 |
Brenda Mickel, Design Prinicpal at The Wiseman Group,
arriving at the SFFAS preview gala
Photo - Drew Altizer Photography |
The
San Francisco Fall Antiques Show opened its doors last week, and TWG staff were in attendance. SFFAS provides a quality shopping venue for The Wiseman Group, always in search of fine, one-of-a-kind items for clients' homes. The staff attended the preview opening, fanning out to canvass dealer displays. It was a "target-rich" environment with many lovely items to consider for client approval.
Due to unusual circumstances, both SFFAS and the International Fine Art and Antiques Show in New York were held the same week this year. It was the first time in SFFAS history that Paul Wiseman was unable to attend. Paul usually leads The Wiseman Group design staff through the SFFAS to talk about key vendors and particular items of interest. A flurry of emails and iPhone photos allowed Paul to communicate with the staff in SF while he attended the NYC show, killing two birds with one stone. While at the NYC show, Paul found an important Art Deco
verre églomisé screen for a client in California.
 |
| French Deco screen made of twenty-five reverse-painted glass panels (Paule Ingrand c 1942) found by Paul Wiseman at Bernd Goeckler Antiques at the International Fine Art and Antiques Show in New York |
 |
Victoria Kennedy, Assistant Architectural Designer, stands in front of an unusual patchwork zebra skin rug
from Galen Lowe Art & Antiques |
After contacting clients with suggestions for purchases, several items from the SFFAS sold quickly. An unusual patchwork rug of zebra skin squares went to a TWG project in Tahoe. The rug will be hung on the wall as a tapestry. Two Italian Gio Ponti horn-shaped candelabras were found at
Rachel Prater's booth. They were originally designed for Christofle, Paris, in 1927. Each one is on a circular foot with the conical stem capped by a dolphin finial. The candelabras went to a Hillsborough home recently installed by TWG. These pieces will become accents for the clients' new dining room.
 |
| Rachel Prater of Gallery 925 holds a rare Gio Ponti "Dauphin" candelabra, sold to a TWG client |
More items that caught the tasteful eye of the staff:
 |
| TWG designer, Anna Sweeney, with Andre Arbus sconces (France c 1940) |
 |
| A set of Japanese boxwood hair combs (20th c.) |
 |
A contemporary woodblock entitled "elmigration"
by British artist, Julian Meredith |
 |
| An important bronze lamp by Agostini (1957) |
 |
| A set of Meiji Period (1868-1912) lacquered trays |
For over thirty years the SFFAS has been benefiting
Enterprise for High School Students, a non-profit career development agency serving San Francisco youth. According to their website, it is the "oldest and most prestigious continuously operating international antiques show on the West Coast, and recognized as one of the top five in the world. The Show features approximately sixty dealers from across the United States and Europe, offering for sale an extraordinary range of fine and decorative arts representing all styles and periods including American, English, Continental, and Asian furniture, silver, ceramics, glass, jewelry, rugs, textiles, paintings, prints, and photographs."
~
