The Philadelphia Show Turns 60 Years Old in Style with Glamorous New Venue
The Philadelphia Show Turns
60 Years Old in Style
with a Glamorous New Venue
by Incollect Magazine
The Philadelphia Show, one of the leading art and design fairs in America, will celebrate its 60th anniversary with a return to in-person format and a new and prestigious venue on the grounds of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Relocation to the museum's East Terrace overlooking Center City clearly links the Show with the Museum as its beneficiary since 2018, and with the Show's audience of collectors, designers industry experts and tastemakers. The show opens Friday, April 29th and runs through Sunday, May 1, 2022. Tickets to the show and the Thursday, April 28 Preview Party are still available, click here for more information or to purchase tickets.
The Women's Committee of the Philadelphia Museum of Art in tandem with the Show Committee organizes the fair annually in support of the museum. The 2022 show will be expanding its modern and contemporary design gallery offerings, with 40 dealers presenting art, design, antiques, Americana, folk art, ceramics, porcelain, silver, jewelry, textiles, and decorative arts.
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Left: English School, The Drummer Boy, ca. 1790-1805. Unsigned. Inscribed on verso. "WM. Leeds, The Drummer Boy". Oil on canvas, 44" x 31" with frame. Great condition, early lining on original stretcher. The drum is commemorating King Geroge III (1738–1820). Birth name, George Rex, "GR" is initialed on the drum. Image courtesy of Jeffrey Tillou Antiques. Right: Cartier, France, Belle Epoque pink and white guilloché enamel watch pendant centering on a rose diamond cluster and suspending from a matching chain with seed pearl spacers, in gold and platinum, ca. 1907. Image courtesy of Kentshire. | ||
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| Painted and Inlaid Flag Table. Signed “Made & Designed by F. Wedin, Roxbury” (for Frederick Wedin, 1812-1898) inside drawer. Walnut, maple, cherry; painted rosewood graining and flag decoration. Circa 1860s. Image courtesy of Kelly Kinzle. |
“The Show offers the best of antiques, art, and design on the market today and its location evokes the 300-year history of the city as well as a tradition of excellence,” says Eleanore H. Gadsden, Chair of The Philadelphia Show.
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| Historically Significant Commodore John Barry Chinese Export Porcelain Presentation Bowl, ca. 1785-1803. The Bowl was made for Commodore John Barry of Philadelphia in gratitude for his command of the Alliance at the time of its victory against the British ship Sybylle on March 10, 1783 — the final naval battle of the American War of Independence. Comm. Barry is considered the “Father of the American Navy” and was the first of captains in 1794 when he commanded the USS United States and then given the title of Commodore. Image courtesy of Ralph M. Chait Galleries. |
Among the galleries returning this year are several that have exhibited with the fair in Philadelphia since as early as 1969, including Cooley Gallery, Jeffrey Tillou Antiques, Ralph M. Chait Galleries, and S. J. Shrubsole.“We have been exhibitors at the Show for 20 years and cherish the wonderful relationships we have forged in this time with clients, fellow dealers and the interested public,” says Steven J. Chait and Andrew H. Chait, President and Vice President of Ralph M. Chait Galleries.
Other prominent participants of the fair include Lillian Nassau LLC, Kentshire, Moderne Gallery, Kelly Kinzle Antiques and Bernard and S. Dean Levy. “With the new venue and approach, we look at the 60th anniversary of The Philadelphia Show as a celebration of its continuing strength and growth,” says Robert Aibel, founder of Moderne Gallery. “Moderne Gallery first exhibited at the show in 1997, and we were the first gallery to be invited by the fair to exclusively show 20th-century material.
The diversified exhibitor list is accompanied by programming leading up to and during the fair that includes a virtual lecture series, New Conversations with The Philadelphia Show featuring three discussion-style lectures on antiques, fine art, and design moderated by curators from the Philadelphia Museum of Art in conversation with industry experts.
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| George Nakashima (1905-1990), Special Minguren II Coffee Table, 1974. A unique and important English oak coffee table that represents one of the very few times that George Nakashima used wood that wasn't cut under his supervision. The unusually thick top of this table came from the ballast of the Mayflower II when it was docked for repairs, as clearly indicated in Nakashima's drawing for his client. A challenge for Nakashima to incorporate the wood from the ballast, he was able to create a masterwork. Image courtesy of Moderne Gallery. |
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| Left: Tiffany Studios (1902-1932), “Lotus” Table Lamp, American, circa 1906. Leaded glass and bronze, 22” high x 26” diameter. Image courtesy of Lillian Nassau LLC. Right: French Mantle Clock depicting George Washington, for the American Market, signed duBuc. Circa 1820. Image courtesy of Bernard & S. Dean Levy. | ||
The fair is also presenting a loan exhibition, Zero to Sixty, celebrating The Philadelphia Show’s 60th anniversary. Reprising key loan exhibits throughout the last six decades and curated by Alexandra Kirtley, the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s Montgomery-Garvan Curator of American Decorative Arts and Joan Johnson. long-time supporter of the show and of the PMA. The loan exhibition has been a tradition of The Philadelphia Show since its founding in 1962.
For more information, please see details below, and visit The Philadelphia Show website to register for any of the events below.
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LIST OF EXHIBITORS
The Philadelphia Show will showcase an established array of fine art, design and antiques galleries from around the country.
Arader Galleries – New York Avery Galleries – New York Diana H. Bittel Antiques – Pennsylvania Fine American Furniture Philip Bradley Antiques – Pennsylvania American Furniture & Folk Art
Jeff R. Bridgman American Antiques – Pennsylvania Antique American Flags and Textiles Marcy Burns American Indian Arts, LLC – New York Native American Art, Pottery, Jewelry & Textiles Ralph M. Chait Galleries – New York Chinese Ceramics and Fine Art HL Chalfant Fine Art and Antiques – Pennsylvania 18th–20th Century American Decorative Arts Charles Clark American Antiques – Connecticut American Decorative Arts Clarke Gallery – New York American Fine Art The Cooley Gallery – Connecticut Fine American Art Dixon-Hall Fine Art – Pennsylvania 19th & 20th Century American and European Paintings and Works on Paper Dolan/Maxwell – Pennsylvania Modern & Contemporary Art Gemini Antiques – New Jersey Antiques Toys and Banks Gratz Gallery & Conservation Studio – Pennsylvania 19th and 20th Century Fine American Art Hyde Park Antiques – New York 18th & 19th Century English Furniture Barbara Israel Garden Antiques – New York Garden Antiques Kentshire – New York Fine & Estate Jewelry James M. Kilvington – Delaware American & English Decorative Arts Kelly Kinzle Antiques – Pennsylvania Americana & Folk Art | Betty Krulik Fine Art – New York American & European 19th & 20th Century Art Bernard & S. Dean Levy – New York Americana and Fine Art Nathan Liverant and Son – Connecticut Fine Americana Moderne Gallery – Pennsylvania 20th Century Decorative Arts Lillian Nassau – New York Louis Comfort Tiffany and Tiffany Studios Olde Hope Antiques, Inc. – Pennsylvania American Folk & Decorative Arts Peter Pap Oriental Rugs – California 17th–19th Century Rugs & Textiles Steven Powers – Pennsylvania Americana, Folk Art & Outsider Art Francis J. Purcell – Pennsylvania Antiques and Mantels James Robinson – New York Antique Jewelry, Silver, Glass & Porcelain David A. Schorsch and Eileen M. Smiles – Connecticut 18th & 19th Century American Folk Art Schwarz Gallery – Pennsylvania 18th–20th Century European & American Painting S. J. Shrubsole – New York English & American Silver & Jewelry
Elle Shushan – Pennsylvania Portrait Miniatures Silver Art by D & R – Maryland Antique French Art & Silver Somerville Manning Gallery – Delaware 20th & 21st Century Painting & Sculpture Spencer Marks – Massachusetts Fine Antique Sterling and 20th Century Silver Jayne Thompson Antiques – Kentucky English & Continental Furniture Jeffrey Tillou Antiques – Connecticut 18th & 19th Century American Antiques & Fine Art Earle D. Vandekar of Knightsbridge – Pennsylvania 18th & 19th Century Decorative Arts and Furniture |
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NEW CONVERSATIONS WITH THE PHILADELPHIA SHOW
The Thomas Gross, Jr. Double Chest: Black Artisans in Early Philadelphia FEBRUARY 22, 2022 5:30–6:30PM A virtual program with Alexandra Kirtley, The Montgomery-Garvan Curator of American Decorative Arts at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and Dr. Tiffany Momon, Assistant Professor at Sewanee: The University of the South, and founder and co-director of the Black Craftspeople Digital Archive discussing Thomas Gross, Jr.’s monumental double chest currently on view in the Robert McNeil Early American Galleries of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Double Chest, 1805-1810, Thomas Gross, Jr. (1775-1839). |  |
(Re)membering through Repetition: Seriality and Memorial Art MARCH 15, 2022 5:30-6:30PM Join Jessica Todd Smith, the Susan Gray Detweiler Curator of American Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw, the Class of 1940 Bicentennial Term Associate Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, as they virtually discuss in the recently installed Elegy: Lament in the 20th Century. This exhibition explores how artists living and/or working in the United States during the twentieth century have responded to tragedy, grappled with mortality, and honored those who have passed. The presentation will focus on series and repetition in the Malcolm X sculptures by Barbara Chase-Riboud and Elegy to the Spanish Republic paintings by Robert Motherwell. |  | |
Barbara Chase-Riboud (b.1939), Malcolm X #3, 1969. Polished bronze, rayon, and cotton, 8 feet 6-1/2 inches x 3 feet 1 inch x 2 feet 8 inches. (125th Anniversary acquisition. Purchased with funds contributed by Regina and Ragan A. Henry, and with funds raised in honor of the 125th Anniversary of the museum in celebration of African American art, 2001-92-1) © Barbara Chase-Riboud. | ||
What is Design? APRIL 12, 2022 5:30-6:30PM Assistant Curators Alisa Chiles and Colin Fanning discuss how the Philadelphia Museum of Art grapples with the hidden complexities of a seemingly simple question: What is design? Highlighting examples from the collection and past exhibitions, they explore what it means to collect and display modern and contemporary design in an art-museum context. Rocking Chair, 1950-1953, Charles Eames (1907-1978) and Ray Eames (1912-1988). Made for the Herman Miller Furniture Company. Gift of Collab: The Group for Modern and Contemporary Design at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1985. |  |
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LOAN EXHIBITION
ZERO to SIXTY
This year’s loan exhibition “Zero to Sixty” celebrates The Philadelphia Show’s 60th anniversary by highlighting loan exhibits throughout the years. The loan exhibit is curated by Alexandra Kirtley, the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s Montgomery-Garvan Curator of American Decorative Arts and long-time supporter of the show, Joan Johnson.
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| Left: Portrait of a Gentleman, 1807, John Wesley Jarvis (1780-1840), 3-1/8 x 2-1/2 inches. Courtesy of Richard and Ginger Dietrich. Right: Leaping Stag Possibly by A.L. Jewell & Company (1852-1867). Courtesy Jeffrey Tillou. | ||
