“Just yesterday I was talking to a dealer who has an 1890s French Revival sofa that’s 12 feet long,” says Richard Barons, executive director of the East Hampton Historical Society, which is hosting this weekend’s East Hampton Antiques Show. “He wanted to let me know that he was removing the original upholstery and redoing it in zebra—just for the Hamptons!”

That sums up the extraordinary finds at this year’s antiques show on July 21 and 22 at the historic Mulford Farm. The show focuses on furniture, artwork, and decorative pieces that “are old but have a modern beauty,” says Barons. “It’s about good, powerful graphic design—things that sing, that are so graphically interesting that you want to take them home.”

The antiques show started six years ago as a fundraiser for the East Hampton Historical Society, and last year it raised nearly $100,000. Most of the proceeds come from ticket sales for the Friday evening cocktail preview party, which is expected to attract 650 guests this year. “It’s a perfect place for people who don’t feel comfortable hobnobbing around the bar,” Barons explains. “They can talk with the dealers about the antiques. That’s why it’s so successful.”

The Hamptons’ sophisticated buying audience makes the show a favorite for dealers. Because it takes place before the prime selling season in August, some dealers will save choice pieces for the show. Some offerings this year combine artifact with design, such as a collection of burners from French gas stoves from the 1930s mounted on handmade stands. “They look like African sculptures, but close up you see can the mechanics,” says Barons. “It’s a brilliant surprise.”

Others are simply extraordinary examples of period design, such as an eight-foot-tall Victorian wooden newel post from a Newport mansion “that looks like an obelisk.” For buyers with a more practical bent, there’s an array of vintage and rattan furniture, textiles, Art Deco and Moderne furniture, garden ornaments, paintings, and other decorative items, from more than 55 respected dealers.

Tickets for the Friday night preview cocktail party (6 PM to 8:30 PM) start at $150 per person and enable return visits the following days. For tickets, please call 324-6850 or email info@easthamptonhistory.org