Maine Antique Digest May 2015

34-C Maine Antique Digest, May 2015

- SHOW -

ashville is one place where the

antiques and garden concept really

works. Landscape architects are given

sufficient space to exercise their talent, and in

return antiques dealers can display their wares

adjacent to the inventive gardens. The overall

effect is firmly high end, yet the mix of dealers

ensures that every visitor can walk away with

something to show for a day at the Antiques

& Garden Show of Nashville (the A & G),

held this year January 30-February 1. Actress

Diane Keaton was the key-

note speaker this year—she

has written two books on res-

idential design—and her sold-

out lecture and book signing

were a major draw. The show

is organized by a strong team

of volunteers, including some

young blood, which will pro-

vide energy for the future.

Now in its 25th year, the

show originated as a benefit for Cheekwood,

a house turned into a museum surrounded by

impressive gardens, the natural foundation

for an antiques and garden-themed event. The

Cheek family fortune derived from Maxwell

House coffee—the original Maxwell House

was a fine hotel in Nashville. The permanent

collection is impressively strong in American

art including contemporary works and in dec-

orative arts with extensive holdings of Amer-

ican silver and Worcester porcelain. A recent

gift of American art pottery has expanded the

collection on that front. Cheekwood absorbed

the exhibits of an earlier Nashville Museum of

Art and now serves as the city’s art museum.

Senator Albert Gore Sr. opened the museum

to the public in 1960. The three-day event

continues to benefit Cheekwood as well as the

charities of the Economic Club of Nashville.

Looking at past coverage of Nashville

events, readers learned about shows moving

around, trying to find the best location for an

antiques event. Fortunately for Cheekwood

and the charities, theAntiques &Garden Show

always has had a perfect venue. The old con-

vention center downtown near the legendary

Ryman Auditorium was a good facility. The

new Music City Center into which the show

moved last year is splendid, filled with light,

and is state-of-the-art. An easy drive from the

city’s residential areas, the building has acres

of attached parking and a conjoined hotel. The

space is even nicer than the popular conven-

tion center at the Opryland Hotel, where the

Heart of Country Antiques Show was held

before folding in 2014. And the grim arenas

and armories back East need a lot of camou-

flage work to stage a formal event that looks

as polished as this Nashville charity show.

Nashville—although still in the center of

a conservative red state—has become a hip-

ster magnet, rather like Austin ten or 15 years

ago. Revering the roots of country music is

the thing to do. Justin Timberlake, a one-guy

industry, takes over entire restaurants for par-

ties. Nicole Kidman married Keith Urban;

they live out in the country with a lot of other

wealthy musicians. Music City Center is in

the heart of downtown, next to the Country

Music Hall of Fame and Museum and the

Bridgestone Arena. Musicians—pop, country,

classic rock, alternative—always make that

venue an important stop on their tours. Spon-

sor Bridgestone is building its world head-

quarters nearby. Showgoers can dine nearby

at nouvelle southern cuisine restaurants like

The Farm House, where the field-to-table

menu offers pimiento cheese beignets and

porkbelly pop tarts.

All this splendor comes at a cost. The halls

at the Music City Center are undoubtedly

expensive for the organizers to rent, and some

of the cost is inevitably passed on to the deal-

ers. One admitted that it was the most expen-

sive show he did. Yet the show has always had

a waiting list, and the roster had more than

150 dealers this year. The antiques half of

the show floor pretty much sticks to antiques

dealers, with some showing 20th-century

material and some leaning to interior design.

But the garden half—because so many dealers

would like to get in the show—also has many

antiques dealers as well as garden specialists,

dealers that have a mix of new and old, and

some serious craftsmen such as metalsmith

Ben Caldwell. One plus of the new center is

that there is good access to the show floor,

and dealers commented on the ease of load-in;

Heart exhibitors always com-

plained about the difficulties

of getting their merchandise

onto the Opryland convention

floor.

Although certainly not an

Americana show, it has a lot of

American paintings, furniture,

decorative arts, and folk art on

the floor. St. Louis, Missouri,

clock man Ron Lotz has been

doing the show for a long time and shared

his experience: “I’ve been coming here over

twenty years. When I first started out, it was

slim pickings, but I stuck with it. The thing

with a clock guy is you have to go out and get

new customers every single show. I’ve had

a really good run here in Nashville over the

years. Last year was wonderful—I sold three

grandfather clocks to one very prominent per-

son right here in Nashville.”

Elliott & Elliott of Harbor Springs, Mich-

igan, and St. Helena Island, South Carolina,

had one of the most original displays on the

Heart of Country floor for many years, setting

up beside their friend Harvey Pranian, who

also thinks outside the box. Harvey stayed

there, but the Elliotts moved to the A & G

show where they have a great location on a

main aisle by one of the show gardens. Diane

Elliott had celebrity news from the opening

night preview party, “Amy Grant and Sheryl

Crow were here last night. Amy Grant is so

sweet!” Dick Elliott commented, “The floor

looks really good. It is expensive, but that

crowd today [Saturday] was huge. And it’s not

just Nashville people—we’ve done really well

with visitors from Mobile and Birmingham.”

The Philadelphia Print Shop put the A &

G on its schedule about five years ago. Jona-

than Cresswell, Donald Cresswell’s son, does

about ten shows a year around the country.

For this show, he said, “I always bring local

interest things like Tennessee maps and maps

of the Southeast. Those are great Currier and

Ives prints of

The Arkansas Traveller

—any-

one interested in American music should love

those.” He also displayed a framed sheet from

Harper’s Weekly

with “News of the War”—

the Civil War—illustrated by artist Winslow

Homer.

Though the show chairmen seem to have

made little effort to actively recruit exhibitors

from Heart of Country and its tailgates, some

dealers who were once there are now on the

A & G roster. Some moved long ago, some

came more recently, and others were able to

grab a cancellation spot for this year’s show.

You might have to do more business to justify

the booth rent, but the floor traffic is high, and

merchandise sells. It appears that people who

get a spot in the show work to hold on to it,

which is a testimony to the event’s success.

Sheridan Loyd of St. Joseph, Missouri, a

specialist in 18th- and 19th-century American

country furniture and folk art, did both Heart

and the tailgates in the past. She secured a

booth at the A & G show last year, did well,

and came back in 2015. She said on Saturday,

“There’s a good crowd. I’ve seen a lot of stuff

moving, and there’s such a variety of things. I

sold some things out of the showcase, the bal-

lerina painting that was on the front wall yes-

terday, another painting on the back wall—

basically paintings and smalls. Everybody

is interested in the tiger maple secretary and

the Queen Anne table. My experience with

this show is that it takes them a while. The

Nashville, Tennessee

The Antiques & Garden Show of Nashville:

American Beauty in Its 25th Year

by Karla Klein Albertson

For such a

fancy event,

ticket

buyers never

seem to leave

empty-handed.

Unlike old-style windowless con-

vention buildings, Nashville’s 2013

Music City Center is glass-walled

and bright. Located at 6th Ave-

nue and Demonbreun Street in the

heart of downtown, the new facil-

ity can handle 75% of America’s

largest conventions. The Art Deco

Frist Center for the Visual Arts,

the Country Music Hall of Fame

and Museum, and the Bridgestone

Arena are nearby. Photo courtesy

Music City Center, Nashville.

Outside the show’s entrance, new

arrivals stopped to photograph

a display by Nashville’s OSHi

floral design studio in the light-

filled lobby.

Now in its 25th year, the Antiques & Garden Show benefits the Cheekwood Botan-

ical Garden and Museum of Art, whose resident gardeners constructed the entry

presentation “La Dama del Jardin” with her dramatic blooming dress. Rows of

antiques dealers’ displays can be seen beyond the fountain.

The Silver Vault, Wood-

stock, Illinois, had a gleam-

ing hand-wrought silver

bowl from the Kalo Shop,

Chicago, circa 1920, priced

at $2500.