Greenwich Antique Show Brought Booths of Wonder

And the buyers were back!
By Anne W. Semmes

A rich array of the decorative arts took center stage over the weekend at the 52nd annual Greenwich Antique Show held at the Old Greenwich Civic Center, with more in the mood to buy this year. There were upscale items aplenty with price tags into the six figures to grace the finest Greenwich home. Surprises included a Greenwich native who has become a collector of the rarest curiosities. "There was a lot of energy in the show compared to last year," said Josh Wainwright who with his wife Sandy Keeling Wainwright are fourth-year organizers of the show - the centerpiece of Antiquarius, the umbrella term coined by the Society for a series of events benefiting the education programs of the Greenwich Historical Society.

Front and center was a pair of "really rare" globes on stands from England dating from the early 1800's that were respectively a terrestrial and a celestial globe fit to grace any hedge funder's library at a price of $48,000 for the pair. Westport dealer, George Subkoff explained that in those days the terrestrial globe makers had to keep abreast of discoveries by repapering the globes with updated maps. He was feeling chipper as "business was coming back," he said. "Everybody went on a diet," said Subkoff, "but they don't stay on a diet forever." A magnificent Queen Anne wing chair looking quite pristine from being made in 1710 was sporting its original needlepoint Subkoff believed who shared its price of $35,000. Discovered on the wall was a fierce Penobscot Indian wooden ceremonial club that a customer was hurrying back to claim for $4,800.

Wainwright reported more people attended the Preview night this year - with "good sales." "People are more interested and more knowledgeable," he said. Of 39 dealers this year Rick Scott - "an oriental lacquer specialist" from San Francisco had traveled the furthest. Wainwright introduced Thomas Schwenke of Woodbury as a top dealer who started an auction house with special access to quality material. Schwenke's mix of decorative objects and furniture spelled out what show organizer Wainwright looked for with dealers. "We don't have a row of furniture, we mix things together." The Wainwrights' criteria for their dealers were "the dealers' reputation, their quality of merchandise and their presentation." "It's unfair to a patron to see a dull presentation," he said. Nicely presented in the Carlson & Stevenson booth was a Renaissance style portrait in a fine frame. "They have the ability to locate things," Wainwright said of the booth's Vermont based dealers. The frame was 1910, the painting a surprising copy done by the framer's wife. Across the way was "the best Chinese export dealer in the country, Philip Suval from Fredericksburg, VA," said Wainwright. A fine "tobacco leaf" platter circa 1770 cost $6,500.

At the Philadelphia based Arader Galleries booth was a rare and arresting 18th century lithograph entitled "Triumph over Adversity" showing a young man being attacked by sharks - copied from the famous painting "Watson and the Shark" by John Singleton Copley, now in the National Gallery. The miraculous rescue of the 14-year old Watson, a crewman on a trader ship, from a shark attack off the coast of Cuba in 1749 was painted by Copley in 1778 and is now dubbed the first "Jaws" attack. For those wanting a wall full of Napoleon Bonaparte's conquests, Brennan and Mouilleseaux who exhibit at the Artisan and Antique center in Stamford were offering a dozen 19th century "broadsides" or "Images D'Espinal," hand-colored illustrations that first brought the news of Napoleon's exploits. Dealer Tim Brennan likened them to the first Internet. The full set was going for $1,750 or six for $1,100. The Internet was proving helpful to a customer stopping by the jewelry-filled Macklowe Gallery of Madison Avenue. Unable to find a desired alternate sapphire and diamond ring she was shown one on the dealer's laptop computer.

But the surprise of the show was the extraordinary collection of found objects of interest by Keith Funston, Jr. who grew up in Greenwich and now lives in Sudbury, Ma. His father, Keith Funston was the highly regarded former head of the New York Stock Exchange. Tucked into a corner at the show's entrance Funston Antiques was a lightening rod to old friends of Funston, Jr. At the entrance, atop a William and Mary gate leg table sat a fossil crocodile skull "from the Pleistocene age," a wart hog skull from the 19th century, a pair of baleen sheets from a whale and a bowl of green "monkey balls." Filling the double booth were shelves and cabinets full of shells and strange native crafts, sailor's valentines, fine porcelains, English pillboxes and old books. Funston began his collecting mania as a small boy he said, "With stamps and coins." He was standing by "an important 18th century coin collector's cabinet" with 129 drawers." By college age he was buying furniture and "smalls." "I was a history major so that helped," he said. While "doing the corporate world," he spent his nights and weekends "furiously looking" and finally "pulled the plug in 1996" to enter the antique business and has been exploring the world every since for items unusual and rare. Funston has shops in Essex and Sandwich, Ma, and one in Wells, Me. He was handing out the first chapter of a book he is writing on his website (funstonantiques.com) that has no title yet but its purpose is to introduce what his crowded booth represented - a chamber of wonders or in German, wunderkammer.

Funston introduces those extraordinary rooms first created in Europe in the 16th century during the age of discovery that were "designed to overwhelm you with a sense of wonder." He writes of those days when "noblemen, scholars and merchants went down to the docks and bought this new-world cool stuff, the seashells the 'unicorn' horns, the feather headdresses and brought them home." As Funston shared his travels - he takes tours to see Wunderkammers - his wife Grace chatted amiably with old and new friends. The Rev. Robert Alves of St. Barnabas Church was looking for old books. John Moore was looking for whatever caught his fancy.