Bill Bertolet, longtime Pine Street antiques dealer and English furniture expert, has died at 87

Bill Bertolet, 87, of Philadelphia, longtime Pine Street antiques dealer, English furniture expert, amateur archaeologist, and Center City civic booster, died Saturday, April 27, of age-associated decline at his home.

Fascinated throughout his life with shape, color, craftsmanship, and tradition, Mr. Bertolet bought and sold 18th- and early-19th-century chairs, tables, cabinets, chests, desks, bureaus, sideboards, mirrors, and other English furniture and accessories for more than 50 years. From the 1960s, when he bought the store from its retiring founder, until his retirement in 2014, Mr. Bertolet was a fixture at Alfred Bullard Inc., 1604 Pine St., Philadelphia.

He was known by colleagues and buyers for his meticulous research and deep knowledge of oak Welsh dressers, Regency sideboards, and George III mahogany chests, and his long list of discerning clients included Vladimir Horowitz, David Rockefeller, Oprah Winfrey, John Kerry, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. He told The Inquirer in 1999: “A lot of the things we sell are useful antiques for the dining room.”

In 2014, antiques authority Chris Jussel described Mr. Bertolet’s inventory as “English furniture at its best: each carefully selected piece with a purity of form, a purity of design, a purity of scale. … Bill is well known and admired for his great eye and taste.”

Mr. Bertolet studied art history and archaeology at Haverford College and the University of Pennsylvania in the 1950s, and became an expert in the value and design of English furniture. He traveled the world for decades, selling his collection and consulting with other experts at dozens of antique shows in Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Atlanta, Cincinnati, Cleveland, and elsewhere.

He was featured at shows in London and was a fixture at the famous Winter Antiques Show at the Seventh Regiment Armory on Manhattan’s East Side. “More people are buying English furniture as an investment,” he told The Inquirer in 1980. In 1996, he marveled that three of his best sales in New York that year were to fellow Philadelphians.

His modest three-story brick-front shop near the corner of 16th and Pine Streets was a destination for other serious buyers from around the world. Inquirer antiques writer Lita Solis-Cohen responded to questions from her readers in the 1970s, and Mr. Bertolet was her go-to expert evaluator.

“Bill was one of the great gentlemen of the antiques trade,” Jussel said. “He was a great source for all people who liked English furniture.”

Mr. Bertolet also enjoyed archaeology, and he arranged to go on several digs to the Middle East and serve as a photographer on one trip to Egypt to view artifacts from the tomb of Tutankhamun. “His professional and social relationships meant a lot to him,” said his sister, Mary. “He was gentle, reserved, and intellectual.”

William Cook Bertolet was born July 3, 1936, in Reading. He was social, creative, and energetic as a boy, and he used opera music as the soundtrack for the handmade puppet shows he performed for his family.

He was interested in art and architecture, and, with a feel for arrangement, nearly became a stage set designer after high school. Instead, he earned a bachelor’s degree at Haverford and a master’s degree at Penn, dived into the world of rare furniture, and bought the Pine Street antique business from Bullard.

Mr. Bertolet lived on 18th Street and was active with the Friends of Rittenhouse Square for years. He especially enjoyed planning — and attending — its Ball in the Square celebration and told friends he considered himself part of the neighborhood’s “old guard.”

He advised friends freely on their antique purchases, loved opera, and spent many nights in New York at the Metropolitan Opera House. He was popular at parties and charity galas, and supported the Andalusia historic house and other local landmarks.

He liked to host dinner parties, and his smile, sharp wit, and dry humor caught some visitors off guard, family and friends said. “Bill was a serious person with a serious presentation but with a unique sense of humor with the people he knew well,” friend and fellow antiques dealer Ricky Goytizolo said in an online tribute.

Longtime friend and neighbor Patricia Royston said: “Bill was a gentleman’s gentleman of the old school. He valued manners and gentle kindness.”

In addition to his sister, Mr. Bertolet is survived by a brother, John, and other relatives. A brother died earlier.

He requested that no services be held.

Donations in his name may be made to the Andalusia Foundation, Box 158, Andalusia, Pa. 19020; and Friends of Rittenhouse Square, 201 S. 18th St., Unit 411, Philadelphia, Pa. 19103.