Her biggest catch was the third, Harrison H. The price is $6,500.Īctually, Mona - whose eyes of Caribbean blue and cropped silver hair led her to be dubbed the ''rock-crystal goddess'' - had five husbands. Not to mention examples of solid scholarship.īarry Friedman, a dealer in decorative arts of the mid-20th century, called Mona ''the wife of the architect of Rockefeller Center.'' Hanging in his booth is a 1933 gold-frame pencil study of Mona by Bernard Boutet de Monvel. Like beacons of hope in a sea of French-polished veneer, a few of this show's 70 dealers understand that nothing exceeds like excess, but for the most part the eye-popping items are few and far between. Or dealers who are willing to take a gamble, to stock something bizarre and pray for an adventuresome client to drop in. What antiques shows need are customers whose willingness to spend boldly inspires dealers to flush out rare fantasias. Camelback sofas can be dandy, but they are rarely what make shoppers hyperventilate.
Today's millionaires are simply not keeping up appearances, which might explain the show's emphasis on brown furniture. For the benefit of the East Side House Settlement, the show opened at the Seventh Regiment Armory on Park Avenue and 67th Street on Jan. Flaunt-happy plutocrats like her would spice up the antiques show, a once-bright exhibition that appears to be sliding into a blancmange. Too bad this avaricious sylph, best known as Mona Bismarck, is not around, checkbook ajar. During her heyday in the 1930's, a $700 million fortune insured that whatever Mona wanted, Mona got. This socialite, who died in 1983 at 86, would be the customer of any dealer's dreams. MUSES have gone out of fashion, but given the largely unsurprising wares at the 43d Winter Antiques Show, the exposition could have used a deity like Mona Strader Schlesinger Bush Williams von Bismarck de Martini.
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