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2001 New York VIP Weekend Is A Huge Success

Once again, The Trust’s VIP Weekend in New York proved that January’s rain and snow can be diamonds in disguise as the city filled with collectors, scholars and amateurs for Antiques Week.

The Winter Antiques Show is such a landmark event that subsidiary shows have sprung up all around the city because of its influence. Auction houses schedule major sales to compete for bidders’ attention. Museums and galleries entice visitors with exhibits and special events. And the Decorative Arts Trust’s VIP Weekend is a classic way to “see it all.”

Of course, one can never really see it all: even those of us most determined to take in everything find ourselves forced to choose from among the delights. And the Trust’s Weekend program is both our guide and our passport.

The weekend is built around private tours of the Winter Antiques Show. Founded forty-seven years ago to benefit the East Side House Settlement in the South Bronx, the show is administered and staffed by scores of men and women whose dedication is exceeded only by their determination. And that “D and D” has been rewarded, each year the show seems to be more exciting.

This year, the central Loan Exhibit recognized the Seventy-fifth Anniversary of Colonial Williamsburg’s founding. A selection of objects from Williamsburg’s collections (how could one choose?) was displayed in a pavilion at the show’s entrance. Among the members of Colonial Williamsburg’s staff who greeted Trust members were Ronald Hurst, Margaret Pritchard and Philip Zea, who are well known to us.

Trust members are met at the entrance of the show an hour before its opening to the general public, and escorted around the floor by dealers. The opportunity of talking quietly with some of the country’s most notable dealers in American antiques about significant objects they’ve brought to the sale is reason enough to join the New York weekend. But there’s far more, and it starts with lunch.

Not any lunch, of course: a very classy box luncheon in the Armory’s Tiffany Room. Invigorated by food and conversation, Trust members “return to the field,” and enjoy admission (and readmission) to the show until it closes that night.

That’s the hard part: so many antiques, so little time! Because with VIP admission comes a calendar prepared by the Trust office that lists exhibits, lectures, auctions, receptions and events occurring throughout the weekend. Even the most resolute antiquarian is forced to make decisions, and many Trust members have begun making the decision to arrive earlier or leave later.

The appropriate conclusion for VIP’s is a visit to private collections in the city, and the breadth and depth of the distinguished collections in New York is incalculable. Plans are already underway for next year’s VIP Weekend. Aren’t you eager to learn what will be scheduled?

In the booth of Carswell Berlin, Clifford Harvard tof Leigh Keno Antiques takes the top off the only known cast-iron table attributed to Duncan Phyfe.