Morris Offit loves watching people enter the offices of his New York wealth-management firm, Offit Capital Advisors, which is filled with antique American flags. "People are overwhelmed," he says. The flags get people talking—and, in some cases, buying their own.
American flag waving may be a centuries-old tradition, but flag collecting - especially of those with unusual configurations or interesting variations - started hitting its stride in the last two decades.
And then came 9/11.
ASPEN — Since 1998, Jeff Bridgman has been learning about a unique niche in American history one stitch at a time.
The antique dealer who specializes in Americana and folk art was captivated when he saw two antique, hand-sewn American flags at a show 13 years ago. Their beauty and the history behind them opened a world that he hadn't explored before.
Considering Jasper Johns’ “Flag” painting from the ’60s just sold for $28.6 million, the real stuff is a steal — especially when it dates back to the Civil War.
Flags and folk art in nearly every medium are on parade in “Seeing Stars: Politics and Patriotism,” a quirky little show at the Union League Club of New York. Dating from 1837 to 1944, the pieces are priced from $185 to $250,000 — and every one, says antiques dealer Jeff Bridgman, has a story.
NEW YORK—Jeff R. Bridgman is a leading expert and dealer of historic American flags and political textiles. He has attracted big name clients such as Ralph Lauren, Martha Stewart, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Barbara Streisand, who bought flags as gifts for Bill Clinton and Bill Gates.
Something weird happened to Jeff Bridgman and his business in 2008—in fact, two weird things. In the midst of a global economic collapse, he had his best year ever, and in December, he made a large sale to a Democrat. "To the best of my knowledge, it was the first time I'd ever made a major sale to a Democrat.....
Much of what we believe about the American flag and its history is not true, or so claims Jeff Bridgman, an antiques dealer in the rural Pennsylvania town of Dillsburg, near Gettysburg, who specializes in vintage examples of Old Glory. He says, for example, that Betsy Ross probably did not create the first American flag, and that Francis Hopkinson, a New Jersey signer of the Declaration of Independence, is a likelier candidate because in 1780 he billed the government for designing the flag and other patriotic emblems.
OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLA. - The Oklahoma City Police Department, working with a noted antiques expert on American flags and a local auction house recovered nearly 100 percent of the antiques that had been stolen from auctioneers Livingston Estate Services in mid-December. Valued at $30,000, the consigned items stolen in an apparent inside burglary included a very rare eight-stripe, 19-star American flag dating back to the early Nineteenth Century, a rare Shepard Hardware picture gallery mechanical bank from 1885, an Emerson Mickey Mouse radio, a large Lalique Bacchantes vase, six small statues, and six gold coins.
When it comes to dealers of antique American flags, there is no name in the business as recognizable as Jeff Bridgman. He is, simply put, a dealer’s dealer. He travels like a madman, tirelessly, setting up his stylish displays at antique shows across the nation, tracking down and acquiring superb examples of Old Glory...
For the entirety of my adult experience in collecting and selling antiques, painted American furniture in original or early surface has been my first love. Nothing peaks my attention like a fantastic set of Pennsylvania decorated chairs in rare salmon paint, or a chrome yellow blanket box with salmon pinwheel sponging, or, better yet, a Mahantango Valley chest with birds, angels, and tulips on the drawer-fronts and styles.
Jeff R. Bridgman Antiques, Inc • Historic York County, Pennsylvania • Tel. 717-502-1281 or 717-676-0545 • info@jeffbridgman.com All images and Text © Jeff Bridgman 2001 - 2015 |