Los Angeles Folk

Editorial StaffFurniture & Decorative Arts

from The Magazine ANTIQUES, Summer 2010 | Fig. 1. Frame decorated with the ceremonial symbols of the International Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF), American, c. 1870. Wood, paint, and gilding; height 27 ¾, width 22 ½ inches. Fig. 2. Hand-carved and painted heart-in-hand IOOF staffs, American, 1880–1930. Fig. 3. Mounted above a grain-painted Pennsylvania stand of c. 1830 is a …

Great Estates: Historic Hampton in Towson, Maryland

Editorial StaffFurniture & Decorative Arts

Just outside of Baltimore in Towson, Maryland is the Hampton National Historic Site, part of the National Park Service since 1948, when it was the first site to receive recognition for architectural merit.  Built in a popular Georgian domestic style, the mansion is a series of three main units connected by recessed “hyphens,” stretching 175 feet across a large hill.  …

Thomas Spencer

Editorial StaffFurniture & Decorative Arts

Figs. 1,1a. Desk-and-bookcase probably by Thomas Spencer (1752–1840), East Greenwich, Rhode Island, 1775. Mahogany, chestnut, yellow poplar, and white pine; height 91 ½, width 41 ¾, depth 19 ¾ inches. High Museum of Art, Atlanta, gift in loving memory of Nancy Fraser Parker by her husband William A. Parker Jr., and her children William A. Parker III, Isobel P. Mills, …

Shearer Loyalism and Heritage

Editorial StaffFurniture & Decorative Arts

from The Magazine ANTIQUES, April/May 2010 | Figs. 1, 1a. Desk-and-bookcase made by John Shearer (active c. 1798–at least 1818), Martinsburg, Virginia (now West Virginia), 1801–1806. Inscribed “Down with the Cropper of Ireland” and “Cropper is Repenting and his Master is Angry” in the top drawer of the case. Walnut, cherry, mulberry, yellow pine, and oak; height 8 feet 10 …

Furniture at Boscobel

Editorial StaffFurniture & Decorative Arts

Fig. 1. Boscobel, built in Montrose, New York, 1804–1808, and moved and reerected in Garrison, New York, 1957–1961. All photographs are by courtesy of Boscobel, Garrison, New York. Fig. 2. Sofa probably by Duncan Phyfe (1770–1854), New York, c. 1815–1820. Mahogany and cherry; height 32 ½, length 85 ¼, depth 24 ½ inches. The brass feet are replacements; the modern …

England Old world collectors and collecting

Editorial StaffExhibitions

Silver curator and dining historianPhilippa Glanville hasassembled an insightful display oftable objects and related documentsthat elucidate the eating rituals ofthe dukes of Portland—and of theirextensive staffs. The elegance offormal entertainments given by thiseminent family is seen through suchimportant creations as a pair ofDutch silver water fountains ofabout 1681 by Adam Loofs forWilliam of Orange; an extensivecollection of porcelain ice pails …

Germany Old world collectors and collecting

Editorial StaffExhibitions

The Saxon state’s magnificent collectionof Turkish and Turkish-styleobjects originated in the late sixteenthcentury and has been called the Türckische Cammer since at least 1614. However,the bulk of its contents have not beenpublicly displayed for the past seventyyears. A lavish new permanent exhibitionof about six hundred items hasbeen opened on the second floor of the Residenzschloss in Dresden, part ofthe first …

Netherlands Old world collectors and collecting

Editorial StaffExhibitions

Paintings of collectors’ cabinets orrooms of art celebrate collecting.The form emerged in the early seventeenthcentury in the rich merchant cityof Antwerp, where this exhibition, ajoint venture of the Rubenshuis thereand the Mauritshuis in The Hague, wasrecently on view. For the first time, theexhibition brings together the threeextraordinary works by the early masterof the genre, Willem van Haecht II,whose father, Tobias …

Chinese Export Porcelain

Editorial StaffArt

Chinese export porcelain is one of the oldest and mostvenerable areas of serious collecting. The term Chinese export refers to porcelain made and decorated in China betweenthe sixteenth and twentieth centuries specifically forthe Western market. The Chinese first exported porcelain tothe Middle East in the fourteenth century, but it was not untilPortugal established sea routes to China that this materialmade …