Articles

Chinese Export Porcelain & Other Chinese Antiquities

Chinese Export Porcelain & Other Chinese Antiquities

When people think of Asian decorative arts, they most often think of what is known as Chinese export porcelain, wares produced specifically for a v...

The History of the Barber Pole

You see them, hanging on the exterior of a building, or maybe through a picture window of a store. The red white and blue stripes lit up, spinning...

Antique American Furniture, By Region - Part 2

Another set of holidays have arrived, and with it, opportunity anew to investigate your relatives' furniture! If you haven't already, or even if yo...

Origins, Evolution, and Iconography of Stained Glass - "The Poor Man's Bible"

While we typically associate stained glass with religion, it has been an art form since ancient times, with some of the earliest examples of color...

Antique American Furniture, by Region - Part 1

This Thanksgiving, while either recovering from that third piece of pumpkin pie, or perhaps milling about and making room for the first piece, you ...

Western Skies From Eastern Eyes : Frederic Remington

The Bronco Buster, a bronze sculpture of a cowboy riding a rearing horse. This sculpture and the history behind it plays an important role in the ...

The Long and Wonderful Life of the Peacock Chair

Scrolling social media, one may notice a resurgence of the iconic Peacock Chair. Typically constructed of wicker with a pedestal hourglass form bas...

Mark Tochilkin and Artist Repression in the Soviet Union

Artist Mark Tochilkin, born in 1958, was born in present day Ukraine, and grew up in the Soviet Union. While he displayed a propensity for art very...

Utopian Communities and Decorative Arts - Studio Alchimia

While not exactly 'Utopian', Studio Alchimia was a collective of Italian radicals that used design as a means to combat inequality and consumerism ...

Utopian Communities and Decorative Arts - Roycroft

The Roycroft Campus, established by Elbert Hubbard in 1897, was the birthplace of the American Arts and Crafts movement as a rebuff to the Industri...

Utopian Communities and Decorative Arts - The Shakers

One of the earliest and most successful spiritual communities known for their furniture making were the Shakers. While Shaker communities were rigi...

Fern Coppedge & The Philadelphia Ten

Fern Coppedge knew from an early age that she was different. The snowy Pennsylvania landscapes that she is best known for were always, to her, acc...

'Revolutionary' Furniture in Early America

It is no surprise trends and styles of furniture follow the behaviors and attitudes of the people who make and use it. Early America was no excepti...