Living with Antiques |
Adelphi introduces decorative wallpaper panels
June 1, 2009 | The historic wallpapers made by Adelphi Paper Hangings have been featured many times in the pages of The Magazine ANTIQUES, and are likely familiar to any of our readers that have undertaken decorating projects that require the utmost attention to period detail. Browsing through the company's extensive and continually expanding catalogue of reproduction papers, with designs dating from 1750 through 1930, is a true feast for the eyes.
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Living with Antiques |
Conservation and restoration of upholstery
June 1, 2009 | Elizabeth Lahikainen and Associates specializes in the conservation and restoration of the upholstery of objects in museums and private collections, and since 1990 has been affiliated with the Peabody Essex Muse
um in Salem, Massachusetts. Her firm concentrates on interpreting the historical evidence presented by a piece of upholstered furniture and then selecting accurate fabrics for its restoration. In some cases most of the original materials survive on the frame, as was the case with the settees in the east parlor of the Museum's Peirce-Nichols House. Very often there is but scant information. For example, only fragments of the original fabric remained on the sofa shown in the detail at the right, but Lahikainen was able to determine that it was a wool moreen that had been installed in a sideways fashion called railroaded.» More
Living with Antiques |
Restoring ceramics
May 18, 2009 | There is nothing more frustrating to the passionate ceramics collector who has been searching for a certain vase, teapot, or plate to add to his or her collection and has finally found it, only to discover that there is a chip, crack, or missing piece. Even more upsetting is to accidentally drop or knock over a favorite object and have it shatter into several pieces. These are the types of damages that lead museums and collectors to seek the services of Echo Evetts Ceramics Restoration of Greens Farms, Connecticut.
Evetts studied sculpture, drawing, and the design and manufacture of pottery at the Sir John Cass College in London. She began her career in England and then moved to the United States, where she has lived and worked for many years. Among her clients are Historic Deerfield; the San Antonio Museum of Art; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford; the Asia Society and Museum; and the Japan Society Gallery in New York City; along with private galleries and collectors.
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Living with Antiques |
Seeing green at historic garden estates
April 30, 2009 | Although it may already seem like summer—with record-breaking temperatures in some areas this week—spring has actually just arrived, and with it, the chance to explore some of the country's finest historic estates and gardens. Here The Magazine ANTIQUES has selected a few favorites, with the slideshow below offering a taste of some "green design."
The Fells, Newbury, New Hampshire
The summer retreat of American statesman and author John Milton Hay, the Fells features 1,000 acres overlooking Lake Sunapee. Its 22-room colonial revival style Main House was renovated from a 1890s cottage by the New York City architect Prentice Sanger in 1915, and the formal gardens were designed by Alice Appleton Hay (the wife of Hay's son Clarence, who inherited the estate in 1905). In spring, the Fells welcomes visitors with lilacs, azaleas, rhododendrons, and mountain laurel. The grounds include a 100-foot long perennial border planted with iris, delphinium, hollyhocks, and phlox; a rose terrace; the wooded Old Garden from 1909; and an extensive hillside rock garden featuring 600 species and cultivars of rock garden and alpine plants.
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Living with Antiques |
Maison Gerard at 35
March 12, 2009 | Dealers, decorators, and clients came out in full force last night to raise a glass in celebration of Maison Gerard's thirty-fifth anniversary. Packed into the gallery's East 10th Street showroom, well-wishers got an intimate look at the firm's fine selection of art deco furniture—a marble-topped rosewood and burl cabinet by Louis Süe and André Mare, a macassar-ebony extension table taking up nearly the entire back room, and an exquisite burled elm vanity by Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann, among other treasures. Several stunning pieces by the relatively obscure designer from Nancy, Jules Cayette, were flown in and unpacked just hours before the gathering.
Founder Gerard Widdershoven and co-owner Benoist F. Drut spoke with the Magazine ANTIQUES about their history as pioneering dealers in French art deco. Widdershoven recalled that thirty-five years ago, "the neighborhood was filled with antiques importers who brought in pieces by the container load. Their fine 18th- and 19th- century accessories came wrapped in straw and the crates were art deco cabinets! That gives you some idea of what those dealers thought of my inventory." Since that time, art deco has become one of the most consistently popular and highly prized areas of antiques collecting, a fact most recently confirmed by the astounding prices achieved by art deco pieces in last month's Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé auction.
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Gemellion, Artist unknown, Limoges, France, 13th century Champlevé Enamel on Copper, 8 7/8” diameter Collection of The Walters’ Art
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