Tag archives: Elizabeth Stewart
Oh, my dear Jeff!I’ll be the first to confessYour acerbic finesseSinges my skin like a spark to a dress. But your piece on Ms. Flagg–Well, on that I will brag!I laughed out loud–truly cackled, by gag!Every phrase, every turn,Had a bright comic burn;What a picture you painted–what language! What swag! So bravo, good Wing–Let the […]
As I am in quite a few houses each week appraising contents and collections, in almost every home there’s a “knock off” Phillippe Starck Lucite see-through “Louis Ghost” chair. Made of Lucite or acrylic resin, the faux-starck has that round or oval back rest, arms, and tapered legs, and today they cost as little as […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
HK sends me a matched pair of lamps. One is a table lamp, and the other a swag chandelier – both designed in a swirling compilation of many styles to create so much grandeur that they cannot be anything but the embodiment of the 1970s. Seeing the photos, I imagine these lamps’ ‘friends’ – objects […]
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 […]
BC in Carpinteria has an ornate lamp, and it was, in the late 19th century, considered an exquisite newel post gas lighting fixture. In its day (1860-1880) it was as beautiful as it is deadly. Firstly, let us talk about the symbolism of the design. Lighting in the late 19th century was novel and figural. […]
J has a German saltware pottery ewer that couldn’t be more German if it tried. That style of blue relief decoration on heavy stoneware with shiny surface dates to the 14th century in Rhineland. This is stoneware which bears a salt glaze. Stoneware was discovered in the 13th century when potters in Germany found that […]
JE sends me photos of two pieces of a five-piece set of covered dishes circa 1900 by Copeland Spode. Both the style and the form of the dishes – indicating the use to which they were put – point to the late 19th to early 20th century This is the British Edwardian period, so beloved […]
LW called me while her friend’s house in the Palisades was still smoldering. She asked me this important question: “Elizabeth, W didn’t have an appraisal for his contemporary lithography and modern art collection. He assumed the artwork was insured under the fine art category in his general homeowner’s policy, and he seems to recall the […]
Over the holidays, my family treated each other to two nights of a bougie hotel experience in Encinitas, instead of forcing one family member to host Christmas. The pricey hotel experience featured the work of a choice local photographer as artist-in-residence; an ocean-loving surfing creative artist-athlete whose huge glossy canvases transformed the hotel’s corridors – […]
Post election, we need deep relaxation, muscle regeneration, pain relief, digestive help, cure for migraine, improved circulation, a repaired immune system, elimination of toxins (too much wine), and better concentration. This may be just the time for an article on JF’s “singing” bowls from his home altar – a collection of Japanese standing “struck” bowls, […]
HH was told by his grandmother from Boston that the table she left him was made by Duncan Phyfe. Almost everyone who has an East Coast Grandma runs the risk of being told that her family’s furniture was made by Phyfe. For years after his death, Phyfe’s furniture was NOT collected nor desired; it wasn’t […]
HH has a lovely 10” tall Panamanian basket made by indigenous Darién Rainforest artists in the Wounaan tradition; you will see a lifelike bat design woven into the fibers. I would like to tell you that these naturalistic designs have been part of the tradition for thousands of years, but that would be misleading. Not […]
EF, who receives my monthly “Stuff-Whisperer” newsletter, read that I spent the first two weeks of September in Malaga, Southern Spain, visiting my brother. She sent an oil on canvas of her Spanish Lady, as it is known to her family (dated 1887), because I have experienced Andalusian culture recently! EF’s grandparents purchased this work […]
