Trust’s VIP Weekend Brings Members the Best of New York’s Antiques Week 2004

Here she is again! Our favorite VIP Winter Antiques Show Guide, Clifford Harvard of NYC, in the booth of Lee Keno.

You say you’ve dined at the “Jules Verne”? Shopped at the bazaar in Marrakesh? Skied at Whistler? You haven’t lived until you’ve conquered Manhattan at the height of Antiques Week! It’s thrilling, it’s chilling, it’s filling (LOTS of great food!).
There are multiple auction sales to preview and attend, a city full of shops and galleries to visit, a galaxy of first-rate antiques shows in which to browse and shop. And each year the VIP Committee presents a cluster of private collections and special presentations for members only.

Dr. Richard Hughes, Trust member from Santa Barbara, CA, discusses objects in the Booth of Guy Bush, with Susan Stein, Trust Governor and Curator of Monticello, at the Winter Show.

The week-long Winter Antiques Show to benefit the East Side House Settlement is the hub around which the other events revolve. And this year, that Grande Dame celebrated its Golden Anniversary. The show’s fiftieth presentation was truly golden, with its loan exhibit a sampling of treasures from the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s American Wing. Walking through the enclosure filled with brilliant objects from the museum was like having a chocolate’s-eye view of the delicacies in a box of bonbons.

Carly Berlin talks to Trust members about neo-classical furniture from his booth at the Winter Antiques Show

A great benefit of the Trust’s VIP Weekend, of course, is that members are given a private, guided viewing of the show, before its opening to the general public. The dealers who walk through the aisles direct us to some of the most interesting booths of American dealers, talking with us and often introducing us to their compatriots who show us details of objects they are offering.

One of the most justly celebrated dealers at the Show is Eleanor Gordon, whose booth is always full of fine Chinese Export porcelain. As expert a teacher as she is an antiquarian, Mrs. Gordon has exhibited at the show for all of its fifty years; and the Committee honored her this year by establishing an East Side House Settlement scholarship in her name. By the end of the morning, we’re ready to catch our breath and dine in the Tiffany Room. Then, since our admission to the show is good for the day and evening, we’re free to return to the floor.

If our sensory palette is ready for a change, we can visit The American Antiques Show, which benefits the American Folk Art Museum. Showcasing dealers who specialize in folk art and Americana, TAAS is not so much a rival of the Winter Show as a counterpart that’s maturing each year. And, if you’re a “pothead” who loves ceramics, the New York Ceramics Fair at the National Academy of Design is a dazzling parfait of goodies, made richer by days of lectures from some of the world’s most knowledgeable men and women.

Elle Shushan displayed her miniature portraits in a small gothic tent at the Winter Show.

There is more to do, more to see, than it’s possible to crowd into a few days. But the Trust office provides a schedule of activities, and pages of suggested shops, shows and sales. At the height of the dazzle, we’re treated to what is, for some of us, the best part of the weekend: private visits to a selection of homes, apartments and galleries. What is more delightful to any collector than having the opportunity of meeting other collectors, and being invited to share their collections?

Every year, members who take part in the VIP Weekend return home feeling we’ve been part of the best one yet. So far, we’ve been right each time.

Back to top