For centuries in Europe patronage of the arts and appreciation for the artfully arranged garden were inextricably intertwined. Wealthy dilettantes enjoyed a stroll in a perfectly trimmed maze of geometric hedges or a seemingly wild tangle of delicate blooms just as much as they thrilled at the beauty of a Titian or a Michelangelo.…
The city of Edo, modern day Tokyo, Japan, experienced the rise of a new form of pop art in the period between the seventeenth and the twentieth centuries. Ukiyo-e, or woodblock prints, became all the rage because their mass production rendered them affordable to a broad audience. These prints were not the…
Eye & Mind
Presented to celebrate the opening of Vanderbilt’s newly renovated and expanded galleries, the exhibition Eye & Mind illustrates the breadth and depth of the collection, now in its fifty-third year. The updated presentation for 2010 features nineteen new works of art ranging from Baroque sculpture to Pop Art. The…
03.1.2010 | ANTIQUES, DRAWING, EVENTS, NEWS, PAINTING, SCULPTURE, SPOTLIGHT, VISUAL ART
Clayton Sumner Price (American, 1874-1950) The Rider, oil on board, signed C. S. Price
Price grew up in a large ranching family in Iowa and Wyoming. An accomplished carpenter, homesteader and horseman, C. S. Price was 31 years old before he sought formal art training at the St. Louis School of Fine Arts. He…
“It takes a certain kind of person to fall in love with my work. It’s not as polished and finished—I’m not saying that it’s not cool and wonderful, it’s just maybe not as perfect—as what you’d find in most retail furniture stores. It is all handcrafted using old techniques. It’s more organic and natural.…
02.3.2010 | ANTIQUES, ARCHITECTURE, NEWS, SCULPTURE, VISUAL ART
American Silver and Enamel Serving Spoon, Gorham Manufacturing Company, circa 1880
When clients sent this spoon for evaluation, their expectation was that they owned a piece of Russian enameled silver. Russian silversmiths may have had a hand in the crafting of this elegant object. If they did, they were living in America and working…
Steelcraft Pressed-steel Toy Milk Truck, circa 1930
The Murray Ohio Manufacturing Company of Cleveland, Ohio, was founded in 1919 to supply fenders, gas tanks, running boards and other parts for America’s fast-growing automobile industry. In 1923, Murray expanded its product line to include Steelcraft Wheel Goods, a line of pressed-steel toy cars for children.…
Pyrite and Silver “Bow” pin, circa 1930
Nice vintage “marcasite” pin, well-marked and identified “sterling” “Germany.”
Pyrite and marcasite have almost identical physical properties, making it difficult to distinguish them apart unless you are a mineralogist. Adding to the confusion between marcasite and pyrite is the use of the word marcasite as a jewelry trade…
Black, Starr & Frost Travel Clock
This antique, chased and engraved decorated silver clock is identified as Black, Starr & Frost on its sterling case and on the branded clock face of the Swiss-made movement. The clock movement marks date the movement to 1895–1905, as does the overall Edwardian Art Nouveau-style decoration of this diminutive…
19th Century Walking Stick
In the collecting world of walking sticks, the varieties of forms and functions are classified in three types: decorative, folk art, and system. While the distinctions can be vague, they provide a good foundation for categorizing the thousands of canes that have been produced over the past several hundred years.…
