Brown Pottery Spittoon A Memorial To The Chew
Of all the many distasteful Presidents, I dislike Andrew Jackson for his bluff, rough man’s-man persona. After all, he slept in the dirt with his men in 1812 and earned …
Cepelia tapestry From Mid-Century Folk-Art Lovers
B’s daughter inherited a wall-size Polish tapestry from her non-Polish grandparents. B wonders how this piece came into their hands. I’ll tell you, B! Your daughter’s grandparents were liberal, enlightened …
Respecting A Japanese Bridal Uchikake
I find something quite extraordinary about a Japanese silk bridal uchikake. This 20th-century garment comes with a dramatic black background, sweeping bands of metallic gold, and a profusion of white …
Dimes Settee Presents Intriguing Reproduction Exception
KL owns a triple bow-back Windsor settee. At first glance it struck me as an example of 18th or 19th century Americana from the Mid-Atlantic states. This form didn’t especially …
Reading a Tapestry
This tapestry serves as a mirror of contemporary 17th-century Renaissance diplomacy, and the often tragic misuse of power. 21st-century people find it difficult to understand a world, in the deep …
1880s Silver Gelatin Lumberjack Photograph
KK sent me a fantastic 1880s silver gelatin photograph of two young men. They’re friends or brothers, we do not know. They’re dressed in oversized fur flap-eared caps and long …
Folk-Art Gathering Basket
My grandmother lived in a small house under the shadow of the BEVO Mill, a reproduction windmill housing a famous brewery on Gravois in Saint Louis. I grew up there …
18th Century Interactive Visual Media
The concept of interactive media is familiar. We interact with our phones visually. The concept of a picture in three dimensions is ordinary, mundane, part of our visual vocabulary. However, …
Eight Immortals and a Chinese Chest
KG owns an early 20th century forty-one-inch long Chinese Qing Dynasty carved camphor chest of little value—$350-400. These are relatively common, but it bears priceless symbolism. Should KG keep this …
1970s Art Nouveau Reflected In A Lamp
Along the Art Nouveau lines of the 1970s, DD sent me a floor lamp with a 1979 Tiffany-style blown-glass shade in the Quezal tradition. The attached shade hangs on a …