The Magazine Antiques articles from September 2004

The Magazine Antiques archives from September 2004

Furniture of the Federal period.
September 1, 2004... Since the early twentieth century American furniture of the Federal period has enjoyed widespread popularity among collectors. The defining dates of the style generally span the last decades of the eighteenth century through the first quarter...

Japan in travel photographs.
September 1, 2004... The first camera is recorded as having arrived in Japan in 1848--just shy of a decade after the invention of photography was announced in France and England. It was a Westerner--Eliphalet Brown Jr.--who took the first photograph in Japan while...

Rockingham ware reappraised.
September 1, 2004... There are many unsolved mysteries in the decorative arts, and, as in some detective stories, the clue to their solution has been in plain sight all the time. Such is the case with Rockingham ware, one of the most ubiquitous products of American...

Coverlets of New York State.
September 1, 2004... Regional studies of American coverlets are quite advanced at this point, in large part because many professionally woven examples from the first half of the nineteenth century bear inscriptions that can include names, dates, and place names....

Timekeeping in Maryland.
September 1, 2004... One of this country's most elegant Federal houses is Homewood, built in Baltimore by Charles Carroll of Carrollton for his dissolute son Charles Carroll Jr. in the early years of the nineteenth century. George Washington called the elder...

Museum accessions.
September 1, 2004... Two recent gifts to the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA) demonstrate once again the symbiotic relationship between museums and collectors. In one case, a family heirloom enhanced the museum's rich holdings, which in turn provided the resources...

East and West meet.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2004... The voyages of discovery launched at the end of the fifteenth century greatly extended Europeans' horizons. The most famous of the explorations was undertaken by Christopher Columbus in 1492, with the unfulfilled goal of finding a safe easterly...

Nicholas and Alexandra.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2004... The last czar of Russia, Nicholas II, and his czarina, Alexandra, led a contented family life with four daughters and a son. Nicholas was not particularly interested in national and international politics, nor was he as strong a monarch as his...

Boucher tercentenary.
September 1, 2004... Francois Boucher was born in Paris in 1703 and was apprenticed at the age of seventeen to Francois Lemoyne, a designer of embroidery patterns. After only three months he went to work for the engraver Jean Francois Cars. After winning the Prix...

Silversmiths to the Belgian Court.(Report from Europe)(Pierre Gabriel Germain Dutalis)(Joseph Germain Dutalis)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2004... The Brussels silversmiths Pierre Gabriel Germain Dutalis (1755-1814) and his son Joseph Germain Dutalis thrived despite the political upheavals in the Netherlands and Belgium in the early nineteenth century. Having worked with his father for...

Olympics, then and now.(Books about Antiques)
September 1, 2004... This year Athens was the site of the modern-day Olympics for the first time since 1906, itself a distant echo of the first games, in the eighth century BC in Olympia. Those early days are the subject of an exhibition on view until November 28...

Queries.(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2004... THE MOFFATT-LADD HOUSE in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, is owned by the National Society of Colonial Dames of America in the State of New Hampshire. Among the early furnishings in this 1763 house is a suite of mahogany furniture made about 1760 in...

Calendar.(art exhibitions)(Calendar)
September 1, 2004... The arts here and abroad--a compendium of exhibitions, symposiums, and lectures California BERKELEY Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology: "Tesoros Escondidos: Hidden Treasures from the Mexican Collections"; September 16 to June 26,...

Antiques.
September 1, 2004... I see that the word of my city is that word from of old, Because I see that world nested in nests of water-bays, superb, Rich, hemm'd thick all around with sailships and steamships, an island sixteen miles long, solid-founded,...

The John Wilmerding collection: a scholar's gift to the National Gallery of Art.
September 1, 2004... At a dinner last May to celebrate an exhibition of paintings and drawings from his personal collection at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D. C., John Wilmerding astonished the guests by announcing that the artworks on display would...

Irish glass.(Cover Story)
September 1, 2004... No category of antiques can have generated a more spurious mythology than that surrounding Irish glass. Indeed, the legends and half-truths propagated by charlatans, frauds, and wishful thinkers have become so firmly established in the...

An introduction to Neapolitan and Sicilian furniture.
September 1, 2004... Few American collectors have yet discovered the many regional differences in the Italian decorative arts. Auction houses and many museums outside of Italy describe pieces as Italian at best, and, if painted or lacquered, usually as Venetian. If...

The Bird's Nest flatware pattern by Gorham, 1869.
September 1, 2004... The Victorians adored functional novelties, which in that era included small objects characteristically produced in figural form and usually having a specific use beyond their ornamental role. Such objects were commonly made of silver. After...

English penwork and the Indian connection.
September 1, 2004... The relationship between penwork, a form of painted decoration on wood practiced primarily by amateurs between about 1820 and 1850, and the furniture and textiles of British India is an intriguing one and touches upon the many exchanges of...

Merchandising America: American views published by the Maison Goupil.
September 1, 2004... After breakfast, accompanied by Mr. Boilly, call'd on Mr. Rit[t]ner, printseller, in the Boulevard des Italiens, with a proof of Ariadne, discovered that there was no chance of sale in Paris except at a great sacrifice [...] conclude,...

Travel guide.(antique shows)(Calendar)
September 1, 2004... COLORADO Denver ERON JOHNSON ANTIQUES, 451 Broadway, 80203. Telephone: (303)777-8700. Offers a vast collection of period furniture, lighting, accessories and architectural items from the 17th-19th centuries. View over 7,000 items from...

Calendar of Shows.(Calendar)
September 1, 2004... September 10-12. CHEVY CHASE ANTIQUES SHOW, WASHINGTON, D.C. "A gem of a show," the 44th annual CHEVY CHASE ANTIQUES SHOW will be held SEPTEMBER 10, 11, and 12 at the Woman's Club of Chevy Chase, 7931 Connecticut Ave., Chevy Chase, Maryland....

Clearing House.
September 1, 2004... Rates: $130.00 per single insertion for 25 words. $115.00 per issue under contract for 6 months per year. $100.00 per issue under contract for 12 consecutive months. $3.50 per additional word. Deadline for the November issue is September...

Embellishments for woodwork.(Design Notes)
September 1, 2004... In the eighteenth century carvers and stucco artists of architectural embellishments were given a run for their money by molded composition ornament. The recipe for making compo, as it was called, varied considerably, but the main ingredients...