From Friday, May 1 to Sunday, May 3, , The New York Botanical Garden will host its 17th annual Antique Garden Furniture Show and Sale. Show hours are from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Garden antique specialists will offer tours and lectures daily. As the country’s original and most important venue for authentic, quality garden antiques, the show is a must for leading collectors. The event kicks off with a Benefit Preview Party and Collectors’ Plant Sale, Thursday, April 30, from 6 to 8 p.m.
This year’s 35 exhibitors will feature antique cast iron and marble fountains, garden seating and statues, urns and vases, birdcages and birdbaths, gates, trellises, aquariums, and architectural ornament. Objects in the show date from early 18th Century botanical prints to mid 20th Century American, French, and English garden furniture; many pieces are signed and retain original paint or finishes.
Some of the many highlights that visitors can expect from this year’s Antique Garden Furniture Show and Sale:
Balsamo Antiques from Pine Plains, New York, will show a 1940s English composition stone finial, an English stoneware statue of Diana, circa 1840, attributed to Blashfield, and a pair of French 19th century stone bouquets.
Eleanor and David Billet Antiques of New York, New York, will feature a pair of Belgian cast stone urns, circa 1900 and a large American cast stone swan made in the 1940s.
Joan Bogart Antiques from Rockville Centre, New York, offers a Gothic gate wrought iron gate and a pair of English cast iron panels.
Dawn Hill Antiques of New Preston, Connecticut, will show folding tables with original green painted surfaces, signed “J. Dumont, Menuiserie d’art, Paris;” a French 1920s pair of blue and white cache pots with Art Nouveau floral decoration; a white painted cast iron urn with egret base by the Waldbridge & Co. foundry in Buffalo, N.Y.; and a cast iron bench by J. L. Mott Iron Works, New York, N.Y. with a patent stamp, April 25, 1891.
Margaret Doyle from Cumberland Foreside, Maine, will feature a pair of 18th century French limestone gatepost pilasters.
Fleur of Mount Kisco, New York, will offer a pair of mannerist style sphinx garden statues of carved pink-beige limestone from the southwest region of France, recovered from a castle outside Bordeaux, French, late 19th century.
Barbara Israel Garden Antiques from Katonah, New York, will feature early to mid-20th century pieces from England. From the 1930s: a walnut table with marble top; a composition stone figure of an exuberant boy fishing, seated on a rock with legs flying; and a pair of carved stone fruit baskets on square bases. From the 1940s: a pair of carved stone tazza-form urns, semi-lobed with egg and dart motif on the rim, on block bases, and composition stone garden seat, the back decorated with children playing musical instruments, with griffin end supports. Two composition stone pieces from the 1950s: a curved bench with egg and dart edging on supports with foliate decoration, and birdbath with shallow lobed basin on a molded column. From France, the booth will feature an early 20th century wrought iron rose arch with original deep green paint.
Kimball & Bean Architectural and Garden Antiques from Woodstock, Illinois, will exhibit a pair of burnished cast iron wall pockets made from the separated halves of a circa 1880 Graff & Co. Foundry of Pittsburgh, Pa, “Rococo” Urn, as well as a lead swan fountainhead, circa 1920, with multiple layers of old paint and in working condition.
Danielle Ann Millican, Inc., from Florham Park, New Jersey, one of the country’s leading experts in botanical prints, will complement the Garden’s exhibition of Georg Dionysius Ehret’s works at the Mertz Library with plates from Ehret’s Plantae Selectae (see below) and 144 plates from Pierre Joseph Redoute’s Choix des Plus Belles Fleurs from the 1827-33 edition printed in Paris by Langlois (see below).
Aileen Minor Antiques of Centreville, Maryland, will show a bronze armillary sphere on a white marble pedestal; a cast iron “Keep Off the Grass” sign from London; a 19th century cast iron bench in the “Rustic” pattern of entwined oak branches; a cast iron bench in the “Curtain” pattern labeled “PETER TIMMES SON, BROOKLYN, N. Y. PAT. MAY 7, 1895”; a cast iron zodiac table with a round pierced top with astrological signs, circa 1880; and a cast stone statue of Napoleon, on a stone plinth.
Francis J. Purcell Inc. of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, will bring two working cast iron aquariums by J.W. Fiske; a labeled Peter Timmes Son wrought iron chair; a cast iron plant stand; and a carved stone bird bath.
Rose Garden Antiques from Woodstock, New York, will exhibit a pair of faux bois vases made in France, circa 1930, and a stone mermaid fountain with sea creatures, also made in France, circa 1950.
Marianne Stikas of New York, New York, and Kent, Connecticut, will exhibit a 14’ x 12’ “painted garden”— a Maxfield Parrish-inspired backdrop from a New Hampshire theater, circa 1920, and a table made from a 19th century lamp post from Philadelphia, with a painted wood top.
Michael Trapp of West Cornwall, Connecticut, will feature iron chandeliers from Italy and a fossilized buffalo head.
Trifles from Bath, Maine, will exhibit a pair of late 19th century glazed terracotta mantels made in Italy. The mantels, based on a late Renaissance model and appropriate for outdoor installation, are from an important estate (provenance available to the buyer). Trifles also will show a carved and wrought iron wine shop sign, probably from France, 18th century, with some original polychrome decoration.
Expert lectures and tours will be offered throughout the show and are complimentary with show admission; highlights are Beau Kimball, From the Wrecking Ball to the Garden Party: Using Antique
Architectural Elements in the Garden; Barbara Israel on Care and Feeding of Your Garden Ornament; and a new walking tour, led by the show director, Catherine Sweeney Singer, In the Garden with Cleopatra, Livia, Josephine—and Barbie.
The Antique Garden Furniture Show and Sale takes place in a tent surrounded by flowering trees, plants, and shrubs outside the landmark Enid A. Haupt Conservatory. The fee of $20 for adults, $18 for seniors, and $7 for children for an All-Garden Pass includes access to the show, Botanical Garden grounds, Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, Rock Garden, Native Plant Garden, Tram Tour, and Everett Children’s Adventure Garden. Advance tickets are available online at www.nybg.org
Ticket prices start at $200 per person and offer enthusiasts and collectors the opportunity to view the antiques and plants, make early purchases, and enjoy cocktails and hors d’oeuvres. For ickets call (718) 817.8885.
