Maine Antique Digest, December 2016

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6-A Maine Antique Digest, December 2016
Dealer
Associations
“they,” not “her.”
Based in Wallingford, Penn-
sylvania, near Philadelphia, they
exhibited up and down the East
Coast, from Brimfield, Massa-
chusetts, to Miami, Florida. Of
all the shows, the New York Pier
Shows in the 1990s were proba-
bly their favorites.
By 2000 the business was
well established, so, bohemian
to the core, they chose to sell
their home in Pennsylvania and
move to Belgium. The business
model was to sell to Americans
visiting Europe. It never materi-
alized like that. During a six-day
show in Belgium, they managed
on only one day to sell more than
they bought; every other day
they bought more than they sold.
By contrast, when they revisited
America, they sold what was left
of their old stock and, impor-
tantly, sold their newly acquired
Belgian items very well.
So a new business model was
needed—hence the international
life and the “Texas Ladies.” With
a new home in Brussels and
another in Chattanooga, Ten-
nessee, they found it possible to
split their year in half, buying in
Europe and selling in the U.S.A.,
and very importantly, in Texas.
Texans loved export porcelain.
The Higginses started selling
where the action was.
With Claire’s profound
knowledge of European art of
the early 20th century, their
business gravitated away from
Americana and toward paint-
ings. Searching for decorative
art and paintings and learning
about them was her joy. She was
the linguist and made the effort
to learn snippets of the lan-
guage in every country she vis-
ited. She would speak Polish in
Gdansk, French in Moscow (the
older folks understood), Span-
ish in Barcelona, and something
somewhat resembling English in
Texas (while drinking beer from
a bottle). The little museums all
over eastern Europe were a joy
to the Higginses.
They did have wanderlust,
traveling together, often with
Claire’s American college
roommate and husband, to 20
different countries. She was as
cosmopolitan as anyone can be
(Atlanta is a small town, and
Chattanooga a village, when the
standard of comparison is Paris).
During 26 years together,
Michael’s children (her step-
children) married and produced
eight beautiful grandchildren.
She was beloved granny “Nana”
to them all. Her son, in England,
produced the ninth beautiful
grandchild who will carry her
genes into the future.
She was a remarkable woman.
There are many photos of her;
always beautiful and always
smiling. A clothes horse, she
was also elegant with one of her
many Hermès scarves on her
shoulders. The business goes
on, but it will never be the same
without her.
MADA
The annual meeting of the
Maine Antiques Dealers Asso-
ciation (MADA) took place on
October 6, on a picture-perfect
sunny Maine day, at the Taste of
Maine Restaurant in Woolwich.
After a thoroughly enjoyable
social hour and a delicious lun-
cheon, Julia Gray, the director of
collections and interpretation at
the Abbe Museum in Bar Har-
bor, Maine, was introduced as
the featured speaker.
Gray’s talk was about Maine
Native American decorative
arts produced by the Wabanaki
Confederacy, comprising the
Micmac, Maliseet, Passama-
quoddy, and Penobscot nations.
Gray showed examples of early
baskets and other artifacts in
the museum’s collection as well
as examples of items produced
specifically for the tourist mar-
ket. Gray also showed several
examples of contemporary
works and advised how to care
appropriately for Native Amer-
ican artifacts. Gray’s presen-
tation was well received, and
many attendees left the meeting
with a resolve to visit the Abbe
Museum.
The afternoon concluded
with a brief business meeting
and the election of new officers
and board members. New offi-
cers for 2017 to 2019 are James
LeFurgy, president, and Saman-
tha Stufflebeam, second vice
president, and new board mem-
bers Charlie Harris of Indian
Trail Antiques in Newcastle and
Sandi St. Pierre of Maine Attic
Antiques in Cape Elizabeth.
Departing board member Sandy
Gnidziejko, MADA’s website
guru, was thanked for her infor-
mative monthly MADA updates.
Pete Pardoe, another departing
board member with a tenure of
many years of service, was rec-
ognized for his handling of the
MADA brochure distribution
and for the essential role he has
played every year in setting up
MADA’s August Coastal Maine
Antiques Show.
There is no doubt that the
best part of the fall season is in
the rearview window. We were
blessed with spectacular foli-
age and warm temperatures that
attracted a record number of leaf
peepers and antiques enthusiasts
to Maine. Many visitors wait for
the autumn months to visit, go
antiquing, and experienceMaine.
Now that the air is cooler, the
days are shorter as the dreaded
time change occurs, but there are
still plenty of antiques-related
activities taking place. MADA
members are doing shows all
over the Northeast, and auc-
tioneers, such as Bob Foster,
Bruce Gamage, Kaja Veilleux,
Houston-Brooks, Hap Moore,
and Daniel Buck, are providing
opportunities for dealers to add
to their inventory. MADA mem-
bers are encouraged to publicize
their antiques-related activity on
our website “Bulletin Board” to
help keep fellow members and
others interested in antiques
aware of all that is going on year
’round.
Elizabeth DeSimone
VADA
Mark your calendar for the
Vermont Antiques Dealers’
Association’s (VADA) fall meet-
ing on November 15 to be held
at the Middlebury Inn in Middle-
bury, Vermont. On tap will be the
election of officers for the com-
ing two-year terms. Many thanks
are extended to Greg Hamilton
as he passes on the gavel to our
next president. Who will that
be? If you are a VADA member,
come to the meeting, vote, and
find out!
I am happy to report that
Tommy Thompson, co-owner of
Thos. Bartlett Antiques & Odd-
ments, Chichester, New Hamp-
shire, said his surgery was a suc-
cess. It just proves that you can’t
keep a good man down.
Wrapping up the month of
October, I heard good reports of
good crowds and equally good
sales from VADA dealers doing
the Vermont Antique Expo at the
Essex fairgrounds.
Kyle Scanlon, owner of K.C.
Scanlon: Estate & Consignment
Sales, Essex, Vermont, is part
of a VADA dynasty. He con-
ducts estate and tag sales in the
Burlington area and beyond.
His current lineup is for sales
in North Hero (Burlington area)
on November 19, December 3
in Essex, and December 10 in
Middlebury. For information see
(802) 876-7120.
Important November dates to
remember are Saturday, Novem-
ber 19, and Sunday, November
20. Stone House Antique Cen-
ter in Chester will be holding
its fourth annual holiday open
house, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
each day. This is a great opportu-
nity to get an early start on holi-
day shopping—meet the dealers,
enjoy light refreshments, and
find a holiday treasure.
Everyone at VADA wishes
each and every one of you a
happy Thanksgiving.
Mary Fraser
17TH- AND EARLY 18TH-
CENTURY DUTCH NEW
YORK INTERIORS
On Monday, December 5,
the Greenwich Decorative Arts
Society will present “Glitz,
Sparkle, and Shine: 17th- and
Early 18th-Century Dutch New
York Interiors,” a lecture by Erik
Gronning, head of department,
American furniture and decora-
tive arts, Sotheby’s, New York.
The lecture will begin at 1:15
p.m. at the Bruce Museum in
Greenwich, Connecticut, with
refreshments immediately fol-
lowing the lecture.
Early Dutch homes had
unique characteristics and were
influenced by exports from
Dutch colonies. In this lecture,
Gronning will re-create a typi-
cal New Amsterdam home using
17th-century interior scenes,
period Dutch dollhouses, Dutch
building practices in historic
NewYork houses, and early New
York furniture and inventories.
Gronning joined Sotheby’s in
2004. He is a noted American
furniture scholar who has writ-
ten extensively on late 17th- and
early 18th-century American
furniture.
Side chair, New York, 1660-
1720, cherry with unidentified
secondary wood, 42" x 18" x
13½". Private collection; photo,
Helga Studio.
Admission for nonmembers of
the Greenwich Decorative Arts
Society is $25. Space is limited.
Reservations are required for
members and guests by Novem-
ber 28. For reservations and
call (203) 322-2967.
CANARYYELLOW GLASS
The Cape Cod Glass Club
(CCGC) will be meeting on
Wednesday, December 7. Please
note the change of day for this
meeting only. The meeting
will be held in the Hirschmann
Theater at the Sandwich Glass
Museum in Sandwich, Massa-
chusetts, beginning at 1 p.m.
The speaker will be Jeffrey S.
Evans, the principal auctioneer
at Jeffrey S. Evans &Associates,
Mt. Crawford, Virginia. The
title of his talk will be “Canary
Yellow Glass: The History and
Evolution of a Color.” This talk
will include the how and when
canary glass started and its rela-
tionship to the vaseline glass of
the later Victorian period. Jeffrey
and his wife, Beverley, have been
in the auction business since
1979. Evans has great expertise
in Americana of all types, espe-
cially early American glass. He
is an appraiser and consultant to
several major museums. Evans
is on the board of directors at the
Museum of American Glass in
West Virginia, and he is a pub-
lished author.
The CCGC, founded in 2000,
is a not-for-profit chapter of the
National American Glass Club.
It is dedicated to the study and
appreciation of glass with an
emphasis on American glass.
The club meets from October
to December and from March
to June. Activities include for-
mal lectures, study sessions, and
visits to museums and working
glassmakers.
The club is always open to
new members, and membership
is not limited to Cape Cod res-
idents. For further information,
contact membership chairman
Brenda Hayes at (508) 385-4893
NATHAN BENN LECTURE
On January 7 at 1 p.m. at the
Cape Ann Museum (CAM)
in Gloucester, Massachusetts,
photographer Nathan Benn will
discuss his take on the evolu-
tion of color photography at
National Geographic, including
his personal experience in his
20-year career and emphasizing
the technical and creative evo-
lution of color photography in
print. Following his talk in the
auditorium, guests are invited to
join Benn in the new exhibition,
Kodachrome Memory: Nathan
Benn’s North Shore, 1978, for a
reception with the artist. Since
Benn photographed numerous
Cape Ann residents while on
assignment in 1978, all local res-
idents are encouraged to attend.
Benn was a photographer for
National Geographic from 1972
to 1991 and was sent across the
country and around the world
to capture images of people and
their homelands. The broad range
of subjects and places Benn pho-
tographed while on assignment