The pride of bringing the America’s Cup to San Francisco inspired this year’s theme for the San Francisco Fall Antiques Show at Fort Mason.
Andrew Skurman’s giant waves, in the style of early 19th century Japanese painter Katsushika Hokusai, framed the entry pavilion, which showcased the special exhibit “Sea Worthy: The Best of Nautical Art and Antiques,” curated by Holland Lynch of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. Models dressed in blue and white gowns designed by Karen Caldwell showed off stunning diamond jewelry by Graff. And the giant gleaming 33-pound sterling America’s Cup trophy expressed the city’s honor of hosting the prestigious race.
A nautical theme was represented throughout the show as well, with various antiques and works of art inspired by aquatic and maritime themes. Obsolete’s installation of 120 ships on scaffolding, created by artist Ron Pippin over a period of five years, was sold as one single piece of art for $250,000.
The America’s Cup – Karen Caldwell and Andrew Skurman
Yurie Pascarella and Carl Pascarella – Dede Wilsey and Trevor Traina
The show drew 60 dealers from around the United and Europe to exhibit some of the best and rarest of antiques, art and artifacts available. They also strongly reflected how most collectors live today by mixing very ornate, formal and traditional, as well as rustic antiques, with sleek modern and contemporary furnishings and art.
The purveyors this year included Therien & Co., Foster-Gwin, Epoca, and Xanadu Gallery from San Francisco, American Garage and Habite from Los Angeles, R.M. Barokh Antiques from Beverly Hills, Joel Cooner Gallery from Dallas, Finnegan Gallery from Chicago, Arader Galleries, Beauvais Carpets, Carlton Hobbs, Nicholas Brawer Gallery and Kentshire from New York, Janice Paull from Portmao, Portugal, Lucy Johnson and Susan Ollemans Oriental Art from London, England, Danish Silver from Copenhagen, Denmark and Galerie Steinitz from Paris, France who always anchors the very back of the show with an exquisite boiserie room.
From Therien & Co, 18th century Italianate Regence Fauteuils, Italian Baroque giltwood mirror, red sheet metal prototype table by Alfred Burzler and Thomas Exner for Copa, Austria and a Roman limestone fragment Therien & Co
Jennifer Biederbeck, Maria dela Pezuela, Paul Weaver and Carrie Zaldastani
Michele Goss and Adrianna Pope Sullivan chaired the preview gala benefitting Enterprise for Highschool Students, and Malia Moseley and her husband, Olympic gold medal skier Jonny Moseley served as Honorary Chairs.
Among the guests who came out for one of the Fall’s favorite social events were seasoned collectors Yurie and Carl Pascarella, Lucy Jewett, Dagmar and Ray Dolby, John Bergruen, Dorothy and Kenneth Paige, Helen Hilton Raiser, Dede Wilsey, Sally Debenham, Therese Post, Adrianna Pope Sullivan and Bob Sullivan, Pamela, and Ted Deikel, OJ and Gary Shansby, and young aficionados Alison Pincus, Trevor Traina, Christopher Bently, Jenna Hunt, Darren Bechtel and Samantha DuVall.
There were joined by Karen and Oliver Caldwell, Sobia and Nadir Shaikh, Wendy and Charlie Bolton, Theo Schwabacher, Melissa and Patrick Barber, Jennifer Biederbeck, Tatiana Sorokko, Letitia and Michael Kim, Holly Baxter, Marybeth and Rich LaMotte, Jennifer Raiser, Olivia Hsu Decker, Joel Goodrich, Ricky Serbin, Lisa and John Grotts, Lily Samii, Allison Speer, Azadeh Riaz, Andra and Dietrich von Behren, Claudia Ross, Kathryn Lasater, and Elisabeth Laurence.
Design and architecture journalist Wendy Moonan and design author Emily Eerdmans flew in from New York. Film icon Diane Keaton and interior and furniture designer Madeline Stuart came in from Los Angeles for the occasion. Diane was signing books the next day, and everyone was raving about how wonderful she was.
Architectural cabinet ebony and gilt bronze cabinet inlaid with lapis lazuli, onyx, red porphyry, agates and other semi-precious stones by Viennese cabinet maker Franz Kroger for Emperor Franz Joseph I, ca. 1850, at R.M. Barokh Antiques.
Ken Fulk, Diane Keaton and Ray Azoulay – Benjamin Mitchell and Ricky Serbin
Pamela Deikel and Ted Deikel – Joel Goodrich and Claudia Juestel
Samantha DuVall and Darren Bechtel – Merla Zellerbach and Helen Hilton Raiser
Suzanne Levit and Mary Beth Shimmon – Wendy and Charlie Bolton
Letitia and Michael Kim – Erin Ross and Claudia Ross
Sobia and Nadir Shaikh – Azadeh Riaz and Ladan Mozafar
Merrill Randol and Heide Betz – Paul Weaver and Tatiana Sorokko
Karen Caldwell and Oliver Caldwell – Ken Fulk, Jay Jeffers, Michael Purdy
Also the architecture and interior design community was in high attendance with John Ike, in from New York, and fellow architects Lewis Butler, Stephen Sutro, and Maurice Lombardo, landscape architects Stephen Suzman and Tod Cole, as well as interior designers Suzanne Tucker, Douglas Durkin, Barbara Scavullo, Jay Jeffers, Ken Fulk, Myra Hoefer, Matthew MacCaul Turner, Antonio Martins, George Brazil, Laurie Ghielmetti, Cecilia Sagrera, Candace Barnes, Maria Quiros, Tineke Triggs, Kathleen Navarra, Kathy Geissler Best, and Benjamin Dhong.
Olivia Hsu Decker and Emily Eerdmans – Pat and Susie McBaine
Suzanne Tucker and O.J. Shansby – Eche Martinez and Kathleen Navarra
Contemporary ceramics by James Haggerty below “Tic, Tac, Toe” a contemporary painting by Martha Mayer Erlebacher at Sullivan Goss
Teresa Rodriguez and Maria Quiros – Amy Millman and Robert Atkinson
Carol Bonnie and Kathryn Lasater – Adrianna Pope Sullivan, Elisabeth Laurence
Jonny Moseley and Malia Moseley – Brenda Mickel and Ned Mobley
Rich and Marybeth LaMotte – Emilie Munroe, Jay Jeffers and Kelly Hohla
Some of the presentations at the lecture series concentrated on the “Romance of the Sea” and featured Dennita Sewell, Curator of Fashion Design at the Phoenix Museum of Art, who shared stories about the fashions of and around the sea over the centuries. Marianna Lamonaca, Special Exhibitions Curator at The Bard Graduate Center in New York, presented the high style of the luxury transatlantic ocean liners of the 1920s and 1930s.
The other lectures covered architecture and design in a more general fashion. Lady Henrietta Spencer-Churchill traced 300 years in interiors, author and editor Jeffrey Simpson gave us insight into the life and design of Rose Cummings, and noted interior designer Suzanne Tucker moderated a panel discussion with Andrew Skurman and Ann Getty about designing with antiques and art.
A rosewood parquetry and bronze buffet by Paolo Buffa, a contemporary abstract painting by Paul Maxwell, a late 19th century French gilt bronze warrior figure and a French 18th century Palisander wood coffer box at Habite.
An elegant gala, exquisite antiques and art, wonderful learning opportunities for anyone who appreciates the finest, and money raised to provide opportunities for teenagers, once again the San Francisco Fall Antiques Show was a great success!
