The Winter Antiques Show is one of the most delicious visual overindulgences on the calendar of art fairs and shows. In these belt-tightening times, the only difference this year seems to be the lack of over-the-top floral arrangements that typically characterize the annual event. Instead there were arrangements of orchids, appropriately meager by comparison, ready and able to take on future assignments once the show closes. Feast your eyes on some of the displays in the gallery of images below, and get there if you can. There's nothing like extreme luxury to lift the spirits on a windy winter day.

The Winter Antiques Show continues at the Park Avenue Armory through January 31, 2010. Park Avenue at 67th Street, New York, NY. Tickets, $20, can be purchased at the door or in advance online. Lectures presented by Historic New England, free and open to the public with admission, are on a first come, first served basis.

Row 1, left to right: Carved and polychrome wood sculpture at Peter Petrou; At Lost City Arts, a monumental dandelion sculpture created by Harry Bertoia for the Eastman Kodak Pavilion at the 1964 New York City World's Fair; cast iron elk, made around 1903 for the Elks Club in Johnston, Pennsylvania at James and Nancy Glazer. Row 2: Hans P. Kraus's installation of images by the British inventor of photography William Henry Fox Talbot; Elle Shushan created a room that echoes the home of a wealthy 18^th-century Bostonian; folk art at Robert Young Antiques. Row 3: A view down the north aisle; tribal arts at Donald Ellis Gallery Ltd.; trade signs and a portrait at Suzanne Courcier | Robert W. Wilkins. Photos: Peggy Roalf

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