A Winterthur Tradition | November 15-17

One of the nation’s most highly acclaimed antiques shows presents a spectacular showcase of art, antiques, and design! Featuring the finest offerings from more than sixty distinguished dealers, the Delaware Antiques Show highlights the best of American antiques and decorative arts. Join us for a full schedule of exciting show features sure to captivate the sophisticated and new collector alike.

Opening Night Party

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 pm
  • Patron: $175 per person, 6:00 pm entry
  • Young Collector: $125 per person, 6:00 pm entry

Opening Night Party ticket valid for admission to all days of the show and to Winterthur during the show dates. All lectures are included with show admission.

Thursday, November 14 | 5:00–9:00 pm Purchase tickets.

General Admission

$25 per person; $20 Winterthur Members. Children under 12 free.

Ticket valid for admission to all days of the show and to Winterthur during the show dates. All lectures are included with show admission.

Location & Parking

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.

Ample free parking. Accessible parking for persons with disabilities.

Keynote Lecture | Saturday, November 16, 10:00 am

Uprooted Elegance: The Surprising Journey of American Garden Ornament

by Barbara Frelinghuysen Israel

After nearly forty years as an antique garden ornament dealer, Barbara Israel has gathered plenty of stories. This lecture delves into the many gardens, experiences, and intriguing personalities she has encountered over the years, ranging from the sublime to the nefarious (and everything in between).

Barbara Frelinghuysen Israel founded Barbara Israel Garden Antiques in 1985. Nearly forty years and hundreds of exquisite objects later, she is recognized as an authority on the subject, and her book Antique Garden Ornament: Two Centuries of American Taste is the definitive work in the field. Barbara has served as a consultant to The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Smithsonian Institution for their collections of nineteenth-century cast iron. Barbara Israel Garden Antiques has been featured in The New York Times, House & Garden, Martha Stewart Living, and Flower magazine, among others. Book signing to follow lecture. Headshot by Bryan Goldberg Photography.

Student Scholars Lectures | Saturday, November 16, 2:00 pm

Student Scholars lectures sponsored by the Decorative Arts Trust 

Of the Earth: Neoclassicism and Natural History in a Philadelphia Center Table

by Steven Baltsas, Lois F. McNeil Fellow

Baltsas shows how a cabinetmaker in antebellum Philadelphia harnessed the city’s insatiable attraction to ancient and natural history in his creation of the ideal center table. Inlaid with floriated brass patterns against flame-like mahogany crotch veneer, this peerless classical table testifies to intellectual culture’s impact on furniture design in the early nineteenth-century Atlantic world.

“To Imitate China”: A Close Reading of a Pair of Eighteenth-Century Hand-Screens

by Lanah Swindle, Lois F. McNeil Fellow

Swindle grapples with anti-Chinese sentiment in imagery preserved on a pair of eighteenth-century hand-screens. The survival of these objects, made between 1759 and 1770 for fashionable circles in London and Paris, presents an opportunity to reflect on the dissemination of racial stereotypes of Chinese people through decorative art forms made by and for Euro-Atlantic audiences in the eighteenth century.

Performance and Pleasure at the Early Modern Table

by Graham Titus, Lois F. McNeil Fellow

By 1650, a nascent English glass industry supplied elite diners with the tableware necessary for increasingly luxurious and performative feasts. Through the discussion of a seventeenth-century glass salver in Winterthur’s collection, Titus explores changing dining practices and foodways at a defining moment for the modern meal.

Lectures | Sunday, November 17, 2:00 pm

A Landscape of Peace, Prosperity, and Despair: Charles C. Hofmann’s Paintings Along the Schuylkill River

by Christopher Malone, Curator, Historic Trappe and Lutheran Archives Center at Philadelphia

Christopher Malone will step between the brush strokes to reveal the troubled but vibrant world of German immigrant, almshouse inmate, and itinerant painter Charles C. Hofmann. The changing landscapes in Hofmann’s almshouse paintings parallel his transient life along the Schuylkill River. From town to town, new architectural styles and industries appeared, showcasing the progress of American life after the Civil War. Hofmann’s paintings were filled with genteel people, farmers, and hardy workers, but his paintings often hid the sick and poverty-stricken individuals who inhabited the almshouses of southeastern Pennsylvania. His contributions to American folk art are important, and his works document Pennsylvania sites and landscapes that no longer exist.

Importing Style: The Decoupage Fraktur of Friedrich Krebs

by Trevor Brandt, Ph.D. Candidate in Art History, University of Chicago and Managing Editor, Americana Insights

Fraktur, the iconic German American “fractured” folk art, has historically been lauded as an emblematic regional style in North America. This talk highlights instead the global implications of the artist Friedrich Krebs. Krebs, a former Hessian soldier and the most prolific of all known fraktur artists, embellished many of his fraktur with elaborate brocade sheets imported from Germany. The effect was an intricate, decoupage-like fraktur that linked the German American home with international trade and global styles, challenging traditional interpretations of fraktur as a singularly regional American tradition.

Book signing to follow lectures.

New to Collecting?

The Delaware Antiques Show welcomes all, from the newest collector to the most knowledgeable connoisseur.

Delaware Antiques Show Exhibitors

Arader Galleries Jeff R. Bridgman American Antiques
Aronson of Amsterdam Jeffrey Tillou Antiques
Avery Galleries Johanna Antiques
Barbara Israel Garden Antiques Jonathan Trace
A Bird in Hand Antiques Kelly Kinzle
Blandon Cherry Antiques Levy Galleries
Charles Clark Lillian Nassau, LLC
Charles Plante Fine Arts Marcy Burns American Indian Arts, LLC
Christopher H. Jones American Antiques Martyn Edgell Antiques, Ltd.
Dan and Karen Olson Antiques Nathan Liverant and Son, LLC
David Brooker Fine Art The Norwoods’ Spirit of America
David Schorsch-Eileen Smiles Olde Hope
Diana H. Bittel Antiques Oliver Garland
Dixon-Hall Fine Art The Parker Gallery
D. M. Delaurentis Fine Antique Prints Ralph M. Chait Galleries, Inc.
Earle D. Vandekar of Knightsbridge, Inc. R. M. Worth Antiques
Elle Shushan Schillay Fine Art, Inc.
Elliott and Grace Snyder Antiques Schoonover Studios, Ltd.
Francis J. Purcell, Inc. Schwarz Gallery
Glen Leroux Antiques, Inc. Scott Bassoff, Sandy Jacobs Antiques
Greg K. Kramer & Co. Shaia Oriental Rugs of Willamsburg
G. Sergeant Antiques Silver Art by D & R
The Hanebergs Antiques S. J. Shrubsole Antique Silver and Jewelry
Hilary and Paulette Nolan Somerville Manning Gallery
H. L. Chalfant American Fine Art and Antiques Spencer Marks
Ita J. Howe Steven F. Still Antiques
James L. Price Antiques Sumpter Priddy III, Inc.
James M. Kilvington, Inc. Thistlewaite Americana
James Robinson, Inc. Walker Decorative Arts
Janice Paull William R. Teresa F. Kurau
Jayne Thompson Antiques

Thank You for Your Support!

Proceeds from this year’s Delaware Antiques Show help support key educational initiatives such as free school programs, low-priced tickets for families in need through the Museums for All program, and Discover Winterthur, our free day for the community. Through your support of these important programs, we are able to share the wonder of Winterthur with thousands of schoolchildren, and our surrounding community is able to enjoy the beauty of American decorative arts and the Brandywine Valley.

Presenting Sponsor

Media Partners

The Delaware Antiques Show is sponsored in part by these media partners:

Student Scholars Sponsor

Student Scholars lectures sponsored by: