The Denver Antiques Show and Sale has had a variety of themes and beneficiaries in its 26-year history, and this time it transported guests to the Tuscan countryside during a three-day run at Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum.
Initially known as the Spalding Antiques Show, the fundraiser was briefly passed to the Denver Art Museum before finding a permanent home with the Central City Opera approximately a decade ago.
The job of transforming what used to be an Air Force hangar now filled with vintage aircraft fell to a creative team headed by Meg Nichols and Melanie Meyer. Like the co-chairs, committee members Kate Adams, Debbie Davis, Jane Davis, Lauren Davis, Mary Ervolina, Bonnie Grenney, Stuart Hough, Jeanne O’Shaughnessy, Nina Sisk and Suzanne White are either interior designers, members of the Garden Club of Denver, or both.
Using antique Italian fountains and columns, along with fresh floral accents, they created an entry that was straight from the pages of a travel magazine. The theme also was carried out in the vignettes that antique dealers from throughout the country used to display their wares — goods ranging from French country furniture and fine period jewelry to Alpine hunting and fishing antiques and landscape paintings.
Jodi Sorensen was the general chair, while Julie Wham and Jody Phelps were the co-chairwomen. Festivities opened with a preview party attended by such longtime supporters as Riisa and Panayes Dikeou; Barbara and Heather Knight; Marnie King; Kathy Schmidt; Pam and Dutch Bansbach; University of Colorado President Bruce Benson and his wife, Marcy; show manager Bob James; Annabel Bowlen with her designers Marc Roth and Jim Pfister; First Western Trust Bank President Louis Clinton and his wife, Sue; Hugh Hildesley, executive vice president of Sotheby’s North and South America.
Hildesley, who has been auctioneer for the estate of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, was the speaker at a luncheon held in conjunction with the benefit.
Dates to remember.
On Wednesday, the Rocky Mountain Multiple Sclerosis Center Guild plans A Delicious Evening at the Passionate Palette, 9263 E. County Line Road. Chairwomen Jeri Crater (303-570-4826) and Patty Spurway say the $50 donation includes wine, appetizers and a cooking demonstration . . . Anchors Away is the theme for the St. Mary’s Academy Gala to be held Friday night at the Donald R. Seawell Grand Ballroom. Proceeds go to the school’s tuition assistance fund . . . Also on Friday, the Raymond Wentz Foundation stages its annual wine tasting and auction at the Curtis Hotel. Tickets for the 6 p.m. event can be purchased from executive director Stephanie Hearn, 720-226-6709. Dr. David Schrier started the foundation to help decrease the daily burdens and financial struggles of area cancer patients.
