|
|
|
|
|
| Antiques Digest | Browse Auctions | Appraisal | Antiques And Arts News | Home |
|
|
|
The Flower Filled Rugs Of Persia Cyrus, founder of the Persian Empire, was laid in his rock tomb in his garden on a couch of solid gold set on purple flowered carpets. |
|
The Red, Red Rugs Of Turkey Asia Minor, the home of the Turkish rug was the great melting pot of the ancient world. The trails of Western Asia Minor and lower Europe with their hub at the Golden Horn, Istanbul since 1922, were pathways as old as the five seas that crowd the lands and catch the spill of their rivers. |
|
Turkoman Rugs Are Tough, Fine, And Red Centuries ago when the great tent of Genghis Khan, drawn by thirty odd oxen, rolled through the desert of Kara Kum, land of the Turkoman, it carried on its floors and walls some of the finest "rugs" ever made. |
|
The Symbol Filled Rugs Of China Five hundred years before Christ, when Greece was rising to her golden age and much of Europe was wearing hides for clothing, a great collector walked the yellow earth of China gathering things his fathers had treasured. |
|
Ancient Mirrors And Modern Looking Glassed Recently someone said the "mirror" was the modern looking glass. Actually metal mirrors have been rescued from buried cities and graves thousands of years old. Mirrors were valued toilet accessories before glass was discovered, let alone the trick of facing glass with reflective metal to make "looking glasses." |
|
Furniture Began With Human Homes It might have been a story of the Princess and the Pauper, for his background is unknown. The Princess married him and made him Egypt's King. Three thousand years later scientists opened his tomb and found the fine furniture of this young King, Tutankhamen. |
|
Household And Treasure Chests Chests have been important household furniture since the cave woman hollowed out a log for her treasures or threaded her bone needle with sinews and sewed up a leather coffer. |
|
Inlay, Intarsia, And Marquetry Are Relatives When Catherine of Braganza came from Portugal as bride of Charles II, she brought Indian furniture inlaid with ivory trees, birds and flowers such as had never been seen in London. |
|
Italian Hope Chests Italian cassoni or brides' chests were among the few pieces of furniture found in Italian houses of Gothic and Renaissance times. Useful they were, and so richly attractive, that now centuries after they were made in the cluttered studios of the artists, they are collected by lovers of the beautiful. |
|
Fans - Whisk, Sceptre, Wand, Or Weapon More than seven thousand years ago two fan bearers carried long handled ceremonial fans of half moon shape at the festival of King Narmer who ruled before the first dynasty of Egypt's kings. |
|
Decorative Leathers Socrates got the poison cup when he quarreled with Anytos, the rich and politically powerful hide tanner of Greece-then the hide tanning center of the world. Even in Homer's time four centuries earlier, no one but a beggar, he said, would sleep on an untanned hide. |
|
Culture Deep Laid In Oriental Lacquers A strange story is told that the ship returning Japan's lacquers from the Vienna Exposition was wrecked. Nearly a year and a half passed before those priceless lacquers were rescued from the sea, their gleam undimmed, their surface unharmed. |
|
Books, History's Most Persecuted Art When Moses graved the Ten Commandments on stone he was writing records or books in the style of his day. Babylonia's Hammurabi, 2000 B.C. had his code of laws engraved on a great black stone illustrated with a carving of himself accepting his laws from his sun god. |
|
Wood Block Prints Made Early Pictures When John Foster, American born printer of Boston, cut the likeness of the Reverend Richard Mather on a short wood plank in 1670 and printed three pictures from it, he made the first known wood block and prints in the New World. |
|
Miniatures, Limnings, Or Little Pictures The unknown who cut the little painting of Marechal de Brissac from the second volume of Caesar's Gallic Wars which Jean Clouet painted for Francis I, King of France, started the modern vogue of miniatures in lockets, pendants, rings, pocket cases, or fine frames kept in whatnots or treasure cabinets, so scholars say. |
|
Japanese Prints Are Spirit Or Mood Pictures When Admiral Perry opened the ports of Japan he scattered Japanese prints over the Western world. James McNeill Whistler strung muslin curtains over his windows to diffuse the light and avoid strong shadows, and using strong repeating lines put kimonoed women, fans and flowers in his paintings. |
|
Stone Prints Or Lithographs When Aloys Senefelder, struggling playwright and musician, scribbled his mother's wash list on a piece of limestone flooring, common around Munich, using chalk he made of lamp black, wax and soap, he began the art of lithography. |
|
Engraved, Etched, And Tone Prints When the Italian metalsmith, Maso Finiguerra, cut out some lines on a silver dish, filled them with lamp black and oil to see his design better, and laid it down on paper, the modern print from engraved metals is said to have begun. |
|
Cleaning And Protecting Old Paintings "Restoration" of paintings is a subject surrounded with considerable mystery. It is true that in the hands of an experienced restorer and with modern facilities, some remarkable jobs of restoration have been done, and if the painting warrants, it is a good idea to get the best talent to work on it. |
|
Views Of London "When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life: for there is in London all that life can afford." These words were written by Dr. Samuel Johnson, the 18th century lexicographer. |
|
Finger Ring History Blest ornament! how happy is thy share, To bind the snowy finger of my fair! O, could I learn thy nice concise art, Now, as thou bindest her fingers, bind her heart. |
|
New Steuben Creations Nineteen new designs in Steuben crystal were recently displayed by Steuben Glass, at 718 Fifth Avenue, New York City. |
|
Grandfather Clocks In England they are called "Long Case Clocks." In this country they are given various names such as "Hall Clocks," "Tail Clocks," and the one most generally used is "Grandfather Clocks." |
|
Battersea Enamel It is probable that but a small number of collectors possess much of the lovely Battersea enamel. Battersea is a borough of southwest London on the south side of the River Thames. |
|
Firebacks MODERN fire resisting brick in the fireplace eliminates the need nowadays for the old-time protective fireback of iron. |
|
Door Knockers RECENT door knockers indicate a growing fastidiousness on the part of home owners concerning an apparently insignificant piece of hardware. |
|
Girandoles A BIT of furnishing which adds beauty and glitter to a room is the girandole-a candelabra ornamented with pendants and festoons of cut crystal. |
|
Torcheres A PICTURESQUE yet dignified touch of decoration, valuable in some interiors, is achieved by the tall candle-holders known as torcheres. |
|
Spanish Lanterns POSSIBLY the most picturesque lighting fixture is the Spanish lantern. Returning travelers are bringing back lanterns they have found in odd places in Seville and Granada. |
|
16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | More Pages ] Pages: [1-50] [51-100] [101-150] [151-200] [201-250] [251-300] [301-350] [351-400] [401-450] [451-500] [501-550] [551-600] [601-650] [651-700] [701-750] [751-800] |