Tag archives: antique

JE has a wonderful 1900s vintage Japanese necklace composed of faces of benevolent gods. The links are porcelain on sterling. Firstly, the faces (and the gods they belong to) are important to Japanese mythology; they are the Seven Gods of Fortune. They are pictured on kimono toggles called netsuke, and in woodcuts since the 1600s. […]

Imagine a clock that winds itself based on changes in atmospheric pressure. This clock doesn’t need a human. It winds itself with the help of a sealed bellows of ethyl chloride: when the temperature rises, the metal spring is condensed, when it falls, the metal spring expands, and the mainspring is wound. Because this clock […]

This frightening but beautiful African work of art is a wooden and polychromed (painted with many colors) carved BaPende mask from Zaire, part of a group collected by a world famous celebrity. The owner of these masks queries, “Where can these masks best be sold?” Indeed this collection is superb, and varied in age and […]

What do YOU find in local thrift stores? At Avenue Thrift, my favorite place in Ventura (which, incidentally, supports the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Ventura), I found an ugly brutalist folk art-style wood carving – two feet tall and depicting a one-legged man seated with a cane. For years I have been searching […]

KMcD sends me a photo of four African masks purchased in Tanzania and Kenya, originally from Zaire (the Congo). I love these masks because I had a two-year tour in the VSO, the British version of the U.S. Peace Corps, in upper Nigeria and the Ivory Coast. I have a treasured mask from the Ivory […]

When I was 20, I got a job as a dancer in Michigan with a touring company of Showboat. I loved the Grand Rapids area. On a particular day off, I toured the Widdicomb Furniture Company’s Museum of Historic American Furniture (this was in the late 1970s). Modern furniture was included in the display, as […]

In 1850, the average American family size included six to nine children. Boys in the early to mid-19th century wore dresses handed down from sisters, typically termed frocks, and these frocks were worn without either short or long pants underneath until a boy reached “breeching” age. What is breeching age? It is when a young […]

My brother and sister-in-law live in a sophisticated New York high-rise close by the Dakota Apartments. They have a favorite breed of dog, and have cared for a string of Great Danes up there – suffering many elevator rides for pee breaks over the years. Lucy, their latest Dane, can be seen in the Central […]

A gift that the universe gives to the right person is rare. Take Emma Howard, a talented local designer (I have permission to use her name). Emma – owner of Studio 3 Hand Rendered Textiles and Surface Designs (her office is on hiatus today) – was visiting her son when she noticed a pile of […]

ES has an 8.5” tall matte blue vase accented with a purple peony design that bears the “flame” mark for Rookwood Pottery, and the date stamp 1926. ES, your little vase was part of a worldwide rise of a new style of ceramics. Art Pottery began in the late 19th century, continued to evolve till […]

What single object personified KITSCH in a mid-century living room in the 1950s? Of course! Table lamps that made us roll our eyes – non-politically correct figural lamps that made us cringe. This article discusses those cringeworthy mid-century table lamps that skate on the edge of tastelessness out to the borderland of the unimaginable. Some […]

DS has a set of Stanley Roberts International House of Design stainless flatware, accented with an insert of flat rosewood running down the handles. Very modern, and a hot item today, as American modern stainless and sterling flatware is sleek and simple – and desirable in the market. AND there’s plenty of 1950s and 1960s […]

BL, a budding Gen Z art afficionado, asked if the fine art print market is a good investment. A great question, and the answer is “YES!” for some types of prints created in select eras in certain styles (for example Pop Art is strong today). Let’s look at the world of prints, often called “multiples,” […]

DS sends me a 250-year-old English engraving titled The Sea fight off La Rochelle. The work is an image reproduced from Jean Froissart’s 14th century account of the Hundred Year’s War, Chronicles (1337-1410). The engraving itself is the portrayal of a naval battle from the Hundred Year’s War – 14th century sailors falling in droves into […]

I authored a little book prior to the Pandemic titled No Thanks Mom: The Top Ten Objects Your Kids Do Not Want – to my surprise it went viral. The heart of the book is my generational differences chart (I cover amusing and accurate differences in homeownership, design trends, and acquisition styles between the generations). […]

What are the value characteristics of Native American rugs? The most salient value is the profound symbolism in each rug, the meaning the rugs traditionally carry for the People. Since the early 20th century Tribal rugs have been available through regional Southwest trading posts which dealt directly with Native artists. Two such rugs were collected […]

Confession! I have a doll phobia, and there’s a name for that: “pediophobia,” an intense irrational fear of a humanoid form when appearing too realistic, seemingly too close to becoming one of US. In fact, the more realistic the doll, the more frightened I become. Thus, when JP sent me that shocking photo of a […]

LW has a miniature pine dry sink, the type – though in larger scale – that was in use before indoor plumbing, and whose basin was typically zinc, soapstone, or copper lined. The dimensions are 8” (w) x 4.25” (d) x 7.5” (h), and the sink well is 2.5” deep. Hers is stamped with a burnt-in […]

IP met me at Avalon Conservation Labs in Goleta where he had brought an antique piece of tapestry, about 42” square, framed inside a Lucite box. The family from whence it came was involved with a major museum, and IP thought it was worth preserving. Yet he knew nothing about it. As beautiful as he […]