Hispania Dreaming

Jeanne Sloane Furniture & Decorative Arts

A bespoke showcase for the extensive antiques collection of its builder, Casa del Herrero, near Santa Barbara, remains the finest exemplar of the Californian fashion for all things Spanish during the first decades of the twentieth century.

Mistress of Her Domain

Alexandra Frantischek Rodriguez-Jack Art, Furniture & Decorative Arts, In the Galleries

Emerging during the late Middle Ages, the domestic space known as the estrado kept pace with the ever-increasing reach and buying power of well-to-do households in Spain and the Spanish Americas, becoming a showcase for fineries from the world over. But as a female-coded area, it provided women a degree of autonomy and self-expression not generally possible in Continental or colonial society of the time.

The Politics of Placemats

Maggie Lidz Furniture & Decorative Arts

Besides founding museums and having lots of money, what did Abby Rockefeller, a strict Baptist; Harry du Pont, an introverted aesthete; and the ebullient businesswoman Marjorie Merriweather Post have in common? As it turns out, linen closets piled with a rainbow selection of Marshal Fry napkins and placemats.