Collectibles

After David and Lee Ann Lester sold their art fair business, Art Miami, in 1991, they spent a year and a half cruising on their 94-foot Ferretti motor yacht. That's when they got the idea for a fl oating art gallery.

The couple lined up big-name fi nancial backers, including CAT Financial Services Corp. Now they're set to launch the 228-foot, $20-million Grand Luxe yacht, which will set sail this spring from Miami hawking a gallery of fine art, gems, jewels and antiques. It will stop at carefully chosen ports in affl uent communities on the East Coast, with Greenwich, Conn., its fi rst destination. Potential art buyers can tour the gallery, sip champagne or enjoy a gourmet meal at one of two restaurants on board -- by invitation only.

While the money crowd has done the galleries and art fairs, SeaFair offers something completely different, says the Naples couple. It combines the social/ shopping experience with luxurious trappings. "It's been received very enthusiastically, beyond our best expectations," says David Lester. Collectors have been requesting boarding passes almost a year out. Between 60 to 80 dealers have signed on.

David and Lee Ann Lester

If all goes well, additional ships will set sail, each with a different theme: Furnishings, motorcycles, couture fashion or Italian products.

ART SAIL
PRINCIPALS:
David and Lee Ann Lester, Expoships, Bonita Beach

YACHT DESIGNER:
Luiz De Basto, Miami

NAVAL ARCHITECTS:
Dejong & Lebet, Jacksonville

COLLECTIBLE: Medicine Bottles
› JIM DAVIS
Attorney, Gunster & Yoakley,
Fort Lauderdale

In the 1950s, Jim Davis' uncle operated one of the fi rst dive shops in the Florida Keys. Once in a while his uncle would fi nd old medicine bottles -- some still unopened -- that had washed up in the mangroves. So he started collecting them.

The collection piqued Davis' interest. During his college years, Davis started to pick up medicine bottles at antiques stores, spending his lunch money to buy them. Today, he's collected more than 500, one dating back to 1854 and some costing up to $2,000. He has them on display in an antique mahogany apothecary case in his living room.

The variety of medicines is fascinating, says Davis. "Everyone had their own concoction, like the ones you saw on TV being sold off the back of wagon trains." The medicines contained "cures" for all sorts of maladies from women's problems, to stomach ailments, liniments for muscle aches and the paradoxical cigarette cure for asthmatics.

Some of the bottles are works of art, with hand-blown glass in amber, light green or teal and colorful artwork hand-painted on the labels. Davis estimates his collection could be worth $50,000, but it's the historical value that's most important to him. "I've got a fi duciary duty to preserve these pieces of history," he says.

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