Despite cold temperatures and snow on the ground this mid-April morning, it is spring, one of loveliest harbingers of which is the annual Antique Garden Furniture Fair held at the New York Botanical Garden. Scheduled this year for Friday April 25 through Sunday April 27, with its always delightful preview party and private plant sale on Thursday, April 24 from 6 to 8 pm, the show is a must for collectors and a joy for the uninitiated. As Paulette Peden of Dawn Hill Antiques says, “It is the premier show in the country for garden enthusiasts and a wonderful venue to show prized garden furnishings.”
Barbara Israel Garden Antiques will be offering this fine terra-cotta figure of Flora, partially draped, holding a basket of flowers, French, c. 1840. Photo courtesy of Barbara Israel.
The Antique Garden Furniture Fair features more than thirty leading dealers offering their finest pieces for sale, displaying centuries of classic design inspiration gathered from across the United States and Europe. Photograph by John Peden.
Visitors to the Antique Garden Furniture Fair can browse and buy unique items of the highest quality and provenance. Peden photograph.
“Among the many things we’ll have on view in our booth this year is this fantastic French iron garden bench of c. 1880 with scrolled rope details and traces of the original patina,” says Paulette Peden of Dawn Hill Antiques in New Preston, Connecticut.
This zinc statue of Psyche with Cupid’s bow and butterfly wings, American, c. 1870, is offered by Aileen Minor of Centreville, Maryland.
Fountains, sundials, statuary, bird baths, gates, garden benches, antique wicker, urns and planters, botanical prints, and architectural ornament are just some of the items that will be found in the booths of the more than thirty exhibitors-all set up in a large tent outside the landmark Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, amid the garden’s flowering trees, plants, and shrubs. In addition, this year many exhibitors will be offering an array of ways to bring the outdoors inside by creating garden rooms in the home.
Two lectures will be given on Friday: “House and Gardens: Their Intimate Relationship,” by gardener and garden writer Page Dickey; and “A Landscape Autobiography” by garden designer and architectural and garden historian Deborah Nevins, who has created gardens around the world.
Admission to the fair, which is open from 10 to 5 on Saturday and Sunday, is free with an All-Garden pass to the Botanical Garden. For information visit nybg.org; for preview party tickets call 718-817-8773 or e-mail cbalkonis@nybg.org.
