The Magazine Antiques

Discovery | By Emily Vanderpool

Vintage finds for your valentine

February 12, 2010  |  
A Fisher-Wife
The soonest mended, nothing said;
And help may rise from east or west;
But my two hands are lumps of lead,
My heart sits leaden in my breast.

O north wind swoop not from the north,
O south wind linger in the south,
Oh come not raving raging forth,
To bring my heart into my mouth;

For I've a husband out at sea,
Afloat on feeble planks of wood;
He does not know what fear may be;
I would have told him if I could.

I would have locked him in my arms,
I would have hid him in my heart;
For oh! the waves are fraught with harms,
And he and I so far apart.

-Christina Rossetti (1830-1894)

It is difficult to ignore the saccharine gestures that crop up every year for Valentine's Day. While the vocabulary of love has found various forms over the centuries and throughout cultures, one fascinating and charming version of a valentine that has endured is the sailors' valentine—shellwork tokens, which from about 1830 to 1890, were given by sailors to their loved ones upon their return home.
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Discovery | By Emily Vanderpool

Vintage finds for the holiday season

December 18, 2009  |  Who can forget the excitement of seeing Tchaikovsky's ballet The Nutcracker as a child? The magical "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" in Act II left an indelible mark on me that still stirs up fond memories from my childhood. First performed in 1892 in St. Petersburg (illustrated above), the ballet's popularity did not spread to the United States until 1944, when the San Francisco Ballet first performed it, prompting subsequent annual productions from over two hundred American ballet companies, and quickly making the image of the toy soldier nutcracker synonymous with the Christmas holiday.
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Discovery | By Emily Vanderpool

Vintage finds for the Thanksgiving table

November 25, 2009  |  It's hard to believe that Thanksgiving is already upon us. While certain side dishes go in and out of fashion, the turkey and its gravy remain a constant; and with that, its vessel, the gravy boat, is a mainstay of any traditional table setting.

The term "gravy" appears in several medieval French cookbooks referring to the natural cooking juices, or gravé, that flowed from roasting meat. Used to hold sauces not limited to just gravy, a pair of gravy or sauceboats were placed on opposite ends of the tables of French nobility beginning in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Resting on three or four cast feet, the boat-shaped form featured two lips and two handles, however by the mid-18th century it was reduced to a single lip and handle. Ornamentation was mostly limited to the handle, feet, and rim, until the influence of the Rococo style took hold and brought exuberant embellishment to the form.

Looking to the fashionable French nouvelle cuisine for inspiration, the English adopted the vessel in the 18th century and began producing its own versions in silver and porcelain. One such pair of sauceboats—made by the famed Huguenot silversmith Paul de Lamerie in 1737—recently sold at auction for $157,000 (Christie's New York, 2008).

Today gravy boats—both collectible and decorative—can be found in a wide array of designs, from the clean lines of the neoclassical style to the biomorphism of the 1950s. Regardless of your budget, there is something to suit any taste—and what better time of the year to add one to your table. Happy Thanksgiving!

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Discovery | By Emily Vanderpool

Vintage finds for football season

November 18, 2009  |  For many, fall's crisp air beckons the arrival of one very important ritual—watching the game. The glare of the television can be seen, and shouts and cheers can be heard as friends and family gather in living rooms across the country to enjoy America's time-honored tradition of football.

September to January, the season for watching tackles, fumbles, throws, and touchdowns, has come to define what it is to be American; but we actually have the United Kingdom to thank for inventing what we call football. Originating from a form of unorganized rugby or "mob football" played at universities across the pond in the early 19th century, when the game reached American campuses violence and injury dominated the sport, and by about 1860 it had been banned by most schools. Groups such as the Oneida Football Club—arguably the first organized football club in the United States formed in 1862—continued to play a safer hybrid form of kicking and carrying the ball known as the "Boston game." Subsequently, football returned to American college campuses, albeit in a modified form, and on November 6, 1869—in what is considered the first intercollegiate football game—Rutgers University beat Princeton University in a home game by a score of 6 to 4.

New rules for the game were formalized when a group of representatives from Harvard, Columbia, Princeton, and Yale met on November 23, 1876 at the "Massasoit Convention." Among them was Walter Camp—a Yale alumnus and coach. Known as "Father of American Football," Camp is credited with some of the most significant changes in the evolution of the American football game including the introduction of the line of scrimmage in 1880, and down-and-distance rules in 1882. By the beginning of the 20th century American football became increasingly popular, resulting in the college football tradition of bowl games, which today, more than ever, successfully captures the competitive spirit of rival academic institutions.

A variety of early college football collectibles are available ranging from uniforms and print memorabilia to pennants and commemorative plates. Sources include auction houses like Heritage Auction Galleries in Dallas, and websites such as SportArtifacts.com, AntiqueAthlete.com, and CollectableIvy.com. Below is just a sampling of what you can collect to show your team spirit!

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