In Memoriam: Don Didier

Eleanor H. Gustafson Magazine

A fire at his home in New Roads, Louisiana, this past summer took the life of James Donald Didier, one of the most idiosyncratic, engaging, and gifted minds in the world of American antiques and preservation.

Highlights of the 54th annual Delaware Antiques Show

Gregory Cerio Furniture & Decorative Arts

We took in opening night at the 54th annual Delaware Antiques Show in Wilmington, presented by the Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library. It’s a spectacular edition of this venerable event, and here are a few highlights: Newsom & Berdan Antiques & Folk Art has this beautiful 18th century appliqué mat on offer. Found in New Hampshire, it depicts a strange …

Farther afield: TEFAF, BADA, and the Salon du Dessin

Editorial Staff Furniture & Decorative Arts

Europe puts its best foot forward to welcome the massive influx of international collectors and dealers who head there each spring.  The European Fine Art Fair (TEFAF) Maastricht attracts the largest crowds and most attention but The British Antiques Dealers’ Association (BADA) annual fair in london and Paris’s tailored Salon du Dessin, both of which follow closely on TEFAF’s heels, …

Talking antiques at the Philadelphia Antiques Show

Editorial Staff Art

We asked exhibitors at the Philadelphia Antiques Show to highlight one exceptional object in their booths and describe it as they might to an interested collector. Here are the things they chose, along with some of their comments.   Arthur Guy Kaplan Nothing evokes spring and the promise of summer like butterflies flitting around the garden. From ancient times to the …

On the money

Editorial Staff Art

By Laura Beach Yorkshire calendar and almanac Calendar and almanac, probably York or Ripon, Yorkshire, England, c. 1425. Ink, tempera, and gold leaf on parchment, each page 6 by 4 1/8 inches. WHY:  Priced in the six figures by Les Enluminures of Paris, New York, and Chicago, this calendar and almanac of about 1425, with prognostications in Latin, illustrates the English …

How America found its face: Portrait miniatures in the New Republic

Editorial Staff Art

  By Elle Shushan; from The Magazine ANTIQUES, April 2009. The stunning events of July 1804 were almost unfathomable for the citizens of the new American republic. One Founding Father had fatally wounded another. Alexander Hamilton was dead and Aaron Burr  would be indicted for murder. The duel and its aftermath marked a turning point in American culture. Fig. 17. Thomas Cole …

Miniature discoveries

Editorial Staff Art

from The Magazine ANTIQUES, January/February 2012 | The recent appearance of two portrait miniatures leads to new information about back­country South Carolina artist Isaac Brownfield Alexander. Last year Elle Shushan, a leading expert on portrait miniatures, alerted curators at the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts (MESDA) about the pending sale of a rare work by a southern artist-a delightful …

Winter Antiques Show 2012

Editorial Staff Art, Calendar, Exhibitions

We asked exhibitors at the Winter Antiques Show to highlight one exceptional object in their booths and describe it as they might to an interested collector. Here are the things they chose, along with some of their comments. Barbara Israel Garden Antiques We are thrilled to be bringing a cache of extraordinary objects to the 2012 Winter Antiques Show, including …