Maverick, villain, libertine, genius. Austrian eyewear designer Udo Proksch has been known by many names, but the book excerpted here dives deeply into his archive, puts emphasis on his working methods, fecund productivity, and the undeniable impact he had on design in the twentieth century—and to this day.
Books: Treasure House
John Soane’s Cabinet of Curiosities (Yale University Press, $45) certainly lives up to its title. For starters, it’s a visual delight, leading readers through the haunting, eclectic maze of a London relic: a house museum, frozen in amber since 1837, that displays its trove of forty thousand objects in arrangements fixed by the architect and collector who bequeathed it to the nation.
Consolation Prizes
An exhibition at Frederic Church’s Olana highlights the nineteenth-century culture of memory and memorial.
Tradewinds
Looking at scrimshaw from a Pacific perspective.
Personality and Purpose
Collecting American furniture continues at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
In memoriam: Joan Kaplan Davidson, 1927–2023
Her grandson remembers the philanthropist, historic preservationist, and materfamilias.
Making Faces
Federal American Vernacular Portraits, 1790s to 1840s.
Current and coming: Hector Guimard, Architecte d’art, at the Driehaus
The artist’s six-decade career is explored with one hundred pieces of decorative and fine art dating from the Belle Époque and beyond.
Endnotes: Sweet History in Spain
Chocolate is a sugary treat and a historical tool at the Museo de la Xocolata.
New Light: More on Federal Bostonians and Their London Jeweler, Stephen Twycross
A continued study on the work of English jeweler Stephen Twycross.










