This Month on Curious Objects
What two paintings from the 1930s can tell us about women’s issues
Around 1930, two British artists, Agnes Miller Parker and Jessica Dismorr, went to work on a pair of paintings—one a modernist Madonna and Child, the other depicting a highly symbolic portrait of a rampaging cat—that are now on view at the Fine Art Society’s galleries in London and Edinburgh. FAS principals Emily Walsh and Rowena Morgan-Cox explain to Ben how two women painters made their way during a time when the art world was still male-dominated.
Through interviews with leading figures in the world of fine and decorative arts, we explore the hidden histories, the little-known facts, the intricacies, and the idiosyncrasies that breathe life and energy into antiques and works of art.
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A Dalva Brothers Wonder Cabinet Turns Heads at Christie’s
Dalva Brothers, Inc., specializes in the sort of lux 1700s French furniture that just screams ancien régime. Some 250 of the choicest items from the firm’s inventory are being offered at Christie’s this October, and David Dalva III, along with Jody Wilkie, talk with Ben about the crème de la crème
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“The Most Awesome Cup of All Time” . . . and 500 Other Objects
Dealer Adam Ambros and curator Ed Town join Ben to talk about a collection of mostly small objects made in Britain between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries, many of them marked with a date, the subject of a new book from the Yale Center for British Art called Marking Time: Objects, People, and Their Lives, 1500–1800.
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A Fireback from Hell—Ironworks and Industrial Labor in the Antebellum South, with Torren Gatson
Scholar Torren Gatson, guest editor for the current edition of the Journal of Early Southern Decorative Arts, comes on the podcast to talk about an iron fireback produced at the Vesuvius Furnace in Lincoln County, North Carolina.
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A Journey to the Center of the Earth, with Robert McCracken Peck
Drexel University’s Robert McCracken Peck comes on the podcast to talk about the "hollow earth" theory and a perforated wooden globe in this episode of Curious Objects
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An Armchair’s Astonishing Provenance, with Tiffany Momon
This month, Ben speaks with Tiffany Momon, visiting assistant professor at Sewanee University in Tennessee, and founder of the Black Craftspeople Digital Archive, a scholarly resource that explores the contributions that African Americans have made to the material culture of the United States.
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The Life and Labor of Enslaved Potter Dave Drake, With Ethan Lasser
In this episode, Ethan Lasser, chair of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, tells the story of Dave Drake, an enslaved potter at work in Edgefield County—and that of an 1857 storage jar that bears the lines: "I made this Jar for Cash-/ though its called lucre trash/ Dave.”
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Thirty-five Saxon Suits of Armor, with Chassica Kirchhoff
It's kinetic sculpture, it's haute couture, it’s . . . armor! This month, Ben speaks with Chassica Kirchhoff, an assistant curator at the Detroit Institute of Arts, about a suite of metal suits from the 1500s that were worn and jousted in by the dukes of Saxony.
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The Mystery of the Michelangelo Bust
This month, Ben and Michael speak with Jennifer Tonkovich, curator of prints and drawings at the Morgan Library and Museum. The focus is an odd bronze bust of a crying child—once believed to have been sculpted by Michelangelo.
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Afterlife in Alabaster: A Canopic Jar from Charles Ede
Join us on a journey to ancient Egypt as we explore the quirky material history and dead-serious religious significance of a very curious object: a 2,500-year-old Imsety-headed canopic jar. Charis Tyndall of UK antiquities dealer Charles Ede guest stars.
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Winter Show and Tell: Three young dealers and the antiques they ❤️
Special guests James Boening (James Robinson, Inc.), Ria Murray (Lillian Nassau), and Taylor Thistlethwaite (Thistlethwaite Americana), joined hosts Ben and Michael at the Park Avenue Armory for a live discussion about six fascinating objects.
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Big porcelain and outsider art at Christie’s
Ever wondered how the otherwise-unremarkable locales of Meissen, Staffordshire, and Sèvres became Europe's porcelain-producing polestars? Or what outsider artists like Bill Traylor and William Edmondson, discovered by the art establishment in the 1930s and ‘40s, made of their newfound fame? The experts at Christie's have the answers!
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“Where the Past Never Gets Old”: Re-presenting History at Colonial Williamsburg
Michael Diaz-Griffith treks to Colonial Williamsburg to talk with chief curator Ron Hurst about a new exhibition, "British Masterworks," in which chandeliers, a colossal Chippendale bookcase, and an upholstered armchair tell very different stories today from the ones they were bought to support.
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Surrendering the Colors–An American Flag Collection Goes to Auction
The first American flag Peter Keim collected was a hand-sewn thirteen-star specimen that he found poking out of a paper bag at a farm sale. Happily for Keim, the flag turned out to be a hand-sewn beaut from 1862, worth $10,000. Keim now owns approximately four hundred American flags.
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Badger Up! Collecting Baseball-abilia with Internet Star Randall
Only a small number of people have the resources and wherewithal to collect Hepplewhite furniture or Paul Revere silver, but plenty collect baseball cards, including Randall, the voice behind the viral video The Crazy Nastyass Honey Badger.
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Getting Wired at the Peabody Essex Museum
There’s a tried and true method for curating art exhibitions: paint walls, hang pictures, write labels, and Bob’s your uncle. But what happens when a neuroscientist gets involved?
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Another Man’s Treasure–Frank Levy discusses a Suite of Tapestry-Upholstered Furniture
This month, Ben and Michael pay a visit to one of the New York antiques world’s preeminent galleries, Bernard & S. Dean Levy on 84th Street, where they speak with the fourth-generation co-proprietor, Frank Levy.
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The Color of Beauty–Philip Hewat-Jaboor’s Neoclassical Vase
This month on Curious Objects, Ben and Michael sit down with Philip Hewat-Jaboor, chairman of Masterpiece London and owner of a fine alabaster and rosso antico marble vase.
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Is it real? A Caravaggio Rediscovered
If you find an Old Master artwork in your attic, how can you be sure it isn’t fake? This month Ben and Michael consider the case of Judith and Holofernes calling expert Eric Turquin and art critic James Gardner to the stand.
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Object Philosophy 101
In an episode keyed to Art Carpenter’s Wishbone chair, scholar and curator Glenn Adamson shares his thoughts on the similarities and differences between art and design, hand-making and machine-making, and passion projects and professional ones, and reminds us how important it is to pay attention to the objects in our immediate proximity.
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The Soldier, the Dandy, and the Queen
This month we take a look at a Tilghman family pier table, a folk painting of Noah’s Ark, and two stoneware wine bottles in the shape of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, all on sale at Freeman’s.
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Noah Wunsch Was Born to Collect
In collector Noah Wunsch's private life one rule guides his hand: “no matter what you're buying make sure you like it.“ In this episode, Ben takes the measure of Noah’s treasure, which ranges from a 60 BC Visigothic belt buckle to the zany artwork of Genieve Figgis.
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Let the Market Decide: Economist Friedrich Hayek’s Assets head to Auction
The weighty thoughts and worldly goods of Austrian economist Friedrich Hayek—whose belongings are being offered by Sotheby’s in London—are the subject of this episode, starring Duke University professor Bruce Caldwell and Sotheby’s specialist Gabriel Heaton.
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Introducing the New Antiquarians
At the Winter Show’s 2019 sapphire jubilee, Ben Miller hosted a panel with three young mavens of the antiques world to discuss the future of antiques, and to announce the birth of a community of interest called the New Antiquarians, which will champion antiques, historic art, and the material culture of the past.
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Glass Act—John Stuart Gordon and the Vitreous Curiosities of Yale
Ben Miller examines a piece of trinitite—glass formed in the 1945 Trinity nuclear test—and a stained-glass window formerly installed in Yale’s Hopper College, both featured in John Stuart Gordon's new book American Glass.
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Reading Congress the Riot Act –Henry Highland Garnet’s “Memorial Discourse”
Rare books dealers Heather O’Donnell and Rebecca Romney, principals of Honey and Wax Booksellers, come bearing a copy of the first address delivered to Congress by an African-American.
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The House that Vanderbilt: Gilded Age Mansions of Newport, RI
A virtual tour of the suite of Gilded Age mansions built for the Vanderbilts, Oelrichs, Astors, and Berwinds in Newport, Rhode Island, by the likes of Richard Morris Hunt and Stanford White.
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#YourCuriousObjects
This time it’s your turn. These last two months, we’ve asked listeners to post their curious objects on Instagram, tagging #mycuriousobject and @antiquesmag.
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Kevin Brown and His Qing-era Map of China
Benjamin Miller stops by the shop of his mentor Kevin Brown, founder of Geographicus Rare Antique Maps, to peruse a monumental Qing-era map of China and its environs.
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David Webb archivist Levi Higgs and the company’s storied Zebra bracelet
Instagram doyen Levi Higgs tells Ben Miller about a jewel- and enamel-bedazzled animal that can often be found on the red carpet.
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ADA executive director Judy Loto and Her Entrancingly Engraved Powder Horn
Why do we collect what we collect? And how do we know if we’re collecting truly valuable things? In this eighth episode of Curious Objects, host Benjamin Miller speaks with Judy Loto, executive director of the Antiques Dealers’ Association and someone he calls an “antiques evangelist.”
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A conversation with luthier Paul Becker
Benjamin Miller talks with Paul Becker, the fifth-generation owner and director of Chicago-based violin shop Carl Becker and Son.
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Treasures of the Winter Antiques Show, Part 2
Part two of our special coverage of the 2018 Winter Antiques Show, featuring conversations with eight dealers of furniture, folk art, embroidery, and more.
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Treasures of the Winter Antique Show, Part 1
In this episode of Curious Objects, part one of a special two-part series, Benjamin Miller speaks with nine dealers who exhibited this past January at the antiques world’s marquee event: the Winter Antiques Show.
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Historic Preservationist Wade Lege on Living in a Collection
In this episode of Curious Objects, Benjamin Miller talks to Wade Lege, a Louisianan who’s restored a Mississippi bayou home. Of course, before the house could be restored, it had to be rescued: its original footprint is now underwater inside the levee.
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Dealer Michael Pashby on the secret history of the Windsor chair
Benjamin Miller, host of Curious Objects, interviewed Michael Pashby of Michael Pashby Antiques about a Windsor chair with interesting history. Made about 1790 by Gillows, it’s composed primarily of ash and has a sycamore seat.
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Wartski expert Katherine Purcell on a René Lalique art nouveau necklace
In this episode of Curious Objects, host Benjamin Miller interviews Katherine Purcell, principal in the London jewelry firm Wartski. A peerless scholar and an engaging storyteller, Purcell gives us the particulars on a magnificent enameled necklace by René Lalique, the “genius of art nouveau jewelry.”
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Hirschl & Adler's Stuart Feld on an early American linen press
A Boston-made neoclassical linen press served as entry point into a discussion between Ben and Stuart Feld about provenance (the linen press has been owned by Hirschl & Adler at three different times) and the more general ins-and-outs of antiquing.
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Since 1922, The Magazine ANTIQUES has been the leader in fine and decorative arts scholarship. We’re certain that you’ll enjoy this twenty-first century means of telling stories about the things we collect and cherish.
A new episode of Curious Objects is available each month on iTunes, Spotify, SoundCloud, and other podcast platforms. We hope you will share your feedback as we continue development in 2019.
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Benjamin Miller, Host
Director of Research at S.J. Shrubsole since 2016 and one of the rising stars of the New York art and antiques scene. After leaving his native Tennessee, Ben earned his bachelor's degree at Yale. He is a specialist in antique silver, estate jewelry, and anything old with a good story. Together with Soane Foundation executive director Michael Diaz-Griffith he is the co-founder of the New Antiquarians, a community of interest for the next generation of art and antiques enthusiasts. Many of these stories are illustrated on his Instagram, @objectiveinterest.