Cuban Tile With Islam Influence
FF sent me a ceramic tile, framed, with a delicate pastel decoration of stylized flowing foliage in a vase. This Persian symbol for the Tree of Life offers connections between …
Framer’s Label Tells a Great Story
AC got lucky on a late 19th century watercolor landscape featuring a meandering Midwestern river and a skiff tied to the underbrush. A framer’s label on the back of the …
Lucite Furniture Ups and Downs
I visit quite a few homes each week to appraise contents and collections. In almost every home I find a “knock-off” Phillippe Stark Lucite see-through “Louis Ghost” chair. They’re made …
The Landscape Around Pearls
JC sent me her mom’s pair of pearl collars, faux pearls on silk that graced a common cardigan or blouse in the 1940s. Glentex produced these in Japan, and in …
Great Animalier Pierre Jules Mene
B and J sent me a beautiful bronze sculpture of two horses, one smaller, one larger, facing each other, with the head on the shoulder of the other. B and …
Vintage Cape Worth $120?
CS sent me a vintage cape with rabbit trimmed fur on cashmere. She wonders if with the tiny moth holes mean that it’s NOT worth the price tag of $120. …
Disk Music Box From 1900
Imagine a breadbox-sized box with a round metal disk inside, a music box with a coin slot for a nickel. In 1900 one found this box in taverns, pool halls, …
I LOVE Art Deco Clocks
Art Deco clocks are special to me. My mom recently passed “out of human time” and into the next realm at the age of 96. She collected clocks, especially those …
Lady’s Stirrups Silver or Not?
PS asked about a pair of silver stirrups, necessary for riding a horse. Imagine a time before cars in our world, and we rode horses—or they pulled us. For thousands …
William “Bill” Shinn: Master of Ceramic Extrusion Techniques
MC inherited a pottery floor vase, a quirky work from the mid-1970s by genius Santa Maria potter, William “Bill” Shinn (1932-2011). Did Shinn get inspiration for the design from a …