The nearly 20,000 collectors from around the world attending the 58th annual Winter Antiques Show in Manhattan recently got an in-depth ”“ and interactive ”“ introduction to one of Westchester”™s most visible historical, cultural and educational organizations.
In an evocative space designed to echo Washington Irving”™s Sunnyside in Tarrytown, Historic Hudson Valley had an 11-day showcase where it not only showed off the treasures of its collection but also hinted at its plans for the future.
The prestigious show, which concluded Jan. 29 at the Park Avenue Armory, traditionally attracts top-notch private and institutional collectors, savvy interior designers and serious browsers who gather to admire centuries of finds.
And this year, “Celebrating Historic Hudson Valley at 60: Rockefeller Patronage in Sleepy Hollow Country” welcomed those visitors. It was, in short, a stunning sampler of the riches of HHV, a Pocantico Hills-based not-for-profit organization that bills itself as “a network of historic sites in Sleepy Hollow Country & the Great Estates Region.” The group traces its roots back to Sleepy Hollow Restorations, founded 60 years ago by John D. Rockefeller Jr.
On display were treasures ranging from a pair of 19th-century cast-iron benches created for Washington Irving at the West Point Foundry in Cold Spring to the beloved author”™s own watch fob to a 1795 silver tea set.
And in a nod to the future, HHV debuted its first smartphone and iPad app, which is devoted to the Matisse and Chagall windows at the Union Church of Pocantico Hills, an HHV property. The digital debut was showcased just inches away from an 1878 John Henry Hill watercolor of “Sunnyside with Picnickers” and attracted steady attention throughout the show.
Having such exposure can only add to HHV”™s profile and perhaps attendance figures, said Rob Schweitzer, the organization”™s director of public relations and new media.
“Of course we were pleased,” he said. “It”™s one of those kinds of things: It”™s like getting a parking permit at the train station. You put your name in a year in advance and it suddenly shows up.”
Being selected for the loan exhibition is indeed an honor, confirmed Catherine Sweeney Singer, the executive director of the Winter Antiques Show, who mentioned past loan exhibitions have highlighted properties such as Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia, Historic Deerfield in Massachusetts and Winterthur in Delaware.
“We have a waiting list of more than a dozen institutions,” she said, noting that HHV had been under consideration for some eight years, having been first suggested by longtime show exhibitor Barbara Israel, a Katonah-based dealer of garden antiques and an HHV board member.
And why wouldn”™t any organization want the coveted exhibition space right by the entrance?
“It does look like the best booth on the floor, although nothing is for sale,” Sweeney Singer said with a smile. The exhibitions serve up tangible evidence of “what has landed in a museum setting.”
The show had already exceeded expectations. “Attendance is up slightly. Sales are terrific across the board,” noting that there were several six-figure sales and mentioned booths having to re-stock four times during the show”™s run.
Schweitzer said the exhibition put HHV”™s collections in a new light, beyond their use on the properties to “help provide context to the stories that we”™re telling.”
“This is definitely an unusual and unique opportunity to have our objects, I guess, in a traditional museum setting as opposed to a historic-house setting.”
But, he added, the venture is proving valuable: “A lot of people come and say ”˜What is Historic Hudson Valley?”™ and we get to explain what it is”¦ It allows us to connect with certain patrons who otherwise would not think of Sunnyside as a place to come and look at fine decorative objects.”
He noted that HHV properties, which he said last year attracted 220,000 visitors, traditionally draw their audience from within a 15-mile radius of each site. The new app, Schweitzer added, is another way to get the word out.
“This is new territory we”™re enthusiastically embracing.”
Those attending the show not only received its award-winning catalog and several antiques publications with features devoted to HHV but also HHV”™s own “Supporters Sketchbook,” a 32-page, full-color overview of its history, properties and programs.
Showgoers filled The Tiffany Room throughout the run to attend lectures related to Historic Hudson Valley, including one on HHV”™s “Star Ceramics” offered Jan. 28 by Kathleen Eagen Johnson, the 2012 loan exhibition project director.
“It”™s been tremendous,” said Johnson of the exhibition attention. “As you can see, it”™s like prime real estate here”¦ We”™ve definitely been using it to educate as well as promote tourism.”
The loan exhibition was underwritten by Chubb Personal Insurance, while Michael Altman Fine Arts & Advisory Services L.L.C. underwrote HHV”™s object conservation for the local exhibition and sponsored the smartphone app that made its debut. Jeff Daly, known for his decades of work at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, was the exhibition designer, with Anita Jorgensen serving as lighting designer. For more details about Historic Hudson Valley, visit hudsonvalley.org.
