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The New York Ceramics Fair’s 9th Presentation
Opening Wednesday, January 15th
Remains the Jewel of Winter Antiques Week
Few new antiques and fine arts fairs “emerge from the box” fully formed and wildly successful but that’s exactly what happened with the 2000 launch of the New York Ceramics Fair at the National Academy Museum, to which it will return for it’s 9th annual appearance January 16-20, with a preview opening on Tuesday, January 15th.
The Fair previewed January 19, 2000 only a few blocks from the Park Avenue Armory, site of America’s premier fine antiques event, The Winter Antiques Show, as a newcomer to a week that already included Antiques at the Other Armory, and Americana at the Piers.
Yet with all this competition, the Ceramics Fair was soon proclaimed by New York’s antiques writers Winter Antiques Week’s new jewel. The preview was packed, attendance through the show heavy, and sales strong. And, the Fair’s lecture series was an instant hit. That first year, 11 lectures, including talks by Leslie Grigsby, David Rago and Robert Moes, were heavily subscribed and still today the Ceramics Fair Lecture Series remains a major part of Winter Antiques Week.
Caskey-Lees (Topanga, CA) and Shador Productions (Silver Spring, MD) produced the premier Ceramics Fair at the urging of two English dealers, Janice Paull and Yvonne Adams, who felt the time was right for such an event in the US. Paull and Adams also helped recruit England’s most important dealers. Among those first international exhibitors were Jonathan Horne, Alistair Sampson, Garry Atkins, Nick Boston, Eva and Michael Cohen, Mark West, Roderick Jellico, and John Howard, all of whom are still with the Fair. Those stars attracted a solid American contingent the first year, including Leo Kaplan, Rob Hunter, Maria and Peter Warren and Eleanor Penna, also all still aboard.
Fortunately, the Ceramics Fair had two years to firmly take root before the attacks against the World Trade Center in September of 2001. By January of 2002, when the Ceramics Fair kicked off Winter Antiques Week, it was symbolic of the return to normalcy for the New York Fair business. As with all New York Fairs, over the next few years, attendance softened and sales were less exuberant, but the Ceramics Fair’s vitality drove a steady recovery.
The 2008 New York Ceramics Fair is already fully subscribed by exhibitors, and today, the Fair, now solely owned by Caskey-Lees, is more robust than ever.
Praised in its first New York Times review in 2006, and again, in 2007, the Fair continues to strengthen, with a contemporary component now including Michelle Erickson, Greg A. Kuharic, Katherine Houston Porcelain, Cocobolo Design, and Iznik Classics from Istanbul.
Major American galleries now regulars at the show are Ita J. Howe, The Stradlings, James LaBaugh, Earle D. Vandekar, Philip Suval, Moylan/Smelkinson, Winsor Antiques, and Charles Washburn joined by prestigious Europeans include John Jaffa, and Christopher Shepard.
This year’s Lecture Series features 10 presentations, and the Fair will present a loan exhibit, Delicious Dipped Ware: Chocolate, Cinnamon, Caramel, Butterscotch, Blueberry, Peach, and Toffee, the colors of pleasure, curated by Jonathan Rickard & Don Carpentier.
The New York Ceramics Fair opens with a 5-9 pm preview, Wednesday, January 19th and runs through Sunday January 20th, at the National Academy Museum, 5th Avenue at 89th St.
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Dealers and Organizers
© 2009 Universal Design Center, Inc. © 2009 www.FairsandShows.com
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