Editor's letter.(Editorial)

We have a good many surprises in this issue: a little known gem of a church on the island of Jersey with an interior by Rene Lalique; the discovery that Charles Rohlfs's wife Anna Katharine Green collaborated on his remarkable furniture; an appreciation of Josef Maria Olbrich whose architecture and decorative arts were among the most influential on the members of the Secession and the Deutsche Werkbund, and who has unaccountably been overlooked on the one hundredth anniversary of his death; and the path breaking designs of Gilbert Rohde, the man who saved Herman Miller.

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December is also an issue of very small things--a collection of miniature furniture, a Georgian dollhouse, a twelve-inch dreadnought made of wood, bone, and hair--and one very big thing, William Randolph Hearst's legendary hoard of antiques and fine art-Like many people, I am entranced by small-scale versions of everyday objects. I can't spend more than a few minutes contemplating Ralph H. Keeler's little replicas of Queen Anne and windsor chairs without the pleasurable sensation that I've slipped down some rabbit hole and become small scale myself. And yet I can easily see why Keeler's little girl did not enjoy these gifts. There's nothing more disappointing to a child than a toy with an assigned meaning. When little things fall into the wrong hands, as they ...