November 10–12, 2023

Celebrating 60 Years

One of the most acclaimed antiques shows highlighting the best of Americana for 60 years! Don’t miss the finest offerings from more than 60 distinguished dealers at this spectacular showcase of art, antiques, and design.

New to Collecting?

The Delaware Antiques Show welcomes all, from the newest collector to the most knowledgeable connoisseur. Read our Tips for New Collectors.

Opening Night Party
Thursday, November 9
5:00–9:00 pm

Please join Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library and Wilmington Trust for the opening of the show with cocktails, hors d’oeuvres, and exclusive early shopping!

Sponsor: $250 per person, includes admission at 5:00 p.m.
Patron: $175 per person
Young Collector: $125 per person

Opening Night Party tickets include entry to all three days of the show at the Chase Center on the Riverfront and to Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library during the show dates.

Register now.

General Admission
$25 per person
$20 Winterthur Members
Children under 12 free

Enjoy complimentary general admission at Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library when you present your Delaware Antiques Show ticket during the three days of the show.

Register now.

Show Hours
Friday, November 10
11:00 am–6:00 pm
Saturday, November 11
11:00 am–6:00 pm
Sunday, November 12
11:00 am–5:00 pm

 

Parking
Ample free parking. Accessible parking for persons with disabilities.

 

Location
The Chase Center on the Riverfront is located at 815 Justison Street, Wilmington, Delaware, less than one hour south of Philadelphia, and midway between New York City and Washington, D.C.

 

Delaware Antiques Show Guide

Lectures

Friday Lecture | November 10, 2:00 pm

Americana Insights: Fresh Perspectives and New Discoveries

By Lisa Minardi with David Schorsch

As we navigate an increasingly fast-paced and digital world, the debut of Americana Insights at the Delaware Antiques Show serves as a poignant reminder of the beauty of the tangible and the enduring allure of folk art and Americana. It is a testament to the timelessness of American craftsmanship.

Join Americana Insights editor Lisa Minardi, a distinguished curator and scholar of Pennsylvania German art and culture, to explore highlights from this inaugural annual publication. Gain an appreciation for the delicate artistry of cutworks made by an inmate in Philadelphia’s Eastern State Penitentiary, delve into the meaning of painted tavern signs and jewelry in folk portraiture, discover the genius of New Jersey schoolmaster and calligrapher Thomas Earl, and witness the beauty and significance of signature quilts from the nineteenth century. Guests will also get a sneak peek at topics lined up for 2024, as Americana Insights continues to seek new, original research on aspects of traditional American folk art and Americana created from the colonial era to the early twentieth century.

The significance of each object, the artists who crafted them, and the cultural contexts that breathed life into these creations unfold in scholarly essays and lavish imagery in Americana Insights. It is a treasure trove of inspiration for architects, designers, collectors, and anyone passionate about the arts.

Editor of Americana Insights, Lisa Minardi is a distinguished curator and scholar of Pennsylvania German art and culture. She has organized numerous exhibitions and published extensively. Assistant curator at Winterthur Museum from 2006 to 2016, Minardi serves as executive director of Historic Trappe and the Center for Pennsylvania German Studies.

Lisa is currently a PhD candidate in the History of American Civilization Program at the University of Delaware, where she is researching the German-speaking community of early Philadelphia for her dissertation. She holds an MA from the Winterthur Program in Early American Culture and a BA in history and museum studies from Ursinus College.

David Schorsch, a leading authority on American antiques and folk art and American Insights co-founder will join Lisa for Q&A.

Book signing to follow lecture.

Keynote Lecture | Saturday, November 11, 10:00 am


Photo by Lia Clay Miller.


The New Antiquarians and the Future of Connoisseurship 

by Michael Diaz-Griffith

The antiques world is bursting open thanks to a new generation of collectors who are beginning to revitalize the field. Michael Diaz-Griffith, author of The New Antiquarians: At Home with Young Collectors (Phaidon/The Monacelli Press, 2023), discusses this reawakened interest in antiques, considering unorthodox new approaches to looking at—and living with—the material culture of the past. Spanning the spectrum from minimalist to maximalist, the young collectors he chronicles embrace irreverent modes of collecting and decorating with vintage and historic objects that echo the way we consume visual material today: brazenly blending the old with the new, embracing anachronism and pastiche, deploying serious knowledge with wit and humor, and considering old things through the lens of contemporary values.

Michael Diaz-Griffith is an art historian, designer, and executive director of the Design Leadership Network. Prior to joining the DLN, Diaz-Griffith served as executive director of Sir John Soane’s Museum Foundation and as associate executive director of The Winter Show, America’s most prestigious and longest-running art and antiques fair. The New Antiquarians: At Home with Young Collectors is his first book.

Book signing to follow lecture.

Young Scholars Lectures | Saturday, November 11, 3:00 pm


Left: Becca Lo Presti; Right: Taylor Rossini


The Last Tall Clock in America? A Winterthur Tall Clock and Time Telling in Nineteenth-Century America 

by Becca Lo Presti, Lois F. McNeil Fellow, Winterthur 

Through an analysis of a mid-Atlantic tall clock at Winterthur, this talk explores the nuances of time telling in nineteenth century America. Although the production of tall clocks decreased as the century progressed, these objects remained present in both material and imagined spaces of American life. This enduring presence of the tall clock subsequently reveals how the right to regulate one’s time varied drastically depending on race, class, and gender despite increasing access to time-telling pieces.  

Empire on a Plate: Imperial Rivalry and Cartographic Knowledge in Overton’s Trading Part of the West Indies (1741) 

by Taylor Rossini, Lois F. McNeil Fellow, Winterthur  

Rossini explores the role of cartographic representation in the staging of eighteenth-century empire through a British map created during the War of Jenkins Ear (1739–48). The map, published in an unstable wartime moment, offers an optimistic and somewhat counterfactual view of British naval power in the Americas, providing a compelling opportunity to reflect on how material props are entangled with imperial aspirations.  

Emerging Scholars Lectures sponsored by the Decorative Arts Trust. 

Sunday Lecture | November 12, 2:00 pm

A Storied Past: Collections of Historic Odessa

by Philip D. Zimmerman

Philip D. Zimmerman, author of A Storied Past: Collections of Historic Odessa (Rowman & Littlefield, 2023), will present this eponymous lecture on the recent and on-going research and interpretations of the furnishings and other decorative arts at Historic Odessa in southern New Castle County, Delaware. Zimmerman will discuss new findings and interpretations as well as the interlocking histories of many of the objects in this remarkable collection.

A museum and decorative arts consultant based in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Philip D. Zimmerman is a prolific author, teacher, and lecturer. He is a nationally recognized authority on early American furniture. Publications include Harmony in Wood: Furniture of the Harmony Society, Delaware Clocks, American Federal Furniture and Decorative Arts from the Watson Collection, and numerous essays and articles in books and periodicals such as American Furniture and The Magazine Antiques. He holds a doctorate in American and New England Studies from Boston University and a master’s degree from the Winterthur Program in Early American Culture / University of Delaware. Book signing to follow lecture.

*Lectures included with general admission. 

Delaware Antiques Show Exhibitors

Alan Kaplan-Leo Kaplan, Ltd. 
Arader Galleries
Avery Galleries
Barbara Israel Garden Antiques
A Bird in Hand Antiques
Charles Clark
Christopher H. Jones American Antiques 
David Brooker Fine Art
Diana H. Bittel Antiques
Dixon-Hall Fine Art
D. M. Delaurentis Fine Antique Prints
Earle D. Vandekar of Knightsbridge, Inc.
Elle Shushan
Elliott and Grace Snyder Antiques
Francis J. Purcell, Inc.
Greg K. Kramer & Co.
G. Sergeant Antiques
The Hanebergs Antiques
Hilary and Paulette Nolan
Hill-Stone, Inc.
H. L. Chalfant Fine Art & Antiques
Ita J. Howe
James L. Kochan
James L. Price Antiques
James M. Kilvington, Inc.
James Robinson, Inc.
Janice Paull
Jayne Thompson Antiques
Jeffrey Tillou Antiques

Jewett-Berdan Antiques
Johanna Antiques
Jonathan Trace
Kelly Kinzle
Levy Galleries
Lillian Nassau, LLC
Marcy Burns American Indian Arts, LLC
Martyn Edgell Antiques, Ltd.
Nathan Liverant and Son, LLC
The Norwoods’ Spirit of America
Olde Hope
The Parker Gallery
Peter H. Eaton Antiques
Philip Bradley Antiques
Polly Latham Asian Art
Ralph M. Chait Galleries, Inc.
R. M. Worth Antiques
Schillay Fine Art, Inc.
Schoonover Studios, Ltd.
Schorsch-Smiles Fine Americana
Schwarz Gallery
Scott Bassoff, Sandy Jacobs Antiques
Shaia Oriental Rugs of Williamsburg
Sheridan Loyd American Antiques
Silver Art by D&R
S. J. Shrubsole Corp.
Spencer Marks, Ltd.
Steven F. Still Antiques
Sumpter Priddy III, Inc.
Thistlethwaite Americana
Van Tassel Baumann American Antiques
William R. and Teresa F. Kurau

Show managed by Diana Bittel. Dealer list as of 8/18/23.

Presenting Sponsor

 

Young Scholars Lectures

Media and In-kind Partners

American Fine Art Magazine
Barone Fini
Delaware Today
The Hunt
Incollect
Main Line Today
Prepress and printing by Incollect Magazine

 


 


Proceeds from this year’s Delaware Antiques Show help support key educational initiatives such as low-priced tickets for families in need through our Museums for All program; Discover Winterthur, our free day for the community; and free school programs. Since making our school programs free, we have dramatically expanded our offerings to meet heightened demand. In our most recent fiscal year, Winterthur provided 532 programs for 10,630 students from five states. On-site programs increased by 237% and in-classroom by 463%. Thank you for your support!

Winterthur is excited to provide free on-site school programs through June 30, 2024, thanks to generous support from Corteva Agriscience. These programs are made possible, in part, by a grant from the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts. The Division promotes Delaware arts events on DelawareScene.com.

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