October 2009 | Photography by Nic Barlow | Tucked in the lee of a wooded scarp, looking down on a valley and beyond, to Wales, Bradley Court stands in its beautiful garden in Gloucestershire, a story of historical harmony and form. Originally a manor house belonging to the Berkeleys of nearby Berkeley Castle, the house was apparently built in l559, …
Eyre Hall on Virginia’s Eastern Shore
September 2009 | Photography by Langdon Clay | “Eyre Hall…all through its venerable existence but another name for everything elegant, graceful and delightful in Old Virginia life.” Fanny Fielding’s nostalgic reminiscence of Eyre Hall during the ownership of John Eyre depicts a place we would recognize today.1 Still to be found are “the timely-clipped hedges of box and dwarf-cedar,” “the …
This Week’s Top Lots: August 15 – 21
* The top lot of the August 15 & 16 sale of marine, China trade, and sporting art at Northeast Auctions in Portsmouth, New Hampshire was Arthur Fitzwilliam Tait’s A Check-Keep Your Distance that sold for $381,000 (estimate $100,000-200,000). Other top lots were a 19th-century carved figurehead of a woman attributed to John Rogerson that sold for $183,000 (estimate $120,000-180,000), …
Trench Art of the Great War
August 2009 | During World War I the popular French magazine Le Pays de France sponsored a series of competitions for the best art pieces created by French soldiers. The magazine called these objects l’artisanat des tranchées. Translated into English as trench art, this term has been used ever since to describe a wide variety of war souvenirs made from …
Endnotes: Low-tech rising
Low-tech risingAs a child, I made many discoveries in my grandmother’s house. My favorite of these was her Underwood No. 4 Standard Typewriter, made in 1911. Today, this typewriter sits near my desk. It is both a reminder of my grandmother and a handsome example from the field of vintage office equipment-typewriters, adding machines, telephones, glass-domed Edison stock tickers, and …
The Hudson-Fulton Celebration, 100 years later
July 2009 | A cross between a world’s fair, a historical pageant, and a land and water carnival, the landmark Hudson-Fulton Celebration held in New York over two weeks in late September and early October 1909 was organized to commemorate two separate but related events: the three-hundredth anniversary of Henry Hudson’s exploration of the river that came to bear his …
New European museums and permanent displays
AmsterdamHermitage Amsterdam On June 19 Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands and President Dimitri Medevev of Russia are scheduled to preside over the opening ceremonies for the ambitiously expanded Hermitage Amsterdam. The museum, housed in the Amstelhof, built between 1681 and 1683 as a charitable home for the elderly, will reopen to the public on June 20. A satellite of the …
Léonard Boudin at the Flagler Museum
Unboxing the Henry Morrison Flagler Museum’s 50th birthday present
This Week’s Top Lots: June 2 – 5
Top lots in the world of antiques
Inspired by antiques: Homeric style tea service by Elkington
As an interior decorator and style blogger, I’ve been asked to write a column that takes inspiration from antiques and makes connections to current trends—as we all know, styles in furniture and the decorative arts tend to repeat themselves! Today, the elements of design found in the most exquisite antiques take form in new and often unexpected ways—from designer pieces …
