NY Modern show - Balsamo

Steven and Ray are friends I met while doing Jean Sinenberg's Bridgehampton Antiques Show, that was a good ten years ago. Since then their company Balsamo has branched out into interior and garden design serving the Hamptons, NYC, Connecticut, and even Mexico.
Balsamo is described in this way on their website:
"Balsamo Antiquités and Interior Design is housed in a renovated 1837 church in the bucolic town of Pine Plains, NY — just 1 3/4 hours north of Manhattan and 20 minutes south of Hudson, NY.
Balsamo offers an eclectic mix of European 18th, 19th, and 20th century antique furnishings and accessories for the home and garden. Capture and bring home the essence of Old World
sophistication and style."
The Balsamo color pallette usually leans towards dove grey, off white, camel, but their booth at the Modern show was edited to more accurately reflect the venue. It was edgy and urban though not "expected".
The booth was dark and masculine with highlights of brushed steel. Interspersed were wood tones and opaque milk glass clock faces with appearences of galvanized tin - a nod to their mainstay of garden related objets back in the Pine Plains store.
Steve told me one of his favorite items in the booth was the huge white clock face that he said could be illuminated from behind. We both loved the distressed numbers and art deco hands.

Balsamo's collection can be seen at Balsamo.1stdibs.com
and at www.balsamoantiques.com

The NY Modern Show - Dallas Boesendahl

If you've ever been to the Modern show at the downtown Armory you surely would have noticed Dallas Baesendahl's booth at some point.
To say that Dallas is a specialist in accessories is akin to saying the Pope has something to do with religion. He's a consumate collector of everything from 1930's shagreen to neolithic Chinese Jade "bi discs", to vintage signed photographs, to 1950's to 1970's German white porcelain. Dallas Boesendahl's collection is nothing if it isn't diverse, which is why his booth at the Modern show this October stood out from the other times I have seen him. His display was stark white, crisp, focused and pristine, a real departure from the overflowing shelves of mixed merchandise that he is known for.
Dallas was busy styling his booth, filling in empty spaces on his shelves where someone had recently made a purchase, when I stopped by to chat.
About 300 - 400 vessels in various shades of white were neatly arranged on Dallas's signature tiered shelving. Some were satin, some were high gloss and others bisque.
I learned that his collection of German porcelain numbers well over a thousand, good thing since many of his designer clients of late have been buying them in groupings of 6, 12, even 40 in one fell swoop.
One of the amazing things about shopping with Dallas is that his pieces are not only unique, he often has a selection of items to choose from to form an "instant" collection.
It would take an individual months if not years to comprise a collection of even a dozen suitable specimens to present to a client, but here at the Armory Dallas had over 30 manufacturers represented.
It was fascinating to me that the manufacturers reflected the sentiments of the era, whether it was an awareness of endangered species (as evidenced by the alligator pattern on some) to the op art movement of the 1960's.
Dallas Boesendahl can be reached at 212-308-7029 , he shows by appointment only.