The Huntington Library recently launched a new online database that makes accessible the archives of Los Angeles-based architectural and garden photographer Maynard L. Parker (1901-1976). Parker contributed images to many of the nation’s premiere home design publications from the late 1930s through the early 1970s including House Beautiful, Architectural Digest, Better Homes & Gardens, and Sunset. He traveled across the …
This Week’s Top Lots: August 8 – 14
* The top lot of the August 8 sale of the estate of Joseph Stanley at Rago in Lambertville, New Jersey was an 18th century slant front desk that sold for $42,700 (estimate $1,200-1,500). Other top lots were an English Chippendale-style sofa that sold for $18,300 (estimate $2,000-3,000), and a set of Regency parlor furniture that sold for $17,080 (estimate …
Design notes: Conservation and restoration of upholstery
Historical recreations at the Peabody Essex Museum
The Expert Eye: Barry Harwood at BKLYN DESIGNS
Often the best way to experience the past is to see its influence on the present. To that end, I invited Barry Harwood, curator of decorative arts at the Brooklyn Museum to accompany me to the annual BKLYN DESIGNS exhibition (May 8-10), presented by the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce at St. Ann’s Warehouse in Dumbo. Over forty local designers showcased …
The American Wing gets ready to soar: Renovation and Refinement
Emerging from a much-needed remake, the Met’s American decorative arts galleries and period rooms shine as never before
The American Campeche chair
Invented in ancient Rome, the Campeche chair was a favorite of Thomas Jefferson during the American neoclassical period and still serves as a symbol of political power
Kem Weber and the rise of modern design in Southern California
On the Barker Brothers’ Los Angeles 1926 shop opening and the work of Kem Weber
Japanned furniture: global objects in provincial America
So Asia, and Africa, ~ Europa, with America; ~ AIl Four, in Consort
join’d shall Sing ~ New Songs of Praise to Christ our King.
Queries: Paper lined bed testers
Cybèle Gontar and Stephen Harrison are writing an article on paper-lined bed testers. Decorative wallpapers have traditionally been placed on walls, ceilings, and folding screens. Less commonly, wallpapers were also used to cover valances and ceilings of bedsteads in the late eighteenth century. Bed and window valances covered with paper were advertised by Francis Delorme, a French immigrant craftsman in …
The Worsham-Rockefeller rooms
Two Gilded Age rooms make their way to the Metropolitan Museum of Art