It may be worth noting on the fortieth anniversary of one of the treasures of the American antiques business, that the portraits, painted furniture, weathervanes, and quilts they purvey at Olde Hope Antiques are, in an important sense, emblems of the owners’ belief in bedrock values of our democracy.
And no wonder. Edwin Hild and Patrick Bell opened their store in the bicentennial year 1976, a watershed moment for the appreciation of arts that grew up not necessarily knowing they were art… or at least not expecting they would have a seat at the table of high art. Preparing that seat has been the work of Olde Hope and renewing its promise has kept the duo and their business going through the decades.
Located now on a farm in rural Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and open by appointment, the gallery itself is one of the great visual pleasures of the antiques world. A second location in an apartment on New York’s Upper East Side (also by appointment) puts the blanket chests, trade signs, ceramics, and rugs within the reach of city dwellers in need of a little aesthetic repose.
At antiques shows Hild and Bell can be relied upon to unveil something surprising: during the 2015 Winter Antiques Show, their graphic 1930s quilt of black elephants on a red background drew attention from the New York Times, the Dallas Museum of Art (which purchased it), and repeat visitors who came simply for the pleasure of its company. This past January an immense 1963 wood relief of a lion by Bernard Langlais taught the editor of The Magazine ANTIQUES something new about envy.
Readers should consult the Olde Hope website for the dramatic account of their discovery of the portrait of Benjamin Lay almost forty years ago. From that auspicious beginning, they have kept their faith in the beautiful and the unexpected and renewed it too.
