Antiques have been part of my life since day one,” the British architect and decorator Ben Pentreath told me when the subject came up in a recent conversation. Ditto: I was brought up amid objects from the past, too. Truthfully, they were nothing special—golden oak furnishings and other such commonplaces made at the end of the nineteenth century and sold through mail-order catalogues—but their presence meant that my brother and I were always surrounded by stories, either known or implied. Every table and bed that my mother laboriously stripped and Minwaxed, each oil lamp that she rewired for electricity, and every rag rug she rolled out onto the floors of military housing across the country transported me to other times and other worlds—and, eventually, led me to a career of writing about people, often collectors, and the way they live, what they live with, and why, for good or for ill.
The stories that are told in this issue of The Magazine ANTIQUES, told by superb contributors, some new, others veterans, range from the captivating to the curious to the contemplative. Journeying up the Hudson River to Olana, artist Frederic Church’s mesmerizingly Middle Eastern-styled Victorian country house, Elizabeth Pochoda, a former ANTIQUES editor in chief, offers a meditation on the artist’s paintings that honor the dearly departed, relatives as well as friends. Eleanor H. Gustafson, our onetime executive editor and current consulting editor, marvels at the miraculous and meticulous decades-long restoration of a canapé à la turque that was made for the young Marie Antoinette, a laborious project that involved American curators, French archivists, and Indian embroiderers.
Down in Miami, Florida, architectural historian Beth Dunlop discovers Paul Thévenaz, an obscure gay artist of the early 1900s, whose weather-damaged Tiepolo-style ceiling in the Casino of Vizcaya Museum and Gardens—it is Thévenaz’s only known surviving mural—has been returned to its original splendor, where timeless mythologies incongruously meet flapper-short coiffures. ANTIQUES also falls under the spell of Rita Lydig, a glamorous Cuban American who bedazzled Manhattan society, vamped the sculptor Frederick MacMonnies among susceptible others, and collected her way into a headlines-making bankruptcy. (Who among us hasn’t worried about doing just that?) Along the way, ANTIQUES is charmed by British transferware designed for American tables, delights in interior decorator Michael Simon’s remembrance of his antiques dealer mentor, admires the historic streetscapes of Edenton, North Carolina, and covets the centuries-old tiles that have obsessed Belgian artist Pierre Bergian since his childhood.
This issue’s romantic cover is Bergian’s recent depiction of a treasure trove room in a historic Roman palazzo, the first of what I hope will be many artful covers created by history-mindful contemporary artists. You will also notice that ANTIQUES is visually evolving. Our new typeface echoes that used in the magazine’s very first issues, published more than a century ago. The layouts, executed by art director Martin Minerva, are crisper than before, simpler, more direct, and, I think, quite elegant. ANTIQUES has added new columns, too, from Scholar (a profile of a refreshing young talent in the world of antiques) to Collecting (a visit to an individual, often self-taught, who has a most particular obsession).
Here at ANTIQUES we’ve also given a good deal of thought to our mission, which seven editors in chief, myself included, have held sacred. Our enduring goal since 1922, when Homer Eaton Keyes founded this magazine, has been to celebrate the furniture we collect, the art that thrills us, and the objects that capture our fancy. To that end we will be introducing you to the personalities, past and present, who inspire us by their pursuit of the beautiful, the rare, and, yes, sometimes, the rivetingly commonplace. Come the January/February 2025 issue, you’ll see even more changes, a fine tuning that will be thoughtful but refreshing.
Back to Ben Pentreath. To ANTIQUES, the architect for the first time tells the story of the foundational furniture that is the backbone of his and husband Charlie McCormick’s colorful Dorset rooms, and which has been a constant personal source of inspiration, comfort, and escapism. We couldn’t agree more, so strap yourself in as ANTIQUES launches a new era.
