Inventing the Modern World: Decorative Arts at the World’s Fairs, 1851-1939

Editorial StaffArt, Exhibitions

from The Magazine ANTIQUES, March/April 2012 | In 1851 Albert, prince consort of Queen Victoria, and the architect Henry Cole realized their grand vision of an international exhibition where the traditions, aspirations, and accomplishments of many nations were showcased.1 Hardware at the Great Exhibition by Joseph Nash (1809-1878), from Dickenson’s Comprehensive Pictures of the Great Exhibition of 1851 (London 1852). Color lithograph. Victoria and Albert Museum, …

Winter Antiques Show 2012

Editorial StaffArt, Calendar, Exhibitions

We asked exhibitors at the Winter Antiques Show to highlight one exceptional object in their booths and describe it as they might to an interested collector. Here are the things they chose, along with some of their comments. Barbara Israel Garden Antiques We are thrilled to be bringing a cache of extraordinary objects to the 2012 Winter Antiques Show, including …

Vose Galleries at 170

Editorial StaffFurniture & Decorative Arts

By Tom Christopher   left to right: Elizabeth Vose Frey, Carey L. Vose, Abbot W. “Bill” Vose, Marcia L. Vose. Vose Galleries of Boston is that rarest of survivors: now completing its 170th year in business and still under the direction of the founding family, the firm itself predates many of the paintings that it buys and sells. Yet it …

In the American Grain: Art and Capital at Crystal Bridges

Editorial StaffArt

from The Magazine ANTIQUES, November/December 2011 | The small town of Bentonville, Arkansas, home to some 35,301 souls in the most recent census, is about to be transformed beyond recognition. Already it enjoys some modicum of renown as the ancestral abode of the Walton fam­ily: its late patriarch, Sam Walton, founder of Walmart, opened his first five and dime here …

After Grosvenor

Editorial StaffExhibitions

On the heels of its seventy-fifth anniversary last June, the Grosvenor House Art and Antiques Fair announced that it would close. Only time will tell how its absence will shift the balance of European fairs in 2010. In the meantime, Europe’s organizers unveil their plans for the coming year. BRUSSELS Held at the same time as the Winter Antiques Show …

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The legacy of Henry Davis Sleeper

Editorial StaffFurniture & Decorative Arts

December 2009 | November 1915. On “one of those autumn days when the darkness comes so suddenly that one seems to bump one’s head against it,” a small party departs from an unnamed city. Wrapped in furs and nestling into blankets, they huddle in the back of the open car to ward off the chill. Soon paved roads give way …

Great Estates: Fonthill in Doylestown, Pennsylvania

Editorial StaffArt

Located on sixty acres in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, Fonthill, the home of Henry Chapman Mercer (1856-1930), one of the leaders of the American arts and crafts movement, stands as a testament to handcrafted goods, replete with relics dutifully gathered by Mercer in the wake of the industrial revolution.Mercer, a Bucks County native, graduated from Harvard in 1879.  After receiving a law …