Martha Stewart stops by Jim Klinko’s ‘Giant Tent Sale’
When Jim Klinko was planning a three-day tent sale for his furniture consignment business, he called an old friend: Martha Stewart.
“I said, ‘I'm doing a sale.' I'll usually call her up and say, ‘I think you'd be interested in what I have.' We have that kind of connection,” he said. “And she thought it was great, and she loved it.”
The celebrity businesswoman stopped by Furniture on Consignment II in Westport on Friday for its Great Tent Sale, which took place from Friday to Sunday.
Klinko, a Weston native and antiques dealer, has run the business for 40 years selling high-end jewelry, furniture and home decor.
“I do enjoy helping people out. I enjoy helping people decorate and choose what goes well with their lifestyle,” he said.
The Great Tent Sale offers decorative items consigned by a retiring party planner that people can use for the holidays, including vases, bulbs of Amaryllis and paperwhites, Klinko said. Stewart bought decorative boxes and silver compotes, he said. Klinko and Stewart recently worked together for her TV special “The Great American Tag Sale,” in which she sold thousands of personal items from her estate in Westchester, N.Y. Klinko was one of the event's several appraisers and was part of a trio of experts with Frank Kamisky and Vincent Manzo. The two have been friends since 1993, when Klinko opened a store near her former home in Westport. Klinko was featured on Stewart's 1995 Christmas Special “Home for the Holidays” and conducted an
estate sale for her brother-inlaw's Weston home in 2012. In 2021, he gifted Stewart an iron horse head for her stables, which she described on social media as the “best present this Christmas.”
In October, Stewart visited Klinko's estate sale in Redding. Klinko said Stewart will sometimes take time out of her busy schedule and visit his sales when she's in the neighborhood. “I'll just give her a heads up. Most of the time, I'll send pictures because it's just easier that way for her and then we go from there,” he said.
Other celebrities who have visited the business include Diana Ross, Joanna Gleason, Anne Hathaway and Andy Rooney, Klinko said. However, out of all of them, Stewart is his favorite. “She's been very good to me,” he said. “She always supports small businesses and has supported me over the years. And I'm grateful for that.”