Spanish American Riches in Brooklyn

Editorial Staff Exhibitions

Folding screen with the Siege of Belgrade (front), Mexican, c. 1697–1701. Oil on wood, inlaid with mother-of-pearl. Brooklyn Museum, gift of Lilla Brown in memory of her husband, John W. Brown, by exchange. Objects in gold and silver, inlaid and gilded furniture, sumptuous fabrics, Asian porcelains, dazzling por­traits-the Spanish colonial elite had it all, and flaunted it proudly within the …

Catherine the Great in Georgia

Editorial Staff Exhibitions

Censer, Russian, late seventeenth century. Silver and parcel gilt. Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens, Washington, D. C. Crowned empress of Russia in 1762, Catherine II was determined to change the perception through­out Europe that Russia was a cultural backwater. Having lived at court since 1744, when she became engaged to the future Peter III, Catherine had immersed herself in Russian …

This Week’s Top Lots: October 17 – 23

Editorial Staff Art

* Christie’s London/October 17, Post-war and Contemporary Art Day SaleThe sale total was £3.5 million. The top lot was Anselm Kiefer’s Baum mit Panzer that sold for £169,250 (estimate £70,000-90,000). Other top lots were Martin Kippenberger’s Self-Portrait that sold for £139,250 (estimate £18,000-22,000), and Wim Delvoye’s Last Port that sold for £109,250 (estimate £50,000-70,000). * Skinner Boston/October 17, Asian ArtThe …

Queries: Jewelry designer and metal artist Marie Zimmermann

Editorial Staff Furniture & Decorative Arts

The versatile jewelry designer and metalsmith Marie Zimmermann (1879-1972) is the subject of a forthcoming monograph sponsored by the American Decorative Art 1900 Foundation. Born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1879, Zimmermann’s training in the arts began with courses in drawing, painting, and modeling at the Art Students League in New York likely followed by courses in art metalwork at …

Margrieta van Varick’s East Indian goods

Editorial Staff Furniture & Decorative Arts

September 2009 | At the time of her death in 1695 in the bucolic village of Flatbush, New York, the textile merchant Margrieta van Varick (nee Visboom, 1649-1695), the widow of the minister Rudolphus van Varick (1645-1694), owned an astonishing array of exotic goods from around the world: Chinese porcelain, Turkish carpets, Japanese lacquerwork, ebony chairs, Dutch paintings, Indonesian cabinets, …

Great Estates: Homewood Museum in Baltimore, Maryland

Editorial Staff Furniture & Decorative Arts

Homewood Museum, a National Historic Landmark on the campus of John Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, is one of the country’s finest Federal period houses. Based on a Palladian five part plan, it was built beginning in the summer of 1800, when Charles Carroll of Carrollton, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and one of the wealthiest men in …

Myfamilysilver.com, a model site for antiques

Editorial Staff

A recent visit to www.myfamilysilver.com shows that this new website, which launched in May, offers a smart business model for antiques dealers: instead of charging a commission from sales there are monthly membership and listing fees. Founded by Martyn Downer, a former head of jewelry at Sotheby’s in London and director of Corfield Morris Fine Art and Antique Advisers, and …