The Magazine Antiques - Most Recent Articles

At home in modernism: The John C. Waddell collection of American design

By Photography by John M. Hall, John Stuart Gordon — Wed, 09 May 2012 00:00:00 +0100

The art of today must be created today," the designer and author Paul T. Frankl wrote in 1928. "It must express the life about us. It must reflect the main characteristics and earmarks of our own complex civilization."1 Over the past four decades, collector John C. Waddell has explored the idea behind Frankl's words.

The Kaufman Collection: The pursuit of excellence and a gift to the nation

By Wendy A. Cooper — Wed, 09 May 2012 00:00:00 +0100

In my catalogue of friends, mentors, scholars, and collectors, Linda Ha. and the late George M. Kaufman fill all the roles...

Genius is always above its age

By James Gardner — Wed, 09 May 2012 00:00:00 +0100

A traveling retrospective of George Bellows offers a fresh perspective on an artist whose work transcended time, place, and the accomplishments of his contemporaries.

Sewn not hooked

By Jan Whitlock — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0100

About the same time I bought Mercy Huntting's rug at auction in 2007 (facing page, top), I was given a full run of The Magazine ANTIQUES. Before shelving them for reference I paged through every issue, and to my surprise, found the rug illustrated in May 1951, in Florence Peto's article "Some Early American Crewelwork"; she stated that the rug had been made by Mercy Huntting, who attended Mrs. Lyman Beecher's School in East Hampton, New York. As most rugs are relatively anonymous, this was a spec¬tacular rediscovery and started me on the quest to understand sewn rugs in their appropriate context and to dispel longstanding myths that they were essentially folk art or the products of home craft like hooked rugs, with which they are often confused.

Upscale Downsized

By Martin Filler, Photography by John Hall — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0100

Downsizing-a midlife rite of passage common to those whose offspring have grown up and moved out-is not a contingency that his friends would have ever dreamed possible of the abundance-loving Paul F. Walter, the New York connoisseur renowned for the scale and quality of his pathbreaking collections, which have run the gamut from Indian miniature paintings and early photography to nineteenth-century British decorative arts and African tribal pottery. Walter is one of those exceptional aesthetic bellwethers who has had far-reaching effects not only on the formation of contemporary taste, but also on the direction of art markets.

Inventing the modern world: Decorative arts at the World's Fairs, 1851-1939

By Jason T. Busch, Catherine L. Futter — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 00:00:00 +0100

In 1851 Albert, prince consort of Queen Victoria, and the architect Henry Cole realized their grand vision of an international exhibition where the traditions, aspirations, and accomplishments of many nations were showcased.1

The recent appearance of two portrait miniatures leads to new information about backcountry South Carolina artist Isaac Brownfield Alexander.

The Bixby House

By Christopher Long — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0100

Largely unheralded, this Kansas City masterwork of modernism deserves its place in the pantheon of great American houses.

On Southern Turf

By Sarah Campbell Drury — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0100

For Mary and Hank Brockman the proper preservation of the South's material culture includes art, architecture, artifacts and the landscape.

Hudson River Classics: Edgewater and Richard Hampton Jenrette

By Photography by Gavin Ashworth, Laura Beach — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0100

Jenrette-who in 1993 established the Classical American Homes Preservation Trust to promote six historic properties between New York and Saint Croix that he restored and opened to the public-even h

The Real Story of Sleepy Hollow

By Katrine Ames — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0100

Inspired by the archaeological discoveries of the early twentieth century, Marie Zimmermann created extraordinary, and previously unstudied, jewelry in Egyptian and other revival styles.

Rose Fever: The paintings of George Cochran Lambdin

By Mark D. Mitchell — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0100

After his death in 1896 George Cochran Lambdin was remembered by friends and memorialists alike for his paintings of roses.

Struggles many and great: James P. Ball, Robert Duncanson, and other artists of color in ...

By Joseph D. Ketner II — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0100

In 1854 Gleason's Pictorial, the popular, nationally circulated magazine out of Boston, published an article promoting the lavish "Daguerrian Gallery" established in Cincinnati by James P. Ball (Fig. 6), lauding his images as "unsurpassed by any in the Union."1 In fact, Ball's Gallery (see Figs. 2, 4) was not so unusual.<

Duncan Phyfe: A New York Story

By Peter Kenny and Michael Brown — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 00:00:00 +0100

The powerful legacy of Duncan Phyfe comes with as many myths as mysteries. Peter Kenny and Michael Brown talk about the discoveries that bring the celebrated cabinetmaker into foucs at the metropolitan's new exhibit&a

Master of delight: William J. Glackens at the Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale

By Avis Berman — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 00:00:00 +0100

Master of delight:

William J. Glackens at the Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale

Avis Berman

In a felicitous though surprising conclusion to the career and reputation of William J. Glackens, a huge repository of his work is permanently housed in one place, the Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale

American genre painting and the rise of 'average taste'

By Barbara Dayer Gallati — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 00:00:00 +0100

American genre painting and the rise of "average taste"

BarbaraDayer Gallat