ANTIQUES

A HAMPTONS ANTIQUES VETERAN SETS HIS SIGHTS ON INTERNATIONAL PIECES

The advantage of shopping with an interior designer with a sharp eye is that he can cut to the chase before even entering a shop. With Berns Fry, a former co-owner of Gray Gardens Antiques in Bridgehampton, one has the added benefit of being with an insider. "These are probably four of the best shops out here at the moment," says Fry at the start of our shopping excursion. He is on a constant antiques prowl now that he's working in the office of interior designer Campion Platt.

"I'm thrilled that two great friends have set up shop again," Fry says, referring to Sharone Einhorne and Honey Wolters, who have opened Ruby Beets Old & New in Sag Harbor. "And it's better than ever." We're stopped by a pair of plaster legs that somehow make the otherwise lanky Fry seem small. The legs in question are 19th-century casts of an ancient Greek statue found at the temple of Apollo at Olympia. At the time they were made, museums like the Metropolitan—where the legs came from via the Sotheby's sale last February—collected such objects to use as teaching aids and to expand their fledgling collections. "I do love classical pieces, and the plaster finish and color is excellent. What environment wouldn't this piece work in? You could see it in a David Hicks or Billy Baldwin room in a minute, or even an over-the-top Italianate villa." In addition to the antiques in the shop, Ruby Beets also has contemporary objects including great creamy dinnerware from Boch, a Belgian company founded in 1841, and simple chunky crystal from the Danish manufacturer Holmegaarde. (25 Washington St., Sag Harbor, 631-899-3275)