Antiques On the Beach

PALM BEACH, Fla. — Twenty years ago, Palm Beach slumbered as a predominantly blue-blood enclave packed with Social Register names such as C.Z. Guest and assorted Kennedys. But now the Florida city is an international destination for art and antiques dealers, who hawk their wares to an increasing number of enthusiasts — including many New Yorkers escaping winter chills.The Palm Beach International Art & Antiques Fair, which opened Saturday and runs through Sunday, has played a role in the city’s good fortunes. Held at the Palm Beach County Convention Center, the show has morphed to 97 dealers this year from 42 dealers during its inaugural staging in 1996.French, German, Italian, and Spanish musings on art and antiques can be heard throughout the convention center, along with plenty of Texan twangs and deep-South drawls. A slew of private jets are parked at the nearby airport. In the first weekend of the fair’s nine-day run, the number of visitors jumped 50% over last year’s opening weekend, to 4,000 people.Spotted at the vernissage February 1 and the VIP reception the next evening were New York figures from the art and design worlds such as interior decorator Scott Snyder with Melania Trump in tow; art consultants Kim Heirston, Michel Witmer, and Anne Nitze; and Manhattan decorators Geoffrey Bradfield, Mario Buatta, and Tony Ingrao with his business partner, Randy Kemper.The wares on view tell as much about current taste as they do about new price benchmarks. For antiques, the super-gilt look with a regal touch — matched by sky-high prices — is in vogue. The London firm Partridge Fine Art, participating in the fair for the first time, brought on Her Royal Highness Princess Michael of Kent as its new president. She styled the stand and courted collectors while maintaining a rigorous social schedule packed with more than 30 events, from lectures to dinners. The Partridge stand prominently features a George III gilt wood chimneypiece, carved with fruit flowers and mythical ho-ho birds on offer for $1.1 million. Though the mantel surrounding the chimneypiece has been regilded and fitted with a sparkling new mirror, that doesn’t seem to matter to potential buyers. “We already have interest in it,” the chairman of Partridge, Mark Law, said.London dealer Mallett, which also has a Madison Avenue outpost, is touting a library table with an equally royal pedigree. The massive mahogany round table (c. 1820) had been designed for the Oxford Bodleian Library and George IV once hosted a dinner party around it for guests including the Empress of Russia. The price? “Hovering just under $1 million,” the president of Mallett, Henry Neville, said.Meanwhile, New York antiques dealer Clinton Howell sold a 1780 English mahogany wine cooler for more than $25,000 to a New York client. That kind of historical reference in domestic interiors is popular at the fair, according to Manhattan decorator Michael Simon. “The offerings are conservative, which suits the well-established, traditional crowd,” he said. “We’re seeing clients preferring pieces from earlier centuries but without a look frozen in time.” So far, Mr. Simon has bought a pair of German 1810 stools with carved swans from the Paris dealer Steinitz, a pair of Matthew Bolton–style gilt bronze perfume burners from Partridge, and a pair of 18th-century stone lions with vases on plinths from Kentshire. All are destined for Palm Beach homes.Antiquities are also prevalent, but the Manhattan gallery Phoenix Ancient Art opted for a different look this year. Gone is the Roman glass and intaglio jewelry they showcased here last year. “As the clientele here is more for decorative objects, rather than small kunstkammer examples, we brought only larger pieces,” the gallery’s director, Hicham Aboutaam, said, pointing to a Roman mosaic more than 8 feet in length. It depicts King Kyknos and his sons and carries a $425,000 price tag.Old Master art is in greater abundance than ever. London specialist Whitfield Fine Art is touting a Ludovico Carracci 1583 “Holy Family With St. Catherine” for $2 million and a cluster of other Renaissance oil paintings. Other specialist dealers include Jack Kilgore, Lawrence Steigard, and Dickinson, all of New York. “Last year, we sold 12 pictures including a Delacroix, a Van Dongen, a Renoir, and a Cézanne with prices up to $500,000,” the gallery director of Dickinson New York, Hugo Nathan, said. “Overall, the simpler pictures sell,” his colleague, Emma Ward, said. She said light landscapes and portraits are more popular at the fair than obscure mythological and biblical scenes.That kind of art was in demand from other New York dealers, too. An American museum reserved Berthe Morisot’s 1891 portrait “Petite Fille à l’Oiseau” for more than $1 million from Manhattan’s Hammer Galleries. “Impressionism and post-Impressionism is at the top of people’s interest in Palm Beach,” the senior associate director of Hammer, Eric Walstedt, said. “They like the pleasing palette, the subject matter that everyone can relate to.”A total of nine jewelers are participating in the fair. Other dealers, such as the Greenwich Village–based antiques purveyors Kentshire Galleries and the Madison Avenue Tiffany glass specialist Macklowe Gallery, are offering vintage gems.The jeweler Harry Winston recruited New York architect Thierry Despont to design its stand. Mr. Despont’s clients include Bill Gates, among others, and his booth, in black and taupe tones, showcases sparklers including a $17 million pink diamond ring. “The audience here is very affluent,” the company’s vice president, Charles Stanley, said. “That’s nicer than ‘well-to-do.'”

Antiques On the Beach

Antiques On the Beach

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