Philadelphia Antiques Show 2022

92 R EMEMBE RANCES Inspired by successful antique shows in Boston and New York, 1962 marked the first year of The University Hospital Antiques Show. Collectors were numerous. Ted Kapnek loved samplers and miniatures, while Jack Dorrance sought out great porcelains–especially tureens for all that soup. Henry McNeil was drawn to important American furniture and decorative arts, Robert McNeil liked early Presidential ceramics and Philadelphia furniture, and Welles Henderson and my father were always after marine art and China Trade. Dick Dietrich was fond of great furniture and decorative arts and Julia du Pont Bissell loved anything featuring swans as well as items from Pennsylvania. Newbold Smith was interested in marine prints while his wife, Peggy, bought Pennsylvania furniture and decorative material. Henry Francis du Pont shared his remarkable knowledge and experience by serving on the advisory committee, as did Clement Conger, the premier curator at the White House and Director of the U.S. Department of State Office of Fine Art. It was a powerful and extraordinarily educated group. Aside from these well-known collectors and curators who focused on specific areas were the numerous others who demanded high quality with the knowledge and security that they were purchasing their treasures from the best dealers in the country. While there were new collectors always showing up to buy the best in every category, tastes gradually changed and many collectors appeared on the scene who wanted different objects from different times. The adage that “antiques” for the show were defined as being “over 100 years old” no longer stood up. One hundred years old now included objects made in 1900 and later which in most minds, was not considered “antique.” Machine made furniture certainly wasn’t included in the merchandise guidelines for the original show. Folk art collecting exploded and gathered major attention. Old datelines were discarded and stretched. Today contemporary material is included if it is “show worthy” and represented in significant museum collections. Due to these and many other factors, there has been a thoughtful realignment of the type of material which needs to be included. The Show has actively sought out design dealers and more painting dealers of contemporary art. The Show is seeking to provide the younger generation with what they want and what they find interesting, while at the same time offering them what has always been appreciated in the past. Young collectors should pay attention when an 18th century tiger maple highboy sells for under $10,000 and a reproduction is more expensive. English dealers who were very well represented in the early years of the show have become less so as the show shifted focus to American objects in the late ‘70’s. Many things have changed in sixty years and, to The Philadelphia Show’s credit, much has not. While we have been relocated like gypsies many times from our long time home at the 33rd Street Armory, to passenger terminals at the Navy Yard, to the Convention Center, back to a tent in a beautiful field at the Navy Yard, then to a very cold field at the Navy Yard, to a Navy Yard parking lot, and now to the East Terrace of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the spirit of Ali Brown and the original committee has remained. The Philadelphia Show has had to be flexible in its location but has maintained its status as the top show in the country offering the finest objects to collectors. R EMEMB R ANC E S O F TH E S HOW b y D i a n a B i t t e l