back story
collecting redux • Antiques hold a special place in Cecily
Colburn’s heart. “Growing up,” she says, “my parents enjoyed
mixing them with, say, some really cool piece of modern furniture,
like a Lucite chair. It was a stimulating environment. Magical.”
She hopes to create something similar at the venerable Ellis
Antiques Show, of which she is chairwoman. Don’t panic. Her idea
of mixing things up at the show, which Bostonians have come to
know as simply The Ellis, doesn’t go as far as it does in her Beacon
Hill town house, where a Luc Leestemaker abstract landscape
shares space with 18th-century Italian sconces and two
Biedermeier tables.
But the 49th Ellis Antiques Show ( ellisantiques.com), October
31 to November 2 at The Castle at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel &
Towers, will boast its first vintage photography dealer. Colburn
searched nationwide to find the best, only to learn he lives in her
backyard: Mack Lee of Lee Gallery in Winchester, Massachusetts.
Net proceeds from the show benefit Ellis Memorial & Eldredge
House, a social services agency in Boston’s South End, and the
Whittier Street Health Center, an outreach clinic in Boston’s
Roxbury neighborhood.
This is Colburn’s third year as chair, a full-time volunteer job.
She’s also the mother of three and has three parrots and a dog. “I
like to be busy,” she says with a laugh.
A new to-do on Colburn’s list? Drawing newcomers with the
young collector’s night on Saturday (complete with a jumping jazz
band) and revamping the show’s Web presence. But while some
things change, one thing remains constant: the famed oyster bar
on opening night. — barbara f. meltz
The 1880s Japanese screen in
Cecily Colburn’s living room
has special meaning. “My
husband sent me a letter
describing it,” she says. “He
wrote, ‘Don’t you think this
would be pretty in a house
someday?’ It was my first hint
that he wanted to marry me.”
Photograph by DAVE HENDERSON