This short list of notable acquisitions began with a request to decorative arts curators in major American museums to choose and discuss a favorite recent gift or purchase. The design of this elegant Gothic revival center table is attributed to the renowned Alexander Jackson Davis. The leading advocate for the “pointed style” in the United States in the mid-nineteenth century, …
Museum accessions, part I
This short list of notable acquisitions began with a request to decorative arts curators in major American museums to choose and discuss a favorite recent gift or purchase. This porcelain sculpture representing the ancient Roman goddess Juno is one of only eleven known examples in the world of large-scale figures produced by the Doccia manufactory in the middle of the …
Sèvres extraordinaire in Detroit
The Sèvres tea and coffee service recently acquired by the Detroit Institute of Arts, and featured here, is extraordinary in style, design, fabrication, and decoration. The service is comprised of fourteen pieces: a footed tray (porte jatte), coffeepot, teapot, covered sugar bowl, milk pitcher, waste bowl (on the center pedestal), and four cups and saucers. A breakfast set, it is …
In conversation with…Rosemary Hill, Pugin biographer
God’s Architect: Pugin and the Building of Romantic Britain by Rosemary Hill (Yale University Press, 2009), an extensive biography of Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin (1812-1852), won the Wolfson Prize for History and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Biography in 2007, when it was published in England. The book is recently published in the U.S. by Yale University Press. …
Stickley in Dallas
Gustav Stickley is well-known for his American arts and crafts furniture, characterized by its sturdy and utilitarian appearance. While he promoted the idea of handcrafted furniture, as a businessman, mindful of cost, he took full advantage of the available technology of the time. His emphasis on structure with simple, or better yet, no applied decoration, however, put him in the …