Organized to celebrate the firm’s one hundred years in the United States, Cartier and America, which opened last month at San Francisco’s Legion of Honor, explores the history of the house of Cartier from its first great successes as the “king of jewelers and the jeweler to kings” at the end of the nineteenth century through the 1960s and 1970s, …
Holiday Sparkle
Keeping winter doldrums at bay during Europe’s darkest days, the Sun King lights up London and Versailles; the Magi gleam with baroque opulence in Basel; the stars illuminate the Vatican; and Dionysian ecstasies fire up Berlin. London A sumptuous Cucci cabinet on offer at Christie’s creates a splashy finale to the auction season. As 2009 draws to a close, the …
A courtly 17th-century amber and ivory casket
Because the Detroit Institute of Arts had no works sculpted in amber, I have as the curator been keen to acquire a significant object in this precious material once called “the gold of the Baltic.” Long regarded as having mythical origins and medicinal and magical powers, northern European amber is ancient fossilized resin that was primarily found floating on the …
Instant Symposium: Eileen Gray’s Dragons chair, a new design icon?
A group of dealers, curators, and 20th century design experts react to the sale of the Eileen Gray Dragons chair
Preview of the Winterthur Ceramics Conference
An insider look at the Winterthur Ceramics Conference
Thrilling Results at YSL-Bergé Sale
Attending the historic three-day series of sales of the collection of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé was always going to be an extraordinary experience. And it was. Imagine queues lasting five hours for the public preview, which saw over 30,000 people waiting to get in. In the rain. Imagine holding a huge sale with an audience of 1500 under …
The Persistence of Memory
On Jessica Helfand’s 2008 publication Scrapbooks: An American History
Eileen Gray Designs Poised to Set Auction Records
On the pieces by Eileen Gray in the YSL/Bergé collection at Christie’s
Chintz Appliqué: From Imitation to Icon
On the exhibition Chintz Appliqué: From Imitation to Icon at the International Quilt Study Center and Museum