Geo | July 16, 2010
On a visit to the Philbrook Museum of Art, most likely like other first-time visitors, I was immediately amazed by the 72-room Italian Renaissance mansion and its 23-acre garden. However, I agree with what the former director of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art said “what counts in a museum is above all the quality of [...]
ewmiller | July 12, 2010
An added bonus to seeing Frank Lloyd Wright’s only realized skyscraper, Price Tower, in person was seeing Robert Indiana’s 66, which sits across the street from the tower. I know there are a lot of Wright fans out there, but while there are attractive aspects to some of his designs and I find the recorded [...]
ewmiller | May 25, 2010
Show promoter Bob James sent out an email newsletter earlier today referencing John Fiske’s April column in the New England Antiques Journal. Fiske had asserted that among the categories, the small, high-end show would have the smallest chance surviving. Here’s how Fiske describe these shows (James’ Shows as well as those such as Antiques in [...]
Geo | May 14, 2010
It wasn’t antiques I was looking for exactly at a place I found online called Discount Home Warehouse in Dallas. I was however hoping to find a wooden mantle to dress up a rather bland-looking brick wall. While there were several in stock, I didn’t find one that was quite right or would fit. I [...]
ewmiller | April 23, 2010
MRS. THAW IN TEARS OVER SON’S ARREST, an Aug 19, 1913 New York Times Headline read. “Gayly chatting with her woman traveling companion, smiling and laughing, although she undoubtedly knew that her son, Harry, was under arrest, Mrs. Mary Copley Thaw stepped from the Pennsylvania Limited at 5:22 o’clock this evening, threw up her parasol [...]
ewmiller | April 22, 2010
I picked up a book called Era of Elegance at the Grapevine Antique Mall a few days ago. It gives a flowery glimpse of both Gilded Age palaces and their occupants. The author, Andrew Tully, bookends the Era of Elegance at 1865 and 1914. The first chapter is titled Mrs. Astor’s Couch. It’s appropriate that [...]
Hui | January 19, 2010
Perhaps because of the iconic status of the tower, Goldstrom democratizes the pictures by putting the tower near the side of less importance. The clock tower building is there, as we unconsciously move around it and psychologically marginalize its relevance to our life. When most Brooklynites’ sensibility are overtaken by their sense of existence, Goldstrom paints the landmark within, and reminds us that the beauty can be observed and enjoyed. [Read More...]
Geo | August 28, 2009
There are many frames in the world that have been repainted with gold radiator paint. Sometimes it can be removed to reveal original gilding, but I have found this process to be somewhat frustrating. You have to move very quickly so the solvents don’t take the gold with the paint. Another option is to add new gold. [...]
Geo | July 22, 2009
I have often thought the large bronze of once Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) President Samuel Rea looked lost behind a concrete pillar at Two Penn Plaza in New York. It’s bad enough being a former president of a company that doesn’t exist anymore and having an elaborate bronze made for a monumental building that was, in [...]
Geo | July 19, 2009
Chicago Hotelier Bertha Palmer is said to have coined the phrase “fashion is fleeting, but style is eternal.” In Pittsburgh the definition of fleeting may be a little longer than in Palmer’s Chicago and to a New York observer, styles in Pittsburgh may certainly have seemed at times to verge on the eternal. If there’s one truism that runs through art, architecture and the decorative arts in Pittsburgh it’s that new styles were adopted later than in other cities.
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