VERO BEACH — Collections were polished to perfection and positioned for optimum visibility – simply no detail was overlooked as the country’s most prestigious antique dealers readied their fabulous displays for the Twentieth Annual Antiques Show and Sale at the Vero Beach Museum of Art. The enduring show, which originated in 1992, continues to attract antique lovers and collectors from around the country.
The event kicked off with a Patron’s Champagne Reception and Preview Party that allowed guests to mingle with the 38 renowned dealers and offered them a first glimpse and advance chance at purchasing some of the spectacular items on sale.
This is definitely not the show for bargain hunters; the certified antiques (for IRS purposes, 100 years earlier than the date of the event) along with vintage and collectibles (less than 100 years old), are always the best the dealers have to offer.
Pieces, including formal period furnishings, fine art, estate jewelry, china and porcelain, silverware, glassware and decorative glass pieces, clocks, Oriental rugs, folk art and a host of other 18th and 19th Century Americana, were all the crème de la crème.
“We have a new nautical antique vendor this year, and a sporting antique dealer, with rods and reels and creels of the 19th Century. We also have two new painting dealers, from Chicago and Atlanta,” said show manager Charles Miller of the Miller Hamilton Company in North Carolina. “We don’t have very much vendor turnover; the show is so popular. We always have a waiting list every year; they all enjoy doing it.”
In one of the most popular aspects of the show Miller, who has been the show’s manager for the past 10 years, offers appraisals to items brought in by the community. Each year people line up patiently, hoping that Miller will surprise them with good news about the worth of their prized family heirlooms.
While at the Museum, many also took advantage to view the exhibition, In the Tradition of Wyeth: Contemporary Watercolor Masters, featuring five works by American painter Andrew Wyeth. The exhibition also includes works by 10 master contemporary watercolorists, each with established reputations working in a variety of watercolor techniques.
During the Patron’s Reception, quite a few of the ladies present were drawn to the D.R. Grissom Collection booth in the Holmes Great Hall, where twinkling facets from a display of stunning estate jewelry were beckoning under a string of halogen lights.
“The older you get, the bigger the piece,” laughed Matilde Sorensen, entranced by a gorgeous French turquoise and diamond bracelet. “I’m planning on coming back.”
Nicholas Adams, another patron sponsor, was taking it all in, wanting to visit at each of the booths before making any final decisions.
“I think the show is wonderful,” said Adams. It’s a quality show; that’s why I keep coming back.”
Proceeds from the three-day show, co-chaired this year by Pat Marquis and Trude See, benefit the Museum’s Education Programs. Antique Show sponsors included The 1830 Family Foundation – Mr. and Mrs. William C. Buck, and Mrs. Ernest Hazel.
