Jims of Lambertville 2022

5 INTRODUCTION R oses are red, violets are blue……Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee……Four score and seven years ago……Wait…… One score and six years ago (26 years), I opened Jim’s Antiques Ltd. at our present location in Lambertville, New Jersey. I began my glamorous career at age 12, picking through trash on my bicycle, and going to garage sales, flea markets, and auctions with my mom, who was a school teacher at the time. One could accurately say that the thrill of the hunt and discovering treasure was in my blood. At age 14, my mom and I opened a little antique shop in nearby Lahaska, PA, where we split the rent of $375 per month……she sold her stuff, and I sold mine. We were only open on weekends during the school year because she was a teacher and I was a kid. From that same age, I began selling at the Lambertville Flea Market on Sunday mornings and continued to do so well into my twenties. Fast forward a few decades later, I can still be found on any given Sunday selling my wares at the Lambertville flea market…..still in my blood, I guess. In my early twenties, I had several antique shops as I bounced back and forth to England, like a ping pong ball, shipping forty foot containers full of antiques and art every 3-4 weeks. Starting out with the name Jim’s Antiques frommy earliest days, I evolved to Jim’sAntiques Ltd. after discovering London and trying to make my business sound like it wasn’t named by a twelve year old. In 1992, through hard work and good luck, I was able to purchase a farm in Solebury, just outside of NewHope. At this time, I decided to begin collecting the paintings of Pennsylvania Impressionist/New Hope School painters. Thirty years later, I still enjoy living with them every day. It always amazes me how, in the ever-changing world we live in, this art and this small part of the world remain pretty consistent with each other. Take a drive along the Delaware River on either the PA or NJ side, and you’ll see the same peaceful beauty reflected in this art from 100+/- years ago. In 1995, I decided to establish my business in Lambertville. At the foot of the New Hope/Lambertville Bridge was the perfect spot, the old Elks Lodge. After a year of extensive renovations, I opened my flagship antiques gallery, Jim’s Antiques Ltd. As my passion for collecting Pennsylvania Impressionists art grew, I decided to open a small art gallery directly on the river across the street frommy antiques gallery. Stuck with my childhood business name, the new art gallery was named Jim’s Antiques Fine Art Gallery. We opened the doors in 1997, having our first big show of Pennsylvania Impressionist paintings being the Ray Holland collection. Ray Holland was a successful businessman who was one of the pioneer collectors of New Hope Impressionist and Modernist paintings. I purchased his collection and my new art gallery was off and running. The show to follow was called the Thrilla in Lambertvilla, of which we had twenty-nine biannually, and then annually, until Covid. I would scour the earth for as many fine examples of these paintings as I could, and when I had a big enough pile, would have the Thrilla show. This was a great opportunity for new and old collectors to see a large selection of great paintings for sale in one place, at one time. By 2004, art was much more of my business than antiques. It was also the time that three floods, in an 18 month period, submerged my art gallery 6 feet underwater. It was then that I decided to make Jim’s Antiques Ltd. exclusively an art gallery. This was also an opportunity to change the name to something a little more upscale. We became Jim’s of Lambertville (nothing to do with Frederick’s of Hollywood). In 2004, our art gallery replaced our antiques gallery and became 7,500 sq. ft. of primarily fine art. In the blink of an eye, 25 years have passed. Fortunately, we are all healthy! But due to the pandemic we have not been able to have a Thrilla show for three years. Therefore, we have a three-year accumulation of great art including the Pennsylvania Impressionist’s as well as many other genres of paintings and sculpture. I have decided to do this book celebrating our Art Gallery’s 25th anniversary in Lambertville. In addition to many works by Redfield, Garber, Spencer, Coppedge, Sotter, Baum, M. E. Price, Folinsbee, and all the rest of this group, we have works by Robert Henri, Jacob Lawrence, Harry and Val Bertoia, Milton Avery, Gershon Benjamin, William Zorach, Peter Sculthorpe, Burgoyne Diller and many other important American artists — 330 works in total illustrated in the pages to follow. We are hoping to be able to have a Thrilla show to accompany this book and celebration in the gallery……. fingers crossed…….circumstances permitting. Thank you for being our patrons and clients for all of these years. — Jim Alterman Previous page: Mary Elizabeth Price (1877–1965), Larkspur with Hollyhocks, c. 1930. Gold leaf and oil on board, 40 × 26 inches. Page 55