The Magazine Antiques

Posted 03/11/13

The hidden face of the Civil War

The images presented here, selected especially for The Magazine Antiques, depict Southerners who fought for the Confederacy. In the large field of American iconography, these photographs are among the most provocative and rare nineteenth-century portraits.

Posted 03/11/13

Philadelphia collects: The torch bearer

This issue celebrates the long history of Philadelphia as the city of great artist-artisans. That history would be even more impressive had there been a Helen Drutt on the scene in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to make sure that absolutely nothing of value was lost to posterity. 

Posted 03/11/13

Philadelphia collects: City folk

The collectors, Philadelphians Joan M. and Victor L. Johnson, have long been known to enthusiasts of American decorative arts but it was only with their 2009 move from the country to a penthouse apartment in Society Hill that they felt comfortable going public.  

Posted 03/04/13

Curiously Carved: Pictorial Sources of Scrimshaw

Contrary to persistent stereotypes characterizing seamen in the Age of Sail as illiterate ruffians, nineteenth-century Yankee whalemen were characteristically literate and avid readers.