This story begins well before dawn. 4 am signaled the close of the night club where I worked and the start of my next job sourcing antiques at the NYC flea market. But this particular early morning happened on a Wednesday and I wasn’t in New York, but rather Lambertville, NJ.

Dew coated the tables set up neatly in rows at the Golden Nugget flea market. Making my way along them with the light from my cell phone I came across a dealer just beginning to unpack. This is that special moment when the merchandise is just about to hit the table and if it was good, then it would surely be snapped up before the dew could touch it. I saw one of the dioramas in the hand of the dealer. “Could I see that please?”, I yelled out before anyone else. She informed me that it was actually one of a pair. Even better I thought, though I had no idea what I was looking at.



With both now firmly in my grasp I examined the frames first, but you could’ve guessed that. A couple of Victorian era paint decorated frames which helped to date them to the late 1800’s or early 1900’s. It’s always good to have a starting point. Now came the fun part. What where they? And maybe more importantly, why were they? The what was a pair of hand colored paper cut out dioramas depicting various animals from the continent of Africa. The why was still elusive.



Maybe they were created to remember a holiday spent abroad? Maybe they were the fantastical creations of a zoologist? Maybe they were simply incredible and had to be bought? I went with option 3. It wasn’t till well after sunrise, and a few more coffees, that I actually had a good look at them. They were wonderful. Back home, I packed them securely for the High Point Market show. I placed them on the back wall of my booth among several other pieces.





They were spotted immediately by a well known New York City interior designer and they are now in her residence on Central Park South. Dr. Seuss said it best, “Oh, the places you’ll go” ;-) hkv