Here Be Old Things: Phyllis Sauter of Stonehedge Antiques mounts stealth attack on New York's Americana week

Phyllis Sauter, Stonehedge Antiques
right next door to Antiques Manhattan (this weekend only)
26 Roscommon Road, Newtown Square, PA
610-356-9636

I was walking down West 18th Street Friday night, and passed The American Antiques Show and Antiques Manhattan, when I saw a sign for . . . Antiques Show Chelsea? How had I missed that?

Inside I found Phyllis Sauter, a Pennsylvania Americana dealer, wrestling with a wine bottle opener and getting ready to siphon passing buyers from the big name shows next door. A friend owns the space, so Phyllis can set up shop without paying huge exhibition fees.

Stealth dealing. Gotta love that.

Phyllis' antiques are as worthy as any being hawked in the pricey booths next door. Harrison Ford, Martha Stewart, and Ralph Lauren have been her clients; the later decorated his home in Telluride with some of her finds. She buys only pieces in primo condition, with no repairs, and resells at a reasonable price. To illustrate that point, she pointed out six matching decorated chairs that she said would be selling for $5,000 next door, but which she had priced at $1,950.

Buyers who admire Phyllis' antiques also admire her eye, and hire her to decorate their entire houses. I admired her for something else: the fact that she brings to Americana week a little Yankee ingenuity mixed with New York chutzpah.

Phyllis Sauter shows how this big blocky table was a hired man's work surface by day, bed by night.