The Art and Antique Dealers League of America (AADLA) hosts the inaugural Spring Show NYC, May 3-6, with a preview party May 2. The opening night preview party takes place May 2. The oldest and principal antiques and fine arts organization in the country, the show features over 100 dealers in 80 fields of expertise.

Important Pair George III Armorial Mahogany Hall Chairs English, 1795, Michael Pashby Antiques.

The Honorary Co-chairs include Michael Bruno, Mario Buatta, David Patrick Columbia, Robert Couturier, Celerie Kemble, Edward Lobrano, Brian McCarthy, Miles Redd, Ellen and Chuck Scarborough, Michael Smith, Bunny Williams and Vicente Wolf. Connoisseur Committee Co-chairs include Amy Fine Collins, Somers and Jonathan Farkas, Hilary Geary Ross and Wilbur Ross, Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump.

Riemann Chair in Mirror Polished Stainless Steel, American, 21st century c. 2011, Edition of 10, Craig Van Den Brulle

Exhibitors will features antiquities to 21st-century works, as well as a selection of animal-themed objects at the opening night preview.  Dealers will donate a percentage of sales of the animal-related items to ASPCA. Among the 60 dealers are Kentshire Galleries, Hyde Park Antiques, Douglas Dawson, Carlton Hobbs, Mary Helen McCoy Fine Antiques, George Subkoff Antiques, Dalva Brothers, Earle Vandekar of Knightsbridge, Leo Kaplan, Questroyal Fine Art, Patrick Bavasi, O’Sullivan Antiques, L’Antiquaire & The Connoisseur, Michael Pashby, Spencer Marks, Alfred Bullard, Robert Simon Fine Art, Yew Tree Antiques, Vallin Galleries, and E&J Frankel.

Burmantofts Majolica Pottery Seashell Jardinere, circa 1880-90, Earle Vandekar of Knightsbridge Inc., White Plains, NY

Fair-goers will also enjoy the chance to get even more up-close-and-intime with those subjects through their lectures on Friday, May 4th and Saturday, May 5th. Presented by leading experts in their fields, the diverse topics cover the gamut of fine and decorative arts including Hollywood movie-set design, lady power-decorators Dorothy Draper and Elsie De Wolfe, Chinese art, and Empress Eugenie’s outré Oriental Chamber at Chateau Fontainbleau.

Friday, 3:00 - 4:00 p.m. Designs On Film: A Century Of Hollywood Art Direction. Cathy Whitlock’s lecture covers a century of cinematic set decoration, featuring highlights from every decade of Hollywood history. A slide presentation will show photographs, behind-the-scene images and designer sketches of sets from Top Hat, The Fountainhead, Gone With the Wind, The Age of Innocence, Something’s Gotta Give—and many more. Cathy Whitlock’s book Designs on Film: A Century of Hollywood Art Direction (Harper Collins, November, 2010) represents the marriage of her two passions—design and cinema. She is also a contributing writer for Traditional Home magazine and The Huffington Post, and features editor for Array Magazine. Whitlock writes the blog Cinema Style, which chronicles trends and inspirations in film, reaches 70 countries, was named one of the Top Ten Best Design Blogs of 2010 by Fox News. A graduate of Parsons School of Design and a member of the American Society of Interior Designers, Cathy has more than 24 years of experience in the interior design industry and has had practices in New York, Chicago, Memphis and Nashville.

Friday, 4:30 - 5:30 p.m. Adoption, Absorption, Assimilation: Foreign Influences In Early Chinese Art. Dr. Robert D. Mowry’s slide lecture examines China’s native artistic traditions as they developed during the Great Bronze Age (1600 B.C.– A.D. 220). Attendees will learn about the wealth of materials introduced from foreign lands via the Silk Route trade during the Han through the Tang dynasties and see how Chinese artists absorbed and assimilated these new influences. Mowry is Alan J. Dworsky Curator of Chinese Art and Head of the Department of Asian Art at the Harvard Art Museum. He is also Senior Lecturer on Chinese and Korean Art in Harvard’s Department of the History of Art and Architecture.

Saturday, 11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. Legendary Designing Women: Inventing A Profession. Emily Eerdmans discusses the history of interior decorating and how it evolved into a billion-dollar profession thanks to the seminal efforts of astute women like Elsie de Wolfe, Dorothy Draper and Madeleine Castaing. Eerdmans is a noted design historian and expert with Corfield Morris, a private art advisory. She is the author of several books, including The World of Madeleine Castaing and the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of Wendell Castle. She received her master’s degree in fine and decorative arts from Sotheby’s Institute of Art in London and is an instructor at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York.

Saturday, 3:30 - 4:30 p.m. Château De Fontainebleau: 500 Years Of Royal Taste In Architecture And Design. No French palace holds the living presence—the sweep of 500 years of French royal history—the way that Fontainebleau does. David Garrard Lowe traces its centuries-in-the-making transformation from a forested hunting ground for French kings into a magnificent royal palace in the 16th century. Tour Fontainebleau’s interiors, including Empress Eugenie’s astonishing Oriental Chamber with its rare Chinese porcelain, fine lacquer and jeweled Buddhas. Presented by French Heritage Society. Lowe is a well-known cultural historian whose articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and American Heritage. He is Chairman of Cultural Programs, New York Chapter of French Heritage Society and President of the Beaux Arts Alliance; and has lectured at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, among others.

The AADLA formed in 1942 as an outgrowth of the Antiques Dealers Luncheon Club to give the organization a wider ramification in every phase of the arts. The purpose in formatting the league was to bring the various members of the art and antiques trade closer together to promote a greater understanding among themselves and with the public, and generally to devote itself to the best interest of dealers and collectors of antiques and works of art.

Members must be established dealers whose art objects are of the highest quality and who subscribes to a high moral code of ethics regarding how the dealer conducts business so as to command the respect and confidence of its clients.