Art Nouveau Floor Lamp
JJ owns a wonderful goose-neck floor lamp, found at the Earl Warren flea market. The base is a naturalistic bronze with a round figure of a lily pad, models of …
Ceramic Umbrella Stand of the Aesthetic Movement
Years ago RR inherited a tall ceramic umbrella stand shattered in a recent wildfire. She discovered two shards that, when put together like puzzle pieces, read RN 288102 and RN …
Tin Rocking Horse Hazardous But Adorable
RH sent me a children’s sit-on rocking tin horse that lived in his garage for years. He THINKS it belonged to his mom but he’s not sure. I believe this …
Chinese Chinoiserie Style, Love it or Hate it
RH owns a Chinese Chinoiserie style coffee table. The top shows a startling scene of ancient Chinese Court life composed of six applied carved semi-precious stone figures. One figure wields …
Barnaby Conrad: A Friend to Writers
OS asked for a dollar estimate for her Barnaby Conrad signed lithograph. When an artist is a huge personality with a legendary past, “comparable sales,” prices paid for past work, …
The ORANGE: Perception, Color, and Language
The color orange, a newer color term, is based upon the 14th century European discovery of the fruit. In the foothills of the Himalayas in the 13th century, Persian traders …
Hodge’s Hats
PP confessed to a weakness for vintage hats. For the past ten years she paid $300 a month to store her collection of 1950s hats. She sent me a picture …
William Caxton Facsimile Edition of The Canterbury Tales
GG sent me a beautiful leather-bound book, The Canterbury Tales, by Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-1400), The William Caxton Facsimile Edition. Cambridge University Press published only 500 of these in 1973. She …
Bust of Vigée Le Brun
LM sent me a photo of a thirty inch tall terra cotta bust of a gorgeous young French female of the late 18th century. Her beauty is classic even today: …
Wrestling with a Creative Block
For some time I’ve wanted to write about the devastating creative artist’s BLOCK, sometimes referred to as writer’s block. What do you do when you, a creative person, feel …