Philadelphia Antiques Show Starts Today

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Apr 17th 2010 at 8:01AM

Today marks the start of the Philadelphia Antiques Show at the Navy Yard in Philadelphia. The show runs April 17- April 20. The event has a long and esteemed history. It started in 1962 and is one of the longest running antiques shows in the country. 2010 marks the 49th anniversary of the show which features 50 dealers and galleries and is presented by a committee of more than 250 dedicated volunteers. The show is a treasure trove of American antiques including paintings, weathervanes, pottery, rugs and decorative arts.

Every year, the Show presents a loan exhibit which becomes the feature and theme of the entire event. This year the loan exhibit is called "A Call to Arms: Chinese Armorial Porcelain for the British and American Markets,1700-1850." The exhibit was created as a tribute to antiques dealer Elinor Gordon who died in 2009 and was a part of every Philadelphia Antiques Show from the start. Gordon was an Chinese export porcelain and this year's exhibit will showcase Chinese porcelain decorated with coats of arms. The exhibit will chronicle more than a century of coats of arms, showing a slice of 18th century life. Pieces are on loan from museums and private collections and each coat of arms tells its own story of the rank and status of the person. The museum-quality exhibit is curated by Ron Fuchs, curator of the Reeves Collection.

The show is also a fundraiser for Penn Medicine and has raised more than $16 million since its inception. This year's proceeds will go toward the new Penn Center for Ocular Imaging. Tickets are $18. To see just how much effort goes into this show check out a sped up time lapse video of the creation of the 2008 show after the jump.