This Month on Curious Objects
This is the story of that once-in-a-lifetime moment when an object whose origins appeared lost suddenly got its history back. . . Learn more.
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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The Argument for Silver Tableware
They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. And in the antiques world the sincerest form of imitation is reproduction: the humble and studious attempt to conserve the lessons of the past because of their timeless value.
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This Chair is Made of America
Ben speaks with Ellery Foutch, assistant professor of American studies at Middlebury College, about a “relic Windsor chair” assembled by Henry Sheldon (founder of the Middlebury museum named in his honor) in 1884.
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How to Make a Modern Home (with Antiques), featuring Thomas Jayne
In this episode, Ben Miller gets the goods from Thomas Jayne on the history of interiors (from the Greeks to the present day); what to budget first; and the spirit of “democratic decoration,” that, historically, has animated American interiors.
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O’Keeffe on the Block
Reagan Upshaw—critic, dealer, appraiser, and all-around bon vivant—expounds on the lovely filaments, sepals, and stamens of O’Keeffe’s oeuvre. For good measure, he tosses in a couple of choice anecdotes from his time in the trade (and just a wee bit of market talk).
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The WPA Origins of the American Doll, with Allison Robinson
During the Great Depression, the Works Progress Administration funded an interracial labor program in Wisconsin that employed over five thousand women to craft handmade goods: the Milwaukee Handicraft Project.
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English Glass/Chinese Craft
The technique of reverse-painting was introduced to China in the late 1600s by its European trading partners, who manufactured and shipped the plate glass necessary for its production.
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Museums and the Lure of the Sell-Off, with the PMA’s director and CEO Timothy Rub
The Association of Art Museum Directors killed something of a sacred cow last year when it ruled that museums will be permitted to use funds from deaccessioned artworks—previously strictly controlled—to pay for a wider array of institutional costs.
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Curious Objects: The Book of Hours: A Medieval Best-Seller
More popular than the Bible: that’s what the richly illustrated volumes known as books of hours—which helped worshipers keep track of each day’s seven canonical prayer periods—were during the Middle Ages.
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Corot’s Impressionist Lunchbox
Only nine times in his seventy-eight years did Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot paint on anything other than canvas, paper, and panel. On one occasion, offended by the crude wooden lunchbox carried by his friend Alfred Robaut, Corot had a new one constructed, which he decorated with a plein air painting, Fraîcheurs matinales (Morning Freshness).
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Five Hundred Years of American Craft, with Glenn Adamson
Glenn Adamson makes his second appearance on Curious Objects to discuss his new book, Craft: An American History. As his research shows, artisans from Paul Revere and Betsy Ross to Patrocino Barela and George Barris played a crucial and under-examined role in the formation of the United States’ national character.
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Blended Spirits: A Curious Objects Cocktail Hour at the Winter Show
A cocktail hour Zoom chat about alcohol-friendly antiques at the this year’s (virtual) edition of the Winter Show, the year’s premier antiques fair. You’ll hear about wacky objects and the wild stories behind them from some of the show’s most irreverent dealers.
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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 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 how two women painters made their way when the art world was still male-dominated.
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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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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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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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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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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.
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Benjamin Miller, Host
Ben has been director of research at S. J. Shrubsole since 2016, and is 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. Check out his Instagram, @objectiveinterest, for more context surrounding the objects on each month's episode of Curious Objects.