By MABEL C. WEAKS; from The Magazine ANTIQUES, May 1931. Southampton, Long Island, is the place where Captain Elias Pelletreau was born, May 31, 1726. There, today, in the old cemetery, may be seen an ancient brown tombstone thus inscribed: “On Memory of Capt. Elias Pelletreau who died Nov. 2, 1810 in the 85, year of his age.” That he …
Genius is always above its age
from The Magazine ANTIQUES, May/June 2012 | A traveling retrospective of George Bellows offers a fresh perspective on an artist whose work transcended time, place, and the accomplishments of his contemporaries. To say that George Bellows was quintessentially American is to state nothing less than the outstanding fact about the man. Though he moved in 1904 to New …
The Kaufman Collection: The pursuit of excellence and a gift to the nation
Photography by Gavin Ashworth | from The Magazine ANTIQUES, May/June 2012 | In my catalogue of friends, mentors, scholars, and collectors, Linda H. and the late George M. Kaufman fill all the roles. From my earliest acquaintance with them in 1974, I have been in awe of their collection and of their indefatigable focus on beauty and excellence in their Norfolk, …
At home in modernism: The John C. Waddell collection of American design
Photography by John M. Hall | from The Magazine ANTIQUES, May/June 2012 | The art of today must be created today,” the designer and author Paul T. Frankl wrote in 1928. “It must express the life about us. It must reflect the main characteristics and earmarks of our own complex civilization.”1 Over the past four decades, collector John C. Waddell …
Editor’s Letter, May/June 2012
Starting out in the intoxicating decade of the 1920s, Antiques began by running against the rhythm of its times, celebrating tradition in a decade fueled by the Americanization of the avant garde and the arrival of mass culture in radio, music, and film. The 1920s also witnessed the founding of several other magazines more specifically attuned to the spirit …
This Weekend’s Events & Happenings
April 12-15. New York, NY. NYC20: NEW YORK 20TH CENTURY ART AND DESIGN FAIR. The Tent at Lincoln Center in Damrosch Park. Inaugural event produced by Dolphin Promotions in association with 1stdibs will feature 40 prominent 20th century 1stdibs dealers presenting furniture, decorative and fine arts reflecting all major design movements of the 20th century. Early-buying preview party on April 12 benefits the Bard …
Upscale Downsized
from The Magazine ANTIQUES, March/April 2012 | Downsizing-a midlife rite of passage common to those whose offspring have grown up and moved out-is not a contingency that his friends would have ever dreamed possible of the abundance-loving Paul F. Walter, the New York connoisseur renowned for the scale and quality of his pathbreaking collections, which have run the gamut …
Sewn not hooked
from The Magazine ANTIQUES, March/April 2012 | About the same time I bought Mercy Huntting’s rug at auction in 2007 (facing page, top), I was given a full run of The Magazine Antiques. Before shelving them for reference I paged through every issue, and to my surprise, found the rug illustrated in May 1951, in Florence Peto’s article “Some Early …
Editor’s Letter, March/April 2012
There are days when I am sure that there is a constant worldwide conspiracy out there to pretend that the past does not exist. Fortunately I leave the office occasionally and find that this may not be true. I recently toured Camera Solo, the exhibition of Patti Smith’s photographs at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford with Susan Talbott, the museum’s …
Teamwork in Piedmont, North Carolina
from The Magazine ANTIQUES, March/April 2012 | Dr. Thomas H. Sears Jr. and his wife, Sara, are well known in Piedmont, North Carolina, as a couple who are serious about historic preservation and collecting. Over the past forty-five years, their commitment to one another and their shared goals have enabled them to assemble one of North Carolina’s finest collections of …