Ronald Bourgeault
Founder and Principal of Northeast Auctions
Mr. Bourgeault is owner of Northeast Auctions of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. His primary business is the auctioning and appraising of fine arts including paintings, prints and sculpture, and all categories of decorative arts including furniture, silver, rugs and carpets, ceramics, glass and metal wares.
Northeast Auctions holds five to seven major weekend sales annually, each with an illustrated catalogue. Smaller general estate auctions are held throughout the year. In addition to several sales which are exclusively devoted to Americana, the annual Marine and China Trade Sale in August attracts international interest.
At twenty-three, he was the youngest exhibitor at the preeminent Eastside Winter Antiques Show at the Armory in New York. For thirty-five years he has been professionally engaged in the business as an antiques dealer and auctioneer and is a member of the Appraisers Association of America, a member of the National Auctioneers Association, and a member of the New Hampshire Antiques Dealers Association.
Mr. Bourgeault serves as a consultant to several not for profit organizations and advises individual collectors as well. Annually he conducts numerous auctions, visits antiques shows, and other auction houses and galleries to discover buying trends and market conditions. Mr. Bourgeault regularly appears on The Antiques Roadshow, WGBH, Boston. He lectures throughout the country at museums, forums and historical associations and appraisal conferences.
Helaine Fendelman, AAA
We are pleased to add Helaine Fendelman to our growing list of contributors. Mrs. Fendelman is a certified member and past President of the Appraisers Association of America, Inc. For 15 years she was a partner in Fendelman & Schwartz, a fine arts, antiques and household personal property appraisal and sales firm, and is currently an instructor at the Appraisal Institute at NYU.
Besides writing a feature column, "What Is It…What Is It Worth?", for Country Living Magazine , among the many books she has written are Price It Yourself, Treasures in Your Attic; All About Appraising: The Definitive Appraisal Handbook; Silent Companion: Dummy Board Figures of the 17th through 19th Centuries. She is co-host of a PBS television affiliate program, "Treasures In Your Attic" and is a frequent guest appraiser on national television and radio.
Wendell Garrett
We are pleased to present a continuing series of articles by Mr. Garrett, a regular contributor on the Sack Heritage Group website, dealing with many aspects of the decorative arts
Mr. Garrett, presently Consultant of Americana at Sotheby’s and Editor-at-Large of The Magazine Antiques, received a B.A. in American History from UCLA and his M.A. from the University of Delaware Winterthur Program in Early American Culture. He subsequently continued his graduate work in American History at Harvard University.
In 1959, Mr. Garrett joined the staff of the Adams Papers at the Massachusetts Historical Society where was the Assistant Editor of the Diary and Autobiography of John Adams (4 vols.) and Associate Editor of the first two volumes of Adams Family Correspondence. In 1965, he discovered the earliest diary of John Adams at the Vermont Historical Society and edited it for publication by Harvard University Press. In 1966, he joined the staff of The Magazine Antiques, where he was ultimately made Editor and Publisher. From 1987 to 1993, Mr. Garrett served as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation (Monticello) and is currently Secretary of the Royal Oak Foundation. In October, 1994, he was awarded the Henry Francis du Pont Award for distinguished contribution to the American arts.
Wendell Garrett is the author of Apthorp House, 1760-1960 and Thomas Jefferson Redivius. He is co-author of The Arts in Early American History and The Arts in America: The Nineteenth Century, Classic America: The Federal Style & Beyond (1992), Victorian America: Classical Romanticism to Gilded Opulence (1993), and Monticello and the Legacy of Thomas Jefferson (1994) and Classic America (1995). Most recently, Mr. Garret co-authored the book, American Home: From Colonial Simplicity to the Modern Adventure (2001).
Prof. Jacob Judd
Jacob (Jack) Judd, Professor Emeritus of History at Herbert H. Lehman College and The Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York, has joined our growing list of contributors.
Professor Judd received his B.A., M.A., and Ph D., from New York University and is former Chair of the History Department of Lehman College where he was also Acting Dean of Arts and Humanities. Author of numerous articles on early New York History, Prof. Judd wrote the 4-Volume, The Van Cortlandt Family of Cortlandt Manor (Sleepy Hollow Press, 1976-1986). In 1998, he published COLONIAL AMERICA: A Basic History (Anvils Series, Krieger Publishing). Having taught New York City and New York State History for over 35 years, Prof. Judd was also a staff member and then Research Consultant to Sleepy Hollow Restorations (Sleepy Hollow, N. Y.), 1956-86, the predecessor to Historic Hudson Valley. In addition to editing a series of books on the American Economy, New York Governors, New York in the Colonial and Early National Periods, he was liaison from Columbia University Seminar on Early American History and Culture to the Christen Lecture Series at Manhattan College.
Milo M. Naeve
Milo M. Naeve is Field-McCormick Curator Emeritus of American Arts at the Art Institute of Chicago. Mr. Naeve frequently lectures in the United States and in England. He is the author of catalogue essays, articles, and his several books include The Classical Presence in American Arts (The Art Institute of Chicago, 1978), John Lewis Krimmel: An Artist in Federal America (University of Delaware, 1987), and Identifying American Furniture, editions of 1981, 1989, 1998.
Mr. Naeve began his career at Winterthur, administered the Department of Collections at Colonial Williamsburg, directed the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, and administered the American arts at the Art Institute of Chicago from 1975 to 1991. Among his honors, he is on the editorial board of The American Art Journal and received The Decorative Arts Society award for The Most Distinguished Article Published in the Decorative Arts in 1996. Abroad, he is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts for his contribution to studies of the English background of the American arts.
Geri Rosenzweig
Geri Rosenzweig was born and grew up in Ireland where she worked as an RN before coming to New York. Her poems have been published in such journals as The Annals of Internal Medicine, BBC Wildlife Magazine (Poet of the Year Award 2000), Poetry International, Christian Science Monitor, Voices Israel, (Rueben Rose Poetry Award).
Books:
Half The Story, March St. Press
God Is Not Talking, Pudding House Press
Albert Sack
After leaving the University of Pennsylvania in 1934, Albert Sack joined his brother Harold and their father Israel , to enhance the firm of Israel Sack, Inc. During WW II, he served in the US Army as a 1st Lieutenant, and then rejoined the firm in New York City in 1945. In 1953, he was highlighted in the July 27 th issue of Life Magazine , in the article entitled "Zeke the Seeker", about his close friend Zeke Liverant. In 1950, he wrote Fine Points of Furniture - Early American , (Crown Publishers, Inc.) which became better known as "Good, Better, Best", the bible for new collectors, selling over one hundred twenty-five thousand copies. In 1993, Crown published his follow up, The New Fine Points of Furniture – Early American, adding the categories of Superior and Masterpiece, with new illustrations, but following the same basic premise.
Albert has appraised in whole, or in part, the collections in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Yale Art Gallery, Winterthur Museum, Bayou Bend Museum as well as the Henry Ford Museum. Together with his brothers, Harold and Robert, he is responsible for galleries in the American Wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in memory of their father, Israel; in the Art Institute of Chicago, the Hood Museum at Dartmouth and the Lobby of the Administration Building at New England College. In March, 1996, together with Harold and Robert (and posthumously to their father Israel), the firm was presented with The Henry Francis Du Pont Award for "outstanding contribution to the American Arts".
After the death of their brother Harold, Albert assumed the position of President of Israel Sack, Inc., till they closed their doors in January of 2002.. When the firm of Israel Sack, Inc., closed in January, 2002, Albert started a new career with Northeast Auctions, in Portsmouth , New Hampshire . Albert's deep appreciation for the achievements of early American furniture craftsmen keeps him continuing in his chosen career, and his developed eye for quality, continues to lead him to some of his observations into print.
Robert M. Sack
Robert Sack, former Vice President of the prestigious firm of Israel Sack, Inc., pre-eminent dealers in the field of American Antiques, graduated college in 1951, and joined his brothers, Harold and Albert, in the family firm in 1952. Always looking to further the Arts, Robert and his brothers are responsible for galleries in the American Wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art; in the Art Institute of Chicago, the Hood Museum at Dartmouth and the Lobby of the Administration Building at New England College. Robert has been a long-time board member of the NAWCC Museum in Columbia, Pennsylvania and the Willard House Museum, in Grafton, Massachusetts.
In March, 1996, together with Harold and Albert (and posthumously to their father Israel), the firm was presented with The Henry Francis Du Pont Award for "outstanding contribution to the American Arts".
In an effort to continue as part of the Arts community, Robert, together with his wife and daughters, have embarked on the new venture of an Arts website.
Gail Fitzgerald Serfaty
Director, Diplomatic Reception Rooms, Department of State and Curator, The Blair House
Gail F. Serfaty was appointed Director of the Diplomatic Reception Rooms, Department of State and Curator of the Blair House in 1995. The Diplomatic Reception Rooms, a suite of rooms in which The Secretary of State, Vice President, and Members of Cabinet entertain official guests, are furnished with an outstanding collection of American fine and decorative arts of the 18th and early 19th centuries. The Blair House, constructed in 1824, is presently a four building complex used as the official guest house of the President of the United States. This is a historic house, containing a collection of fine furnishings many with associations to the Blair House and Blair Lee families. Mrs. Serfaty is responsible for the management and preservation of both collections.
Over the years, Mrs. Serfaty, who served as Acting Curator from January - October 1992, was involved in all aspects of fund-raising for the development of a collection acquired entirely with private funds and currently valued at $100,000,000. Associate Curator of the Diplomatic Reception Rooms since 1972, she has worked closely with the Fine Arts Committee, a source of major gifts and financial contributions. As the collection grew in size and in value, Mrs. Serfaty assumed primary responsibility for such special projects as the architectural transformation of The James Monroe and James Madison Rooms, The Offices of the Secretary and Deputy Secretaries of State, The Benjamin Franklin State Dining Room, and The Seventh Floor Treaty Room Suite.
Mrs. Serfaty coordinated a television documentary for public television, "America's Heritage," which was aired in 1990; as well as a major book, Treasures of State, which was published by Abrams Press in 1991. Her most recent project is the traveling exhibition "Becoming a Nation - Americana from the Diplomatic Reception Rooms" The 170 outstanding works of art in the exhibition provide a unique window on the formative years of American History - those decades preceding and following the American Revolution. In addition to organizing the exhibition, she contributed greatly to the accompanying catalogue and video documentary.
Mrs. Serfaty has served as a consultant to the American Embassy, Argentina, and the Canadian Government. She has lectured extensively both in the United States and abroad on the collection.
For her work, Mrs. Serfaty has received numerous Awards and Commendations from the Department of State.
A graduate of Mount Vernon College, Washington, D.C., where she majored in Languages and Art, Mrs. Serfaty is a long-time resident of Washington, D.C. She has served as Chairman, Friends of the Corcoran Gallery of Art, and President, Washington Friends of American Ballet Theatre, among other civic activities. She serves on the Board of the Cancer Prevention and Research Foundation of America and the Woodrow Wilson House.
Mrs. Serfaty is the daughter of an American Foreign Service Officer. She attended school in Tunisia, Malta, Belgium, Egypt, and Argentina. She is fluent in French and Spanish. She is married to Dr. Simon Serfaty, Director of European Studies, Center for Strategic and International Studies and Professor of International Relations, Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. They have a son, Alexis.
