The Winter Show, running through January 28 at the Park Avenue Armory, has to be my favorite among the dozen or so big art fairs I visit each year. Once known as The Winter Antiques Show, it’s having its 70th anniversary this year. It started as the place where the best dealers, the most discerning collectors, and the most ardent antiquers gathered to worship old American art and craft.
Yes, there were paintings here and there, things like advertising signs, pictures of ships, and portraits of ye olde gramps, but mostly for sale were furniture, silver, clocks, prints, textiles, and a range of breakables, almost all American from colonial times to the gas fumes of the Gilded Age. It was the stuff of connoisseurs, WASPs and WASP wannabes, and patriots who loved American heritage.
Comments