Hotel Hamper Led to Laborious Laundry
JP sent me a photo of a huge linen hamper, four by five-and-a-half feet of woven willow, which indicates a European origin. People saw these beasts in hotel corridors in …
Masking Through the Eyes of Michelangelo’s David
I love my amusing and clever readers who connect historical objects with present day realities. Santa Barbara reader FR sent me a twenty-five inch MASK she collected in Venice in …
Porcelain Dish Once Deemed “White Gold”
RE loves her blue turquoise oval porcelain dish with images of two exotic birds. She wonders why she likes it so much. MAYBE because of its VAST history, and at …
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 …