The Magazine Antiques

From the Archives | By The Magazine Antiques Editorial

Some early American crewelwork

April 10, 2012  |  Written by Florence Peto.  Originally published by ANTIQUES in May 1951.

Eighteenth-century crewelwork, especially favored for bedspreads and bed furnishings, is one of the most delightful types of early American embroidery.  Though it has become very scarce, resolute seekers may still occasionally acquire a piece. 

Tree of Life Design, crewelwork fragment with leaves, fruit, birds, insects, and caterpillar. New York Historical Society.

 The "crewel" in which the designs were worked was a loosely twisted wool yarn.  That which was made commercially came in three grades, a heavy one for tapestry, a medium one for general use, and a two-ply zephyr for the finest embroideries.  Very often, however, the yarn was spun at home.  In fact, all the steps of the processes might be carried out on the needle-woman's own property, from the raising of the sheep to the carding, spinning, and dyeing of the wool.  The quality of the yarn was affected by the quality of the sheep, th…» More

Seen and Heard by Laura Beach | By Laura Beach

TEFAF, The App

March 19, 2012  |  The future of the art fair catalogue has arrived... and it is a TEFAF app for a smart phone.  At yesterday's by invitation only preview for the European Fine Art Fair in Maasstricht, the most coveted accessory was a smart phone loaded with the new device. Interactive maps help visitors navigate their ways through the vast 265 exhibitor display. It also comes loaded with photographs of objects on offer, video clips, audio files and a curious "Try Out TEFAF" feature that lets you visualize an object in your own environment. The new app can be downloaded for free at www.tefaf.com/mobile.

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Seen and Heard by Laura Beach | By Laura Beach

Seen and Heard at the European Fine Art Fair: TEFAF Day One

March 16, 2012  |  "The museum doesn't have a shopping list but I hope our collectors do," said MFA Boston director Malcolm Rogers, who accompanied a group of American collectors through the European Fine Art Fair (TEFAF) on its opening day, March 15.

"I could be tempted to collect Old Master pictures instead of contemporary art," Whitney Museum of American Art director Adam D. Weinberg confessed to Boston collectors Ted and Barbara Alfond, part of the MFA delegation to the show, organized annually in Maastricht, The Netherlands. TEFAF was founded as a showcase for Old Masters pictures but has grown to encompass 265 exhibitors in a range of specialities, from antquities to contemporary art.

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Wednesday, Netherlands Queen Beatrix made a private tour of the fair, which has pulled out the stops in celebration of its silver jubilee. "Her personal taste runs more to contemporary art but she did admire our Bosschaert the Elder painting of flowers," said the London-based Old Masters dealer Johnny v…» More

From the editor's desk | By Elizabeth Pochoda

Editor's Letter, March/April 2012

March 12, 2012  |  

There are days when I am sure that there is a constant worldwide conspiracy out there to pretend that the past does not exist. Fortunately I leave the office occasionally and find that this may not be true. I recently toured Camera Solo, the exhibition of Patti Smith's photographs at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford with Susan Talbott, the museum's director. You might think that showing a rock goddess's tiny black-and-white pictures at a major museum would stir up my paranoia (pandering! selling out!) but you would be wrong. Patti Smith is devoted to the art and literature of bygone times, something I already knew from reading Just Kids, her old-fashioned memoir about stalking punk rock stardom in 1970s New York. Her photographs of Duncan Grant's studio, Victor Hugo's bed, Percy Shelley's grave, and Virginia Woolf's cane do not claim to be high art. Their mission is more humble: to let objects summon the spirits of th…