56th Annual Winter Antiques Show Featuring highlights from Macklowe Gallery

NEW YORK, Nov. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- The Winter Antiques Show celebrates its 56th year as America's most prestigious antiques show, providing museums, established collectors, dealers, design professionals and first-time buyers with opportunities to see and purchase exceptional pieces showcased by 75 exhibitors. This year, specialists in 18th and early 19th century American furniture, 20th century fine and decorative arts, and Chinese furniture join this fully vetted show, which is held January 22 to 31, 2010. From an Egyptian sarcophagus from 1000 B.C. through mid-century modern furniture, every object exhibited at the Winter Antiques Show is vetted for quality and authenticity. All net proceeds from sponsors, special events, and ticket sales support East Side House Settlement, a non-profit in the South Bronx providing social services to community residents.

Bank of America renews its commitment as show sponsor with its support of the Winter Antiques Show Education Fund. Sallie Krawcheck, Bank of America's President of Global Wealth & Investment Management, is the Chair of the Opening Night Party on Thursday, January 21st. "Bank of America is proud to sponsor the 56th annual Winter Antiques Show," said Ms. Krawcheck. "The support of this event, and in turn, East Side House Settlement, is part of our commitment to strengthen the communities we serve."

Peter M. Brant, Chairman of Brant Publications and a passionate patron of the arts, is the Winter Antiques Show's Honorary Chairman for 2010. Brant Publications' The Magazine Antiques is the 2010 Show sponsor.

The popular Young Collectors Night will be held Thursday, January 28th.

Selected Highlights:

• Sarcophagus. Egypt, Third Intermediate Period, Thebes (Deir el-Bahari?), 21st Dynasty. Circa 1000 B.C. Wood with extensive gesso and polychrome. This impressive Egyptian mummy case from around 1000 B.C. belonged to a chantress at the Temple of Amun in Thebes. Among the finest of its kind still in private hands, the mummy case is remarkable for its superb condition and the fine quality of the lavishly painted images, which illustrate sacred texts from the Book of the Dead. -Safani
  
  
• The Farwell Building Chandelier, by Tiffany Studios. Circa 1915. Glass and bronze. This "Indian Pattern" chandelier features an elaborate pattern of deep blue, mottled red, orange and yellow glass tiles. The present example is one of three similar chandeliers designed by Tiffany Studios for the entrance hall of the Farwell Building in Detroit, Michigan, designed by the Detroit architectural firm of Rogers & Bonnah and opened on March 8, 1915. By the early 1970s the Farwell building stood vacant and it was eventually donated to the Detroit Historical Society and is on the National Register of Historic Places. -Macklowe Gallery
  

• Little Girl in a Large Red Hat, by Mary Cassatt. Circa 1902-05. Oil on canvas. Around 1900, Mary Cassatt added a new type of composition to her repertory: the young girl seated alone or with a dog. Inspired by 17th century Dutch and Flemish portraits as well as English portraits of the Romantic period, Cassatt updated the genre by drawing her models from the families of local servants. Nevertheless, she instilled her sitters with a strong sense of presence and dignity. This work was once part of the famed collection of Antonio Santamarina, a cattle rancher and a leader of Argentina's Democratic Party. -Adelson Galleries
• Vessel in the form of the Prince of Flowers. Aztec. Circa 15th-16th century. Redware. This vessel, most likely made for royals given its fine workmanship, was used as a pulke (tequila) holder. Among its unusual features are press molds representing various gods in the Aztec pantheon. Its shape suggests the bulb or root of an agave plant. -Throckmorton Fine Art, Inc.
• Armchair, designed by Gerald Summers. 1934. Birch plywood. Made from a single rectangle of airplane plywood, Summers achieved with this Modernist work what his counterparts across Europe and Scandinavia had been striving for: it describes in the simplest term the ideal unity of material, production, function and form. -Peter Petrou Works of Art
• Autograph Letter, signed by Audrey Hepburn. January 6, 1982. Three pages. This letter written to her father's second wife, Fidelma, exemplifies the kindness for which Hepburn was famous. -Kenneth W. Rendell Gallery