A taste of the American Wing.

New York City in mid-January is surely the best place to be for the aficionado of Americana, and this year is no exception. All the events that have been organized will provide a visual feast for those who like to admire and ample opportunity for those who like to acquire. This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Winter Antiques Show, traditionally the major fund-raising event for its beneficiary--the East Side House Settlement in the South Bronx. The proceeds of the show fund many worthy programs, including the recently established Mott Haven Village Preparatory High School, which serves teenagers living in this struggling community who aspire to a higher education. In honor of the anniversary, the exhibitors have established a new fund named the Elinor Gordon 50th Anniversary Scholarship Fund, which honors Mrs. Gordon, a dealer and expert in Chinese export porcelain and a participant in the show for each of its fifty years. The money raised will help cover the cost of tuition for college-bound students who are alumni of the preparatory programs sponsored by East Side House Settlement.

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This year the antiques show includes seventy-four antiques dealers from the United States, Canada, and Europe who are offering American, European, and Asian fine and decorative arts. The show takes place at the Seventh Regiment Armory from January 16 through January 25.

The Winter Antiques Show has traditionally incorporated a loan exhibition, which this year is a selection of about forty objects drawn from the American Wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art entitled A Celebration of The American Wing of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. It is sponsored by the Chubb Group of Insurance Companies, and includes paintings, furniture, silver, glass, and ceramics made by some of the most revered and accomplished artists and craftsmen of the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries. Among them are Ralph Earl, John Singleton Copley, John Singer Sargent, Honore Lannuier, Herter Brothers, Paul Revere, Myer Myers, Anthony Rasch, and Louis Comfort Tiffany. The objects were selected from some eighteen thousand that currently comprise the collection of the American Wing, which was established within the Metropolitan Museum in 1924.

From Monday through Friday, January 19 to 23 at 2:30 PM each day, the following members of the American Wing's curatorial staff will present a lecture that pertains to an aspect of the American collections over which he or she presides: Morrison H. Heckscher (the history of the American Wing), Alice Cooney Frelinghuysen (Louis C. Tiffany), H. Barbara Weinberg (impressionist ...