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When our parents, the late Charles and Olenka Santore, married in 1963, what they embarked on was not only six decades of mutual devotion, but also a shared love of early American furniture and folk art. As our father wrote in the foreword of his acclaimed “Windsor Style in America”, it all began with the challenging task of furnishing their first apartment. Having the good fortune of living and working near a Philadelphia auction house and seeking an alternative to the era’s modern interior aesthetics, they decided to decorate with a sense of history and posterity.

This was not surprising given their own origins. Our father, from a working-class Italian neighborhood in South Philadelphia, grew up playing in the then scarcely supervised chambers of Independence Hall. Our mother spent her childhood in European displaced-persons camps in the wake of the Second World War, with the few possessions that could be carried while escaping the Soviet occupation of Western Ukraine. The decision to collect Americana was evidence of a deep admiration for the country that offered their families refuge and new opportunities. And indeed, the paths of our parents’ professional careers – our father’s as an illustrator who achieved early recognition for his abilities and our mother’s in fashion as a successful model – further informed their shared eye and aesthetic. Later, our mother’s second career as a well-respected realtor, during which she saw hundreds if not thousands of stately Philadelphia homes, provided additional reference. All of these factors ultimately guided the choices our parents made in cultivating their collection.

More than a just a collection, it became both the backdrop and the fabric of their life together, and as we progressively entered it, the same held true for us kids. For the furniture and objects were not things to be merely displayed but used and enjoyed. Even before our earliest memories, we sat in the same Windsor high chair, as eventually did our own children. As we grew up, full-size Windsor chairs later awaited us at an 18th century dining table, where countless family meals were served and birthday parties and holidays celebrated. Tall case clocks, which our father wound daily, dutifully kept time while the glass-paned cupboards kept redware, curiosa, and family memorabilia safe and always in sight. We slept soundly under jacquard coverlets, and played carefully yet effortlessly among the ever-increasing number of chairs, tables, stools, and objects of considerable age and quality, while admonishing playmates who visited us to watch out for surfaces and not stand on stretchers. American history was always within reach and in our imaginations, inspiring our childhood games, costume choices and interests.

Being raised among our parents’ antiques imparted an inherent respect for them, also because we were often party to their acquisition, and every item seemed to be accompanied by a story if not an adventure. Most Sundays involved a family outing to an auction house, antique shop or market. At a tender age, we came to know the key hunting grounds in Philadelphia and beyond – from Antiques Row to Bucks County to the Pennsylvania Dutch Country. In fact, “fraktur” was undoubtedly our first Germanic word and Park-Bernet (now Sotheby’s), frequently heard, also became a familiar term.

This may all sound somewhat rarefied, but to us it was perfectly normal. Just as it was when our father published “The Windsor Style in America”; living among dozens of American Windsor chairs for so long, it seemed natural for him to write and illustrate a book about them. Of course, our young selves were not yet able to fully grasp his increasing stature in the Americana community. But as our parent’s collection grew and evolved, and we with it, we came to understand how our father’s commitment to his own craft and his uncompromising eye shaped the collection’s singularity – and why our mother’s impeccable taste and unobtrusive influence was equally important. Despite all of his expertise, our father always consulted our mother when acquiring, or even arranging, anything. Their collection was a true collaboration and labor of love, and truly became one of a lifetime.

Additions and adjustments to the collection were, of course, inevitable over the course of the nearly 60 years of our parents’ passionate pursuit; more recently, the Bieber chest, the Virginville birds, the Moravian fish flask, the Indian Princess, to name only a few of the iconic items. As adults, at which point our own relationship to the collection shifted, visits to our family home involved a review of such curatorial changes, whether a new find or divestment, or simply a change of placement in the house.

Many of the items in the collection – decoys, eagles, barber poles, paintings, chairs, chests, tables, weathervanes, trade signs, ceramics, among so many others – have been with our family for more than a generation. Yet we appreciate that the circular antiques ecosphere is what enabled our parents to create the outstanding collection they lived with and loved throughout their lives, as well as the unique environment and memorable experiences that they – and it – provided us. We will always treasure these and forever be grateful. Though we have the highest regard and fondness for our parents’ vision and legacy, we feel that the time has come for these treasures to find their way into new families, homes, and collections. May they inspire you as they have us. And may they enrich your future memories as they have ours.

Christina, Charles and Nicholas Santore