A U C T I O N S • A N T I Q U E S S H O W S

ANTIQUES • ART • HISTORIC HOMES • COUNTRY LIFE • PRESERVATION & RESTORATION • INTERIOR DESIGN

April2006

Volume 12No. 8 NortheastCollections of American Life

The Smithsonian Institution National Museum of American HistoryBy Tom O’Hara

The Smithsonian InstitutionNational Museum of AmericanHistory, Behring Center, is the

collection of objects inAmerican life of the past 400years. It is dishes and silver, tex-tiles and tools; there are com-plete houses illustrating howthey were built, used andchanged over their lifetimes.The collection depicts theAmerican way of life even as ithas changed with each genera-tion, each era, each century.

It is the place where theobjects of American History aresaved and are on display for allto see and ponder. There is somuch in its collections that onlya fraction of the total can be outat any one time. As such, theexhibits open to the public inthis free forum are changed fre-quently. What about the rest ofthe collection, then? What is inthe back rooms waiting its turnto be put out there on display?Early this year, Northeast accept-ed an invitation, extended byDr. Brent Glass, Director,Smithsonian Institution Na-tional Museum of History, tovisit these tremendous archives,with special emphasis on a tourof the back rooms, conductedby a number of the curators.

Dr. Glass is unassuming in his

role as the head officer of themuseum, still known to many byits old abbreviated name,History and Tech, on the cornerof 14th Street and ConstitutionAvenue in Washington. A stu-dent of American History andformer teacher at the collegelevel, he considers his positionthe dream job for someone withhis interests. Of course, themanagement can be taxing attimes, but to be able to guide aforce of curators, restorers andexperts who study, protect andshow the artifacts and ordinaryobjects of American life is clearlya thrill to him. Dr. Glass consid-ers it to be the ultimate educa-tional experience for the visi-tors; an opportunity to seeAmerican life in the everyday,ordinary ways; to see how wehave evolved over the last 400years in this nation.

Bill Yeingst is the chair of theDivision of Home andCommunity Life, the leader ofcurators in the Museum andalso responsible for many areasof American Life. Mr. Yeingsthas been in charge of re-invent-ing the exhibits at the Museumto “keep a record of ordinaryAmerican heritage and everydaylife.” He took great pleasure inshowing how a house, which

A Critical Momentfor eBay ..............................12

Brimfield Preview ...............15

The Animal Fantasy of HarryFrees Roy Nuhn.....................18

Collector’s CornerR. McKittrick.......................31

On The Trailwith Tom O’Hara ................34

News ...................................36

Antiques IQ.........................37

Page 20

Byrne Fone On The RecordBy Philip Alvare

Editor’s Note: There are very few people in

the antiques business in Hudson, NY – and

the Hudson Valley for that matter – that

don’t know Byrne Fone. He is an original to

the town’s antique renaissance of the 1980s

and 1990s, and has become a celebrated

writer, teacher, restorer and historian in the

process. As part of Alain Pioton Antiques/The

Hudson Antiques Center, Fone has been there

through the good and the bad both, and is a

venerable figure on the scene. Last year, he

released his book, Historic Hudson AnArchitectural Portrait, to praise from readers

and critics alike. It is a beautiful book,

available from Black Dome Press, which fea-

tures outstanding photography by Lynn

Davis, one of the very best alive, along with

priceless archival photographs from Historic

Hudson. It is a complete and fascinating

portrait of a city that is as socially and

philosophically diverse as it is architectural-

ly. What follows is Part One of Philip Alvare’s

two-part interview with Fone.

In his most recent book, Historic Hudson An Architectural Portrait,Byrne Fone has assembled an impressive array of archival and contem-porary photographs reflecting the architectural evolution of a citywhose fortunes and failings echo the ebb and flow of the eponymousriver. Emeritus Professor of English and American Literature at the CityUniversity of New York, Fone is a pioneer in the field of Gay Studies,

and author of six books. He and his partner,Alain Pioton, who runs Alain PiotonAntiques, 536 Warren Street, Hudson, NY,have divided their time between Hudson,NY, New York City and France for the past 30years. When I interviewed Fone he was busyat work finishing a novel.

A pioneer on two counts, Fone forged apath in Hudson as one of the earliest and,perhaps, most intrepid souls who bravedthe early days of revitalization. The town isnow galloping toward full-fledged gentrifica-tion, which in itself is a controversial issuemuch explored in other publications.Similarly, Fone championed the GayRights/Human Rights cause, Pre-Stonewall,and edited the book The Columbia

Anthology of Gay Literature. Columbia,

1999, that codified the field of scholarshipknown as “Queer Studies.”

Fone’s contribution to the stabilization, ifnot the memorialization, of the historicarchitecture of Hudson, NY is major. I hadthe good fortune to interview Fone for

Northeast before and after one of his trips to his home in France.

Northeast (NE): You’ve achieved many things, lived an enviable,cosmopolitan existence in France and the U.S. How does Hudsonfit into this picture?

The cover of Fone’s acclaimed “ArchitecturalPortrait” of Hudson, NY.

Go to page 23

Go to page 32

Spring MuseumCrawl

Page 24

Page 30

Page 12

The ChineseAntique Market

London’sPortobello Road

Talk of The Trade

A nineteenth-century game table, made by Peter Glass, with marquetryinlays featuring generals of the Civil War.

Inside

32 • Northeast • April 2006

Byrne Fone (BF): Hudson was a bitof an accident. We – my partner AlainPioton and I – were living in New YorkCity and had a summer place in PinePlains (in Dutchess County, NY). OneSunday in the summer of 1980, we wentout for a drive and discovered Hudson,which I didn’t know was there. We cameinto it from Third Street and, going upWarren, which was lined with emptystores and without any people, we wereamazed at the quality of the architec-ture.

We were so impressed that eventuallywe bought two and then two morebuildings – not terribly hard to do then,since the price for a house in the early1980s was less than price of a middlebrand car today – and in one, openedour antiques shop, The HudsonAntiques Center (now Alain PiotonAntiques/The Hudson Antiques Center )in 1985 — this year is Alain’s 20thanniversary.

For a long time we were the only boyson the block, but Alain doggedly stayedopen, even on Sundays, even though hewas the only business open, and eventu-ally we got more dealers and soon oth-ers of our dealers eventually openedtheir own shops. We like to think – andothers agree – that opening the HudsonAntiques Center was one of the incuba-tors for Hudson’s rebirth, since, as I say,several of our dealers went out of ourshop and opened their own shops andsoon all the other antiques shops beganto appear.

We have lived in the area now for 30years — at first in Pine Plains and thenin Chatham, but it was soon inevitablethat we move to Hudson, which wasincreasingly the center of our lives.

As to how Hudson fits into my lifeoutside of the antiques business,though I am Alain’s partner in the shop,he is the guiding force behind it, andran it all while I continued my career asa Professor of English at the City Collegein New York, from which I am nowretired and working as a professionalwriter.

Because I am also a writer, Hudsonwas instantly fascinating and I’ve alsohad some experience in saving someold houses; I have an obsession witharchitecture, not as an expert or profes-sional, but as a passionate, and I hopeknowledgeable lay-person, and so onmany counts Hudson offered me a widerange of opportunities from the outset.

NE: How, when and why did youdecide to do Historic Hudson: An

Architectural Portrait?

BF: The beginning of it came when Iwas asked to join the board of HistoricHudson. This group cannot be praisedenough. Under the leadership of thenPresident Tim Dunleavy, and the currentPresident Carole Osterink, the group –the (City of Hudson’s) volunteer preser-vation group, has done much to helpeducate people about the value and his-tory of the city’s buildings and evensaved some of them, and is in theprocess of protecting another, thePlumb-Bronson House.

Why did I want to do this? I guessbecause I’m a writer I’ve always thoughtthere was a book in Hudson. But I wasnever quite sure if it was to be fiction orfact. Obviously, because Hudson’s cur-rent renaissance and its architecture isso unique and special, there is some-thing to be said about it. The actualwriting of the book took me about ayear to 18 months, but I had been think-ing about it and I guess subconsciouslypreparing for it for far longer. The cityhas been called a dictionary of Americanarchitecture, and it is – Georgian,Federal, Greek Revival, Gothic Revival,Second Empire, all our great styles arehere. In the early years it seemed to methat this heritage was under-appreciatedand too much of it was being lost, muchof it through careless destruction by thecity itself, which did not seem to appre-ciate its own buildings; consider theloss of the General Worth Hotel. Overthe years more and more people cameto the city and bought and restoredbuildings. Some did it very well, butothers seemed not to be so sensitive tothe importance of the heritage and theobligation to preserve it that goes withbeing an owner of an historic house.

Watching Hudson in the 1980s and

1990s, it was clear that often the citywas quite willing to demolish its her-itage and that some owners seemed tofeel that mere ownership allowedlicense to do whatever they wanted witha historic building – alter it beyondrecognition, rip out its interiors, throwaway marble fireplaces because theyweren’t “modern” enough, remove itscornices because they were too “old”looking, lop off its porches or toss outits “Victorian” trim, or cover it all withaluminum siding to “update” it until theoriginal building had in essence disap-peared.

Unfortunately, even now, some resi-dents – many of them new to the city –still are willing to sacrifice the heritagethat belongs to us all. None of us willown our properties forever. But thebuildings will survive; they are part ofthe fabric and history of the city and weare only temporary stewards of them. Asstewards, do we have the right todestroy the fabric and history of the city?Do we have the right to deprive the

future of its history and damage ourirreplaceable houses to make themdubious and idiosyncratic monumentsto personal whim? I don’t think so. I’vealways hoped that Historic Hudsonwould consider giving not only awardsfor excellence in preservation, but also akind of “worst-dressed” booby prize toowners who destroy Hudson. That list,unhappily might be long and gettinglonger. Because of all this, it seemed tome that a book was needed to docu-ment both the glory of Hudson’s archi-tecture and the shame of its losses.

NE: There’s impressive depth andbreadth to the photographs in the bookreflecting various eras in Hudson’s his-tory. Can you address your sources forthe images and describe the selectionprocess for what must have been a mon-umental task?

BF: Historic Hudson owns a remark-able collection of nineteenth- and earlytwentieth-century photos of the city,

Byron Fone Continued from page 1

Byrne Fone

The Captain John Hathaway House in a photograph from the 1860s. One of the finest federalhouses in the nation, it was built in the late eighteenth century and was located on Warren

above Third Street. Later, as shown here, it was embellished with Greek Revival ornamentation.

The first Columbia County Courthouse, in the City of Hudson, built in 1835. A simple and ele-gant Greek Revival structure with a dome and six Ionic columns, this building located onWashington Square was torn down in 1900 to make way for the second Columbia County

Courthouse in the City of Hudson.

Shopping at Cyrus Macy’s Shop at 133 (Now 305) Warren Street, c. 1847.

Northeast • April 2006 • 33

taken by Hudson photographer FrankForshew in the nineteenth century andhis successor at the Rowles Studio inthe twentieth. These show Hudson’shouses and its streets as they were, andmake up the bulk of the images in thebook.

This seemed to me to be the perfectmaterial for a book that would addressthe importance of the city’s architectureand offer a cautionary word about theneed to preserve it by showing what itwas in its heyday. I suggested to BlackDome Press that this would make asuperb project. Historic Hudson let meuse our images, and I decided to add awritten history of the city to it, since nocomplete history of Hudson had beenwritten for several decades. In fact thereare not too many sources at all – alltold, no more than half a dozen thatrefer directly about the city – three fromthe nineteenth century, some twentieth-century documents, and most recentlythe very fine book by Margaret Schramthat looks at Hudson’s history up topthe middle of the nineteenth centuryand punctures a few myths aboutHudson whaling past. In addition thiswas a perfect opportunity to publishthis great collection of Hudson photosthat otherwise are hard for most peopleto access, and bring together the pub-lished strands of Hudson history in oneplace, and update it to the present day.

NE: One can’t help notice the forwardin Historic Hudson by John Ashbury(recently “Profiled” by LarissaMacFarquhar for The New Yorker),“...considered by many to be the most

important living American poet…”“Present Waking Life” The New YorkerNovember 7, 2005), and introductionby writer Rudy Wurlitzer and photogra-pher Lynn Davis, rather illustrious com-pany. Are these notables related more toyour Academic and Literary life, Hudsonlife, or both?

BF: Along with the opening of theantiques shops – to which Hudsonabsolutely owes its renaissance – asmall group of intrepid pioneers werealready here when the first dealerscame, among them John Ashbery andDavid Kermani. This early group wassoon enlarged – Lynn and Rudy addedtheir, as you correctly say, illustriouspresence early on. The interesting thingabout Hudson’s history is that in its vari-ous forms and births and rebirthsHudson was always the creation of “newpeople.” The proprietors – the foundersof the city – were newcomers to theDutch families who preceded them andthey, I suppose, were newcomers to theMohicans, from whom the Dutchbought the land on which the citystands.

In the early nineteenth century as thereputation of the city grew as a place ofopportunity, hordes of new peoplepoured into the city, increasing its pop-ulation from around 1,500 in the year1800 to 4-5,000 within a few years. Thissame influx of new people happenedagain in the mid- and late-nineteenthcentury. So the newcomers of the early‘80s – who like other newcomers priorto them came to find work, open busi-nesses and acquire homes, were follow-

ing a long standing Hudson tradition.Ashbery was, of course, in at the cre-ation, and Rudy (Wurlitzer, fiction, non-fiction and screenwriter) has beendevoted to the city since he came andLynn Davis (world famous photogra-pher) photographed the entire length ofWarren street a few year ago.

In the April issue of Northeast, Philip

Alvare’s conversation with Byrne Fone

continues.

All images from “Historic Hudson, AnArchitectural Portrait,” Black DomePress, 2005. Copyright 2005 ByrneFone. ISBN-13:978-1-883789-46-6,ISBN-10:1-883789-46-X

Christ Church Episcopal on the corner of east Court and Union Street, across fromWashington Square (which we now often call Courthouse Square), c. 1900, was designed

by New York Architect Williams G. Harrison and consecrated in 1857. It is an elegantstructure in the Gothic Revival style. Its soaring steeple was removed in the early part of

the twentieth century.

Warren Street from Fifth, looking West, c.1850. 6769 Rt. 20BOUCKVILLE

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