The Politics of Placemats

Maggie Lidz Furniture & Decorative Arts

Besides founding museums and having lots of money, what did Abby Rockefeller, a strict Baptist; Harry du Pont, an introverted aesthete; and the ebullient businesswoman Marjorie Merriweather Post have in common? As it turns out, linen closets piled with a rainbow selection of Marshal Fry napkins and placemats.

Artful Distortions

Margaret Shakespeare Art

In the nineteenth century Paul Kane’s dignified and captivatingly detailed paintings of Native American life, along with the artist’s published travelogue from his sojourn across the continent, did much to form Western notions about North America’s original inhabitants…

Objects: Eggs for Kings

Benjamin Davidson and Pippa Biddle Art

Treasured and embellished ostrich eggs litter what is one of the strangest side paths of decorative arts history—as well as one of the oldest…