How to JUDGE a Painting
JS owns an oil on canvas with no signature. The back reads “Carmel Art Association.” She wonders if I consider the painting good enough for her to do considerable research …
Lifelike Soulful Saint Francis Santos
I want to tell you a personal story of an object my partner gifted me this holiday season. This Santos figure of Saint Francis stands thirty-two inches tall. Although I …
Almost Complete Works by Ruskin
GH owns a collection of twenty-three volumes of The Collected Works of John Ruskin, NY: Frank F. Lovell & Co., 1920, bound in tan calfskin with gilt decorated spines. GH …
Moving Abraham Lincoln Biography
FG owns the first complete contemporary biography of Abraham Lincoln. The book includes copper plate engravings, and a frontispiece of a bearded Lincoln, by Joseph H Barrett, a close personal …
Creative Repurposing
2022!! After the holidays, you have more stuff, no doubt. Because of the pandemic, and the global supply chain shortage, I rethought buying ‘new’ this past season. I either bought …
Native American Points…HELP!
LS inherited a small collection of Native American points and tools. He believes them Southwestern in origin. This is not my area of expertise so this article serves as a …
Fussing Over Forks
Furca (Latin: Pitchfork), the original name of the common table fork, originated at least 4,500 years. Forks marked civilization and “class” since then. I learned much in Giovanni Rebora’s book …
Warming Up Under a Coverlet
JU sent me an American Jacquard coverlet from the 1840s when almost all rural households owned one of these blankets. Quilts took a long time to make, and NOT from …
Saint Barbara Patron of Gunners
I begin my story of a 20th century two-foot long porcelain plaque of Saint Barbara, owned by JS, with this poem celebrating our city’s patron Saint, written in 1922 by …
American Brilliant Cut Glass Only a Fad?
It all began in 1876 with a rich dinner party hostess who viewed the Centennial Exhibition in Pennsylvania. There American glass blowers and cutters exhibited exquisite American Brilliant Cut Glass. …