PHILADELPHIA, PA. – The 23rd Street Armory Antiques Show has moved three times since debuting in 1995. This year, the 16-year-old fair founded by Barn Star Productions looked more settled than ever when it opened with mimosas and chocolates on Friday, April 8, continuing through the weekend.
 
The fair’s renewed glow comes from its winning combination of tenured exhibitors and its comfortable setting in what is affectionately known as the “Little Armory,” the small regimental drill hall between Market and Chestnut Streets. By contrast, the Philadelphia Antiques Show, the anchor fair that this one orbits, has been thrown into temporary disarray by two forced moves in the last five years.
 
But, in show business, what is good for one is good for all. Destination events like Philadelphia’s April fairs require quality, depth and variety to lure collectors from around the country. Thus Barn Star chief Frank Gaglio fervently wishes for the Philadelphia Antiques Show to be comfortably settled in a new home and is delighted to learn that Pennsylvania Convention Center, only a few minutes away from the 23rd Street Armory by taxi, is the Philadelphia Antiques Show’s likely new venue.
 
“Our goal is to stay at the 23rd Street Armory but it is imperative that our 2012 dates be consistent with those of the Philadelphia Antiques Show,” Gaglio told Antiques and Fine Art shortly after both fairs closed. “Together with Freeman’s April Americana auction, our two shows constitute, in a very loose sense, an Antiques Week in Philadelphia.”
 
Though dealers discourage frank discussion of it, vigorous trading among exhibitors is an industry mainstay. Thus it was promising that the 23rd Street Armory Antiques Show enjoyed robust early sales, with many Philadelphia Antiques Show exhibitors buying from their 23rd Street colleagues on Friday before their own fair opened.
 
“The hard-core collectors came through on Friday but business continued through the weekend. We see new collectors on Sunday, which is so important to us,” explained Bev Norwood of Norwoods’ Spirit of America Antiques.  The Maryland dealers made an early sale of a boldly graphic tailor’s trade sign of about 1850.
 
“This isn’t like New England. We sell on all three days here,” said Stephen Corrigan of Stephen-Douglas Antiques, whose stack of receipts offered a hopeful sign that the sluggish Americana market is recovering from its slump of several years. Catering to the middle and high ends of the market, Stephen-Douglas featured a petite green and red painted Pennsylvania corner cupboard, $12,500.
 
While the 23rd Street Armory Antiques Show benefits from the perception that it is an affordable place to shop, not everything is inexpensive. A bona fide masterpiece with a price tag to match, an 18th century tall-case clock from Germantown, Pa., was a much ballyhooed sale at Baldwin House Antiques of Lancaster, Pa.  Marked $330,000, the clock, illustrated in Timeless:  Masterpieces of American Brass Dial Clocks by Frank Homan, is signed by its maker, John Heilig, and dated 1789. Distinguishing characteristics include a brass dial that is engraved with a portrait of George Washington flanked by drums, cannons and flags.
 
“The date is a very important feature. Washington was going through Philadelphia for the first inauguration in New York. This clock is certainly commemorative,” said Bruce G. Shoemaker of Baldwin House Antiques. A dove on the clock’s second hand corresponds with the dove weathervane that George Washington ordered from Philadelphia for Mount Vernon in 1787. The clock’s rare mulberry wood case has tulip side windows.
 
Arts of Pennsylvania made a prominent appearance at Thurston Nichols American Antiques, where a signed John Bellamy presentation box carved with an eagle was $150,000 and a Berks County unicorn chest was $69,000. They joined “Portrait of Charles Seward’s Farm,” an oil on linen farmscape of circa 1875 that the Breinigsville, Pa., dealer recently attributed to Indiana painter Granville Bishop (1831-1902).
 
Hooked mats and assorted items made in the 1930s at the Grenfell Mission in Newfoundland and Labrador were strong sellers at A Bird in Hand Antiques of Florham Park, N.J. By Saturday, proprietors Ron and Joyce Bassin had marked up four choice mats from a collection of seven. All went to one collector.  Floral-embroidered, fur-trimmed suede glove and a carved stone walrus, all bearing Grenfell labels and marks, were other rarities on offer.
 
“We sold a big hutch table, a lot of early American glass and windmill weights. Good, expensive, small things,” said Ed Holden of Holden Antiques.
 
New Jersey dealer James Grievo parted with a tall-case clock and a slant-front desk. Cape Cod dealer Hilary Nolan wrote up an early walnut hanging cupboard and a red-leather covered Chinese camphorwood chest with unusual paw feet. A woodworker’s cabinet with trompe l’oeil decorations was one of Mario Pollo’s early transactions.
 
Other reported sales included a pair of Asian apothecary cabinets and a screen at John H. Rogers and a  ship’s eagle figurehead and an oval carving of a stag at Charles Wilson Antiques and Folk Art. Connecticut dealer Martin Chasen sold more than $16,000 in silver to one client while Massachusetts dealer Bill Union placed seven paintings with a single customer.
 
“’I’ve expanded the show’s parameters by adding Asian and French art and antiques. Next year, I’d like to have a glass dealer and a specialist in paper and manuscripts,” said Gaglio. The 45 exhibitors in this year’s fair included 12 new or returning dealers.
 
From Philadelphia, Barn Star Productions moves to New Hampshire for the Manchester Pickers’ Market Antiques Show on August 8 and Midweek in Manchester Antiques Show on August 10-11. For details, see barnstar.com.
 
Write to Laura Beach at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.