
“It was red hot in the beehive,” said dealer Bruce Emond of Village Braider, Plymouth, Massachusetts, referring to event designer Ken Fulk’s installation of enormous flower-covered beehives, one of which housed the preview party’s disc jockey, well-known spinner DJ Kiss.
More than 500 guests at the opening night preview were oohing and aahing and buying.
Bob Withington of Withington & Co. Antiques, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, had a very busy booth during the preview. He sold a bench, a planter, and some smalls within minutes of the show’s opening. Seen here is a Rosa Verona marble well head, mid-19th century, from Turner Hill, a historic estate in Ipswich, Massachusetts, priced at $16,000.
“I love this show,” said DiSaia. “It’s really the only true garden show left. Everyone sold. The amount of weight that left the show opening night was awesome,” the Old Lyme, Connecticut, antiques dealer and show manager said in a telephone interview a few days after the event.
“It was a very good show,” agreed exhibitor Jeffrey Henkel of Pennington, New Jersey, who said he sold a number of items including urns, birdbaths, console tables, and statuary in a variety of materials including marble, stone, and cast iron. “There was an energy on opening night. Everyone was in a good mood, and it was nice to see,” he said. In fact, “there was no grumbling from clients or dealers,” he added.
Jeffrey Henkel of Pennington, New Jersey, had a very good show and sold across the board. In the background in front of the mirror is a Val Bertoia Sonambient sculpture, for which Henkel asked $16,000. He sold urns, birdbaths, console tables, and statuary—“all interesting, designy” objects, he said.
For Emond, who has done the show for 15 years, this was the best one he’s had in the past five years. “I can’t explain it,” he said, but “people were in a good mood and spent money.”
“Dealers opened their books,” Emond declared. He counted 27 receipts with 47 items from the weekend’s event, selling a range of objects, including an enormous handmade aluminum urn from the 1960s, cast-iron animals, a pair of stone troughs, a 19th-century rotating plant stand, wood planters, a swan fountain, a bronze elephant, and a painted wood and iron Sicilian wedding cart to a woman of Sicilian descent who was at the show with her fiancé. “Karen [DiSaia] shouldn’t have trouble filling the show next year,” he stated.
Bruce Emond of Village Braider Antiques, Plymouth, Massachusetts, is shown next to the 12' high aluminum urn he displayed at the front of his booth. It came from an estate in Connecticut and was bought by a woman who lives in a different part of the state, he said. It was tagged $12,000.
A wall of American trellises from the 1920s was artfully displayed by Milne’s At Home Antiques, Kingston, New York. Judy Milne asked $275 apiece.
Aileen Minor of Centreville, Maryland, who has done the show since its inception, also said she had a very good show. “Each booth had a different approach, and there were lots of surprises. The displays were well done.” Minor sold four pairs of cast-iron urns, Gothic chairs, a terrarium, plant stands, and a fountain.
“At a time when shows aren’t doing that well, this show has performed consistently,” pointed out Dave Mouilleseaux of Brennan & Mouilleseaux Antiques, Northfield, Connecticut. “We did just fine, selling the same amount we’ve done before, and we’re happy with that.” The dealers sold “a lot of lamps and the best mirror we’ve ever had. We brought more smalls than usual and sold them, as well as a pair of rare and important planters.”
Finnegan Gallery, Chicago, Illinois, offered this almost 10' long French florist’s table for $9800; a pair of French faux wood planters in the form of hollowed-out logs was priced at $4900; and a set of English stoneware finials by James Stiff & Sons, circa 1875, 35" x 21", was priced at $15,000.
The opening night preview with its honeybee theme benefited the New York Botanical Garden’s Horticultural Fund. Guests were greeted by valets wearing yellow jackets and were offered honey-infused cocktails. They walked down a gold runway to the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory courtyard and continued into the tent for the plant sale and garden fair. Honey samples from nearby City Island Gold Apiary sweetened the evening. The captions illustrate the event.
Further information is available at (www.nybg.org).
Arader Galleries, New York City and Philadelphia, displayed several works in watercolor and bird’s feathers on paper, probably German, early 19th century, 15" x 16½" framed, priced at $850 each.
This French rocking chair from the 1920s, 63" x 27" x 48", was priced at $2400 by Balsamo, New York City and Pine Plains, New York.
Originally published in the July 2016 issue of Maine Antique Digest. © 2016 Maine Antique Digest
