Photographs by Chad Holder
Home Entrance
Antiques dealer Robert Riesberg and his wife, Christine Hartman, greet visitors at the front entrance to their 1925 Federal-style home in Sunfish Lake
The eye can’t help but travel walking through the storied rooms of Robert Riesberg and Christine Hartman’s Sunfish Lake home. Furnished with museum-quality antiques, art, objects, and rugs, the Federal-style house is at once both emphatically traditional and warmly welcoming.
Riesberg, a private antiques dealer, has owned the property for decades. In what is now a commonplace arrangement for many, the house is both his residence and his workplace—a gallery for by-appointment-only clients. He’s well versed in the provenance of every item in the house but waits for cues from guests before offering details. “People gravitate to certain objects for a variety of reasons. They have an emotional response that’s exciting for them. That feeling is often how collecting begins,” he says.
That enthusiasm has served Riesberg for more than 50 years buying and selling 17th-, 18th-, and early 19th-century antiques to local and international clients. Another secret? “We only buy pieces we would like to keep ourselves,” he says with a grin.
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Front Parlor
The home has a series of formal rooms, including a front parlor (this photo) featuring a mahogany drum table and sideboard and a cherry New England flip-top secretary desk circa 1760. The walls are painted in Benjamin Moore’s Rosy Apple.
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Formal Dining
Riesberg added this light-filled formal dining room and gallery to the house. The couple uses it for parties and family get-togethers. A pair of French Louis XV rococo console tables topped with rare brèche d’alep marble circa 1760 seem to float along one wall.
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Home Exterior
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Kitchen Chairs
The kitchen is the least formal space in the house, yet it’s beautifully appointed with Windsor chairs from the 18th Century.
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Kitchen Stove and Tiles
Delft tiles with manganese figures from the 18th century.
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Closet Bar
A small closet was cleverly converted into a walk-in bar with a Dutch door.
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Sunroom Chair
The sunporch opens to a grape arbor alongside the property.
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Fireplace
The fireplace mantel and paneling were designed from patterns from Connecticut fireplaces. Blue-and-white 18th-century Delftware form a pretty symmetry on the mantel.
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Central Hallway
Hartman modeled the ash and walnut flooring in the central hallway after traditional French parquetry. The space also features 19th-century oil landscapes, a late 18th-century portrait, and a Regency commode (dresser) circa 1710.
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Sunporch Table
The sunporch with terrazzo floors at the back of the house features more Delftware filling the shelves that frame windows.
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Study
Riesberg designed his Connecticut-inspired study with millwork painted in a custom shade of green. The library shelves contain part of the couple’s extensive collection of books and catalogs on antiques, art, landscaping, and architecture.
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Ledger
Riesberg’s shipping ledger.
Robert Riesberg and Christine Hartman share five tips for buying and living with antiques.
Discover Your Taste
Visit museums, antiques shops, libraries, and online sites to look, then start building a file of what you like. Dig further into areas of interest—paintings, decorative objects, furniture styles. Don’t overlook reputable dealers, most of whom are happy to share their knowledge.
Take Inventory
For people who would like to incorporate antiques in their home but are unsure where to start, Riesberg recommends going room by room, or one room at a time, and removing “the least of the things”—furniture, art, and objects that aren’t special, functional, or otherwise right, including family pieces that aren’t your taste. Then you know where the gaps are and can look for the piece that should be there.
Broaden Your Scope
At one time, antiques aficionados held the ideal of furnishing a room entirely with a singular period—for example, a Louis XVI bedroom or Chippendale dining room. It was an easily understood formula, but that method is less common today. “If you have more contemporary furnishings and art, you might mix in a gem of an antique,” says Riesberg. “And that’s what makes a space beautiful—because it reflects your taste and personality,” adds Hartman.
Know Your Stuff
Riesberg focuses on antiques made by hand before the machine age. “I draw the line at about 1840.” He’s quick to point out that there were fine pieces made after that, but they’re generally reproductions and constructed with machine tools, which affect specific design details. He recommends taking time to understand how things were designed and made to appreciate relative values.
Take it Slow
Building a collection and creating a stylish home take time and pay off with pieces that will be appreciated for a long time. “You’re better off with one great thing of beauty,” Riesberg says, “than a sea of mediocrity. All beautiful homes are built in stages.”
