Whitehall Blog

High Point Closing Report

May 9th, 2013

Due to minor but tiring surgery I am slow getting this written.  The show continued to be busy, as did the entire town, to the last day.  What we experienced in the Antique and Design Center this year was a bit different than prior years–sales boomed from the opening day with large crowds, then gradually slowed a bit to the end. Prior years began more slowly and built to a crescendo–it seems that the  AADC has become the first stop in High Point for many leading designers.  And, for the first time we were still making sales as we began to dismantle the booth–delightful new clients from China and from The United Abar Emirates with major design businesses in those countries.  The Chinese couple took the opportunity to drive over to our shop as well to make purchases.  Perhaps most intriguing with these clients, their passions were European ceramics  (shall we see more fake Meissen in Asian booths next season?).

Anyway here are three booth photos presented before and after to show how things changed through the week as shipments went out around the country.

Entrance to joint Whitehall/Grissom Collection Booth

Same view at end of event

The massive faux tapestry once behind jewelry display is gone, as is the large French dining table down the middle and the French modernism rattan chairs once hanging over the arched side entrance to our booth.

Side View

Before a wonderful French rack/shelf above an imposing Delft Garniture Set.

Same view, different angle

The French dining table  gone, the garniture gone, the rack gone, at the back the lovely Homme debout being dismantled for delivery, the box on stand tagged for shipment, and the Regency Chiffonier gone.  Equally fun,  the gorgeous Rose Mandarin and Rose Medallion pieces decorating the buffet were brought from Florida by a client for us to sell in her behalf!  High Point is a great meeting point for many reasons.

Before

Empty arch

Now we are looking forward to a busy summer and fall including the Fall 2013 Edition of The High Point Furniture Market–already thinking about the Fall Look for the booth!

Why High Point is Fun for All

April 21st, 2013

I think what I enjoy most about High Point is the insane juxtaposition of ideas and goods where ever one turns!

Airplanes and Kwan Yin with root balls!

Root balls have been hot for three years–now seen in every design magazine photo shoot–this time in slow gear, but airplanes are sold out!

Grape hods for the harvest are still hot!

Boot next to Asian pieces

In the next stand you can pray to Mary and Jesus from the world’s ugliest green leather barcolounger–but who am I to judge, this is the third dealer here to buy the bilious thing!

Next stop--1960

By turning around from 1960 you would see Caroline Faison’s continental period pieces, and our booth of period furniture with Donnie’s jewelry and next to us Industrial Chic!

Every dealer seems to be having their best show ever here and the crowd of sophisticated designers has grown hugely from past markets–quite interesting.  Every one is talking about how much work they suddenly have–from famine to feast in the last six months.  The economy does indeed seemed to have turned almost everywhere.

Jewelry Display in our High Point Booth

April 19th, 2013

We share part of our space with Donnie Grissom of Mt. Pleasant/Charlseston, SC each market.  Here he is in the space now completely set up!

Entrance to Shared Booth

High Point Spring Furniture Market Opens!

April 17th, 2013

Tomorrow is the “soft” opening of the High Point Antique and Design Center’s Spring 2013 show running through next Thursday at noon.  Friday is official opening day for the HPADC and Saturday finds the entire 7.5 million square feet of exhibition space open–and yes, every square inch of space is leased!  Like guessing jelly beans in a jar, how many miles would one walk to see every exhibit!  Fortunately for antiques lovers and vintage design lovers, the HPADC is a manageable space equal to a very large antiques show in a major metropolitan area.

Here are some photos of our booth at the end of today.

Full depth view of Whitehall Booth

The covered area on the left is Donnie Grissom’s fabulous jewelry booth–we share this area at the entrance to the show.  I will shoot a few photos tomorrow when the jewelry is in place to give you the entire effect!

Sideboard and more

The sideboard is George IV, c; 1825-30, of mahogany–a brilliantly robust example from Scotland.

All of the pieces featured in the booth can be viewed in detail by going to our website, www.whitehallantiques.com.

Country French elm dining table

Far end of the Booth

The deer heads are from an Oxford, North Carolina family, as is the deer foot lamp–all 50-80 years old and in gorgeous condition ideal for a mountain house!

Through our gates to the booth beyond filled with architectural fragments and other neat things!

The French clock works perfectly, has a rare double strike system, and on the pendulum children see saw up and down with every sweep of the movement.

George III Chest on Chest and Welsh George III Tall Case Clock from Cardiff

Period French Buffet and Wall Shelf with blue and white ceramics

Tables from drums. George III country chest, and George III Linen Press

American Society of Appraisers Interview

April 4th, 2013

Since the earliest years of my antiques businesses,  I have been deeply involved with the American Society of Appraisers, one of the three leading appraisal societies in America devoted to professionalism in the business of appraising.  I am pleased to include here a connection to an interview/member profile which is being published this week and next week on all of ASA’s various social media.

I hope you will read and enjoy it.  Also please follow the links to learn more about ASA and the important contributions to professionalism made by ASA originally, then joined by ISA and finally in recent years by a transformed AAA.

http://bit.ly/Xe4JxC

Blog Link

March 27th, 2013


Summer Seminar Details

March 27th, 2013

33rd Annual Summer Seminar Series on Antiques
Date: Jul 21, 2013, 9:00 AM
End Date: Jul 26, 2013, 5:00 PM
Location: Chapel Hill, NC – The Siena Hotel & Whitehall Antiques

Whitehall Antiques 33rd Annual Summer Seminars
Seminar Week: Sunday July 21st – Friday July 26th, 2013

This is an ideal learning opportunity for collectors, appraisers and dealers alike. You’ll learn insider tips and trade secrets from nationally known experts in all-day sessions featuring hands-on, object oriented instruction coupled with illustrated lectures and stimulating Q&A discussions. Of course, Appraisers receive seven re-certification hours per day of attendance. See you there!

2013 Lecturers: Jane Shadel Spillman, retired Curator of American Glass, Corning Museum of Glass; Elizabeth Lindquist, lecturer, co-owner and manager of Whitehall Antiques; David Lindquist, author, lecturer and co-owner of Whitehall Antiques. (See after registration form for bios.) Each are presenting lectures especially prepared for this year’s Summer Seminar Series.

July 21st & 22nd: American & European Glass
Presented by Jane Shadel Spillman, retired Curator of American Glass, Corning Museum of Glass

Jane Spillman, author of more than 15 books and over 80 scholarly articles for the world’s leading museums and antiques publications, will present an exhaustive two day study: English, Continental and American Glass of the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries – Identification and Authentication. She will devote the first day to English and European glass and the dispelling of myths about American Colonial period glass, turning the second day to the development of pressed glass, cut glass and art glass. She will show you how every type of glass was made and the characteristic marks associated with that construction, a vital aspect of separating the authentic from the copy! The seminar will be augmented with hands-on examples and students are invited to bring pieces to share and have identified. Her latest co-authored book, Mt. Washington & Pairpoint Glass, Vol. 2, as well as her many years of intense research will be drawn upon in this exciting seminar. With resurgent glass collecting and climbing prices, this is a not to be missed event!
We are excited to have one of the truly preeminent scholars in the world today—don’t miss her insightful lectures on topics of crucial importance to every appraiser, dealer and collector. For those who missed her in June 2008, and heard how brilliant she is, don’t miss out again!

July 23rd-24th: Authenticating English & Continental Furniture, 1700-1835
Presented by Elizabeth Lindquist & David Lindquist, Whitehall Antiques, Chapel Hill, NC.

A highly detailed, hands-on and PowerPoint experience with European and English furniture also touching on Colonial furniture of North and South America and Asia, remembering that the sun never set on the British Empire! From the evolution of construction to the evolution of style, this course explores authentication issues in great depth and will include contrasting first period and revival furniture in England and Europe only (see David’s one day course below–a dovetail with this course). Day one will allow you to explore the breadth of the topic through PowerPoint presentations, followed by a physical examination of screws, nails, saw marks, plane marks, oxidation and other essential aspects of furniture construction – holding each item in your hot little hands! Day two, at Whitehall Antiques, will allow you to break up into very small groups guided by the experts to explore a range of period English and European furniture employing all the techniques learned in day one.

July 25th: American Victorian and Colonial Revival Furniture
Presented by David Lindquist, author of Colonial Revival Furniture and Victorian Furniture

Drawing upon David’s intensive research for these two important works in the field, this is an extensive PowerPoint study of the interweaving of the new styles associated with the Victorian era and the historic revival styles which occur simultaneously. Both draw on the immense innovation in tools and construction which occurred from 1830-1930. Furniture evolved from a small craft to a large industry in only 100 years. This immense change was facilitated by water, steam, and electrical power; propelled by the prosperity of a mushrooming middle class clientele; and made possible by fabulous increases in rapid and safe transportation creating new markets everywhere for goods. The fascination of this topic is that these two areas of study have traditionally been completely separated, and yet this analysis will show you that they are completely intertwined. Quality, style, and value points will be constantly addressed in this lecture. Each attendee will receive a free copy of David’s book Colonial Revival Furniture. This is a perfect follow-up course to the Authenticating English and Continental Furniture, as that course only explores revivalism in England and Europe.

July 26th: Assessing Antique Furniture with the Experts – To Value or Not To Value, That is The Question!
Presented by Elizabeth Lindquist & David Lindquist, Whitehall Antiques, Chapel Hill, NC.

How to use style points to quickly identify something worth looking at in more depth from pieces of lesser value. Once a piece of value is identified, a step by step examination follows of originality, construction, acceptable restorations, woods employed, and hardware history. In small groups with either David or Elizabeth (and switching mid-day to cover all chosen examples), you will study a range of antique pieces from America, England and Europe. Each piece will first be discussed from a visual perspective– what it appears to be and what makes it desirable. Then each piece will be dismantled and discussed–from brasses to saw marks to screw construction to types of nails, from pegs or pins to dowels, from hand turning to hand plane marks, from shrinkage to finish issues. Techniques for spotting repairs will be discussed, especially the issue of oxidation and shrinkage. Neat tricks to check that tops are original will be demonstrated and other invaluable hints shared.

Details, Details, Details:
Location: The Siena Hotel & Whitehall Antiques, both in the heart of Chapel Hill,NC

Airport: RDU (Raleigh Durham), please leave the morning after the lecture or late evening

On-Site Studies: July 24th – Whitehall Antiques; July 26th – Whitehall Antiques

Daily Seminar Schedule:
8:45 – 9:00 Registration, Coffee
9:00-10:45 Lecture
10:45-11:00 Break
11:00-12:30 Lecture
12:30-1:45 Lunch on your own
1:45-3:15 Lecture
3:15-3:30 Break
3:30-5:00 Lecture and Q&A

Accommodations: The Siena Hotel is “North Carolina’s Premier European Luxury Hotel and Fine Dining Restaurant”, with an AAA four-diamond rating. Special discounted rate of $109/night includes a full buffet breakfast. Book early to receive this special rate; call (919)929-4000 or (800)223-7379 and reference Whitehall Antiques Seminar Series.

Traditional NC BBQ: Please join us for this annual event on Tuesday, July 23rd on the grounds of Whitehall Antiques at ‘The Villa’ starting around 6pm. There will be opportunities to join in Group dinners at various restaurants daily with fellow students and the educators.

2013 Whitehall Antiques 33rd Annual Seminar Series Registration Form

To Sign Up: Complete this form and fax (919)942-6600 (fax operates 11am-6pm Mon-Sat EDT) or mail it to 1213 E. Franklin St. Chapel Hill, NC 27514 with your 50% deposit.

$425 ____ July 21-22: American & European Glass with Jane Shadel Spillman

$425 ____ July 23-24: Authenticating English & Continental Furniture with The Lindquists

$225 ____ July 25: American Victorian & Colonial Revival Furniture with David Lindquist

$225 ____ July 26: Assessing Antique Furniture with The Lindquists

__________ Total

__________ Discount

__________ 50% Deposit

__________ Balance Due upon arrival

Seminar Registration & Discounts
Register early to insure your place, spaces are limited!

Registrations postmarked by May 21st qualify for a 10% discount off your total tuition – so don’t miss out!
Registrations postmarked by June 21st for all 4 courses, receive $75 Off.

Cancellation Policy: $50 non-refundable processing fee. No Refunds After June 15th.

Balances will be collected on the first morning of each session.

Name:
_______________________________________________________
Mailing Address:
_______________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________

Email Address: _______________________________________________________

Phone: _______________________________________________________

Method of Payment: Check: _______
MC: _______ Visa: _______ Amex: _______

Card #: _______________________________________________________

Exp. Date: _______________________________

Security Code: _____________

Signature: _______________________________________________________

Note: Please provide billing address for credit card if it differs from mailing address.

Jane Shadel Spillman, Retired Curator of American Glass

Jane Shadel Spillman joined the Museum in 1965 and in 1978 became the Museum’s curator of American glass. Spillman has published numerous articles and books, including European Glass Furnishings for Eastern Palaces and The American Cut Glass Industry: T.G. Hawkes and His Competitors. She currently serves as editor of The Glass Club Bulletin. She also has curated many important exhibitions at the Museum, including Glass from World’s Fairs (1986), The Queen’s Collection: Danish Royal Glass (1996), Dining at the White House (1989), Glass of the Maharajahs (2006).
Spillman earned her A.B. at Vassar College and has a degree from the Cooperstown Graduate Program in Museum Training. She is a member of the American Association of Museums, where she has served on the Board, National Programming Committee, Governance Committee, and Curators Committee, of which she was chair for five years. She is also a member of the National American Glass Club, International Council of Museums, American Cut Glass Association, Mid-Atlantic Association of Museums, Rushlight Club, and The Glass Circle, London. She has been the General Secretary of the International Association for the History of Glass since 2003.

David P. Lindquist, Whitehall Antiques

Nationally recognized dealer, lecturer, educator, appraiser, author, and broadcaster, Mr. Lindquist has played a prominent part in the antiques industry for over 35 years. He is a past president of the National Association of Dealers in Antiques and was a catalyst in the endowment of the Smithsonian Museum’s Cooper-Hewitt scholarship fund during his two terms. He is an Accredited Senior Appraiser in the American Society of Appraisers since 1981 and a member of the International Society of Appraisers. As such he has conducted many evaluation events across the country in association with historical societies, antiques shows, and other venues. He has lectured to groups as diverse as the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID), the American Society of Appraisers, the International Society of Appraisers, the Montgomery (AL) Landmarks Foundation, and at his alma mater, Duke University in Durham, NC. Each summer for 30 years he has led week long intensive antiques seminars, first at Lehigh University and now in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
Mr. Lindquist is the author of a series of books on antique furniture: Colonial Revival Furniture With Prices, English and Continental Furniture With Prices, and Victorian Furniture With Prices, which have recently been re-released by Krause Publishing Co. under the single title, The Big Book of Antiques. In addition, he has edited four editions of The Official Identification and Price Guide to Antiques and Collectibles, published by Random House, and has written extensively for antiques trade journals, periodicals, and magazines.
As a sought-after authority on antiques, Lindquist has been featured in broadcasts such as ABC’s Prime Time Live and HGTV’s Today at Home and Our Place. With both a face and a name well known in the antiques and decorative arts field, Lindquist is a popular speaker and perennial favorite for a host of events.

Elizabeth R. Lindquist, Whitehall Antiques

Ms. Lindquist is one of the top young entrepreneurs within the antiques and decorative arts field. She is well recognized as a future leader of the industry, having already devoted much of her lifetime to the business. Since graduating from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1999 with a degree in Communication Studies, she has been a full partner and is now President of Whitehall Antiques, which includes a regionally renowned retail shop and a 15 per year national antiques show schedule. She is a principal buyer for the company, traveling to England and France several times a year to discover and bring back the finest and the most unique in antiques and decorative arts.
Ms. Lindquist also manages the staff, plans and executes the company’s marketing, promotion, and advertising, coordinates client contact, and produces both the direct mail catalogs and the website. She has lectured at the High Point Furniture Market, the Whitehall Summer Seminar Series and for many local groups in North Carolina. She co-ordinates and directs, the Whitehall Antiques Summer Seminar Series, an intensive week long antiques program with visiting lecturers and students from all over the country held in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. As well as collaborating with her father and business partner, David Lindquist, on several articles published regionally and nationally.
Ms. Lindquist resides in Durham, NC with her husband, two young boys and lovely Labrador. She devotes her free time to charities for the betterment of children and women.

 

New Shipment–A Great Desk

March 21st, 2013

Our new shipment featured in just mailed catalogues and on our website is a marvelous blend of some special regional estates with the last items from our most recent buying trip to France and England.  One of my favorite pieces is a desk from the Zaner and Claire Sykes collection in Mebane, NC.  Mrs. Sykes and her dear friends Mrs. Dixon of Mebane and Mrs. Harris of Burlington were regular collectors at the original Whitehall Shop founded in 1930 by Mabel Bason.  All three of these ladies were devoted to Mrs. Bason and during the 1950′s to 1970′s they came monthly to Chapel Hill seeking wonderful antiques.

Mabel Bason had a passion for blind and pierced fretwork whether on period pieces or 19th century copies and a splendid set of chairs, a hanging glazed door vitrine and this remarkable desk have now returned to Chapel Hill to find another passionate collector to love them for another 50-75 years before the recycling happens again!

Wd-226z: George III Bureau (slant-front desk):
Catalog Home An exceptionally fine & sophisticated George III bureau (slant-front desk); mahogany timbers of superb quality; wonderful blind fretted interior – note the wonderful racing stags incorporated into the lower fretwork drawers; raised on original ogee bracket feet. Probably from the North Country or Scotland. Sykes Estate, Mebane, NC, with Mabel Bason, Whitehall Shop. 40 3/4″ w., 20″ d., 42″ h. $4,200

This is classic 18th century furniture from the North of England or Scotland, using solid mahogany timbers of the finest quality–note the solid fiddle grained fall front–amazing and it is an astonishingly heavy board.  All surfaces are in the solid, unlike the more sophisticated work of London in particular where fine veneers reign supreme.  But the amazing part is seen upon opening the desk–a heavily blind fretted interior covering every drawer, the prospect door, even the document and valance drawers.  And most fun of all and what truly speaks to Scotland, home of the great hunting lodges of the landed gentry for hundreds of years–the lower drawers are fretted with leaping stags!  This is something I can say that in 39 years I have never encountered.  It certainly exists in other pieces but in the hundreds of thousands of pieces of furniture I have examined, I do not ever recall finding such a charming motif on a period desk of the British Isles.

Check out the new items on line, come see the hundreds of new items not listed  on our website such as a huge collection of early Sunderland, Creamware and Pearlware jugs, four sterling flatware sets, fireplace equipment, exquisite glass and so much more. See you soon!

Jane Spillman to lecture

March 15th, 2013

The astute and brilliant scholar/lecturer Jane Spillman, Curator of American Glass at The Corning (and soon to retire)  will lecture for two days this summer for the Whitehall Antiques Seminar.  Eight topics will be examined over 14 course hours and if her past lectures are a clue, they will be amazing and insightful!  All the details are up on our website under educational events.  All of the courses are now listed with the details for registration, etc.  This is the 33rd year for our seminars and hope you will be joining us.  For appraisers this is one of the finest opportunities for re-certification points offered anywhere.

More Alexandria Set-up Photos

March 8th, 2013

As promised, some more of the Alexandria set-up photos

Embellish Antiques, Chapel Hill, NC

Working with a space in Raleigh and doing lamp making, rewiring, chandelier restoration and so on from his studio in Chapel Hill, our friend Akin Kolawole is also participating in antiques shows after a few years in retirement.  He is doing all of our shop work–a true master and adept at very difficult projects.

Arader Galleries

No show is complete without several fine print specialists and Alexandria is graced by both Arader of Philadelphia and Charles Edwin Puckett of Ohio.

John Dennison Fine Art

Our friend John Dennison has a 48′ stretch of gallery space with a 20″ opposing wall, a space only suitable to an art dealer.  He always asks us to warm the space with a few accent pieces and here is a late Regency rolling butler,s etagere, c. 1825 in mahogany–and the rare Jackfield roosters have already sold from the top shelf to a committee member.  As you know from my articles on the future of shows, nothing is more important than seeing committee involvement in early purchases at every show!

In the second half of John’s booth we have placed a significant, original surface, American Classical Period drop leaf breakfast or center table, likely from the workshop of Duncan Phyfe about 1825-35, with finely carved paw feet rather than brass paw feet.  Phyfe is not the only possible creator of this table, however it is indisputably by one of America’s leading craftsmen using the finest, densest mahoganies.

Roger Winter, Solebury, Pennsylvania

Showing fine English antiques, Roger is also laden with the resurgent color of the year–blue!  Just when you thought blue was passe, every designer is focused on it for the Spring in the shelter magazines!

Gary Bardsley Antiques, Sudbury, Massachusetts

Exceptionally graceful with legs of perfection is this chest attributable to Boston with the lunette inlay across the apron once exclusively associated with the Seymours.

Asiantiques, Winter Park, Florida

This huge carving makes a stunning statement in the booth of Susie and Francois Lorin.

The Norwoods' Spirit of America, Timonium, Maryland

Folk Art in all of it’s variations is handsomely presented in this booth.

Bill Shaeffer, Glyndon, Maryland

Bill always has a great array of early English pottery from salt glaze to creamware and pearlware to the lusters, as well as the figural pieces of the Staffordshire District.  He even has a giant double handled three frog mug:

You drank your dark ale for awhile before those frogs suddenly appeared!

The show also has for the first time three designer vignettes and here are photos of two during set-up.

Nothing on the walls--time for a break!