In this episode of Curious Objects, Ben takes the measure of Noah Wunsch’s treasure—which ranges from a 60 BC Visigothic belt buckle to the zany artwork of Genieve Figgis—and learns how the collection was built.
Hail, Columbia!
America’s oldest steamboat heads for a new life on the Hudson River
Five Leaves Left
It’s not often you get to celebrate the 150th anniversary of a twig. Yet that is exactly the opportunity that presented itself this past October 13. On that date, back in the year 1868, Sophia Thoreau leaned over a sprig of five shagbark hickory leaves and inscribed them, in indelible ink, with some lines from a poem by her brother Henry.
Curious Objects: Let the Market Decide–Economist Friedrich Hayek’s Assets Head to Auction
The weighty thoughts and worldly goods of Austrian economist Friedrich Hayek—whose belongings, including a 1974 Nobel Prize, are being offered by Sotheby’s in London—are the subject of this episode of Curious Objects, which stars Duke University professor Bruce Caldwell and Sotheby’s specialist Gabriel Heaton.
The Met Spreads Its Wing
The exhibition Art of Native America brings this country’s first art to the newly invigorated American Wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Curious Objects: Introducing the New Antiquarians
At the Winter Show’s 2019 sapphire jubilee, Curious Objects hosted a panel discussion with four young mavens of the antiques world—Michael Diaz-Griffith, associate executive director of the Winter Show; Emily Bode, designer and founder of fashion label Bode; Carleigh Queenth, vice president and specialist head of the European ceramics and glass department at Christie’s, New York; and Ben Miller—in the Park Avenue Armory’s resplendent Herter Brothers–designed Board of Officers Room.
Agra Culture
Today, the World Monuments Fund announced the completion of four years’ conservation work on two gardens in Agra, India.
Curious Objects: Glass Act—John Stuart Gordon and the Vitreous Curiosities of Yale
Ben Miller examines a piece of trinitite—glass formed in the 1945 Trinity nuclear test—and a stained-glass window formerly installed in Yale’s Hopper College, both featured in John Stuart Gordon’s new book “American Glass.”
Curious Objects: Reading Congress the Riot Act—Henry Highland Garnet’s “Memorial Discourse”
It’s a month of firsts. Curious Objects is taking its first steps into its second year, and this month’s episode is the first to focus on rare books dealers, Heather O’Donnell and Rebecca Romney, principals of Honey and Wax Booksellers.
Passing the mantels
We catch up with Dr. Joseph “Buddy” Jenrette III, who was recently named chairman of the of the Classical American Homes Preservation Trust, taking over from his uncle, Richard Hampton “Dick” Jenrette who died in April.