In an episode keyed to Art Carpenter’s Wishbone chair, scholar and curator Glenn Adamson shares his thoughts on the similarities and differences between art and design.
Curious Objects: The Soldier, the Dandy, and the Queen
Listeners to this podcast will recognize the name Freeman’s—for more than a year, the Philadelphia-based auction house has been Curious Objects’ lead sponsor, and its no exaggeration to say the podcast wouldn’t exist without them.
Curious Objects: Noah Wunsch Was Born to Collect
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.
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.
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.
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.
Curious Objects: The House that Vanderbilt—Gilded Age Mansions of Newport, RI
A virtual tour of the suite of Gilded Age mansions built for the Vanderbilts, Oelrichs, Astors, and Berwinds in Newport, Rhode Island, by the likes of Richard Morris Hunt and Stanford White.
Curious Objects: Kevin Brown and His Qing-era Map of China
In this episode of Curious Objects, Benjamin Miller stops by the shop of his mentor Kevin Brown, founder of Geographicus Rare Antique Maps, to peruse a monumental Qing-era map of China and its environs.
Curious Objects: David Webb archivist Levi Higgs and the company’s storied Zebra bracelet
The twentieth century jeweler David Webb was known for his use of vibrantly-colored gems and enamels and frequent use of animal imagery. His eponymous firm carries on his legacy.