Looking Back and Looking Ahead to 2026
We are taking the opportunity to look back on our notable moments from 2025 while anticipating exciting things to come in 2026. We mark our success in the relationships we build and the wonderful objects we have the pleasure of handling.
We began 2025 taking part in the “Focus Americana” booth at the Winter Show and publishing an accompanying catalog, Winter /25, an experience of collaborating with long-time colleagues to curate a curated booth.
2025 was the year of Pennsylvania-German, in no small part thanks to its leading scholar and champion, Lisa Minardi, the executive director at Historic Trapp and editor of Americana Insights, which was founded by Jane Katcher and David Schorsch. Americana Insights devoted its entire 2025 edition to Pennsylvania redware. This is the first comprehensive look at the subject in over a century, and the book is an essential addition to the library of any collector, enthusiast, or scholar of Pennsylvania German material culture.
We also took part in Historic Trappe’s “Valley Culture: Constructing Identity Along the Great Wagon Road,” one of the best exhibitions of American folk art in 2025. We participated in this show by way of a collector, who lent many objects to the exhibition that they had acquired from us. We wrote a blog on the exhibition, here.
Left: Maentel portraits overlook a display of boxes of Pennsylvania German origin, including two vibrant and well-preserved large examples by the Compass Artist that we sold to our client; Right: Iconic hanging cupboard and chest with paint decoration by Johannes Spitler (1774-1837) sold by us.
We also participated in the American Art Fair at Bohemian National Hall in New York City, The 68th Annual New Hampshire Antiques Show, and The Delaware Antiques Show at Winterthur Museum. We published American Folk Art: Toward Abstraction for American Art Fair, a catalog emphasizing the intuitive and uninhibited artistic expression found in works by folk artists.
These shows brought us notable sales, including a portrait by Ruth Henshaw Bascom, to Historic Deerfield, and a rare portrait by Frederick Kemmelmeyer, which sold to the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Museum at Colonial Williamsburg.
These shows brought us notable sales, including a portrait by Ruth Henshaw Bascom, to Historic Deerfield, and a rare portrait by Frederick Kemmelmeyer, which sold to the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Museum at Colonial Williamsburg.
We also sold many wonderful pieces to private collectors in 2025. At the NHADA Show, we were delighted to sell a stunning portrait of a Girl in a Brown Dress to new clients. And while we take pride in our ability to offer some of the most exceptional examples of Americana and American folk art to seasoned collectors, we were also delighted to engage with a new generation of collectors and scholars.
Young Woman with Ringlets Wearing a Brown Dress, American, circa 1840. Oil on panel, 26 ¾ × 23 inches, in original painted frame.
Recently, we shared on social media a wonderful bow-back Windsor side chair, advertising that the price was accessible to a young and/or beginner collector. We were thrilled that a new client in his 30s made an appointment to view the chair and ultimately took it home with him. And at the NHADA Show, we had the pleasure of meeting in-person a young and enthusiastic scholar of American folk portraiture with whom we had been in frequent communication.
David and enthusiastic young scholar,
Emily Esser at the NHADA Show
Bow-Back Windsor Side Chair, Connecticut-Rhode Island Border Region, circa 1800-1805, sold to a young collector.
Our ads this year featured favorite items from our inventory, such as the Shaker sewing desk (also seen in the American Art Fair booth photograph) and Rufus Porter Plumb-and-Level Indicator sold to the Rufus Porter Museum. We also placed our first audio advertisement as a sponsor for the Curious Objects Podcast.
Some memorable items that passed through our hands this year are shown below that represented an array of categories united by their rarity of preservation, beautiful forms, and expression of artistry.
Highlights included a rare example of American folk sculpture and a charming example from the 1930s. The figure of a colonial gentleman made between 1780 and 1800, survives in “as found” condition with a dry, beautifully aged surface of original painted decoration. Made roughly 150 years later, is a charming semi-three-dimensional cow weathervane, comprised of layered wooden plank construction and tin ears, with original abstracted black and white painted patterning.
Left: Colonel Gentleman, probably Dorchester, Massachusetts, circa 1780–1800. White pine, original painted decoration, 13 ½ x 4 x 3 inches. Right: Holstein Cow Weathervane, American, circa 1930. Softwood, tinned iron, original painted decoration, 18 ¼ x 27 x 2 inches.
In addition to the wonderful Shaker sewing desk that we brought to the American Art Fair and advertised in Maine Antique Digest, other furniture standouts from 2025 were a rare pair of Federal looking glasses signed by Simeon Deming (1769-1855), and a fine painted country Queen Anne side chair. The Deming looking glasses are important as a matched pair of American origin, as the majority of eighteenth-century looking glasses were imported from England. The chair features molded side stretchers and oversized Spanish feet, elements that identify the maker with the iconic Portsmouth, New Hampshire oval-top tavern tables, as and a small group of notable rush-seated arm and side chairs
Left: Simeon Deming, (1769–1855), Pair of Federal Looking Glasses, Wethersfield, Connecticut, or New York, circa 1790-1800. Mahogany veneer, white pine, mirror glass, iron wire, gesso, gold leaf, 57x 26 inches. Signed on backside in ink: “S. Deming.” Right: Queen Anne Painted Side Chair, Portsmouth, New Hampshire area, circa 1740. Maple, old reddish-brown paint, replaced rush seat, height 40 ¾ inches.
A personal favorite that we sold this year is a wallpapered miniature blanket chest, possibly a unique example. This little gem is exceedingly charming and was made with incredible care, from cardboard drawer fronts to the moldings on the lid, to the gold-painted drawer pulls; the interior holds a tiny till box. We will miss having it in our Woodbury office—but are happy it’s off to a loving home.
Looking ahead, we are thrilled to be exhibiting at the inaugural Pennsylvania Antiques Show, taking place April 23-26 in Valley Forge and benefiting Historic Trappe. The brainchild of our friend, Lisa Minardi, and her efforts to attract a new generation of dealers and collectors. If Historic Trappe’s “Valley Culture” exhibition is an indication of Minardi’s ability to develop and curate a landmark exhibition, then The Pennsylvania Antiques Show is sure to be a tremendous success. We are also looking forward to the upcoming exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, “A Nation of Artists,” which celebrates three centuries of American creativity—in tandem with the nation’s 250th anniversary—and features items on loan from the legendary Middleton Family Collection.
In 2026, our fifty-first year in business, we look forward to offering the finest examples of Americana and American folk art as well as seeing and talking with our clients, colleagues, and friends at each turn on the road ahead.