StyleWire from Style Century Magazine

Degas�?? Tiny Dancer readies for auction: Hold me closer!

2009-01-08T20:03:33+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Marie Goethem as La Petite Danseuse de Quatorze Ans by Edgar Degas, (détail), 1881, bronze cast in 1930, Paris, Musée d'Orsay (c) Musée d'Orsay. Image used under the fair use doctrine of the United States Copyright Office. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2009_01/2009_0108_Degas-Little-Dancer.jpg{/slimbox}

He was and still is one of the greatest artists to ever pick up a paintbrush. His ideas, use of color and philosophy of painting continue to be studied, debated and copied to this day. All you have to do is say his name, Degas, and the image of young dancers, gracefully tilting in sun-dappled studios in Paris in the late-1800s immediately spring to mind.

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Awarding the Greenest of the Green

2009-01-08T20:01:54+00:00

Thanks to a heads up from Style Century Magazine’s intrepid editor, I had an interesting online treat awaiting me this morning as I sipped coffee and made my way through my routine morning Web surfing. Both Style Century and this blog are concerned with sustainability and Modern design, so it’s nice when the two come together so easily, as it did with the recent announcement from the non-profit Green Log Homes & Lifestyles Awards 2009 Call for Entries. This is the second year that Green Log is awarding its prestigious designation to the best of modern designers and home building companies – that includes all related products around home building – that are on the cutting edge of green technology
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Rare Chagall books, illustrated by the master, set to hit the block, Jan. 29

2009-01-07T17:50:52+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - The great artist himself. Image from the Public Domain. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2009_01/2009_0107_Chagall.jpg{/slimbox}

This is one of those things that comes along so rarely in the art world: a set of 49 books by Marc Chagall, illustrated and signed by the master himself, all personally done for close friends of his, set to hit the auction block at Bloomsbury Auctions in London on Thursday, Jan. 29. Inexplicable beauty, intensely personal and absolutely singular… At an estimated 300,000 pounds sterline – somewhere in the neighborhood of half a million bucks, this is actually an “affordable” piece of Chagall. If I had the cash to spare about now,
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Design loves a depression, but does it abhor a vacuum? Or a lamp?

2009-01-06T19:42:48+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - An Eames Wood Lounge Chair, one of the greatest and most enduring Mid-Century Modern designs, and one that proves that quality, style and affordability are possible. While originals of this design are a little pricey, quality imitations and variations are readily available. Can today’s crop of designers create something similar in the face of a global economic downturn? We’ll see. Image courtesy of Wikipedia, used under the GNU free licensing agreement. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2009_01/2009_0106_Eames-Chair.jpg{/slimbox}

Last Saturday, Jan. 3, 2009, The New York Times ran another excellent article on the state of the modern – small “m,” notice – design market, comparing it to the great
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Wedgwood calls in a receiver, and I�??m not talking football

2009-01-06T06:00:00+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - A prime example of the ceramic that made Wedgwood famous: a Poland Blue Jasper Ware plate. Still timeless. From Public Domain. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2009_01/2009_0105_Wedgwood-blue.jpg{/slimbox}

Wow. Say it ain’t so. Jasperware… fine bone china… 250 years of history as being one of, if not the, most important fine china maker in the Western hemisphere and today, Jan. 5, 2009, to start the New Year off, Waterford Wedgwood, as of the mid-1980s, has filed for the British equivalent of bankruptcy. This follows quite closely on the heels of the November 2008 bankruptcy declaration by Lenox. It all adds up to another notch in the belt of the
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Canada buys back its visual history

2009-01-06T06:00:00+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - A lithograph of The Baron of Renfrew, a large disposable timber ship, from 1825, one of the pieces in the Winkworth Collection recently acquired almost en masse by the government of Canada. Image from the Public Domain. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2009_01/2009_0105_Winkworth.jpg{/slimbox}

I just can’t resist a good Canadian art or antique story, not just because there are so few of them, but because Canada itself is a fascinating place; one that has managed to forge a distinct identity in the face of the American hegemony of the last century. What we have here, linked to below, is a little story that came into my inbox from
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Fresno couple lucks onto a rare 1869 baseball card. Why not me?

2009-01-04T06:00:00+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - A detail of an 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings Baseball Team card, the same as the card recently uncovered in Fresno. It is indeed a rare relic to an important time in this history of post-Civil War America and the early history of America’s national past time. Image from the public domain. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_12/2008_1231_1869-cincinnati-red-stockings.jpg{/slimbox}

This is one of those “Why not me?” stories, coming from the Fresno Bee, about a couple of “antique” dealers – not too far above flea-market level dealers from what I can gather, with no disrespect meant to flea-market dealers, but you know what I mean – who got a box
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Neutra�??s masterpiece back on the block, and one last Obama souvenir�?�

2009-01-04T06:00:00+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - The Kaufman House, a Modern masterpiece by Richard Neutra. Image courtesy of Wikimedia and used under the Fair Use Licensing Agreement. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_12/2008_1231_kaufmans-House.jpg{/slimbox}

If you’ll recall earlier this year – I think it was late spring or early summer – a Richard Neutra-designed house, a masterpiece of California Modernism, was on the block in a Sotheby’s auction. The house has come close to being sold and or raised before, and has counted some rich and famous folks among its previous owners, including the one and only Barry Manilow. Now, according to the Los Angeles Times, that same place – The Kauffman House – is
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The reprinting of a Mid-Century classic periodical

2008-12-30T19:34:45+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - A series of covers of the Arts & Architecture, the revolutionary design magazine that has recently been reprinted in a 1- volume set. Images from Public Domain. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_12/2008_1230_arts-and-architecture-mag-reprint.jpg{/slimbox}

The influence of the legendary magazine Arts & Architecture from the late-1930s through the mid-1960s is indisputable. It was a champion of the clean lines, revolutionary spirit and good-design-for-everyone that Modernism, in terms of residential architecture, initially represented. Now, according to a review in the Los Angeles Times, the first full 10 years of the magazine have been reprinted, as magazines, in a 10-box set of more than 100 issues totaling more than 6,000 pages.
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The art world in 2008: A look back

2008-12-30T19:32:07+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - 2008 in a nutshell, though maybe it should be Picassos and Warhols coming from the guy’s pockets. Image courtesy of Redfin.com. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_12/2008_1230_2008-Art-overview.jpg{/slimbox}

It being the end of December and all, and there being a whole slew of yearly retrospective articles coming across the wires, the TV, the Internet and the rest of these new-fangled communication technologies, I can't help but notice how many alerts have entered my inbox with news from one source or another, looking back on the year that was 2008. Some are a bit Pollyanna-ish, others too Henny-Penny The Sky is Falling, and a few hit just the right note,
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Dueling artistic designs in Des Moines = one fascinating exhibit

2008-12-29T17:48:16+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Can these two finally get along? Thomas Hart Benton and Jackson Pollock are presented in artistic contrast and similarity in The Des Moines Art Center’s upcoming exhibition, After Many Springs, opening Jan. 30. Image of Hart Benton comes from the public domain and the image of Pollock, by Hans Namuth, is used under the Fair use doctrine, as explained by the U.S. Department of Copyrights. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_12/2008_1229_art.jpg{/slimbox}

I have long been a proponent of the significant cultural contribution of America’s great Midwest, from its architecture and art through its antiques and collectibles, so much of value has been added to the American lexicon via
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The Death of Robert Graham: an oddly personal connection

2008-12-29T17:46:05+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Graham’s headless nude male and female athletes, adorning the entrance to the Olympic Coliseum in Los Angeles. Image courtesy of Wikipedia, used under the Creative Commons Attributions Licensing Agreement. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_12/2008_1229_Robert-Graham-dead.jpg{/slimbox}

On Sunday morning as I stood in the kitchen making toast and stirring my coffee, NPR announced the death of sculptor Robert Graham, in Santa Monica, Calif., at the age of 70. I paused, said a little prayer, and called the news out to my wife, Lauren. She poked her head around the corner from the bathroom, where she was brushing my daughter’s hair.

“Wow,” she said. “That’s weird,
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The Taj Hotel art collection survives attack intact

2008-12-25T06:00:00+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - The Gateway view of the Taj Hotel in Mumbai, courtesy of Taj Hotels. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_12/2008_1222_Taj-Hotel.jpg{/slimbox}

I can remember the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, driving to my job as an editor on a small Hudson Valley newspaper and hearing the announcement of the terror attacks on the World Trade Center in NYC. I dashed to work and, like the rest of the world, was riveted and horrified by what unfolded. In the subsequent week, in an editorial meeting, I incurred the wrath of my publisher by asking a question that no one had asked, and which no one there thought was important, though it
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Nat�??l Academy sells 2 Hudson River paintings: blogger is wrong, nation does care

2008-12-23T21:00:26+00:00

You may recall that earlier this month I wrote about a story that was pretty much buried in the New York Times concerning the National Academy's $13.5M sale of two Hudson River School paintings to a private foundation. The money went to operating expenses for the academy and its museum and storage facilities. While I stand by my assertion that the nation as a whole pretty much shrugged, I was wrong to intimate that America didn’t care. In fact, a certain very important segment as it pertains to the National Academy cared a great deal. More on that in a moment, however. First I have to say I was wrong. I believe my mother would be proud of me for
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LiveAuctioneers' new bidding platform ready to pick up where eBay Live Auctions leaves off

2008-12-23T18:08:30+00:00

Since early this spring, when eBay announced it would end its live auctions platform, a host of companies has been preparing for the eventuality. That day is finally upon us, or at least no more than a week or so away – it’s Tuesday, Dec. 23 as I write. A few online-auction facilitators have emerged with plans, but none is even coming close to getting the attention of LiveAuctioneers’ independent online-bidding platform. I’ve been seeing coverage of it in a wide variety of outlets, from standard antique and auction PR to mainstream financial press. In my humble estimation, just from what I know of LiveAuctioneers
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Today�??s antiques and art scamming hotspot: Massachusetts

2008-12-22T19:50:34+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Paul Cézanne (1839- 1906), Bouilloire et Fruits, 1888-1890, Oil on canvas ( 46.7 x 58.5 cm), the most valuable of the stolen paintings from the Mardirosian case now returned to their rightful owner in Massachusetts. Just one of two stories of antique and art theft out of The Bay State this week. Image courtesy of the Art Loss Register.|} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_12/2008_1222_Stolen-Cezanne.jpg{/slimbox}

There must be a little sumthin’ in the water in central and eastern Massachusetts right now, because the following pair of stories came out of the region at the same time late last week – It is Monday, Dec. 22 right now – and
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Can a gal-pals' evening out inspire a design empire? That's what happened to glassware diva Lolita

2008-12-20T01:06:16+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Santa's New Bag. Image courtesy Lolita. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_12/2008_1218_Santas-new-bag.jpg{/slimbox}

Each year I face the same dilemma with respect to Christmas shopping. I have all the best intentions of purchasing gifts for my friends and family that are special and hopefully handmade, but I just don’t have the time in which to fulfill those intentions. For me, it usually boils down to scouring the Internet around midnight – which is, arguably, the lazy person’s solution; I call it the smart person’s solution – or trying to speed-shop during those few available weekend hours that lie between running essential errands and cleaning the house before it becomes
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No jail, no fine, now give me my whiskey!

2008-12-18T22:14:39+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - A picture of the whiskey-man himself, Jack Daniels. Could he have foreseen 100 years ago that one of the bottles with name on it would be worth thousands of dollars. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_12/2008_1218_Jack_Daniels.jpg{/slimbox}

I remember this story from last October. A plumber in Nashville, a devoted collector of Jack Daniels bottles and memorabilia, was arrested and charged with illegally possessing and selling upwards of $1 million in alcohol. The collection was seized by local authorities and placed in “protective custody” until further action was taken on the suit. I remember reading that the collector, a Randy Piper, was a self-identified collector of all things Jack
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Proust letters defy current trends at Sotheby�??s Paris auction

2008-12-17T21:56:58+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Proust, the man, the legend, the staple of the antiques and auction business, at least today… Image from the public domain. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_12/2008_1217_Marcel_Proust_1900.jpg{/slimbox}

Let me just say right here and now, up front, I am not one of those people whose life was radically changed by the writings or Marcel Proust. For my money, I was always more into Nabokov, Faulkner, Styron and Cormac McCarthy than the great French memoirist who has been foisted upon me many times during my life – most notably by a girlfriend from my early and mid-20s who insisted that In Search of Lost Time would alter my DNA.
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A demise unworthy of so fine a piece of art in Berks County, PA

2008-12-17T21:54:00+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - The now scrapped Angel of Roses as she stood at the Center for Padre Pio in Pennsylvania. Don’t pray for the statue; rather, pray for the lost souls that would perpetrate such a heinous crime. Image courtesy of the Center for Padre Pio, Inc. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_12/2008_1217_Angel-of-roses.jpg{/slimbox}

The “Angel of the Roses” at the Padre Pio Center outside of Barto, Pa., near Reading, was a gorgeous piece of brass sculpture. It was created by an unknown artist in Brazil in the 1930s, sat for almost 70 years in the same location in Sao Paolo before being bought by the Padre Pio Center in 1999 and
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What are art and antiques to Vegas? And it to them?

2008-12-16T18:35:40+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - The famous sign welcoming travelers and residents to Las Vegas. It is, in and of itself, a noted piece of pop art, or folk art, whichever you like, but is it indicative of more art to come within the city, or the only art people are likely to see in the town? For my money, it’s the latter. Image courtesy of Wikipedia, used according to the GNU Free Licensing Agreement. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_12/2008_1216_Vegas.jpg{/slimbox}

This interesting little profile came my way from the Las Vegas Sun. It concerns the Executive Director of the Las Vegas Center for Contemporary Art, and how she has brought the center
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The National Academy sells two Hudson River School paintings; nation shrugs, blogger doesn�??t�?�

2008-12-15T19:13:43+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Frederic Edwin Church’s “Scene on the Magdalene” 1854, an oil on canvas, courtesy of The National Academy. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_12/2008_1216_National-Academy.jpg{/slimbox}

Having lived in the Hudson River Valley for a seven-year stretch, having learned so much about the world of American paintings from my time there, and having my education in antiques and collectibles so much centered in the Hudson Valley, I’m a little shocked at myself, and somewhat dismayed that the article linked to below from the Dec. 5 New York Times – it’s 11 days later as I write, Dec. 16, 2008 – about the selling of two Hudson River Valley paintings by
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The ghost of Christmas past, thy name is Nostalgia

2008-12-15T19:12:03+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Those 1960s plastic and felt elves, so kitschy, but so cool. You can still get them for around $10. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_12/2008_1216_Vintage-XMAS.jpg{/slimbox}

The Columbus Dispatch ran an excellent article on Sunday, Dec. 14 about the lure of “classic” Christmas ornaments, decorations and aluminum trees. I agree, almost in full, with the message of the article, however fluffy, which talks about the lure of pre and post-World War II holiday designs that made full use of machine-age technology and materials. We’re talking the tin trees with rotating color wheels, frosted glass ornaments from Corning, New York, and the plastic Santas with the spinning lights around the
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It�??s never too soon to start thinking of TAAS

2008-12-10T22:25:40+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Russ Goldberger, of Russ Goldberger Antiques, talks about one of his offerings at last year’s edition of The American Antiques Show (TAAS). Goldberger is one of the finest decoy dealers in the nation, and a regular at TAAS. It is the presence of dealers like he and his wife that have made TAAS such an important show. Image courtesy of The American Antiques Show. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_12/2008_1210_American-Antiques-Show.jpg{/slimbox}

Let’s face it, there aren't many good reasons to look forward to January, unless you happen to be a great fan of frigid weather and numb appendages, in which case go with all blessings and enjoy. In the
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Today�??s Christmas collectibles of tomorrow?

2008-12-10T22:23:08+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - A Barbie Doll, the ultimate collectible from Christmas Past. This image, courtesy of Wikipedia, is used under the Creative Commons attribute. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_12/2008_1210_Barbie_doll_modern.jpg {/slimbox}

The Telegraph U.K. ran an interesting article recently – about whether any of today’s hot Christmas gifts are going to be the collectibles of tomorrow, and where in the market to look for the things that will potentially have the collectibles draw for future generations of collectors. It’s an almost impossible thing to prognosticate, given the sheer volume of little gadgets, toys, stuffed animals and dolls that are produced anew every time the holiday buying season rolls around, and this
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Grove Park Arts & Crafts turning 22, Feb. 20-22

2008-12-09T21:44:35+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - North Carolina’s stunning Grove Park Inn Resort and Spa, site of the 22nd Arts & Crafts Conference, Feb. 20-22. Register now if you intend to go. Photo courtesy of Grove Park.|} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_12/2008_1209_A&C-Conference.jpg{/slimbox}

For any adherent of the American Arts & Crafts movement, the year is pretty much going to revolve around the month of February and the grove Park Arts & Crafts conference in the latter part of the month. This year it’s from Feb. 20-22, and I’m writing about this now because a) I’ve always wanted to go and have never been able to, and b) because if you have any desire to
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As always, the antiques will get blamed�?�

2008-12-09T21:43:03+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - This French antique chandelier is actually from the Green Room of the White House, and probably much more valuable than the ones recently installed in the Texas House of Representatives Members Lounge. I would imagine, however, that the chandeliers would indeed be French in origin, knowing how much Texans love their French design. Image from public domain.|} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_12/2008_1209_Antique-Chandelier.jpg{/slimbox}

Drat! And double drat those politicians! This one happens to strike very close to home. I mean the home in which I live in the northeastern section of Dallas, and I believe that I made mention of this about two or three weeks ago – it’s
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Up close and personal with a Jazz Bowl

2008-12-08T22:00:25+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Viktor Schreckengost’s 1931 Jazz Bowl (Poor Man’s Bowl), with a green glaze, selling at Heritage Auction Galleries, Dec. 12, 2008. Low estimate: $65,000. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_12/2008_1208_Jazz-Bowl.jpg{/slimbox}

What would you do if you came face to face with an icon, with that certain someone – or something – that was the only thing that could break your ever-cool, ever-unimpressed veneer? Would you take it in silently, relishing the experience on the interior while never letting the world know that you were actually moved by something? If it was you that was simply inches away from a green-glazed Viktor Schreckengost Jazz Bowl (Poor Man’s Bowl), then maybe
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Saving Modernism on Cape Cod

2008-12-08T21:58:12+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - The Kugel / Gips House, one of the first Modernist houses saved by the Cape Cod Modern House trust. It was designed by Charlie Zehnder. Photo by Mark Walker, courtesy of the Cape Cod Modern House Trust. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_12/2008_1208_Cape-Cod-Modernism.jpg{/slimbox}

I was never really the Cape Cod sort, though I had many friends who were, and I had the good fortune to spend a couple really nice weekends with my wife, when she was my fiancée, in the quiet town of Wellfleet. You tend to hear more about Provincetown on Cape Cod than about a sleepy place like Wellfleet, but in my inbox from the
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Flying under the radar: Austrian Art Nouveau lamps

2008-12-06T17:51:33+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - This rare Austrian bronze peacock lamp with inset iridescent jewels adorning the bird�??s feathers incorporates an enameled Mont Joye shade �?? estimate $6,000-$8,000 in Morphy�??s Dec. 11 auction. Image courtesy Morphy Auctions. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_12/2008_1206_lamp.jpg{/slimbox}

Tiffany Studios’ stunning turn of the 20th century leaded-glass lamps appear frequently in the auction marketplace, but many collectors may not be aware of a contemporaneous but far-less-expensive alternative: Austrian figural bronze-base lamps.

Made during the same timeframe as their botanically themed Tiffany counterparts, Austrian Art Nouveau specialty lamps often incorporate bronze animal forms as their bases. They are almost always devoid of manufacturer or foundry marks.
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�??Collectibles�?? officially a smart choice: a little backup from none other than Forbes

2008-12-04T21:41:39+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - A one-third Continental dollar is an example of a “collectible” that’s got tremendous value not just in today’s down market, but in any market. Photo from public domain. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_12/2008_1204_Forbes.jpg {/slimbox}

I touched on this very subject just a few days ago – it being Thursday, Dec. 4, as I write this – about the “collectibles” business being not only relatively healthy in the financial dark days of this recession that’s been going on for a year (who knew?) according to an NGO contracted by the government to make such declarations, but also being a smart place to put money. Now I have this
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Five Turner landscapes at Christie�??s Old Masters in January

2008-12-03T22:02:20+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - JMW Turner self-portrait. Image from the Public Domain.|} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_12/2008_1203_JMW-Turner.jpg{/slimbox}

JMW Turner, arguably the greatest landscape painter of all time – and easily the greatest master of light – is famously said to have uttered, with his last breath, “The sun is God.” Rather appropriate for a man with such an intense and overwhelming mastery of the sun’s very luminescence. Now, as a shining beacon in the midst of cold, cold January, Christie’s has announced that it intends to auction off five Turner watercolors as the highlight to its Old Masters sale on Jan. 28 in New York City. If a little bit of Turner
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Cornelius Clarkson Vermeule III, the Classicist�??s Classicist, dead at 83

2008-12-03T21:56:58+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Greek, Etruscan and Roman Bronzes in Boston, by Mary Comstock and Cornelius Vermeule (Museum of Fine Arts Boston, 1971). Just one of Vermeule’s important works, this catalogue represented a complete record of the MFA’s collection of Greek, Roman and Etruscan bronzes covering the time span of 2100 BC to 1000 AD. It is now out of print and hard to find.|} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_12/2008_1203_Vermeule-RIP.jpg{/slimbox}

Few American art curators can boast the kind of quiet reach and subtle influence that Cornelius Clarkson Vermeule III did by the time he passed away from complications from a stroke, last Thursday, Thanksgiving. He served the Museum of Fine Arts in
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Three oddities from the Wide World of Antiques

2008-12-02T20:17:59+00:00

In my digital travels across the globe, spanning the eons, that leads me to the imitable stories that populate these pages, I come across the good, the bad, the glamorous and the sordid, and then have to choose which options best suit the mood of the site that day. Often there are small things about antiques of one type or another that get a good look and a read, and are subsequently flushed. There is just isn’t enough time for all the interesting bits of mundane antiquity that get consideration. Today, however, there are three that are so odd and disparate that they somehow fit together into an interesting, possibly confusing, whole. Therefore, without further ado, I’d like to give
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Marvels of Modernism 2008: SAVE THESE SITES!

2008-12-02T20:14:43+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - The Kaiser roof garden in Oakland, California. An oasis in the middle of a busy urban center, the original idea was for the Kaiser roof garden to be one of three and to act as an outdoor anchor for the “Rockefeller Center of the West.” Time and development have not been as thoughtful and today the amazing garden stands as an endangered piece of important public Modernism, one of the highlights on the list from the Cultural Landmark Foundation’s Landslide 2008: Marvels of Modernism. Photo courtesy of www.tclf.org. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_12/2008_1202_Landslide-2008.jpg{/slimbox}

After reporting on the Miller House in Columbus, Indiana, for this blog about two
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Take it from the Topeka Capitol Journal: Go antique this holiday season

2008-12-01T18:55:34+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - The interior of an unnamed antiques shop in England, featuring a variety of antiques. The photo has been released into Public Domain by the photographer. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_12/2008_1201_Xmas-antiquing.jpg{/slimbox}

We all somehow managed to survive “Black Friday,” as the ridiculous day to start the holiday shopping season – am I the only one troubled by the fact that it’s now known as a season, and since when have Americans limited their spending to just Christmas time? – and are now in the throws of “Cyber Monday” as I write this on Monday, Dec. 1, 2008. It’s hard not to be taken in by the countless deep
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When will the hurting stop? Experts predict halfway for art market

2008-12-01T18:53:01+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Busy auction rooms across the world are hearing more and more silence when high end art comes on the block. Investors are just a little too spooked in the current market. Image courtesy of nowpublic.com. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_12/2008_1201_Art-Auction.jpg{/slimbox}

This is an interesting little digital tidbit that came across my inbox, Dec. 1, 2008, this lovely CyberMonday – isn’t that when the machines took over in the Terminator movies? – about the continuing turmoil in the art market and where, exactly, it can be expected to stop. Via The Telegraph U.K., always a great source for such a story, comes a brief interview with Charles Dupplin,
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A preservation battle brews in New York City

2008-11-26T18:25:46+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - The Old Beekman Movie Theater on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, before it was unceremoniously destroyed a few years ago because the NYC Preservation Commission failed to grant it Landmark status before the wrecking ball came. Image courtesy of www.fontfeed.com. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_11/2008_1126_Beekman.jpg{/slimbox}

The New York Times has published a very interesting survey of the troubles, trials and sometimes triumphs of the Greater New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in its Wednesday, Nov. 26 edition – that’s today to you and me, unless you’re reading this tomorrow, in which case it’s later… - regarding the gripes many preservationists have with the agency, especially as
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Thanksgiving lives! (at Old Sturbridge Village, that is)

2008-11-26T18:23:01+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - A holiday horse-drawn carriage ride is one of the main treats of a late fall/early winter visit to Old Sturbridge Village. Tell the StyleWire sent you. Image courtesy of Old Sturbridge Village. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_11/2008_1126_OSV-2.jpg{/slimbox}

I know that, as you are sitting down with family and friends – hopefully – the great bacchanalian feast of Thanksgiving that Americans have perfected, you’ve taken the time to check in with StyleWire to get your daily dose of antiques, auctions, architecture and the like, to share that with all your gathered family and friends in light of a toast or a prayer before the big meal, and for
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RIP Lenox? Venerable China maker files for Chapter 11

2008-11-25T17:32:40+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - A Lenox “Ming” China plate, circa 1929, a watermark in American dishware. Image from public domain. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_11/2008_1125_Ming.jpg{/slimbox}

This shouldn’t necessarily be a surprise, given the troubles across all sectors of the market right now, but Lenox – as of Monday, Nov. 24 – has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The company’s trials and tribulations of the past few years has been well documented, especially an ill-conceived and poorly executed takeover by Department 56, which paid a staggering $196 million to Brown-Forman Corporation, which had owned Lenox for 22 years. When combined with D56, the Lenox brand, along with the Gorham and Dansk labels,
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Pssst�?� The wife did it. I read it in the paper...

2008-11-25T17:29:50+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Manhattan antiques dealer George Kogan, shortly before his murder in 1990 on the steps outside of his mistress’s apartment. Barbara Kogan, the widow who received $4m in insurance, was just indicted for the murder. Photo from the public domain, used under the fair use doctrine as an illustration furthering the point of the story. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_11/2008_1125_Kogan-killing.jpg{/slimbox}

The news doesn’t get any more scandalous than the current saga being played out about the widow of millionaire Manhattan antiques dealer George Kogan, who was gunned down in front of his mistress’s house on the Upper West Side in 1990. Just last week – Friday, Nov. 21
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The true meaning of cool: Green Modernism of the future

2008-11-24T19:24:24+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Triangular sustainable skyscraper design, as envisioned for Paris. Talk about massive… Sort of like I.M. Pei’s pyramid at The Louvre on steroids. Just the drawing is awe-inspiring. It’s hard to imagine what it would take to build it. Image courtesy of Herzog & de Meuron, via ArchInform.com. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_11/2008_1124_Utopian-Green.jpg{/slimbox}

One of my favorite things about the Web is stumbling across features like the one from WebUrbanist.com linked to below that deal with computer models and renderings of the future of green and Modern architecture according to a handful of the best and brightest forward-thinking architecture firms on the planet. The site has compiled about
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Splendid Splinter�??s personal artifacts bring a yawn at auction

2008-11-24T19:22:05+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Teddy Ballgame and Tom Yawkey in the early 1930s. Image from the Public Domain. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_11/2008_1124_Ted-Williams-auction.jpg {/slimbox}

There is common consensus among most baseball fans – at least those who are, or have been, true students of the game in their lives – that Ted Williams was the purest hitter the game ever knew. He played baseball the way a grand master plays chess. He could hit big, small, left right, short, bloop or line drive depending on what the situation called for. Added to his supreme diamond intelligence is the fact that Williams, The Splendid Splinter, easily had the single most beautiful swing
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Canada�??s big chance to gloat over the World Art Market

2008-11-21T19:02:02+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Jean-Paul Riopelle’s Sans Titre, 1951 – evidently a highly sought-after period from the artist – that sold for a very respectable $1.64 million. Image courtesy of Heffel. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_11/2008_1121_Canadian-Art.jpg{/slimbox}

Here’s one that I don’t think anyone really saw coming, except – maybe – the Canadians themselves. See, in case you haven’t read a newspaper, watched TV or checked out a single Internet news source in the last three months – in which case I’d like to welcome you to planet Earth. About half of us are peaceful people. The other half not so much – there’s a huge global recession pounding every one of
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Considering Gormley�??s �??Angel of the North�??

2008-11-20T19:21:13+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - The scope and massive size of the Angel are easily seen in this photo, by David Wilson Clarke, used with permission. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_11/2008_1120_Angel-of-the-North-1.jpg{/slimbox}

Since the BBC version of Antiques Roadshow debuted its first seven figure find last Sunday, Nov. 16, I have been waiting for a slew of information and opinions about the item itself, which was a large copper maquette of Antony Gormley’s massive, awe-inspiring Angel of the North sculpture in Gateshead, England. I thought there might be some praise for the recognition of such a fine piece of art in all its incarnations leading up to its final one on a hilltop
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At least New York State has good taste in antique rugs�?�

2008-11-20T19:19:08+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - The Turkish rug pictured here is a very rare silk on silk example, and not the one recently bought for the New York State Governor’s Mansion. The use of this illustration, from Fehzy Carpets of Dallas, merely shows the deep detail and craftsmanship that can drive prices for Turkish rugs as high, and higher than the price recently paid for an antique Turkish rug by New York State. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_11/2008_1120_NYS-buys-Turkish-Carpet.jpg {/slimbox}

WABC-TV, out of New York City, is reporting today – Nov. 20, 2009 – that New York State has just purchased a $21,000 antique Turkish rug for the New York State Governor’s mansion.
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Saarinen�??s Miller House saved for posterity in Columbus, IN

2008-11-19T22:16:33+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - The Miller House, in Columbus, IN, one of the most important Mid-Century residential houses in the nation. This picture doesn’t do it justice. Go to the article linked in the story to see some spectacular shots. Image courtesy of the Columbus Architectural Archives. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_11/2008_1119_Miller-House.jpg{/slimbox}

One sure way to make me a happy boy is to provide shelter and an endowment for a fantastic piece of Modern architecture that might otherwise decay into dust or be plowed under the dirt to make room for a big box store. Such is the case today, with this story coming out of Columbus, Indiana, via the IndyStar.com,
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Memphis antiques scammer gets 30 days for stealing more than $140k

2008-11-19T22:14:58+00:00

Maybe it’s because I’m too close to the business as a whole, or my sense of justice is weighted toward the punitive when it comes to stealing antiques and art, but when I see a story like this one, from the Nov. 19 issue of commercialappeal.com, out of Memphis, Tenn., I can’t help but be bothered more than a little bit. This particular story is one of an antique dealer’s theft of more than $140,000 from clients and her subsequent arrest, order to repay all her victims and to serve a 30-day jail sentence, which she’ll be able to do on the weekends... Doesn’t that defeat the purpose of even getting a jail sentence?

The dealer,
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MFA Boston completes impressive $504M capital campaign

2008-11-18T19:54:28+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - The MFA Boston, currently undergoing a huge expansion due to its successful $504 million capital campaign. The money will create a new American wing, and a huge enclosed family courtyard. No images of the new building are currently available from the museum. The MFA did, however, provide this image. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_11/2008_1118_MFA-Boston.jpg{/slimbox}

Was reading an article in the Tufts Daily today – the official student newspaper of Tufts University – about the recently completed capital campaign undertaken by the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, and I can’t help but be impressed. These are days when people are hesitant to spend a penny on anything other
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One of America�??s great architectural cities, Buffalo, NY, gets its due

2008-11-17T19:31:32+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Richardson Asylum Buffalo - Henry Hobson Richardson’s Buffalo State Asylum for the Insane. Despite its dubious name, the building contained many elements that pre-dated modernism by 50 years, but were greatly influential to it, including wide, open windows and corridors, allowing plenty of sunlight and fresh air. Image from Public Domain. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_11/2008_1117_Richardson-Asylum-Buffalo.jpg {/slimbox}

Some Monday mornings can be hard. The alarm goes off at 5 a.m., and I wonder what I’m doing getting up so early. This Monday morning, Nov. 17, upon getting to my desk way too early, I was greeted with something that made it all worthwhile. A New York Times
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And the $1 million Roadshow find is a �?�

2008-11-17T19:29:36+00:00

Two nights ago, Nov. 16, 2008, the United Kingdom version of the Antiques Roadshow – 32 years strong – showed its first seven-figure item. That’s in pounds sterling, mind you, which will make it around $1.5 million to you and me. It turns out the pieces was a massive – it takes five people to carry it – final model for the Antony Gormley sculpture, The Angel of the North. According to the Scotsman U.K., it was brought in by a councilor whose father worked in a coalmine at the site where the statue now sits. It stands four feet tall and is made entirely of bronze. Pretty spectacular.

This an exciting development, especially considering the reach and
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Let me be the first - almost - to wish you Happy Holidays!

2008-11-13T19:51:33+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Thomas Nast’s 1881 drawing of Santa Claus that helped to popularize the Modern image and idea of Santa Claus. Image from Public Domain. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_11/2008_1113_Nast-Santa.jpg{/slimbox}

I know it may be a bit too early for glad tidings of the season, but what the heck… Stores have already switched over, holiday ads are ubiquitous on TV now and even the billboards around town are trying to get everyone thinking about Jolly Old St. Nick, Or Hannukah Harry, or Kwanza Tree or the Solstice or The Buddha’s Enlightenment or Ramadan or… Okay you get it, I know, but this is going to be an interesting season
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MoMa�??s Home Delivery homes fail to find a home �?? minus one, that is

2008-11-13T19:50:20+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - The Micro-Compact home, image courtesy of MoMA. This was the only exhibit house to find a buyer when the show ended. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_11/2008_1113_Home-Delivery.jpg{/slimbox}

A few months ago I wrote about the superb Modern Pre-fab home show at MoMA, Home Delivery, and marveled at the skill and artistry of the designers and of such a cool show. That show has now ended and the plan – back in the stress-free glory days of the summer, before the world went crazy – was to sell the houses off to the highest bidder, a great idea to make the designers a little bit of extra cash for
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$20M of art from Lehman�??s disgraced chief on the block

2008-11-12T23:02:21+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Richard Fuld speaking in 2007. Image used under the Creative Commons Attribution as an illustration to emphasize the editorial point of this post. It’s use is strictly non-profit. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_11/2008_1112_Fuld.jpg {/slimbox}

This is the sort of thing that gives me a funny feeling in my fingertips. I want badly to write about it, but am not sure what to say. Never one to let that stop me, however, I have diligently opened a new document and started writing without knowing where it will go, all for you, dear reader… Just kidding. I’ve been thinking about this story – Former Lehman honcho Dick Fuld and
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If it sells at Christie's, is it still punk?

2008-11-11T22:12:22+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - The Clash, oversize Sandanista poster, estimated at $2,000-$3,000. Image courtesy of Christie’s.|} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_11/2008_1111_Punk-at-Christies.jpg {/slimbox}

This has put me in a little bit of a puzzle to me. I just am not sure of how to take it, and I’m sure there are a few others out there who had at least an initial feeling of the same sentiment.

See, Christie’s in NYC is going to be headlining its late November Pop Culture auction with a various-owner selection of punk rock memorabilia. Having a great love of punk rock, and having come of age in the first wave of hardcore punk rock, just after
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College Art Conundrum: To sell or not to sell at the U of Iowa

2008-11-11T22:10:29+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Jackson Pollock’s Mural, as presented at the University of Iowa. Worth $150 million, the painting is the centerpiece of the University’s collection, and its sale has been posited as a possible solution to much of the financial hardship facing the school in the wake of recent flooding. Image courtesy of thinkingaboutart.com.|} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_11/2008_1111_U-of-Iowa-art.jpg{/slimbox}

This is one of those subjects that comes up from time to time, is always a relevant and important discussion, and which saddens me to know end. I hate to see good art collections broken up. Not that that is what’s happening, necessarily, right now at the University of Iowa in Des
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REAL Modern at Sollo-Rago to focus on affordable modernism for younger buyers

2008-11-11T22:08:47+00:00

Sollo-Rago Auctions in Lambertville, NJ has hit upon a good idea: a sale specifically aimed at young buyers. How young I don’t know, but the idea is to tap into a market of people with less money and good taste who are trying to furnish an apartment or an office with honest to goodness original examples of real Modernism. The sale, called REAL MODERN, is scheduled for Feb. 14 and 15 of next year, and will consist of a large selection of “affordable” furniture and decorative arts.

Sollo-Rago is certainly a good place to go for an education, whether you buy or not, and the company did just relaunch its Web site. There’s all kinds of
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A fight over an outsider, 40 years after his death

2008-11-10T22:58:17+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Martin Ramirez, Auburn, California. 1960-63. Image courtesy of the American Folk Art Museum. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_11/2008_1110_Ramirez-Art.jpg{/slimbox}

Martin Ramirez was, truly, a great artist. There’s no hype in that. The man was simply a genius. Maybe he was insane, maybe he was simply illiterate and couldn’t speak English. Either way, the man spent 30 years in an asylum, painting his heart and soul out – to the tune of some 3,000 pieces – many of which were burned or otherwise tossed on the dust heap of history. Those that have survived, however, now command hundreds of thousands of dollars at auction. The debate over his work
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Stolen First Folio update: Dealer back in for police questioning

2008-11-07T17:52:55+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Chandos portrait of William Shakespeare, from the National Portrait Gallery, attributed to John Taylor. Image from the Public Domain. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_11/2008_1107_Shakespeare.jpg {/slimbox}

It was last week when StyleWire started following this story, but it’s been going on for at least four months, and as long as 10 years, depending on where you stand. It concerns a very rare copy of that most valuable of English language books, Shakespeare’s First Folio, Durham University in England, the theft of the book – along with some other rarities – and the American dealer who is being held under suspicion of having stolen the book. The dealer, one
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Don�??t mistake enthusiasm for value in Obama �??collectibles�??

2008-11-07T17:50:35+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - The original Shephard Fairey Obama poster, 4 x 6, on rag paper, is going to be the holy grail of campaign memorabilia. In Obama’s lifetime it will reach $1,000,000, I predict. Image used under the Fair Use Doctrine, specifically as an illustration to this blog post, to explain the potential value of an item. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_11/2008_1107_Shephard-Fairey-Original-Obama-Poster-Auction.jpg {/slimbox}

I wrote about this last week, and earlier this week, before the election of Barack Obama to the office of 44th President of the United States - but did the world-at-large listen to me? No! Thus, on Tuesday, and throughout this week there has been vast speculation
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The Tate, Rothko and a $1 billion hesitation lamented

2008-11-06T06:00:00+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Mark Rothko.|} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_11/2008_1106_Rothko.jpg{/slimbox}

Mark Rothko is one of those endlessly fascinating figures of the art world. His artistic output was prolific, his attitudes were controversial and his disdain for the business of art was obvious. He produced canvasses that are worth, altogether, hundreds of millions of dollars. He was a prima donna, incredibly picky about where his art would hang, literally, and who should have access to it. He famously pulled a series of paintings for Manhattan’s Four Seasons Restaurant because, as he put it, it would be “a place where the richest bastards of New York will come to feed and show off.”
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Conflicting reports from the Russian front

2008-11-05T23:00:03+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - A view of current day construction in Moscow, the world’s most expensive city to live in. According to an article in Time, buildings like this are standing vacant as the Russian economy staggers and stumbles with the rest of the world. Image used under the Creative Commons Copyright. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_11/2008_1106_Russian-market.jpg{/slimbox}

Today is a slow-ish kind of day in the antiques and art world(s), given the end of the Presidential election here in the U.S., which has given me a little time to look a little deeper into one of my favorite subjects of the past few months: the sizzling hot price of Russian art
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Middling results at Sotheby�??s Contemporary Art auction actually bring relief

2008-11-05T04:36:30+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - A self-portrait by Kazimir Malevich, whose Suprematist Compostion led the Sotheby’s sale and set a record price for the artist, at $60 million. Image from Public Domain. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_11/2008_1105_Malevich-painting.jpg{/slimbox}

It appears as though everyone was expecting the Sotheby’s sale auction of Impressionist and Modern Art yesterday, Monday, Nov. 3, was going to tank seriously in light of the current financial turmoil in the world markets. As StyleWire reported last week, a Picasso Cubist masterpiece was pulled from the sale, which furthered the jitters. Sales across the globe have been seeing problems of late, and I can’t really blame folks in New York and beyond
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The �??Magic�?? is definitely gone: 40 years for killer of SC dealer

2008-11-05T04:01:26+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Hieronymous Bosch’s “The Conjurer,” from Public Domain. Magician Joe Gaillard cannot conjure his way out of the trouble he’s in for murdering a SC antiques dealer in cold blood. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_11/2008_1105_Magician.jpg{/slimbox}

This is one of those sordid stories that get more and more bizarre as they progress, and thankfully for all involved, this one seems to have finally reached a conclusion. One Joe Gaillard, a contractor and “skilled” magician, killed dealer Chris Maddox, owner of Bedding World and Antiques Store in Greenville, S.C., in 2007. The story linked to here is from the Web site of the Greenville News. He got 40 years on
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History will be made on election day, but what of it will last?

2008-11-03T22:49:22+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - The White House. This image has been released into the public domain by its author, Bachrach44.|} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_11/2008_1103_whitehouse.jpg{/slimbox}

A few weeks ago I wrote about a commentary on campaign memorabilia, how there’s so much of now, and so much that can be individually manufactured and customized, that there’s very little that is going to make lasting campaign ephemera for future generations. In thinking about this, keeping my eye on the sale of few different modern campaign auctions around the nation, I can’t help but think that, with history being made one way or the other tomorrow, that there will be some things that will indeed
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Save an Endangered Historic Site! Do it now!

2008-10-30T21:28:55+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - A picture of NYC’s Lower East Side, specifically Katz’s Deli at Houston and Ludlow. The entire LES was placed on the 11 Most Endangered List last year due to the rampant development that has completely overtaken the neighborhood, as amply shown by this picture, courtesy of Wikipedia. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_10/2008_1030_Most-Endangered.jpg{/slimbox}

It only comes around once a year and there are so many buildings that need and deserve the national attention a designation from the National Trust For Historic Preservation would bring, so put on your thinking caps and nominate your favorite site. If you link to the site below at PreservationNation.org, you can get the
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Picasso pulled from Nov. 3 NYC auction

2008-10-29T20:26:43+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Picasso�??s L�??Arlequin, just pulled from the Monday, Nov. 3, Modern and Contemporary Art Auction at Sotheby�??s New York. Photo courtesy of Sotheby�??s. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_10/2008_1029_Picasso-pulled.jpg{/slimbox}

This is via the BBC, from yesterday, Oct. 28, about a rather engaging piece of Picasso Cubism, L�??Arlequin, that was pulled from next Monday�??s sale of Modern and Contemporary Art at Sotheby�??s. The owner is the one who made the call, in light of some disappointing numbers for big name pieces in �??important�?? auctions in the last few months.

The owner, in my humble opinion only, made a smart move and Sotheby�??s, according to its statement,
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The Sears 'Modern' Home is 100 this year

2008-10-29T20:24:55+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - An advertisement for Sears Modern Home number 115, circa 1908. Good, simple design that has stood the test of a century. In a country that is all about change, it’s good to see something so sensible has lasted. Image from the Public Domain. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_10/2008_1029_Sears-Modern-is-100.jpg{/slimbox}

There has been surprisingly little fanfare over the fact stated in the headline to this post, considering the influence of the Sears’ Modern kit home of the first part of the 20th century, 1908-1940 to be exact. The fact remains, however, that the first one was offered 100 years ago and many examples of it are still around. The
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Big fight for a first folio

2008-10-28T18:47:36+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - The title page from Shakespeare’s first folio. The real ownership of a copy of the folio is being disputed in northern England. Picture from Public Domain. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_10/2008_1028_First_Folio.jpg{/slimbox}

I don’t know why, but all the juicy antiques and art related news seems to be coming out of the United Kingdom today. I don’t mind really, especially when one of the stories is the one linked to below from the Northern Echo of Durham County, where a battle is raging over an extremely rare and valuable Shakespeare first folio, arguably the single most important printed work in the English language by one of the best
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Lou Dorfsman (1918-2008): A Design Pioneer

2008-10-27T21:07:44+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Lou Dorfsman in his younger years, at work on his Gastrotypographicalassemblage. Photo courtesy of Yeahthatsfresh.com. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_10/2008_1027_Dorfsman.jpg{/slimbox}

The New York Times ran an article yesterday – Monday, Oct. 27 – on the passing of Lou Dorfsman, the design genius behind the golden years of CBS, or as it used to be known, The Tiffany Network. Dorfsman was the man who came up with that appellation, and he – probably more than any other design executive at any network – defined the very look, year by year, month by month and day by day, at CBS. That iconic logo, the CBS eye? Yes, it was
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The architecural legacy of Kathmandu

2008-10-27T21:04:28+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - The Stupa at Boudhanath, one of the great pilgrimage sites for Buddhists around the world and the largest freestanding stupa in the world. It’s quite a site when lit up at night and swimming with devotees, and a great place to visit even if you’re not religiously inclined. Picture from the Public Domain. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_10/2008_1027_Khatmadu1.jpg {/slimbox}

Besides having probably the coolest name of any city on the planet, Kathmandu is an amazing place on many levels. Still, it is not in the news very often – unless it’s for regicide or the crowning of a three-year-old living goddess – so I was surprised when
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Jewish artifacts, from India, swiped in Israel

2008-10-26T05:00:00+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - A gold Torah crown from the Gilbert Collection in London. There are no available images of the Torah crowns recently stolen from the Cochini Temple in Israel, but you can see by the ornate decoration of this one that they are not only symbols of great religious value, but also of great material value. Image courtesy of The Gilbert Collection. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_10/2008_1022_Torah-crown-stolen.jpg{/slimbox}

This is one of these stories I had to read about in a couple different places before I could finally, officially, make sense of this one. It’s the story of some seriously valuable Torah crowns and finials that were stolen from a
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Historical Creepiness at the Lizzie Borden B&B, just in time for Halloween

2008-10-26T05:00:00+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - The infamous Lizzie Borden, looking pretty creepy here, I have to say, is well-represented at the Lizzie Borden B&B in Fall River, MA. Picture from the Public Domain. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_10/2008_1024_Lizzie-Borden.jpg {/slimbox}

Now, I’ve never really been the sort that could be seriously creeped out by supposedly scary or macabre things – at least not as an adult – but this story from the L.A. Times about the Lizzie Borden B&B, in Fall River, Mass., did a pretty good job, I have to say. It’s a good thing it’s daytime and I’m surrounded by people, otherwise I may just have screamed my bald head
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Is it official, then? RICS says there's a slowdown in the art market

2008-10-24T18:45:41+00:00

All of us have watched over the last few months as the economy around the world has tanked – as I write today, Friday, Oct. 24, Wall Street is again in freefall – and how that has filtered out to what was long considered a market invulnerable to financial sector woes. That would be the fine art market, which has seen a couple of high profile sales come up well short recently. Maybe those of us who thought the art market had no kryptonite failed to recognize that all those Supermen making and spending a mint on high-end paintings were getting that dough-re-mi from questionable securities… Oh well, what do I know?

According to a survey
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Celebrating Krisel in La-La Land

2008-10-24T05:00:00+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - A prime example of Krisel’s sleek and stylish Modern design. Courtesy of DesertUtopia.com. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_10/2008_1022_Krisel.jpg{/slimbox}

I have to confess, I’ve always been partial to the influence of The City - New York - over The City of Angels. This despite the fact that I married a woman from L.A., and that I have an odd thing in my life of having very close friends from and in L.A. I have a ton of weird connections to the place, yet still rare is the day when I actively pine to be there. Today, I can tell you, is such a day, after reading in the
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EBay bans 99.9% of ivory sales; gets - and deserves - some good press!

2008-10-21T19:46:00+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - EBay and Ivory, together in perfect harmony? Not anymore, since the site banned most all sales of ivory, because of its relation to dwindling elephant populations in Africa and Asia. Pieces like this millennium old carving will no longer be available online. Image from the Public Domain. |} images/stories/2008_10/2008_1021_eBay-and-Ivory.jpg{/slimbox}

It’s been near impossible for eBay to buy even a word of positive press over the last year as the company has transitioned out of the Meg Whitman era and into the John Donahoe era. The company has scrambled, that’s for sure, and had some issues with sellers unhappy about new listing fees, but this
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Endangered Modernism: Mad Men stars have no contract!

2008-10-21T19:44:10+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - The Mad Men logo, used here only to illustrate this blog post, greatly enhancing the content of the article, and not infringing upon the rights of the producers in the selling or marketing of material related to the show, making it usable under the Fair-Use doctrine. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_10/2008_1021_Mad-Men.jpg {/slimbox}

I have been sitting under my desk for the last three hours, curled in a fetal position and mumbling to myself over and over: “It’s not true. It’s not true. It’s not true.” You see, just a few hours ago StyleWire’s editor sent me a little news blurb from Fox News – Oct. 21, 2008
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Fully Modern, Fully Green in SoCal

2008-10-20T21:32:51+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - One of the well-appointed, super stylish and uber-Green rooms in the Seven4one hotel in Laguna Beach. The next wave of Green and Modern design fusion? I hope so… Image courtesy of Seven4one. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_10/2008_1020_Green-Hotel.jpg {/slimbox}

Ask any Californian and they’ll gladly tell you that, “as California goes, so goes America.” I know plenty of New Yorkers who might take exception to that, and as a self-respecting Texan I feel inclined to argue that a bit myself, but for the most part they’d be right. In matters fiscal, philosophical, commercial and political history does indeed teach us to heed Cali’s lead. That makes this article
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Hans van Meegeren, the world's most famous art forger, featured in two new books

2008-10-20T21:30:23+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Hans van Meegeren demonstrating his forgery techniques during his 1947 trial, shortly before his death. Picture from the Public Domain. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_10/2008_1020_van-Meegeren.jpg {/slimbox}

The New Yorker Magazine is featuring a review of two new books, one light and fluffy and the other exhaustively detailed, linked to below, about the life and “work” of Dutchman Hans van Meegeren. Something of a national hero in the Netherlands, van Meegeren is definitely the most famous art forger in history so far, and his name is still the first to come up till the first name to come up in any discussion of successful art forgery. His is
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The last of the great Mad Magazine cover art to be sold in Dallas, Nov. 14-16

2008-10-16T21:56:16+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - The original artwork for Mad Magazine #30, by Norman Mingo. This is the big lot of the bunch, as it’s the first full-fledged Alfred E. Neuman cover. Artwork courtesy of Heritage Auction Galleries. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_10/2008_1016_MAD-30.jpg {/slimbox}

When I was 25, living in NYC and working as a copywriter at a large ad agency, I wrote this haiku one morning while eating a buttered everything bagel –with a slice of tomato – at Ess-A-Bagel in Midtown on Third Avenue:

Everything I know
About writing I learned
From Mad Magazine

Now, some (mumble-mumble) years later,
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The plot thickens in the Hobbs antiques scandal: brother #2 is introduced

2008-10-16T21:52:30+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - This image is as apt as any to describe the bizarre story unfolding around John and Carleton Hobbs and restorer Dennis Buggins. What is in truth, though is the beginnings of the modern right cross demonstrated in Edmund Price's The Science of Self Defense: A Treatise on Sparring and Wrestling, 1867. Picture from the public domain. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_10/2008_1016_Hobbs-Brothers.jpg {/slimbox}

Before even touching the latest chapter of the Hobbs antiques scandal, in what appears more and more to be the acting out of some Shakespearean or Greek internecine drama that will end with knives drawn and horses stampeding, it is important to remember that no
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'Tis the Season: Political trinkets and enduring value? Probably not.

2008-10-14T22:22:24+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - A collection of modern political memorabilia like this one, including White House invitations, signed 8x10s and other political memorabilia would probably bring a few hundred bucks at auction, but that’s the high-end of the market. Image courtesy of Heritage Auction Gallery, where this grouping sold for $300. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_10/2008_1014_Poltical-memorabilia.jpg{/slimbox}

I know there are a lot of you out there with your Obama yard signs or posters, or your Palin hockey pucks or banners, waiting until Election Day when one of our political parties makes history with the first woman or African-American man to hold one of the nation’s two highest offices. Yes indeed, these
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Banksy's cheeky Halloween Treat for NYC

2008-10-14T22:20:25+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Image nicked from Banksy’s Web site. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_10/2008_1014_BanksyNYC.jpg {/slimbox}

British street artist and darling of the art world Banksy is a house favorite around here, and with good reason. Just look at what he’s done, on the heels of his mammoth West Coast exhibition, in the West Village in NYC. It’s a little project called Village Pet Store and Charcoal Grill, and it continues to establish Banksy as one of those insanely creative guys, who thinks of new things to amaze even the most jaded New Yorker in a age when nothing is new for more than a minute. This profound and funny installation
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Von Braun early space travel drawings on the block this week

2008-10-13T18:47:49+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Wernher von Braun, perhaps the most important figure in America’s race to space, will feature prominently on Wednesday, Oct. 15, at Bonham’s New York when some of his early space exploration drawings go on the block. Picture from the Public Domain. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_10/2008_1013_von-Braun-photo.jpg{/slimbox}

With the last 55 years as my cushion, I can say that there is something tremendously endearing, even cute, in the early space travel drawings of Wernher von Braun, scheduled to go up for auction this Wednesday, Oct. 15 at Bonham’s in NYC. The drawings themselves were the basis for a series of articles in Collier’s magazine in the early 1950s,
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Get out your pen and paper. It's Pop Quiz time!

2008-10-09T22:21:26+00:00

Funny to remember how much those words used to send shivers of dread up and down my spine. I was never much of a test-taker – you’d laugh if I told you what I got on my SATs. So, no, I’m not really going to make you take a test, but I did stumble across a list, linked to below, of the seven most common scams in the antique business, and I think you should write it down. Or at least click on the link and print the page, especially if you’re not the most seasoned collector.

If, however, you are reading this and you are somewhat of a neophyte to the field, I’m quite sure of
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Two disparate sources, one compelling story of China

2008-10-09T22:19:23+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Qianyan by Wang Shiyan, one of China's foremost practitioners of traditional Chinese art. He is among the large group of Chinese painters whose work has seen a rapid rise in pricing. Those prices are seeing another turn as a result of the current world economic crisis. Image courtesy of the artist's studio. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_10/2008_1010_Qiang-yan-painting.jpg {/slimbox}

At the risk of beating a dead horse, and getting a beating myself from StyleWire readers, I’m going to visit again very quickly the Asian Art market shake-up that followed the problems Sotheby’s faced over the course of last weekend’s (Oct. 4-6) Asian Art sale where a good deal
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Paris's most famous morgue now an Art Centre

2008-10-08T22:42:20+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - A view from the refurbished interior of 104, no longer a morgue and on its way to becoming a center for Modern Parisian art. Image courtesy of FrenchCulture.org |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_10/2008_1008_Centquatre-in-PAris.jpg {/slimbox}

There is something deliciously appropriate about this story coming out the Guardian U.K. regarding the reopening of Paris’ famous city morgue, known by Parisians simply as “Centquatre,” or 104, for its address at 104 Rue d'Aubervilliers. The building, in the city’s notoriously tumultuous 19th Arrondisement, has been revamped, stripped of its grim past as the “factory of grief” and will be reborn as a center for Modern art and artists. Personally, I think
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Save Saarinen's Embassy in London

2008-10-08T22:40:25+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Eero Saarinen’s masterpiece of Modern design, the U.S. Embassy in London. Photo from the public domain. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_10/2008_1008_Saarinens-Embassy-in-London.jpg {/slimbox}

Eero Saarinen is one of the few Modern architect’s whose ideas and names truly infiltrated the American psyche. He created the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, the Dulles Airport terminal and the former TWA terminal at JFK airport in NYC, among many buildings. His style is easily recognized and his influence on Modern architecture unquestionable. Now, according to an excellent editorial in the Arts and Entertainment section of today’s Wall Street Journal – Wednesday, Oct. 8 – his massive, somewhat odd but totally iconoclastic
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Duluth dealer sells lynching postcard: Bad taste? Necessary reminder?

2008-10-08T13:40:39+00:00

Most Americans, myself included, are fairly good at deluding ourselves about the brutality of our nation’s past. We like to believe that it was part of a more unenlightened time, when tolerance and harmony did not prevail. We can tsk and pshaw all we want and say that it was just an anomaly. Somehow, though, when confronted with a direct and tangible relic to the time of such ugliness we tend to turn to self-righteousness and demand that the offensive article be thrown into the memory hole and erased forever.

Such seems to be the case with graphic postcard of a 1920 lynching of two black circus workers in, of all places, Duluth, Minn. It’s rather
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The art market shakes

2008-10-07T01:58:56+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - This installation, by Subodh Gupta, wasn't in the Sotheby's sale, but it is typical of his work as India's hottest artist. The fact that his work failed to sell at Sotheby's recent sale was a jolt to the Indian and Chinese art markets, which have been red hot for almost 10 years. Image courtesy of Wikimedia. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_10/2008_1006_Indian-and-Chinese-Art.jpg {/slimbox}

I know I've been out of the loop for a couple of weeks—been moving my family from the Upper Midwest to northeast Texas and spent four solid days with a toddler in a compact car—but I have managed to keep my ear to the wire.
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The Outsider Phenomenon

2008-10-07T01:53:34+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Dhutel nuance diabricott by Jean Dubuffet, 1947, Pompidou Center, Paris. Image courtesy of Wikipedia, used under the fair use doctrine as a commentary on Outsider Art. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_10/2008_1006_The-Outsider-Phenomenon.jpg {/slimbox}

Came across a rather uninteresting little piece in the Cleveland Plain Dealer that somehow, much to my chagrin, got under my skin and has had me thinking about it all morning. It's a bit of a fluff piece by the paper's art critic about the Akron Art Museum "discovering" an Outsider named Chris Steele. I donít know his work, but I know a lot about Outsider Art, so I'm betting he's obsessive, compulsive, crazy as
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Cold War Modern, a brilliant turn at the V&A

2008-09-22T21:51:49+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Exterior of Ješt�?d teletower, Liberec Stavoprojekt 7, (Karel Hubá�?ek, born 1924), Czechoslovakia, constructed 1968–73, designed in 1963, the hotel and telecommunications tower on top of Ješt�?d mountain are one of the most extraordinary architectural achievements of the entire Eastern Bloc. A piece of bravura engineering on a very difficult site, the cone-shaped tower continues the profile of the mountain to a perfect vertical point. The theme of space travel is reinforced by decorative ‘meteorites’ set into the concrete core inside. Built in the second half of the 1960s. Used by Permission of the V&A. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_09/2008_0922_Cold-War-Modern.jpg {/slimbox}

Context is everything. Antiques, art, philosophy, you
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Stupid is as stupid does: JFK shut down over antique paperweights

2008-09-22T21:48:03+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - An F1 Grenade, the real version of the grenade paperweights that shut down JFK Airport this morning. Image from Wikipedia. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_09/2008_0922_grenade-antiques.jpg {/slimbox}

Have we not come as far as we would like to believe in the short seven years since the dreadful days of Sept. 11, 2001? Honestly, how many reports have we heard over the last several years about people carrying guns in their suitcases, thinking that was okay, or leaving their sack lunch unattended at a huge airport, sitting in a corner, and someone calls security? Then the entire airport is shut down, security is snarled, and across the Western Hemisphere
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Battered collectibles market hurt further by latest O.J. Trial

2008-09-19T22:03:52+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - O.J. in better days, or 1990 – still not so good. Image from the public domain, courtesy of Wikipedia. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_09/2008_0919_oj.jpg {/slimbox}

I can’t help but cringe every I see O.J. Simpson, and it’s not just because of the detestable things he’s been proven to have done, and has allegedly done. It’s actually because, right now, O.J, is kicking a good deal of us right where we live – smack in the collectibles market.

When O.J. was arrested a year ago in a sleazy Vegas strip hotel - the Imperial Palace, which, by the way, if you view it from
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Rare Philadelphia Chippendale highboy survives a hurricane, heads East once again

2008-09-19T22:02:20+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - A 1760 Philadelphia Highboy, not the one in question, but close… Courtesy of Wikipedia. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_09/2008_0919_Philly-Highboy.jpg {/slimbox}

This is a cool story from the New York Times Sept. 18 issue, about an extremely rare, unbelievably well-preserved Chippendale highboy from a well-known shop in Philadelphia that almost didn’t get its due. Never fear, however, because things like this have a way of turning out right, and pieces like this have a way of ending up with the right price tag on them.

The article, well written by the NYT’s antiques writer Wendy Moonan, contains everything a great antique yarn needs to
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The contemporary reach of Modernism - Check out AMC's smash hit: Mad Men

2008-09-19T21:59:40+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - This handout photo from AMC shows one of the sets from Mad Men, where the Mid-Century style is abundant, down to the last detail. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_09/2008_0919_Mad-Men.jpg {/slimbox}

I don’t know about you, but I’m addicted to the new AMC show – or not so new, considering it's now in its second season – Mad Men. It’s stylish, superbly written, well acted, and it’s about an industry that’s near and dear to my heart – advertising in its Golden Age on Madison Avenue in the 1960s. I love just about everything on the show, but what really does it for me, what really brings the
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The coolest pedal cars ever(!) on the block in Hershey, Pa.

2008-09-18T22:14:07+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - One of the 11 pedal cars made specifically for next month’s vintage car auction in Hershey, PA. Image courtesy of RM Auctions. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_09/2008_0918_pedal-car.jpg {/slimbox}

Unless you live in a joyless, rain-soaked place, atop a cold mountain in a log cabin that allows those freezing drafts to chill you all night long then you couldn’t help but be amused, entertained and awed by the very best, and undoubtedly the coolest, pedal cars ever created, set to go on the block as part of RM Auctions big sale next month, Oct. 8-10, in Hershey, Pa. This is one of the biggest car shows of the
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Today's 10-point question: When exactly did Modern Art begin?

2008-09-18T22:12:22+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Marcel Duchamp’s The Fountain, first shown in 1917, and often quoted as the ‘start’ of Modernism. The truth, though, is that Modern has roots that go back centuries. Photo from Public domain. Notice that it’s an image taken by the great Alfred Stieglitz. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_09/2008_0918_Modern.jpg {/slimbox}

Before we address the question, a little background is necessary – a very little, considering that I know almost nothing about the impetus of this round f this debate, but anyway… It seems that Nick Serota, who is the honcho at The Tate in London, has used a decision by The British National Gallery not to renew an
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The eternal debate over the Elgin Marbles: I say give 'em back!

2008-09-17T22:35:38+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - The left hand group of surviving figures from the East Pediment of the Parthenon, exhibited as part of the Elgin Marbles in the British Museum. Photograph copyright of Andrew Dunn, Dec. 2005., used by permission. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_09/2008_0917_Elgin-marbles-1.jpg {/slimbox}

By the time most any kid in this country hits second grade – at least this is the way it was when I was a kid, way back in the olden days – you knew what the Elgin marbles are. Our out-of-date textbooks would contain a large chapter on the British Empire, and on the great treasures of its day. Those Elgin marbles are without a
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Is it taxidermy or art? Regardless, one session down and Damien Hirst sees almost $130M

2008-09-16T21:54:21+00:00

Not bad for a single day’s take, really. When Sotheby’s and Damien Hirst auctioned off the first part of their unprecedented, controversial, and potentially paradigm-shifting auction yesterday – Monday, Sept. 15 – it was amid a great deal of hand-wringing and speculation as International banking giants were folding. If, however, the broader financial world was clasping its collective head over the bad news on Wall Street, rich investors and art-lovers were in London, online with London, or had an agent at Sotheby’s showroom to bid on paintings from Hirst’s Beautiful Inside My Head Forever. The sale so far just goes to show what has held true for a more than a decade: the low and the medium markets are struggling
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Big names, great English antiques approach at Christie's

2008-09-16T21:52:28+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - A highly important antique English George III Period Mahogany breakfront library bookcase attributed to William Vile and John Cobb, c. 1760. Used by Permission from Jeremy, LTD. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_09/2008_0916_English-Antiques.jpg {/slimbox}

There are so many subsets of antiques, art and collectibles, and so many places to indulge your live of them – shop, show, auction, Internet – that it’s quite hard to make a notable name for yourself in the business of you’re just getting in. Some names, however, stand out in the business of antiques as giants, no matter what level you deal or collect at, and as far as English Furniture goes, the
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Rothko's daughter opens up about her famous Dad

2008-09-16T04:00:00+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Magenta, Black, Green on Orange, oil on canvas painting by Mark Rothko, 1949, Museum of Modern Art. Image courtesy of Wikipedia and used as a critical commentary on Rothko, the Tate exhibition and the article about his daughter, Kate, permissible under the fair use doctrine for such a famous image. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_09/2008_0915_Rothko-painting.jpg {/slimbox}

When the Tate in London opens its Rothko retrospective on Sept. 30, it will mark the first time in 20 years that a major institution has had such an exhibition for one of America’s greatest Modernists. That’s a sad statement considering what a giant he was in the field of American
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Wine authenticating goes high-tech; antiques and art next? Yes?

2008-09-15T17:23:35+00:00

There have been several interesting advances in the art of authentication and identification when it comes to antiques, art and now wine. I remember reading last year of a way antiques were being authenticated by the use of tiny chips placed in clear nail polish and brushed on a corner of the antique. Now we have this news about wine, out of France of course, whereby a method has been developed that uses a particle accelerator to determine the age of the wine in a given bottle.

I know there are a good many wine aficionados amongst the readers of Style Century Magazine and, hopefully, StyleWire, so this news could certainly have direct and immediate relevance to you. What some
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Guard that $160,000 of jewels. Ne'er-do-wells abound...

2008-09-11T20:43:08+00:00

This story is one of those sad lessons that dealers sometime have to learn about leaving valuable property unlocked and unwatched at shows. No matter how big the name or important the clientele. I’m not exactly sure that the show where this happened – the theft of $160,000 worth of jewelry, that is – is considered an important one, but I know just from its location that it’s certainly a big one.

In a lot of areas of antiques, when something gets stolen it may still be a challenge to trace and recover, but it’s not impossible. A piece of art can be identified; a piece of furniture can be discovered with a little knowledge, but
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Neiman-Marcus co-founder's house in Big D spared the 'dozer

2008-09-11T19:52:00+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - The Marcus House in Dallas: A Modern landmark spared the wrecking ball thanks to concerned owners, citizens and legislators. The design was begun by Frank Lloyd Wright and finished by Roscoe DeWitt. Photo credit: Willis C. Winters, Dallas Parks and Recreation. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_09/2008_0911_Marcus-House.jpg {/slimbox}

This is a little ol’ post, from the good folks at Preservationnation.org, that does my heart a world of good. First of all, because it’s about a great piece of Mid-Century Modern architecture in Dallas – the house built by Neiman-Marcus co-founder Stanley Marcus in 1938 – and secondly because it’s about the city where I was raised, Dallas, which
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Fancy playing lord of the Hearst manor for a night?

2008-09-11T17:22:01+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - The grand Spanish Façade of Hearst Castle, resplendent in the sunlight and unequaled among American vanity homes. It could be yours for a night, and the right price. Image courtesy of Wikipedia. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_09/2008_0911_Hearst-Castle.jpg {/slimbox}

Starting Wednesday, Sept. 17, the Preservation Trust of the Estate of William Randolph Hearst – that’s right, the famous castle off of The Pacific Coast Highway in central California – is going to give some lucky, and rich, eBay bidder a chance to hold court for a single night in Hearst Castle. You will be able to swim in the famous swimming pool, watch movies in Hearst’s private theater,
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Marking a life in art with - what else? - an exhibition

2008-09-10T22:42:04+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Philippe de Montebello, the retiring honcho at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Photo courtesy of The Met. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_09/2008_0910_Montebello.jpg {/slimbox}

It’s easy, especially when it comes to the world stage that is International art, to overstate someone’s influence or glory. After all, everybody wants some kind of glory, and if we can get it by slavishly following it around, or writing about it like we know what we’re talking about, then most sensible human being is going to take their shot. For a man like Philippe de Montebello, the retiring Director of The Metropolitan Museum of since 1977, there is little to overblow. He
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An evening with Frank Stella? What could be better.

2008-09-09T23:25:24+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - A picture of Stella hard at work from 1964. Image courtesy of Wikipedia and used under the fair use doctrine strictly as a commentary on the artist. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_09/2008_0910_Stella-1.jpg {/slimbox}

After all these years as one of the pre-eminent American artists of the last 100 years, Frank Stella is still cool. He continues to work at a feverish pace, continues to be an active presence on the art scene and a champion for the rights of lesser known and upcoming artists, and he continues to be remarkably free and easy with his time, as evidenced by the talk he will be giving on Sept.
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Smithsonian acquires rare tea kettle from Pa. antiques dealer

2008-09-09T21:20:14+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - This tea kettle, while not the one in question, is indeed antique and most likely similar in make to the copper teak kettle recently acquired by the Smithsonian. Photo courtesy of iMorgue.com. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_09/2008_0910_Smithsonain-tea-kettle.jpg {/slimbox}

This is simply a cool story, and a reminder that a lot of times the very best resource for the best the market – any market – has to offer may be in your very own backyard. In this instance it’s a rare and beautiful tea kettle, and the place is New Oxford, Pa. The dealer is one Kelly Kinzle and the shop is Center Square Antiques. It’s rare
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Buy stolen art in Encino, Calif.? No! Return it for $200K!

2008-09-09T18:19:11+00:00

I can’t really say what it is with me when it comes to stolen art and antiques… It just sticks in my craw. It’s about the disrespect shown the material artistic and historical culture of our nation and the world, and it’s about the basic disrespect to someone else’s house and property. Antiques are an easy target for theft, even though most thieves aren’t schooled enough to know a $100 repro from a $1 million original. Still they try. Art, however, is a different story. Just look at the name and you can get a good idea that it’s at least worth something.

When it comes to selling high-end stolen art, though, the name these days
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Damien Hirst, Sotheby's changes the rules

2008-09-08T21:47:17+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, by Damien Hirst, 1991. This shark piece is typical of Damien Hirst's series of animals in the last few years. This image is reproduced courtesy of Damian Hirst, for use only in illustrating art work discussed in the attached blog post. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_09/2008_0908_Hirst-and-Sothebbys.jpg{/slimbox}

I was never really a fan of British artist Damien Hirst, at least nothing to write home about. Now, however, I think I like the him. I knew he had been making scads of cash over the last few decades, that he is most famous for his large animals in
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Rouault, an Outsider among Outsiders gets his due

2008-09-06T04:00:00+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Rouault’s Head of Christ, his best known work of art. Image courtesy of Wikipedia, fair use as a commentary on the artist and the current exhibition in Boston. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_09/2008_0905_Rouault.jpg {/slimbox}

George Rouault, by any assessment, had a tough time as an artist, despite his obvious brilliance. He had the fortune and the misfortune of coming into his full power as a Modern Master at the same time the movement was peaking, and in competition with the biggest names of the day. He also fell afoul of one Clement Greenburg, the great art critic that quite literally made giants of many of the great
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Stealing a truck from foster kids? have you no human decency?

2008-09-04T17:56:16+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Red Truck: The truck in question may or may not have looked like this, but it’s close. Image courtesy of Wikipedia. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_09/2008_0904_ford.jpg {/slimbox}

First of all let me tell you how truly sorry I am for laughing, because the theft of a beloved antique truck from a farm that doubles as a foster home for kids in need is not really funny; it’s a combination of the headline, the picture and the mental image it conjures that is funny. I repeat, though, that the actual theft of any valuable (or valued) object – both financially and emotionally – is not funny.

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Ralph Kovel will be missed

2008-09-04T17:31:30+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Ralph and Terry Kovel, with permission from Kovel's. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_09/2008_0904_Ralph-Kovel.jpg {/slimbox}

It really didn’t matter what level of the business you traded at, or which side of the table you did your business from, every one knew Ralph Kovel, who died earlier this week after a brief illness. He is survived by his wife and partner in all things antique, Terry, and a sizable extended family. There aren’t a lot of people who are famous exclusively for their association to antiques and the antiques business, but Ralph could certainly lay claim to that title. May he rest in peace.

The
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Saving the house where Superman was born

2008-09-03T21:19:43+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Golden Age Superman, issue #22, courtesy of Heritage Auction Galleries, Dallas, TX. For use only as a news item. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_09/2008_0903_Superman-House.jpg {/slimbox}

There are people who need no introduction in the world – often known by only one name – and the same goes for a handful of characters who are so iconic that just the merest hint of them is immediately recognizable. Today we have Mickey, Bugs, Batman, Yogi, Snoopy… And, oh yes, the one and only, the Man of Steel, Superman. Now, today, when Superman has saved the planet – better yet, the universe – countless thousands of times, in myriad formats,
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Three's a charm; final '08 Brimfield this week

2008-09-03T17:54:22+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - An arial view of Route 20 and the Brimfield Festival, courtesy of YankeeCricket B&B. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_09/2008_0903_brimfield.jpg {/slimbox}

It’s interesting to ponder how the antiques business has changed over the last decade, and nowhere has that change been more evident than at the thrice yearly bacchanalia of all things antique, Brimfield. The festival made the reputations, and fortunes, of a good many prominent dealers of today back in the 1970s and early 1980s, when high quality material was found aplenty at cheap prices and scholarship was relatively little.

These days, however, while the show is still a grand festival, attracting thousands of
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Modern renewal at Yale with the reopening of the Rudolph Art & Architecture Building

2008-08-29T04:45:28+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - From Gwathmey Siegel & Associates, a picture from Aug. 15 of the restored Rudolph School of Art & Architecture at Yale University. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_08/2008_0828_Yale-new-building.jpg {/slimbox}

On May 27, I wrote in StyleWire about the renovation of the Art & Architecture Building on the Yale Campus, designed by Paul Rudolph and opened originally in 1963. In its time, the building has suffered many indignities, both philosophical and actual, including fierce criticism and a fire that gutted the building, as well as the gradual deterioration of the interior space that made it cramped, closed and stuffy.

Rather than succumb to the pressure
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Radical post-modern architecture and the mind of Lebbeus Woods

2008-08-28T04:38:10+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - A Woods design, courtesy of the architect’s Web site, that perfectly showcases how challenging his designs are. Would this be practical to build? Probably not. You can, however, see what is so interesting and groundbreaking about what he does. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_08/2008_0827_lebbeus-woods-1.jpg {/slimbox}

It would not be surprising it, at this point, you were asking yourself, Who is Lebbeus Woods? I know that I, up until about two months ago, would have thought the same when presented with the same name. Today, however, I know who Woods is, as I’m sure there are many of you do. Simply put, Lebbeus Woods is one of the
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Saving the Modern gems of New Orleans

2008-08-28T04:34:39+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - The Thomy Lafone Elementary School in New Orleans, just one of the more than 50 Modernist buildings threatened by a recent push to purge the city of these architectural treasures. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_08/2008_0827_New-Orleans-Modernism.jpg {/slimbox}

These days, when you think of New Orleans, I would imagine you don’t think Modernism. More than likely you think of Hurricanes Katrina or Gustav; you think of Creole cottages and the French Quarter; you think Bourbon Street and Jazz. You don’t think Modernism.

The truth is, however, that there is a rich tradition of regional Modernism in New Orleans. These buildings were designed and built during
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The father of Indian Modernism, Nandalal Bose, at the Philadelphia Museum of Art

2008-08-28T04:00:00+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - The artist himself, Nandalal Bose, from the public domain. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_08/2008_0826_Nandalal-1.jpg {/slimbox}

While it’s not going to be there much longer, through Monday, Sept. 1 to be exact, the Philadelphia Museum is currently featuring an extraordinary exhibition of art from the ever-elusive Nandalal Bose (1883-1966), the father of Indian Modernism. To say the least, it is a superb exhibition, and I’m insanely jealous of the art lovers in Philadelphia who have no doubt been streaming through the galleries by the hundreds to take in the comprehensive exhibition, Rhythms of India: The Art of Nandalal Bose.

Linked below is a review
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Illinois state lawmaker seeks to restore historic preservation funding

2008-08-28T04:00:00+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - The Carl Sandburg Historic Site in Galesburg, IL is one of the sites that has been affected by the cut in Preservation funding and one of the sites that stands to benefit from Representative Moffitt’s efforts to get the funding restored. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_08/2008_0827_Illinois-Historic-Preservation.jpg {/slimbox}

A few weeks ago I wrote about a report out of Illinois about a $2.8 million reduction in funding for the state’s historic sites. I did not equivocate in my distaste for the decision by Gov. Rod Blagojevich. According to another report, linked below, from WGIL Radio out of Galesburg, Ill., neither did State Representative Don Moffitt, who is drafting
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Get 'em while they're hot! Beijing to auction millions of Olympic items

2008-08-28T04:00:00+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - The Bird’s Nest, China’s National Stadium, the symbol of the recent Olympics. It won’t be auctioned off along with umbrellas, pins and the beds of basketball players. Picture from public domain. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_08/2008_0827_Beijing-auctions-olympics-stuff-1.jpg {/slimbox}

The Chinese government, fresh off the success of hosting its first Olympiad, has announced that it will be auctioning off almost 20 million pieces of memorabilia associated with the games. This will include an oversized bed that basketball player Yao Ming slept in, umbrellas with special smiley faces and drums used in the opening and closing ceremonies. At the risk of sounding cynical – who me? – I imagine that
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A tribute to the First Lady of American Modern Art, Muriel Kallis Steinberg Newman, 94

2008-08-26T04:53:59+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - The cover from the catalogue of the Met’s exhibition of the Newman Collection. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_08/2008_0826_Muriel-Newman-dead-at-94.jpg {/slimbox}

The backbone of any artistic movement that succeeds at shifting a given paradigm has always been visionary collectors. It takes a person with an open mind and an open pocketbook to look past existing philosophies, to the future, to embrace things that are new and challenging. Muriel Kallis Steinberg Newman, without equivocation one of the most important champions of Modern Art – and an accomplished artist in her own right – was such a woman.

Newman, who called Chicago her home, and who has
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Rodin's 'Magnificent Obsession' comes to Music City, USA

2008-08-25T03:20:49+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - The Gates of Hell (unfinished), Musée Rodin, courtesy of Wikipedia. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_08/2008_0824_rodin_01.jpg {/slimbox}

Possibly the greatest touring exhibit of France’s greatest sculpture, Rodin’s Magnificent Obsession is on its way to the Frist Museum in Nashville, starting Sept. 12 and running through Jan. 4. The collection is from the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation and has been making its way around the United States for the last few years.

I haven’t seen this particular exhibition, but have had the pleasure to see much Rodin in my life – including at the Rodin Museum in Paris when I was a junior
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Another head rolls in Salt Lake City antiques scandal

2008-08-24T04:00:00+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - A panorama view of downtown Salt Lake City from South Temple Street, 1912. From the public domain. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_08/2008_0819_More-from-Salt-Lake.jpg {/slimbox}

Ah, the gift that keeps on giving, or least has been giving steadily since last May. Yes folks, I’m talking about the ever-present Salt Lake City Antiques theft scandal, that has ensnared a half dozen people, led to one guilty plea already and has seen charges dismissed against two individuals. This time, however, in the case of John W. Pilcher, there was never any doubt about either his involvement in the case, or his guilt, which was decided definitively on Aug. 18, 2008.
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A revolutionary idea: Let the public choose public art

2008-08-24T04:00:00+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - La Joute by Jean-Paul Riopelle, an outdoor kinetic sculpture installation with fire jets, fog machines, and a fountain in Montreal. Did the public vote on this? The fog machine and the fire jets make me say yes. Who wouldn’t want fire jets? Photo courtesy of Wikipedia. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_08/2008_0819_Public-Art.jpg {/slimbox}

I like this editorial in the Reading Eagle, out of Reading, Pa., from Tuesday, Aug. 19 about the mayor of the city appointing a “new” Public Art Task Force for the city, to help decide on public art projects and to be financed with .5 percent assessment on city development. What the editorial board of
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Antiques may finally have found a home in Daytona Beach

2008-08-20T04:00:00+00:00

I always find stories like this a bit disconcerting, because it seems to me that the idea of “antiques” is pretty self-explanatory, and that any community that has rules in place to a) punish people who run these businesses or b) exclude them from setting up shop, has some soul-searching to do.

Such is the case with South Daytona,Fla., which has had an ongoing battle for the past several years about whether or not to allow antiques dealers to open shops in the city's Community Redevelopment Area Overlay District.

I guess, from reading this article from the East Volusia News, that the dispute on the town council in the years preceding the
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To preserve or not to preserve an historic synagogue on the Lower East Side

2008-08-20T04:00:00+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - The Anshe Meseritz synagogue, at 415 East Sixth Street. Photo courtesy of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_08/2008_0818_Lower-East-Side-Synagogue.jpg {/slimbox}

This is a story from the New York Times that is near and dear to my heart, and not just because I love good neo-classical architecture. It’s actually because the building that the writer in this story talks about is a somewhat down at the heels but still very cool old synagogue on East 6th Street in the East Village, which was my home neighborhood for the majority of the dozen years that I lived in Manhattan. I passed this building frequently
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A classic center for antiques, Atlantic Avenue, seeing the end?

2008-08-20T04:00:00+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - The headhouse from the Atlantic Avenue subway station; the name says it all. This architectural piece would be a pretty valuable antique itself. Photo from the Public Domain. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_08/2008_0818_Atlantic-Avenue.jpg {/slimbox}

An interesting story today, Aug. 18, in The Brooklyn Paper, regarding the viability of the antiques trade on Atlantic Avenue, once the favorite place to go for antiques not only in New York City’s favorite borough, but perhaps in all of the city’s eight boroughs put together. In the 1980s you could go down to Atlantic Avenue and find an amazing mix of antiques from all era – Victorian to Modern – in
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Italy's Culture Minister: "I just don�??t get Modern Art."

2008-08-15T04:00:00+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Italy’s Culture Minister Sandro Bondi. Photo from the public domain. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_08/2008_0814_Italian-Anti-Modernism.jpg {/slimbox}

Um… Come again?

Yes, Sandro Bondi, the Italian Minister of Culture actually said that, and also that he has a definite distaste for Modern Architecture. It’s a little surreal, really, considering that this is coming from the top culture official one of the world’s most prolific and influential artistic countries. The Italians have led the way through centuries of art and architecture, and have produced some of the greatest examples of Modernism – architecture, art and furniture – in the whole of the movement over the past
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Lower Wisconsin town looks to antique mall to draw visitors

2008-08-15T03:50:32+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - The view from above Evansville, WI, with scenic Lake Leota in the background. Picture courtesy of the Evansville COC. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_08/2008_0814_Evansville-antique-shop.jpg {/slimbox}

There’s really not a tremendous amount of news relevant to the antiques and design business that comes out of Wisconsin, so this one immediately caught my eye, for a couple of reasons.

The first is that it’s about a town called Evansville, part of the greater Janesville area, just inside the border with Illinois. It’s an area that has been particularly hard hit by the sluggish economy, especially because it’s home to a huge GM plant that specializes
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Classic Bauhaus building gets second life in Berlin

2008-08-14T04:33:22+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - The restored external glass corridor overlooking the countryside. Brenne Gesellschaft restored the original materials and reintroduced the original bright red color of the steel framing. Photo courtesy of Brenne Gesellschaft. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_08/2008_0814_German-Building.jpg {/slimbox}

Last month, July 2008, the ADGB Trade Union School in Berlin, salvaged and updated by Brenne Gesellschaft von Architekten, was awarded the very first World Monument Fund “Modernism at Risk” award. Knoll, the design firm that is synonymous with Modern design and its greatest names, is a co-sponsor of the prize. It’s a great choice, a great building and a very deserving recipient.

The ADGB has a
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10 years in the pen for North Carolina antiques scammer

2008-08-14T04:31:01+00:00

I have to say that I get a certain amount of personal satisfaction from the following story. It’s about a woman, Patricia Jacoby, who owned an antiques business in the Raleigh, N.C. area called Posh! (now closed), who just received a jail sentence of 10 years for conducting an elaborate Ponzi scheme. It involved unsuspecting people who invested in antiques to the tune of more than $2 million over a period of a few years. It was a classic “invest a little, get a lot” scam where people gave money in good faith, were told they’d have quadruple their money in a week, and never got a cent more out of it.

Why would I get
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Duck-walking into history: Chuck Berry�??s old house designated historical?

2008-08-14T04:00:00+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Chuck Berry, one of, if not the most important guitarist in modern music history, in Brunnsparken, Örebro, Sweden in 2007. Image courtesy of Wikipedia. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_08/2008_0812_Berry-House.jpg {/slimbox}

It has been widely reported in the last week that the St. Louis, Mo., city council voted unanimously to recommend that a local house Chuck Berry lived in from 1950 to 1958 be designated a national historical site. It’s the house that Berry called home when he wrote several of his greatest songs, including “Maybelline,” “Roll Over Beethoven,” and “Johnny B. Goode.”

I say go for it. Berry’s a living legend, the ultimate
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Lose a piece of rare fine art 30 or 40 years ago? Call the FBI...

2008-08-14T04:00:00+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Alberto Giacometti’s “Tete de Diego,” just one of the pieces found in the apartment of “Art Dealer” William Kingsland in NYC after his death two years ago. Photo courtesy of the FBI. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_08/2008_0814_Kingsland-Collection.jpg {/slimbox}

Two years ago, when William Kingsland died in NYC, he left behind what was thought to be not only a stellar and eccentric life, but what turned out to be an amazing private collection. He was known as a bit of a dandy, wearing a white beret and speaking with a high-fallutin’ accent. Nobody ever got into his private dwelling to view the “collection” until after his death in
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It takes all kinds; Flag seller booted from eBay

2008-08-13T04:00:00+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Old Glory, courtesy of Wikipedia. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_08/2008_0812_Flag-seller-booted.jpg {/slimbox}

Okay, it's not very often that an antiques-related article will make me laugh out loud, but this one has been making the rounds of a lot of a lot of daily newspapers in the last few days and I can't help myself. It's funny on so many levels... One Mark Albino, the owner of C&M Antiques in Waterbury, Conn., has been barred from selling his high-end American flags on eBay because Albino refuses to sell to anyone in the Middle East, France or California. California? The Golden State?

Now, I actually believe that an
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Paul S. Byard, Preservationist and Architect, dead at 68

2008-08-13T04:00:00+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Paul S. Byard, noted architect and passionate preservationist, dead at 68. Photo courtesy of Platt Dovell White Architects. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_08/2008_0811_Byard-RIP.jpg {/slimbox}

Though he died nearly a month ago, on July 15, it's important to note the passing of Paul S. Byard, a fervent historical preservationist, a noted architect, and director of the historic preservation program at Columbia University. Byard was very well-known figure in New York City preservation circles.

This is the third time in two months we have had to mourn the death of a noted preservationist. There must be something in the air this summer… I don’t know… Byard
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New football stadium in Indianapolis; a head-scratcher in a good way

2008-08-13T04:00:00+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - The new Lucas Oil Stadium, future home of the Indianapolis Colts, and host of the 2012 Super Bowl, is shown here in its almost completed form. Image courtesy of Wikipedia. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_08/2008_0811_Indy-Stadium.jpg {/slimbox}

Laurence Cheek, the architecture critic for the Indy Star has written a spot-on review of the new Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, the new home for the Indianapolis Colts, scheduled to host the Super Bowl in 2012. Before giving my opinion of the stadium itself, and a further dissecting of Cheek’s excellent review, here’s a taste of what makes his prose so tasty:

“Inside, you're immediately nailed
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Madison-Bouckville Antiques Show this week, Aug. 12-17

2008-08-11T04:04:58+00:00

Following quick on the heels of Antiques Week in New Hampshire, the Madison-Bouckville Antiques Show is this week, the anchor to the Madison-Bouckville Antiques Week itself in western New York State, which is a collection of shows that – minus the headlining show – are not quite as high profile, or high end, as the New Hampshire shows. That said, however, it’s a fun week of antiquing, with some good shows and, weather cooperating, some good shopping.

Often, though, it’s hot, muggy, muddy and rainy. Something like Brimfield often is in July. What’s important about this show, besides the estimated 20,000 people that attend it, and the more than $1 million that it pumps into the
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Reflecting on Beijing�??s Olympics architecture

2008-08-11T04:00:00+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - The Water Cube and the Bird’s Nest, the architectural centerpieces of the Chinese Olympics, seen at night. Courtesy of Wikipedia. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_08/2008_0806_Refelcting-on-Beijing.jpg {/slimbox}

There’s an excellent review of Beijing’s Olympics architecture in the Aug. 5 New York Times, Aug. 5. But there's more to it than what's on the surface.

A few months ago I wrote about the architectural efforts by Beijing and the amazing job the Chinese have done in creating some of the most exciting and important buildings the modern world has seen. Those buildings – the National Stadium and the Swimming Cube in particular – are making
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Can you say busted? Notorious Irish gypsy antique thieves going to prison

2008-08-11T04:00:00+00:00

This is all over the news in Britain, and an absolutely fascinating story. It involves a clan of Irish gypsies that were at the center of a huge crime wave for the last 20 years in which they – the Johnson clan – stole more than the equivalent of $160 million of antique goods, including what is thought to be the largest-ever domestic robbery in the history of the U.K., to the tune of 80 million pounds.

This story is quite complex and works on several levels. Five members of the Johnson family – Richard "Chad" Johnson, 33, and Daniel O'Loughlin, 32; Michael Nicholls, 29; Albi Johnson, 25; and Ricky Johnson, 54 – were given varying
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A King�??s ransom for the King�??s Jumpsuit: Stage-worn Peacock outfit, $300,000

2008-08-11T04:00:00+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - The Elvis Peacock jumpsuit, worth $300,000. Photo courtesy of Gotta Have It! Auctions. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_08/2008_0811_Elvis-Jumpsuit.jpg {/slimbox}

Up until Aug. 7, the most money ever paid for an Elvis Presley collectible was $295,000, and that was for the King’s 1956 Lincoln Continental Mark II. That record is now history, as a person identified simply as “a huge Elvis fan” paid $300,000 for the unbearably stylish Peacock jumpsuit you see here.

It was auctioned by Gotta Have It! Auctioneers, and it is one of the great all-time pieces of rock clothing. Evidently, the jumpsuit was Elvis’s favorite in the waning years of his
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"Progress" according to The Whitney

2008-08-06T04:00:00+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Jerry N. Uelsmann, Mechanical Man #2, 1959. Gelatin silver print, 16 7/8 x 14 in. (42.9 x 35.6 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase, with funds from Joanne Leonhardt Cassullo and Kathryn Fleck 2000.13. Image courtesy of The Whitney Museum of Art. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_08/2008_0806_Progress-at-the-Whitney.jpg {/slimbox}

An extraordinary new exhibition has just opened at the Whitney in Manhattan, featuring a selection of works from the permanent collection focused on the theme of “Progress.” The work spans 1926 to 2008 and is a who’s who of Modern art that spreads across mediums and ideas, all firmly grounded in the ideas of Modernism as
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Illinois historic sites feeling the pinch

2008-08-05T04:00:00+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Main Street in New Salem, IL, where Lincoln once lived and worked - one of the sites in the state that is reeling from the $2.7M budget cuts in the state. Image from Wikipedia. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_08/2008_08_Illinois-Historic-sites.jpg {/slimbox}

I hate to see this. I know it’s happening all over the nation as governments struggle to save cash, maximize available dollars and meet their overheads. This time, as reported in the Chicago Tribune, linked to below, the historic sites in the state of Illinois, which faced massive cuts a few years ago, are feeling the pain of further cuts effective last week. This is a cruel
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More Beatles to hit the block. Too much is never enough�?�

2008-08-05T04:00:00+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - The Beatles, circa 1964, a public domain image from the Library of Congress. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_08/2008_08_Beatles-on-the-block.jpg {/slimbox}

When it comes to rock and roll, there are two types of people: Beatles folk, or Rolling Stones folk. Never trust anyone who says likes neither. Personally, I love both bands, but if given my druthers I’d take The Beatles every time. Top to bottom, even their cheesy early 1960s bubble gum pop, is genius. The Stones? They have greatness throughout, but peaked with such genius in the mid-1970s that they haven't been able to produce an album since then that can compare to Sticky Fingers. Tattoo You
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The force is strong with this one: Original Star Wars model brings $400,000

2008-08-05T04:00:00+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - A toy version of an Imperial T.I.E. fighter, which the writer of the article completely didn’t understand. Image courtesy of Calico’s Star Wars Collection.com |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_08/2008_0806_Star-Wars-Model.jpg {/slimbox}

On Tuesday, Aug. 4, an original T.I.E. fighter model from the first Star Wars movie sold for a little more than 200,000 pounds, or the equivalent of about $400,000 at auction in London. Pretty cool, I have to say, though I must register one major gripe with the writer of the brief from the Telegraph. You can click on the link below and see for yourself, but this one just shows such a total and utter lack
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New Hampshire Antiques Week is now off and running

2008-08-04T04:00:00+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Manchester, NH, the center of the action during Antiques Week in New Hampshire. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_08/2008_0801_New-Hampshire-Week.jpg {/slimbox}

Did you think that New Hampshire was only about having the first in the nation presidential primaries, or some of the best summer vacationing there is in the entire world? Well, think again.

One of the classiest, most stylish, well-appointed and fun antique weeks of the year is now off to the races. It's a veritable smorgasbord of antique shows, high-end antiques and a who’s who of American antiques dealers, not to mention massive crowds with money to spend.

This
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Soylent Green is Modernism! It�??s Modernism!

2008-08-03T04:00:00+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - In this still from the movie, you can see the hanging light behind Leigh Taylor-Young. The bubble-design, bright white plastic fixture is the sort of Modernist lighting that routinely brings thousands of dollars at auction in today’s market, 35 years after the movie was made. Image courtesy of moviescreenshots.blogspot.com. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_07/2008_0730_soylent1.jpg {/slimbox}

A few nights ago, as I stayed awake late preparing a few posts for StyleWire, I had the good fortune to be able to watch one of my favorite movies of all time, Soylent Green. It’s one of the great cheesy sci-fi, negative Utopian, speculative movies from the early 1970s, and it’s
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Saint Laurent's art collection to go on the block in February

2008-08-02T04:00:00+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Yves Saint Laurent in the 1950s, showing the style that would inform not only his fashion design, but also his art collecting. Courtesy of Wikipedia. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_07/2008_0730_yves.jpg {/slimbox}

What do you get when you take one of the world’s greatest and most influential fashion designers, his massive art collection filled with the most famous names in Modern art, and Christie’s International Auction House, then throw them all in a blender? You get what will certainly be one of the most high-profile, hotly anticipated art sales in recent years, set to go on the block in February of next year.

The designer is the late,
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A wrinkle in the Salt Lake stolen antiques saga

2008-07-30T04:56:53+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - A panoramic view of downtown Salt Lake City, where all the action has been happening. Courtesy of Wikipedia. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_07/2008_0730_Salt-Lake-theft-update.jpg {/slimbox}

One of the people originally questioned after the massive bust in Salt Lake City in May, one Anthony Christensen, was let off the hook on Tuesday, July 29. In case you don't remember the details, let me refresh you memory.

It was mid-May and police uncovered a ring of thieves selling high-end antiques, art and family heirlooms. Busts were made all over the place, people were sent to jail and a lot of Salt Lake antiques dealers were implicated.
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Got a 'Distinctive Destination' in mind? Grab a ballot!

2008-07-30T04:54:27+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_07/2008_0730_Distinctive-Destinations.jpg {/slimbox}

Very important! Listen up! The National Trust for Historic Preservation is now accepting nominations for its 2009 list of a Dozen Distinctive Destinations. This is possibly the most important vote you will think about casting this entire year… Just kidding. I know there’s another important election in the fall, but this one means a lot to the communities it will end up benefiting, and the ‘Distinctive Destinations’ that are waiting to be elected/selected.

The catch is actually that only Convention and Visitors Bureaus and Chambers of Commerce can do the nominating, and there’s a fee of $150 per
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Strawberry Banke turns 50 ... after 400 years

2008-07-30T04:00:00+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Jefferson Street at Strawberry Banke, just one of the great corners of Portsmouth’s treasure. Image courtesy of Strawberry Banke. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_07/2008_0728_straw.jpg {/slimbox}

On Aug.2, just a few days away as I write this, Strawberry Banke will celebrate 50 years as the principal cultural attraction in Portsmouth, NH. The irony there, as noted by my oh-so-clever headline, is that the neighborhood that became the Strawberry Banke we know today, has existed in the midst of its historical seaport city for more than four centuries.

Let me be clear: I love Strawberry Banke. It’s one of the greatest “villages” in New England.
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Troubled economy = upturn in auction business

2008-07-30T04:00:00+00:00

This is something I’ve commented on before, in various posts, but the story doesn’t usually originate in Europe, let alone in Scotland. What you’ll find if you click the link to The Scotsman.com, is a rudimentary little article about how antique auctions in Edinburgh are doing quite well as the economy fluctuates all over the place.

What I like about this article is that it touches on everything, all in a convenient six or seven hundred words: Young people are looking to recycle from the past instead of going to Ikea, older people are downsizing, good antiques are coming back on the market because people need cash, the high-end art market is doing fantastically well, folks
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'Deceptive practices' by a big time sports memorabilia dealer?

2008-07-30T04:00:00+00:00

This story came across my email inbox about a week ago, and I’ve sat on it for a week. It’s about a pretty big-time Pennsylvania sports memorabilia dealer who has been charged with “deceptive practices.” As a reminder, those are only charges, this has only been alleged at this point, and the dealer denies any wrongdoing. It’s always a question whether or not to write about stories like this, but I think this is important A) because it’s a market I know pretty well and B) it’s important to talk about these things because it’s a constant concern in this particular sector of collectibles.

Sports memorabilia is a very competitive business, and the folks who do
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Good and not good with Modern furniture: Need we be told such things?

2008-07-28T04:00:00+00:00

I can’t resist throwing in obscure references to Plato, which, if you know your classics then you know it was Socrates who said something like the above to Phaedrus. What I’m referring to, though, is not the concept of quality – which Plato’s dialectics refer to in some detail – but rather the idea of what is good and not good in Modern furniture.

Specifically, I’m writing about a blog post that came across my inbox from a blogger named Jron Magcale, who poses that same question about Modern furniture. It’s basically a form or function question, one that is particularly pertinent to Modern design, if not particularly new.

Jron’s post, though,
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Two notable obits: Reyner Banham and J. Jackson Walter

2008-07-28T04:00:00+00:00

Somehow I always think of late fall and winter as the dying time of the year, but it does seem to me that there have been a number of notable deaths lately. Just today I see these two come into my inbox: Reyner Banham, a noted and talented British architecture historian, and J. Jackson Walter, a noted foil of the Reagan administration as Director of the U.S. Ethics Office post Watergate and – more importantly – President of the National Trust for Historic Preservation from 1984 to the early 1990s.

There isn’t much similarity between the two men, but it’s interesting that they both passed at the same time and that their obits both struck me
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Contemporary art in India joins the worldwide art boom

2008-07-25T03:09:03+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Touring India in a Palanqin by MF Husain, image courtesy of Wikipedia. Used in this context to illustrate the argument that Contemporary Indian Art is now a major player on the world stage. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_07/2008_0725_India-Art-Boom.jpg {/slimbox}

Phillip Hoffman is a guy who knows money and a guy who knows art, even though it seems he sometimes confuses the two. He was, at 33, the youngest member of Christie’s board, and has set up The Fine Art Fund, The Fine Art Fund II, and The China Fund, all high-profile art investment portfolios aimed at taking advantage of the $3 trillion – yes, trillion – a
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50-mile 'Garage Sale' in the heart of New York state: July 26-27

2008-07-24T04:00:00+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Photo of Hemlock Gorge on Fall Creek, before it empties into Beebe Lake on the campus of Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. Image courtesy of Wikipedia. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_07/2008_0723_Finger-Lakes-sale.jpg {/slimbox}

That’s this weekend, as I write this on Thursday, July 24. That gives everyone close enough to the Finger Lakes – that includes you, NYC! – a few days to get ready and head north and west to Ithaca, the land of the gorges; also the town where all the Little Rascal shorts were shot, and where Carl Sagan used to call home.

One of the things that I really love
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James Brown Collection at Christie's brings $800K+

2008-07-23T20:59:03+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Lot 327, a black silk satin cape that was once worn by the Godfather of Soul himself, James Brown. Photo courtesy of Christie’s. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_07/2008_0723_James-Brown-sale.jpg {/slimbox}

Last week at Christie’s, July 17 to be exact, one of the coolest sales in the entire history of auctions took place, and I do mean coolest. It was the collection of the late great Godfather of Soul himself, Mr. James Brown. I have to say that the $857,688 total from the sale is a bit lower than I would have expected for personal mementos of a figure as legendary and important as Brown, even if he did
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Tate Modern delays re-design until 2012, at the earliest

2008-07-23T04:00:00+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - The Tate Modern as it looks today, with a good view of the Millennium Bridge. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.|} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_07/2008_0721_Tate-Modern-Today.jpg {/slimbox}

One of Europe’s leading Modern art repositories, certainly the best in England, the Tate Modern recently announced that it will delay its long-awaited and much anticipated redesign to 2012. This is an architectural design that first surfaced in 2006 as resembling a pile of cast-off glass. The new date comes with a news design, a brick polygon growing out of and resembling the existing Tate.

While the museum said that the redesign and the new date are all well
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Free appraisals from Grey Flannel at Basketball Hall of Fame, Aug. 8

2008-07-21T20:55:02+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Image Courtesy Grey Flaannel Auctions |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_07/2008_0721_Grey-Flannel.jpg {/slimbox}

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – Ever wondered what that old baseball card or autographed basketball is worth? Grey Flannel Auctions’ team of experts will conduct a free appraisal event: Sports Appraisals at Center Court, from 2-8 p.m., on Friday, Aug. 8, at the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass.

The specialists who will be on hand include Nick Coppola (uniforms), Joey Esposito (cards and programs), and Jimmy Spence (autographs). As a bonus, anyone that brings an item for complimentary evaluation will also be given free admission to the Basketball Hall of
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Awesome 'Home Delivery' from MoMA

2008-07-20T20:40:32+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Cellophane House, as designed for MoMA’s Home Delivery exhibition., Kieran Timberlake Architects. Front view. © 2008 Kieran Timberlake Architects. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_07/2008_0721_MoMA---Cellophane-1.jpg {/slimbox}

It’s amazing to me when two minds think alike, or in this case, our editor and your blogger. She sent me an email telling me to check out the exhibition that opens at MoMA today – Sunday, July 20 – not five minutes after I was on the site checking it out. The exhibition, called Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling, is an unqualified home run for America’s guardian of Modern art.

I encourage anyone reading this post
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Here's a headline you don't see every day: Antique thieves busted on Crab Creek Road

2008-07-20T20:37:23+00:00

I can’t help myself when it comes to stories of antique thieves getting busted, and there was no way I was ever going to pass up the opportunity to write about a couple of North Carolina thieves getting caught at a police license check point on a patch of asphalt called Crab Creek Road. That has to be one of the best street names in the nation.

Needless to say, as so many thieves prove, the two men that are alleged to have stolen more than $20,000 worth of stuff – the cops found it in the back of the truck the suspects were in – Jack Christopher Glenn and Stephen Sheehan weren’t particularly bright. Driving
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The future of Modern architecture and eco-friendly design: Open in The Hamptons July 26

2008-07-19T04:00:00+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Modern Green Home's Hamptons Design House for 2008, Sunset Hill, was the home of "From Here To Eternity" author James Jones, and is now a thoroughly stylish and eco-friendly luxury home. Image courtesy Modern Green Home. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_07/2008_0717_house1.jpg {/slimbox}

A little snippet appeared in the middle of a Wall Street Journal column in the middle of June, sandwiched between a bit about the sale of the Colorado ranch of the late singer Dan Fogelberg and the sale of the estate of the late actor Cliff Robertson. It’s mentioned in the WSJ because of its connection to From Here To Eternity writer James Jones, but
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Modern masterpiece in Palm Beach earns respite

2008-07-18T04:00:00+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Alfred Parker, who designed the Manus House in 1960, has offered to design an addition, hoping to prevent its destruction. Photo courtesy of University of Florida. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_07/2008_0714_Palm-Beach-Modern.jpg {/slimbox}

This I like to see. The Manus House, one of Palm Beach, Fla.’s better known and more stunning Modernist homes earned a breather from the wrecking ball last month as the city council tries to get the house designated a historic building. The house has at least until November, while It awaits a vote. Let’s hope that the city gives it the designation and it survives for the “hundreds of years” that architect Alfred Parker
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UNESCO gives Berlin Modern Housing projects World Heritage status

2008-07-18T04:00:00+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - The Britz housing estate in the Neukölln district. Berlin's left-wing director of municipal
housing in the 1920s, Martin Wagner, could avail of the cream of modernist architects. Courtesy of UNESCO. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_07/2008_0715_Berlin-Modern.jpg {/slimbox}

This is a great time for German Modern Architecture, especially for the housing projects from the 1920s that were given World Heritage status by Unesco last week. These buildings are stylish, well-designed, well-constructed, revolutionary for their time and probably the best thing, along with the Bauhaus, that came out of the Weimar Republic. In fact, the German housing developments, designed by some of the greatest names in early Modernism,
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Buffalo wins! Massive gift for Albright-Knox

2008-07-17T04:00:00+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Albright Knox Art Gallery, front side. From Wikipedia. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_07/2008_0714_albrightknox.jpg {/slimbox}

Good for the Albright-Knox and good for the citizens of Buffalo! A major gift of abstract artwork from major artists and a major collection has just been given to the museum by Count Giuseppe Panza di Biumo, an Italian director and major collector who has already sold or given portions of his collection to other collections around the world.

This, however, means just a little more, especially as it’s going to a great institution like the Albright-Knox and a city a routinely maligned as good ol’ Buffalo. The Albright
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Modern architecture takes over Beijing

2008-07-16T04:00:00+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - The Bird’s Nest, China’s national stadium, is a masterpiece of entropy that is somehow neatly contained and stylish. Very un-Chinese and very cool. Image from Wikipedia. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_07/2008_0714_China-Modern.jpg {/slimbox}

I heard this report on NPR and was immediately intrigued, considering I’ve been waiting a few months for this report. It’s about how so much Massive Modern architecture has popped up all over Beijing in recent years, especially with the Olympics coming up in less than a month.

There are several things that make this an excellent report, several key insights that you would expect an outlet like NPR to catch
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The influence of 'Modern' on the new Batman

2008-07-15T04:00:00+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Frank Miller's “The Dark Knight Returns,” from the author’s collection. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_07/2008_0714_Batman-Modern.jpg {/slimbox}

This article appeared on Reuters recently. It concerns the new Batman movie – The Dark Knight – and its architectural/environmental impact on the city of Chicago, where it was filmed in its entirety.

What caught my eye, besides my interest in Batman and how he has transformed from the classic Golden Age hero into the perfect Post-Modern anti-hero replete with self-loathing, self-doubt and superhuman intellect, is that the filmmaker, Christopher Nolan, specifically mentions the “Modern” architectural focus of the new film, as opposed to the Victorian or
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Tell me something I didn't know: High-end goes higher, low lower

2008-07-14T04:00:00+00:00

There’s a report from RICS UK (The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors) that’s been making the rounds of English press the last few days – it’s everywhere – that is about the results of a recent arts and antiques survey that found – okay, sit down – that the highest end of the art market is rising and the low end is feeling the current credit crunch. Overall in the last year, it says, the market has remained relatively consistent in these ways.

This is something that I personally keep an eye on and find no surprise in. Those with the megabucks have been spending it like crazy on high-end art, not necessarily due to a
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Note to self: Don't drill hole in priceless Chinese vase

2008-07-12T02:28:20+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_07/2008_0714_mistake.jpg {/slimbox}

Thanks to a tip from StyleWire’s editor-in-chief, this little beauty came through my inbox this morning: a family in England – some 40 years ago – drilled an 8mm hole in a porcelain vase to run a wire through it to make a lamp. From there, the lamp happily glowed for more than 40 years. The catch: It was actually a rare Chinese vase from the reign of Emperor Qianlong, between 1735 and 1796.

Even worse, the hole could mean a difference in worth of as much as $60,000. It was even a part of a pair that
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Getting value out of 'Downsizing'

2008-07-10T03:23:31+00:00

I believe that StyleWire’s readers are of well above average intelligence, and don’t need to be spoken down to. And I’m not about to start now. Actually, I’m referring to this article that came into my inbox from a Central New Jersey Web site called The Packet Online. It’s a special to the site from a professional appraiser and antiques person, and it’s about what to do with your “stuff” when downsizing.

I find it interesting for its bare bones information, and what it says about the aging of the Baby Boomers in America. Right now a lot of the Boomers are retiring and moving to new, smaller houses, as well as dealing with the accumulated
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Bada bing! Sopranos costumes bring big bucks for charity

2008-07-08T03:15:18+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Bloody costume worn by the character Tony Soprano played by actor James Gandolfini in HBO's award winning series The Sopranos. Mr. Gandolfini wore this costume in "Members Only" (Season 6, Episode 1) during the pivotal scene where Uncle Junior has a fit of dementia and shoots Tony. The suit brought $43,750. Courtesy of Christies. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_07/2008_0707_sopranos.jpg {/slimbox}

The Sopranos was the ultimate in post-modern Mafia tales, a great coda to the genre that never could be, and never will be copied. I hope we never see Sopranos movies, following the big-screen route some TV shows have taken in hopes of reviving their former glory.
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Royal collection of 'Backstairs Billy' brings $900,000 at auction

2008-07-08T03:11:20+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Sir James Gunn, RA, PRP (1893-1964) - oil on board in gilt frame - Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother dated 26th November 1945. The artist's own reduced replica of the painting that was exhibited at The Royal Academy in 1945 and now hangs in Clarence House - signed, dated and inscribed - provenance - purchased by William Tallon from The Fine Art Society and bearing their label on reverse in April 2002, who acquired it from the family of the Artist, 44.5cm x 34cm. Courtesy of Reeman Dansie Auctions. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_07/2008_0707_qm.jpg {/slimbox}

I don’t know that I’d necessarily want the nickname “Backstairs
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July Brimfield this week - Just a reminder!

2008-07-07T03:28:25+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Image copyright Catherine Saunders-Watson |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_07/2008_0707_brim1.jpg {/slimbox}

That thrice yearly bacchanalia of antiques, lobster rolls and more walking than you can imagine – Brimfield! – happens this week. It’s the July edition, traditionally the hottest and slowest of the year, but always a place for great buys.

By all accounts, the May edition of Brimfield went better than in the past few years, according to most accounts I’ve heard, and most friends that I’ve spoken with about it. May is usually pretty good, because it’s the first show of the year, but July and September have not been at all
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George B. Hartzog, Jr., architect of America's park system, dead at 88

2008-07-07T03:26:07+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - George B. Hartzog, Jr., courtesy of the National Park Service |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_07/2008_0707_hartzog.jpg {/slimbox}

It’s mighty easy to take America’s system of National Parks and Historic Sites for granted. We have an amazing system of huge parks and great buildings that stretches from California to the New York Islands. What most of us don’t know – and I only know because he gave a lecture at NYU when I was in college – is that without George B. Hartzog, Jr., absolutely none of it would exist as we know it. He almost singlehandedly got the National Historic Preservation Act passed in 1966.

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The case of the Stolen Rockwell

2008-07-07T03:21:55+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Norman Rockwell, half-length portrait, facing left, arms folded, courtesy of Wikimedia |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_07/2008_0707_rockwell2.jpg {/slimbox}

I remember this from a couple of years ago, when Steven Spielberg discovered that he was in possession of a stolen Norman Rockwell painting, Russian Schoolroom. The story basically has been out of the news since then, until last Saturday, when a story about it ran in the Las Vegas Sun, linked to below.

There’s little more interesting than a good art theft mystery, and this one is pretty juicy. It involves the original owner, a lithographer who worked with Norman Rockwell in the 1960s; and
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Change the world via Muji

2008-07-04T02:48:02+00:00

The Japanese company often likened to Ikea, Muji, has been making significant American inroads in recent years. They're currently conducting their third annual international design competition, open to absolutely anyone with a good idea and the ability to execute it, and who wants to work their magic for the company.

I’ve been inside Muji’s SoHo Manhattan store, one of only two American locations, both in NYC, and found that it’s a cool and classy place with many good and relatively affordable items that would fit in just about any décor comfortably, much like its Scandinavian competitor.

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Rare DAR samplers stolen in Rochester, NY

2008-07-04T02:45:53+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Sampler worked by Catharine Ann Speel in silk on linen, 1805, Philadelphia, from Wikipedia. While not one of the samplers stolen from Rochester, it is a good example of this delicate artform. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_07/2008_0705_sampler.jpg {/slimbox}

I write about this theft, of two rare samplers from the DAR of Rochester, NY, because I have a weakness for samplers, and I’m man enough to admit it. I also know that I’m not the only one. Come on, say it with me…

I think it’s the directness of samplers that moves me, the connection to the original maker, to the exact time and place
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The tyranny of the heirloom

2008-07-04T02:43:28+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - An oversize armoire, an example of one of the ubiquitous big antiques that so many of us have, or will, inherit. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_07/2008_0705_heirloom.jpg {/slimbox}

There was a story, linked to below, in the New York Times about a week ago that I’ve been waiting to read until I had the time to fully absorb it, and I have to say it’s a very interesting and unconventional take on the meaning of antiques in modern society. Titled, “The Tyranny of the Heirloom,” it’s an entertaining and well-written article, if a bit long, so make sure you’re ready to commit.

The gist of
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Disparate tales of the antiques business, Part II

2008-07-01T03:43:51+00:00

About a week or two back I presented a similar pair of articles about different parts of the nation where the economy was affecting the trade. Here again, this morning – June 30, 2008 – another pair comes across my digital desktop, once again showing that things are rough all over, and even so, some folks are also having a pretty good go of it.

The first article linked to below comes from The Star Banner, of Ocala, Florida. It details how the walk-in trade of antiques malls and auctions in the state are hurting from $4+ gasoline. It’s a story many of us can identify with these days. Places are closing, tightening their belts and
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Shining bright after more than a century

2008-07-01T03:41:38+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - An old light bulb, from Wikipedia |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_07/2008_0701_bulb.jpg {/slimbox}

A designer in Iowa, while helping to set up an exhibition in Des Moines, Iowa based on the old library building in Burlington, came across a most intriguing find: a more than 100-year-old light bulb, and the thing still works.

I don’t know specifically what it is about stories like this that intrigue me so much, but I love them. The writer captures the moment rather well through the eyes of the curator. Here’s what it says in the Des Moines Hawk Eye:

“…to see this functioning
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Charles Parkhurst, 95, remembered for recovering Nazi-looted artworks

2008-07-01T03:39:45+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Charles Parkhurst, photo courtesy of The National Gallery of Art |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_07/2008_0701_parkhurst.jpg {/slimbox}

In the wake of the Nazi pillaging of Western society in World War II, a handful of men was chosen to go after the art and sculpture that had been taken and meticulously stashed away. Charles Parkhurst, a legendary figure in American art circles for his role as a museum director, was one of those men. In the waning days of the war to end all wars, Parkhurst and his colleagues were responsible for recovering more than 1,000 stashes of plundered artworks.

Parkhurst himself was fond of saying
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Danish Modern back in style? Did it ever go out?

2008-06-30T02:34:16+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Chairs designed by the godfather of the Danish Modern movement, Kaare Klint; courtesy of Wikipedia |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_06/2008_0630_danish.jpg {/slimbox}

Nice little article here from the Chicago Sun Times about the current “revival” of high-end Danish Modernism. To my knowledge, the great Danes hadn’t been out of favor since the modern Modern movement exploded in the early 1990s. Sure Danish Modern’s French and Italian high-end counterparts bring higher prices at sale, but come on…

For my thinking, when it comes to Modern furniture, you have no style without Denmark’s best and brightest. Hans Wegner, Arne Jacobsen, Borge Mogensen, Finn Juhl and Kaare
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Making Modern classics last

2008-06-28T03:22:49+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - IBM Building and Marina City, Chicago, Illinois. Photo by J. Crocker, courtesy of Wikipedia |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_06/2008_0628_national.jpg {/slimbox}

The National Trust for Historic Preservation is one of my favorite Web sites, period. It’s also my favorite Trust… Oh yes… Even more so these days since the organization has gotten so actively involved in preserving great Modernism.

Besides putting great pieces of Modern architecture that need saving on its yearly list of National Endangered historic sites, the Trust has also launched Modern + Recent Past, sort of a clearinghouse for Modern preservation, with links to organization that feel the same, or are
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Is Modernist architecture 'anti-human'

2008-06-28T03:20:25+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Pei, Picasso, and Anonymous, by Charles Siegel. An interesting statement on the anti-human nature of Modernism |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_06/2008_0628_anti.jpg {/slimbox}

That’s one you can just chew on for a minute. Not exactly a soup question, I know… I do think it’s relevant, especially as there is so much to recommend Modern architecture, but is it, ultimately, all about the technology, all about the material and the design, and not about the people that have to live and breathe with it everyday?

Charles Siegel is a writer and thinker at the Preservation Institute in NYC, and he posted the picture you see
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The Waterfalls of NYC

2008-06-28T03:17:47+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - A rendering of "The New York City Waterfalls," created by Danish artist Olafur Eliasson cascades near the Brooklyn Bridge in this image released to the media on Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2008. Source: Public Art Fund |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_06/2008_0628_bridge.jpg {/slimbox}

New Yorkers are once again getting an eyeful of what the best in public art has to offer. It’s always been a great thing in Manhattan, but when you factor in Olafur Eliasson’s four towering waterfalls, placed in rivers around NYC, with the startling and refreshing Gates of Christos a couple of years ago, then you see what the best of intentions aligned with the right
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Monet reclaims his place at the top, and so he should

2008-06-26T02:56:45+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Monet's 1919 Le bassin aux nympheas, or Water Lily Pond, from Wikipedia; image in public domain |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_06/2008_0626_Water-Lillies.jpg {/slimbox}

Or: $80M for the Monet, two for the show…

With all those young whippersnappers claiming so much glory for high prices for paintings in the last year – Hello Mr. Bacon? Mr. Koons? – and the disappointing performance at auction of several other masters, including a very high-profile Van Gogh, it was about time one of the grand old names of art came back and gave them all a good swift kick in the pants. Thank you, Mr. Monet! Your painting,
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Fine Art find at Goodwill nets $40K

2008-06-26T02:52:28+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Flower Market, by Edouard-Leon Cortes, sold for $40,600 on June 24. Photo Courtesy of Sotheby's |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_06/2008_0626_goodwill.jpg {/slimbox}

Nice. Love to see this: A painting dropped off at Baltimore Goodwill with a load of other stuff ends being recognized as the work of 20th century Parisian painter, Edouard-Leon Cortés. An employee spots it as something good, reports to HQ, and the thing sells at Sotheby’s this week for more than $40,000. Mmm-mmm good!

This is one of those stories that would usually make me smack myself and say, “Why not me?” but I don’t really feel that way. After all,
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Dystopian photography, June 25 edition

2008-06-26T02:50:05+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Circular side of decaying Modernist building, by James Muspratt, www.jamesmuspratt.com |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_06/2008_0626_modern.jpg {/slimbox}

I came across these two photos while surfing the Web late last night, from a photog named James Muspratt, and had to wait for his kind permission before posting the pics and the link. It was worth waiting for. I love these two pics.

The fact that these two beauties are in Naugatuck, Conn., makes it even better somehow. I don’t know why but – darn it – somehow it just does.

Modernist architecture is fitfully glorious when it works. Sometimes it is
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This "feathery" is definitely not for the birds

2008-06-25T14:18:42+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - The 170 year old feathery, on sale next month in England, courtesy of Shropshire Auctions |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_06/2008_0625_golf.jpg {/slimbox}

Oldest known golf ball coming onto the block next month in Shropshire, England. We’re talking about a golf ball that predates gutta percha balls, is 170 years old and bears a direct link to one of the most famous names in the history of the royal and ancient game itself: “Old” Tom Morris.

The appearance and sale of this ball only makes it a better time to be a golf fan than it already is, after Tiger Woods pulled off the most
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A Thief is Caught in Paris

2008-06-24T03:18:03+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Image Copyright iStockPhoto|} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_05/2008_0519_prison.jpg {/slimbox}

This story broke last week, on June 19 to be exact, but I didn’t write about it then. I just wanted to think about it a little bit. It seems that French police caught a thief in Paris who had stolen almost $15 million (!) in religious artifacts from churches in Normandy.

That’s a lot of dough. He got busted when he tried to get a Parisian dealer to sell one of the pilfered items. Now the thief is in jail, and hopefully for a very long time. Crimes like this are unforgivable on many
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Reno antique dealers will fight into 2009

2008-06-24T03:14:43+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Reno, Nevada - Image courtesy of Wikipedia |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_06/2008_0613_reno.jpg {/slimbox}

The more I read about the strictures put on the dealers in the city of Reno, Nev., the more I don’t like it. I wrote about this a few weeks ago, and the article I read then made it sound like changes were just around the corner for the overburdened antique dealers in scenic Reno. Turns out not so much…

As the article linked to below, from the Northern Nevada Business Weekly, makes clear, the dealers in town have to undergo background checks, make weekly reports on sales and inventory
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The highs and lows of a middlin' economy

2008-06-24T03:11:49+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Texas State Seal |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_06/2008_0624_Texas_state_seal.jpg {/slimbox}

Between Texas and Georgia, two different accounts emerge of a life in antiques. Both are relevant to this crazy pursuit. From Ft. Worth, Texas, a report on the difficulty of managing to do business with gasoline at $4/gallon, and from Macon, Ga., a report on how antique and flea market vendors are benefiting from the down economy.

The Fort Worth Business Press tells an increasingly familiar story in such difficult days. A major antique mall in the town of Arlington, right between Dallas and Fort Worth, is closing shop. That leaves a 75,000-square-foot space
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Calcutta Modern to open in 2013?

2008-06-21T03:50:02+00:00

If all goes according to plan then, yes, the Kolkotta Museum of Modern Art should open its doors in a Calcutta suburb in about five years. It will feature the best of modern Indian art from the 1800s through now.

Five years… Ever been to Calcutta? It can take that long just to navigate the intricate series of secret and amazing gardens that dot the landscape of the massive, Escher-esque city.

Things may have changed on the Sub-Continent in the 10 years since I was last there, but I can’t imagine some things have changed that much. Yes, the money is now there via the Internet economy, and the world-class British architects
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An update on the Idaho "Antique Bandits"

2008-06-21T03:48:12+00:00

I didn’t want to do it, but journalistic integrity compels me since I previously reported on the Idaho “antiques bandits." These are two people that go into stores, create distractions and rip off valuable antiques. They are thought the be residents of nearby Spokane, Wash.

Police were looking for the pair, Martha and John Williamson, and arrested one Martha Williamson soon after warrants were issued.

The problem with the Martha Williamson they arrested is that she has an alibi: it seems that she was in the hospital, surrounded by family, at the time of the thefts.

Oops.

I do not mean by any stretch
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Recording those "suckers" for posterity

2008-06-21T03:45:51+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Phineas Taylor Barnum (1810-1891), Yale University archive, from Wikipedia |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_06/2008_0620_barnum2.jpg {/slimbox}

The Barnum Museum got its hands on a ledger that goes back so far that it says where Ol’ P.T. himself got a lot of those amazing artifacts he displayed at his original Manhattan “Museum.”

The ledger, purchased through eBay, was sold by Nest Egg Auctions of Meriden, Conn. Based on this article from the Connecticut Post, this ledger contains a tremendous amount of information about the original acquisitions of the museum - as the article puts it, “from the scholarly to the tawdry.”

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Tasha Tudor, artist and poet, dead at 82

2008-06-21T03:43:40+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - The Secret Garden, illustrated by Tasha Tudor; scanned from author's collection |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_06/2008_0620_secret.jpg {/slimbox}

Tasha Tudor, who was ever the iconoclast, died on June 19, three days before this posting. She was an interesting, gifted and eccentric woman.

Her illustrations are brilliant, reminiscent of the work of Beatrix Potter, and routinely sold for thousands of dollars. A few of her drawings stand out among the many: The Secret Garden, Mother Goose, The Night Before Christmas, 1 is One and her own personal favorite, Corgiville Fair, about the dogs she loved so much.

Tudor herself was a
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Antique bandits in The Badlands

2008-06-19T03:02:32+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Image copyright iStockPhoto |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_05/2008_0519_prison.jpg {/slimbox}

Is Idaho even considered The Badlands? I just couldn't resist the headline...

This is different, that’s for sure, and it’s out of Washington state. You see, it seems a pair of folks, bearing the same name and posing as a mother and a son have hit a couple of antiques shops in Idaho. They use disguises and distraction to aid and abet their nefarious deeds.

What’s so interesting about this account from the Seattle Times is how in-depth it goes as to the actual robbery itself. Step by step, inch by inch, slowly I
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A thesis on the greatness of Kahlo

2008-06-19T02:58:53+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Frida Kahlo, Self-portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird, Wikipedia |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_06/2008_0618_frida.jpg {/slimbox}

As a matter of course, I read a lot of criticism in my various ventures – no, not always of the stuff I write… I mean art, architecture, music, film, social, you name it. It’s part of my job, to be up on the latest thinking across cultural bounds, not just antiques… There’s a lot of insufferable stuff out there, that’s for sure.

Every once in a while, however, I get the chance to read something of undeniable excellence on a subject very near and dear to my heart. In this
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Encouraging young architects in Philadelphia

2008-06-19T02:55:52+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Ed Bacon in the 1990s; courtesy AIA.org |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_06/2008_0618_bacon2.jpg {/slimbox}

Thanks to a tip from the editor, this has come across my plate; a great big helping of architectural goodness in the form of a nationwide young architects competition from the Ed Bacon Foundation in Philadelphia.

It’s been a little while since I spent any time on the foundation’s Web site, but it’s a nice trove of information, and this contest is amazing. I would love to have done something like this in high school, had I the mathematical prowess, the skill in design and passion back then. At least
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When pigs fly, it's usually at auction

2008-06-18T03:37:12+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - American, circa 1880s, by Wallace and Cornwall Kirkpatrick, Anna Pottery, Illinois. An Albany slip-glazed anatomically correct (female form) molded stoneware presentation pig bottle with hole at rear, incised hooves and facial details, incised on the back with the inscription W.K.M. Breckinridge/ol/Keeps good Brandy in a hog, and on the belly Anna Pottery Ills; measures 9 inches long x 4 inches high x 14 inches girth. Estimate $8,000-$10,000 - Image Courtesy Cowans |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_06/2008_0618_pig.jpg {/slimbox}

Satirical swine hogging the spotlight in Cowan’s June 21 Summer Decorative Art Sale.

CINCINNATI – Cincinnati artist William Louis Sonntag’s Figures in Early Summer Landscape (est.
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Where to see art in New York City

2008-06-17T03:16:42+00:00

The Washington Post published this article on June 11, and I just got around to reading it. It’s about the best places to see art, both big and small in New York City.

It’s an ambitious thing for an out-of-town paper to tackle in a single article, and it offers some good places to go to see some of the best of what The City has to offer in the way of art.

There’s a good cross-section of galleries and museums in the article, though half the fun of an art tour through Manhattan and the five boroughs is looking for hidden treasure. In my years in Manhattan, I loved getting in
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Ever thought you could run CIty Hall better than whatshisname?

2008-06-17T03:12:50+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - This could be your Kingdom - Image courtesy Higgenbotham Auctioneers |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_06/2008_0617_nm01.jpg {/slimbox}

Higginbotham Auctioneers to sell entire city in New Mexico on July 14. But it's not just any city; it’s White’s City, the entrance to Carlsbad Cavern and the only source of gas or water for 20 miles in either direction. Now’s your chance.

Every last bit of the town will be going: saloons, a gas station, museums, houses and everything in every single building. There's probably a lot junk, but also probably a lot of good antiques of varying shapes, sizes and eras.

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Eames and postage, a perfect mix

2008-06-17T03:08:17+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - The Eames stamps, released June 17, 2008, by the USPS- Image Courtesy USPS |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_06/2008_0617_eames.jpg {/slimbox}

The United States Postal Service releases Charles and Ray Eames 42 cent stamp on Tuesday, June 17. Folks, I dare say that it can’t get a whole lot cooler than this if you love Modern Design.

Charles and Ray Eames were the First Family of Modern Design in the mid-20th Century. When they married in 1941, it was the perfect union of artistry and design. They created a great deal of beautiful and important furniture. The black lounge chair is probably the greatest icon
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Possibly the oldest church ever found surfaces in Jordan

2008-06-15T04:00:00+00:00

In Northern Jordan, dating to 70 A.D. – though a sign outside it says between 33 A.D. and 70 A.D. – a small chamber underneath a church that itself dates back to 230 A.D., long considered one of the three oldest churches in the world, what could be the earliest Christian church in the world has been uncovered.

This is a startling and amazing find on many levels, not the least of which is that it shows, in an area that has been a common era home to an almost exclusively Muslim population, not only that Christians and Muslims lived side by side, but that it was a Christian congregation that greeted the followers of Islam
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Important auction of Tiffany, Handel and Fabergé at Antique Helper, June 28 and 29

2008-06-14T04:00:00+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - A wide array of fine antiques at Antique Helper, June 28-29 |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_06/2008_0612_lamps.jpg {/slimbox}

Dan Ripley’s Antique Helper to offer collections from prominent Indianapolis estate, June 28 and 29.

INDIANAPOLIS – Dan Ripley has announced a weekend auction, June 28 and 29, encompassing a wide range of collecting tastes and styles, with offerings running the gamut from coins and sports memorabilia to fine art and rare antiques. Tiffany and Handel lamps, fine art, Orientalia, militaria, art glass, taxidermy, and a myriad of discovery items complete this diverse two-day sale.

On Saturday, June 28, Antique Helper will
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How to blend Modern and Classic

2008-06-13T04:00:00+00:00

DC architect Mark McInturff provides some excellent insight in an interview with the Washington Post currently online. He’s one of the city’s foremost Modern architects and expert at blending the classic Colonial architecture of the nation’s capitol with the philosophies and open, airy lines of Modern design.

There can be something quite daunting about getting an architect to help with a re-design of your house, especially if you’re asking to blend the old and the new. Something so daunting, I think, that a lot of people don’t even try it.

As McInturff makes clear, you have to be realistic about what you want and what you can spend, but he has worked
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The new frontline in antiques: Reno, Nevada

2008-06-13T04:00:00+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Image courtesy of Wikipedia |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_06/2008_0613_reno.jpg {/slimbox}

You might not think of Las Vegas’s smaller, more scenic, northern cousin as an important testing ground when it comes to the debate over regulating antiques, but that seems to be just what it’s become.

Something very interesting has been happening there since a 2003 ruling by the Reno City Council that created much more stringent regulation for antique shops and dealers after some jewelry stolen from a legislator ended up in an antique shop. The rules, essentially, treated antique dealers like pawn shops.

I’m not necessarily denigrating pawn
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A Dickens of a desk brings big bucks at auction

2008-06-13T04:00:00+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Dickens, Charles (1812-1870). A mid-Victorian mahogany pedestal desk and walnut desk chair, [c. 1850], used by Charles Dickens at Gad's Hill Place, courtesy of Christie's |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_06/2008_0613_dickens.jpg {/slimbox}

While the auction was just more than a week ago, surprisingly little major media attention was paid to the sale by Christie’s of a writing desk that once belonged to Charles Dickens that brought a substantial amount of money: $847,004 inclusive of buyer’s premium.

That the desk belonged to Dickens is big news in and of itself – it’s not often that direct relics of one of the greats of world literature
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Searching for an "American Modernism"

2008-06-13T00:19:48+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Marsden Hartley (1877–1943), New Mexico Recollection No. 13, ca. 1923, Oil on canvas; collection of Eric and Debbie Green; image courtesy of the Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, TX |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_06/2008_0613_hartley.jpg {/slimbox}

Marsden Hartley and New Mexico, 1919-1921, is the focus of an awesome exhibit that just opened at the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, TX.

Hartley, a contemporary of Georgia O’Keeffe and Alfred Steiglitz, is one of the greatest, and most misunderstood, American painters. His work is amazing and truly era defining.

Marsden Hartley and the West: The Search for an American Modernism, most
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Papa's Brand New Bag on the auction block, July 17

2008-06-12T01:44:41+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - James Brown in Concert, 2006, courtesy of Wikipedia |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_06/2008_0612_jb1.jpg {/slimbox}

Christie’s will auction 230 lots from the South Carolina home of the Godfather of Soul himself, James Brown. Man, I want that “Sex Machine” belt buckle… bright red and silver… I’d be a hit at the disco, no question.

It’s no secret that you can get a lot of cool and valuable stuff at auction; that’s one of the reasons why we all love this business and are willing to sit through hours and hours of a sale for those one or two lots that you most want. You
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Paul Revere buildings face possible demolition

2008-06-11T03:46:06+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - The Revere Mill, courtesy of Revererollingmill.com |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_06/2008_0610_revere.jpg {/slimbox}

Canton, Massachusetts’ claim to fame may soon be going under the bulldozer. I hope not, because I’m an absolute sucker for the great names and events of American history, but in modern-day America, the dollar is king and bizness is bizness.

This comes from The Boston Globe, and I hope that if anybody that reads this is in the area during any of these town board meetings, they will attend and be heard.

Here’s the deal: A couple of decades after the Revolutionary War, and his crucial
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Returned to the cradle

2008-06-11T03:43:26+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - The Iraq National Museum, Wikipedia |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_06/2008_0610_iraq.jpg {/slimbox}

Looted Iraqi antiquities, found in the United States, are now on their way back to the fertile crescent. This I like to see.

It’s hard to believe that it’s been more than five years now since the night I, along with countless millions of others, watched the live coverage of the U.S. invasion of Iraq and the subsequent “untidiness” that resulted in the looting of thousands and thousands of ancient, priceless antiquities.

It’s still surreal to remember the footage of crowds of people from the region storming the
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Ellsworth Kelly is still the coolest

2008-06-11T03:40:54+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Houston Triptych, bronze sculpture by Ellsworth Kelly, 1986, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, from Wikipedia |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_06/2008_0610_kelly.jpg {/slimbox}

Octogenarian American master painter makes a splash at Art Basel.

Came across this article while browsing the Times of London online about Ellsworth Kelly, pretty much the last of the great painters of the American Golden Age of art in the middle of last century.

Earlier this month at Art Basel, held in that bucolic little town in Switzerland, Kelly was evidently on the floor, making the rounds and was turning more heads than any of the Hollywood glitterati
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William Noguera - A Studio on Death Row

2008-06-10T04:00:00+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - A Stone for Edmund Dantes, 2007, Pen and ink on illustration board; 30 x 20 inches, courtesy of Braunstein/Quay Gallery and Camorra Fine Arts|} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_06/2008_0602_noguera.jpg {/slimbox}

There is no formula for producing talented artists - some come from the unlikeliest of places. Such is the case with William Noguera.

He’s a man with an undeniable talent and a feel for pen and ink drawings done pointilistically (is that even a word?). He works solely in black and white, and happens to be on death row in California.

Noguera has been on death row since 1983, 25 long
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Architecture as Art: Wasn't I just writing about this?

2008-06-10T04:00:00+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Frank Lloyd Wright’s Falling Water, in Mill Run, PA., commonly considered the finest achievement of American architecture. Photo from Wikipedia |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_06/2008_0607_house.jpg {/slimbox}

Is it just the zeitgeist of the moment, or is this really an issue that’s gaining momentum across a wide spectrum of venues? Again we see the debate: Can Modern architecture be valued and sold as great art?

There was even an article in USA Today about touring the great Modern masterpieces of the nation. If it’s gotten to the mundane pages of such a simple piece of “journalism,” then I think it’s more than
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Remembering Anne d'Harnoncourt, 64

2008-06-07T04:00:00+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Anne d'Harnoncourt - Image courtesy of The Philadelphia Museum of Art|} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_06/2008_0603_dharn.jpg {/slimbox}

The charismatic Director of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Anne d'Harnoncourt, has died.

The art world is mourning the loss of one of its leading lights, Anne d'Harnoncourt, who died of an apparent stroke on June 1st. The legendary lady had been recovering from surgery performed earlier in the week. An indefatigable advocate for the preservation of art, and for art in the City of Brotherly Love, she will be greatly missed.

The realm of professional art and art institutions is not immune
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Junk it's not! Ancient cup brings $100,000 at auction

2008-06-07T03:22:32+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - This gold cup, stashed away for years in a box underneath the bed of a junk dealer's grandson, sold at auction in the U.K. for $100,000 Thursday. The piece is a Persian artifact that features the double-faced ancient Roman god Janus. Courtesy of Duke’s Auctioneers. |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_06/2008_0607_cup.jpg {/slimbox}

It gets better - as a kid, the consignor used the piece as a target for his air gun.

It turns out that this two-faced cup, which Englishman John Webber got from his junk man grandpa in the 1930s or 1940s, wasn’t brass, as he thought it was. It turns out it’s
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Aftershock no shock for Chinese Antiques

2008-06-05T02:10:28+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Image copyright iStockPhoto |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_06/2008_0605_china.jpg {/slimbox}

I don’t want to take all the credit for getting the Chinese antiques in the Szichaun province to safety, but obviously somebody over there was reading a couple weeks ago when I asked about the effect of the disasters in Asia on the antiquities.

No, really, don’t thank me…

The post linked to below comes out of China – I have a thing about trolling the Web in Asia for interesting information regarding antiques and design, and lo and behold, something I paid attention to actually came to pass…
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Nor'East Salvage destroyed by fire

2008-06-05T02:07:45+00:00

Hate this. Hate it hate it.

Nor’East Architectural Salvage Antiques in South Hampton, NH, burned to the ground in a huge fire on June 3rd. This is a very sad loss to the New England antiques community and to anyone interested in architectural salvage – which I most certainly am, across eras and epochs.

As former editor of two antiques trade publications based in the Northeast, I had numerous opportunities to drive all around Massachusetts and New Hampshire, going to shows, shops and auctions, and had the chance more than once to stop into Nor’East.

It was an impressive business, and the owners, John Isgur of Byfield, Mass.,
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To sell architecture as art, or not...

2008-06-05T02:04:47+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - The exterior of the Breuer Trailer House. Photo courtesy of Wright and Brian Franczyk Photography |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_06/2008_0605_houseext.jpg {/slimbox}

While it seemed just a year or two ago that selling Modern houses with names likes van der Rohe, Breuer, and Sullivan were a surefire way to bring millions at auction, it’s hard to say that the market hasn’t shifted.

Just yesterday the Los Angeles Times published an article on Marcel Breuer's Wolfson Trailer House in Dutchess County, New York – again, Dutchess County, my old stomping grounds – and the fact that it failed to sell at auction last October. Or,
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Lionel Feininger's "Die Teufelsonate" to be auctioned

2008-06-05T02:00:45+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Die Teufelssonate by Lionel Feininger (German/American 1871-1956) will be an important offering at John Moran's July 22 Antiques and Fine Furnishing Sale. Estimate: $20,000 to $30,000. Image courtesy John Moran Auctioneers |} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_06/2008_0605_feininger.jpg {/slimbox}

Important Feininger artwork in John Moran’s July 22 Sale

Pasadena, CA – On Tuesday evening, July 22, John Moran Auctioneers is very proud to offer Die Teufelssonate, an ink on paper by renowned German/American artist Lionel Feininger (1871-1956), as part of its Antique and Fine Furnishings Estate Sale.

Feininger is best known for his work that fused Cubism with Expressionism. Some of his
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Tiffany overhead lamp electrifies Morphy�??s May 29-31 auction with $143,750 bid

2008-06-03T17:26:30+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Tiffany Studios Favrile hanging lamp in the rare Nasturtium Trellis pattern - Image Courtesy Morphy Auctions|} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_06/2008_0603_tiffany.jpg {/slimbox}

June 2, 2008

DENVER, Pa. – In service both functionally and decoratively in the same family’s home for the past half century, a Tiffany Studios Favrile hanging lamp in the rare Nasturtium Trellis pattern illuminated Morphy Auctions’ gallery on May 29 with a winning bid of $143,750 (inclusive of 15 percent buyer’s premium). Absolutely fresh to the market, the profusely decorated 26½-inch conically shaped shade featured blossoms ranging from peach, burnt orange and crimson to violet and mauve, against a mottled opalescent Favrile-glass
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Want to know about antiquing in New York's Hudson Valley?

2008-06-03T03:41:09+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - The view from Burger Hill, Rhinebeck, NY, courtesy of www.city-data.com|} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_06/2008_0603_burger.jpg {/slimbox}

… Why not turn to the most obvious source: The San Jose Mercury News.com.

I like to see this; a California news outlet covering my old stomping grounds, The Hudson Valley in New York State, about two hours north of the city. I lived there for seven years, met my wife in a yoga class in Tivoli, owned my first house in the tiny hamlet of Lafayetteville in the municipality of Red Hook and got my start in antiques there.

It was to the Hudson
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The end of an era with Saint Laurent's death

2008-06-03T03:38:48+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Saint Laurent from the 1950s, from Wikipedia|} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_06/2008_0603_yves.jpg {/slimbox}

If Chanel brought Modernism into fashion, it was Yves Saint Laurent who brought it into the Contemporary.

It seems to be a time of passages, these last several days…

Anybody who’s ever seen me knows that, while I may be a stunningly handsome devil, I’m simply not a fashion plate, but I do know who Yves Saint Laurent was, and I know of his influence.

Is it too much to say that the legendary designer, who passed at the age of 71 last
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The true value of a Klimt

2008-06-02T04:20:32+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Klimt, Eugenia Primavesi,from Wikimedia|} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_06/2008_0602_klimt.jpg {/slimbox}

A more appropriate question is what is the worth of pretention?

Linked below is an article from The Times of London about the Klimt exhibition recently opened at the Tate Liverpool, and I have to say that it’s well off base, at least in my humble opinion.

I’m a great fan of Klimt – I make no bones about that – and an even bigger admirer of the Vienna Secessionists, who played a major role in the creation of the Modernist movement. In the article in question, the writer begins
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Kindergarten = Modernism?

2008-06-02T04:17:21+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Friedrich Froebel - Image Courtesy Wikipedia|} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_06/2008_0602_froebel.jpg {/slimbox}

If you know your Frank Lloyd Wright, then you know the (maybe) apocryphal story that he learned all he needed to know about form and function from the wooden blocks his mother bought him as a boy.

He was even quoted as saying as much.

It’s fun to think about, the master as a child stacking blocks and forming the basis for Fallingwater, or Taliesin, or any number of other great projects.

Came across the blog of the head of Poughkeepsie Day School, in
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The diamond as big as a ping pong ball

2008-05-30T03:32:07+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - The Ping Pong Diamond is in the center of this image from Christies.|} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_05/2008_0530_diamond.jpg {/slimbox}

CNN, I guess, although I have to take issue with the metaphor.

Maybe it should have been compared to, say… a Clementine orange. Or a duck egg. Maybe one of those clear superballs with the rainbow flecks in them, but a ping pong ball?

I feel like so much of what’s happening in the world of fine art and antiques has been in Asia of late. This is due partially to the fact that this is the season of high-end, high-profile
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Russian nouveau riche dumping the bucks on fine art

2008-05-30T03:29:14+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Image Copyright iStockPhoto|} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_05/2008_0523_money.jpg {/slimbox}

The Moscow World Fine Art Fair has been going on this week and, boy, are those Russians itching to drop some rubles on the good stuff.

There have actually been a slew of articles this week about this event and –more to the point – the slew of rich Russians who are turning out in their big cars, trophy wives on their arms, to spend millions and millions on fine art, jewelry and rare antiques.

I’m not against this, of course, because it’s taken Russia a while to get back to
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For an antiquer, the only way to go...

2008-05-30T03:27:02+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - 1929 Model A Ford Truck, from Wikipedia.|} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_05/2008_0530_ford.jpg {/slimbox}

I think for me it would be to have my ashes put in different containers and placed into the various compartments of a Perriand bookcase, then scattered over the grounds of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin West in Phoenix.

This story, out of Salina, Kansas, is about a deceased man who was pulled to the cemetery in his Model A Ford. He loved the old car, and his family always said he’d be buried in it. The link, below, is from Salina.com, and is way too brief to be of any real
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Ancient Egyptian fortress discovered in Sinai

2008-05-30T03:24:05+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Ancient Egypt, from Wikimedia.|} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_05/2008_0530_egypt.jpg{/slimbox}

How does a 3,000 year old fortress, along a main road, in the middle of a well-traveled desert just suddenly pop up?

No, there’s no punchline. It’s a serious question. This news actually broke on Wednesday, but I wanted to wait and see how it panned out. The Sinai has a long and storied history, and has witnessed many of the events that form the basis for much of the major history of Western religion. There is so much known about what went on there, in the cities that dot it, and they’ve all been
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Betting on Banksy

2008-05-29T17:49:23+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Image Courtesy Santa Monica Auctions|} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_05/2008_0529_sma_banksy.jpg {/slimbox}

Banksy, Ruscha, Lichtenstein and R. Crumb are top guns
in Santa Monica Auctions’ June 1 Summer Sale

SANTA MONICA, Calif. - In anticipation of what may end up being their most successful Contemporary Art event ever, Santa Monica Auctions is pulling out all the stops for its 391-lot sale this Sunday, June 1. The auction roster includes highly important Modern works by Roy Lichtenstein, Ed Ruscha, Keith Haring, Andy Warhol and controversial British graffiti artist Banksy, as well as a series of paintings by legendary comic book artist R. Crumb. If I were a gambler -
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Hundreds of miles of yard sale

2008-05-28T03:23:54+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Image Copyright iStockPhoto|} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_05/2008_0528_yardsale.jpg {/slimbox}

I have a feeling the good stuff will make it past Wednesday morning.

Come on, admit it. How many times have you cursed those early birds who get out at 6 a.m. on Friday, with classifieds in hand, and talk yard sale holders into opening their sales early enough for them to pick through before anyone else has a chance to even get a cup of coffee, let alone get to the weekend and all the sales in the area.

Seriously, there you are, driving around and biting your nails in
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Fit for a Qing

2008-05-28T03:22:19+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - The Qing vase, $8.2M, from Christies.|} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_05/2008_0528_qing.jpg {/slimbox}

Qing vase sells for $8M, to benefit China earthquake victims, half the proceeds to be donated by Taiwanese businessman.

All too often in today’s world greed is the name of the game. The divide between the haves and have-nots grows more pronounced every year. Still, though, there are examples that break the stereotype, and Taiwanese billionaire Robert Tsao and Christie’s Auction House have done just that.

As I blogged about last week, Tsao said he would offer a rare palm-sized Qing Dynasty vase for auction in Honk King,
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Saving a Modern Masterpiece at Yale

2008-05-28T03:15:36+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - The School of Art and Architecture at Yale University. Photo courtesy of the Yale Library.|} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_05/2008_0528_yale.jpg {/slimbox}

Paul Rudolph’s School of Art and Architecture building is getting a well-deserved restoration.

Rudolph is one modern designer whose reputation didn’t survive too well through the last half of the 20th century. As noted in the article from the Chicago Tribune linked below, more than 20 percent of Rudolph’s buildings have been razed, which is a pity, because the man had an obvious feel for Modern design and a notable way with concrete.

In my younger days, as a
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An absurd olympiad

2008-05-27T03:49:51+00:00

Yes, but can you mambo banana-faced through the dog patch?

Over the long weekend that just passed, at The Tate in London, organizers staged the Flux-Olympiad, a series of events designed by Flux artist Larry Miller, after an original design conceived in the 1960s.

Participants could take part in any of several events, including soccer played on stilts, obstacle shoe races, the balloon shotput, stilt race and slow-speed bicycle race.

The original plan for the games, by George Maciunas, called for much more epic and absurdist games – a veritable Dada dash of events, if you will – which the Tate simply didn’t have room for, but which
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Art theft doesn't pay, or sell...

2008-05-27T03:47:57+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Image Copyright iStockPhoto|} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_05/2008_0519_prison.jpg {/slimbox}

It’s true, really, despite how cool it looks in the movies, particularly if it’s a French film, or a Hitchcock picture.

This is an interesting article from Canada.com, examining art theft and its repercussion in a country that’s suffered a veritable rash of relatively high-profile art thefts in the past few months.

As the article points out, and as I like to picture it, the idea of art theft is swanky, even sexy, with Mr. Big crime figures paying big bucks to possess the great art works of the world solely
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Paying the Wright price

2008-05-27T03:45:26+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine|} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_05/2008_0527_wright.jpg {/slimbox}

Designs of the master commanding a premium

Even in these days of the burst housing bubble, epic foreclosures and the everyday struggle to make ends meet, quality still sells. In the realm of Modern architecture, there’s one name synonymous with quality, the name of all names of Modern designers, the master himself: Frank Lloyd Wright.

The article linked below is brief and ends rather abruptly. It's from the Sunday New York Times and makes its point efficiently: right now buyers are willing to pay extra for homes with the master’s name on them, in whatever
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John Lennon, Outsider Artist?

2008-05-26T04:09:54+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Image Courtesy Wikipedia|} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_05/2008_0526_lennon.jpg {/slimbox}

Almost 30 years after his death, John Lennon is still on tour, and still drawing the crowds.

In fact, Lennon’s ongoing tour - of his artwork that is - has drawn in more people across the nation in the last 15 years than any other art exhibition. It’s a fitting tribute to one of the world’s greatest singer/songwriters, a man who deeply loved America and who very much wanted to be taken seriously as a visual artist.

Before his death, Lennon's wife, Yoko Ono, promised the former Beatle that the world
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Of carousels and Jewish culture

2008-05-26T04:07:19+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Exquisite detail and fine craftsmanship makes "Gilded Lions and Jeweled Horses" one of the most interesting exhibitions of the year, at the Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown, NY. - Image Courtesy Fenimore Art Museum|} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_05/2008_0526_carousel.jpg {/slimbox}

Who knew?

The Fenimore Museum of Art in Cooperstown, NY, home to another very famous sports museum I believe, is running an exhibition through September that traces the interesting history between Jewish immigrants to America and the carvings of carousels.

The artwork, or animals in this case, are amazing. The detail is intense and the stories behind these works are
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Buyers looking for China's Freud or Bacon

2008-05-26T04:04:57+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Zeng Fanzhi's "Mask Series 1996 No. 6" - Image Courtesy Christie's|} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_05/2008_0526_zeng.jpg {/slimbox}

Has the Asian art boom just started, or just peaked?

This came across Bloomberg this weekend, regarding Christie’s massive Hong Kong sale over the Memorial Day weekend, about the record prices expected, and the record prices fetched, in particular for Zeng Fanzhi's picture of masked figures wearing red scarves, Mask Series 1996 No. 6, which brought almost $10M when gaveled.

As you can see by the painting, courtesy of Christie’s, Zeng’s work is pretty astounding: complicated, humorous, just that little bit creepy and
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Apocalyptic Modernism - Crazy man, crazy...

2008-05-26T04:02:49+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - A view of San Zhr, Taiwan, as seen through the distinct lens of photographer Craig Ferguson. - Image Courtesy Craig Ferguson, www.craigferguson.com.|} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_05/2008_0526_sanz1.jpg {/slimbox}

I don’t know what it is about these photos, but they speak of something dark, sinister, and decidedly dystopian Modern…

In my travels around the World Wide Web, I go a lot of places. One of my favorites is the site of File magazine, which features a lot of interesting photography, sometimes good and sometimes bad, but always outside the box.

These pictures came up as I was searching the site over the
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Not all antique shops are struggling

2008-05-23T16:20:47+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Image copyright iStockPhoto|} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_05/2008_0523_money.jpg {/slimbox}

Chicago-area antique mall actually thriving

This is nice to read, considering the news out of shops and malls is so dire these days – recently I wrote about the woes of antiques shops in the Dakotas.

The Niles Herald Spectator, part of the Chicago Sun-Times Unit, has this story about the Oakton Street Antiques Center in Arlington Heights, Ill., which is not only doing well, it’s actually thriving. In the current economic climate, that’s a good thing, and should give hope to anybody who loves to go to shops and malls,
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Fake Crystal Skulls? Say it ain't so...

2008-05-23T16:18:32+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - The Mitchell Hedges Crystal Skull from the British Museum. Image from Wikipedia.|} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_05/2008_0523_skull.jpg {/slimbox}

At least two fabled artifacts are bogus

I hate to think that Indiana Jones has spent his fourth adventure in search of fakes…

When my wife and I lived in The Hudson Valley, she worked at the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck. Every summer one of the programs they would run was a workshop on the crystal skulls, where they evidently had one of the things. I always wanted to go to it –that one and the remote seeing workshop run by an
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Fine Art Hedge Fund - this was inevitable

2008-05-23T16:16:15+00:00

Charles Saatchi to run world’s first regulated fine art hedge fund

I guess it had to happen, given how much money is currently being spent on contemporary fine art. Buyers are paying tens of millions of dollars for works by contemporary artists, the investment mentality has come full flower in the modern market, and – all things considered – it’s a relatively safe place to put money.

Still, there’s something that nags at me about this. Not really about the amount of money being spent. If I had it, I’d certainly spend it, and if you got it, why not? For me, it’s more about the commodification of fine art. No one
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11 'Most Endangered' for 2008

2008-05-23T16:13:06+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Lower East Side Tenement Museum. Photo: Greg Scaffidi|} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_05/2008_0523_tenement.jpg {/slimbox}

National Trust for Historic Preservation latest list casts a wide net

I always look forward to seeing what the National Trust for Historic Preservation includes on its annual list of the 11 most endangered places, and the 2008 list is another interesting collection of buildings, streets and neighborhoods:

The Boyd Theatre; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
California’s State Parks
Charity Hospital and surrounding neighborhood; New Orleans, Louisiana
Great Falls Portage; Great Falls, Montana
Hangar One, Moffett Field (former Naval Air Station);
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Muji Opens U.S. Flagship in NYT Building

2008-05-23T15:03:41+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Muji.com USA website|} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_05/2008_0523_muji.jpg{/slimbox}

Next Friday, May 30, is the day

NEW YORK – MUJI U.S.A. Limited has announced that “MUJI Times Square,” the U.S. flagship store of MUJI, will open in the New York Times Building at 620 Eighth Avenue.

With 4,350 square feet of retail floor space, the store is along 40th Street overlooking the moss-and-birch-tree garden on the ground floor in Renzo Piano-designed building.

Following the opening of “MUJI SOHO” at 455 Broadway, NY in November 2007, “MUJI Times Square” is MUJI’s second U.S. store, offering more than 1,750 household and 420 apparel items at the opening.

MUJI, originally founded in
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Gas woes, slowdown hit Dakotas

2008-05-22T16:20:57+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Image copyright iStockphoto - Wendell Franks|} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_05/2008_0522_oil.jpg {/slimbox}

The high end will always sell, and there will always be buyers there. In the middle, however, in the bread-and-butter Mom and Pop shops, the story isn’t so rosy.

Across the country over the past several years, small shops have closed down at an alarming rate. I’m not talking about the coasts, necessarily. I’m talking about the Midwest, and the Rockies and the South. I’m talking about places that make their day-in-day-out do-re-mi on antiques that run from $25 to $250, not $2,500 to $25,000.

The usual suspects
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Six arrested in SLC antiques theft ring

2008-05-22T16:18:22+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Image Copyright iStockPhoto - Phil Morley|} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_05/2008_0519_prison.jpg {/slimbox}

Quick action, several arrests brings down scammers in Utah

As I said when I posted earlier this week on this story going down in Salt Lake City, I like to see this. Quick action by police, victims coming forward and the scammers – half a dozen so far – arrested for their roles in selling stolen antiques.

It’s also impressive that the story has gotten so much coverage in the Salt Lake media. There are scams and thefts that have taken place – notice I didn’t say are
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NYT weighs in on English antiques shakeup

2008-05-22T16:16:09+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Image copyright iStockPhoto|} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_05/2008_0522_clouds.jpg{/slimbox}

Keep cool people, keep cool.

Since the story of Dennis Buggins and John Hobbs broke in April, I’ve been hesitant to write about it.

When the Times of London broke the story, I scribbled a hasty report, written in a passion of sorts, and posted it quickly on another publication's Web site. I soon thought better of it – no one has been charged or convicted of anything at this point – and took the story down. Allegations of this magnitude can have far reaching repercussions in the entire world of high-end
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Billions of bilious barbecued blue blistering barnacles

2008-05-22T16:13:45+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Tintin Calculus affair, from Wikipedia|} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_05/2008_0522_tintin.jpg {/slimbox}

Tintin comic the first to enter Paris’ prestigious Pompidou

How cool is this? I mean, really, how cool is this? It’s Tintin! It’s Pompidou!

I grew up on Tintin. I loved the globetrotting adventures he had with his terrier Snowy and I loved the various characters – especially the Thompson Twins, Captain Haddock and Professor Calculus. The quote that leads this post is from Haddock, as if I had to tell you.

It’s not too big a stretch to say that my love of travel
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Weiss May 17 and 18 sale brings $5.2M

2008-05-22T16:10:40+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - Signed photo of screen legend Humphrey Bogart, taken by Hollywood photographer Henry Waxman ($2,835). - Image Courtesy Philip Weiss Auctions|} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_05/2008_0522_bogart.jpg {/slimbox}

Peanuts strips, stamps and autographs go big

Oceanside, N.Y. – Rare stamps, original Peanuts comic strips, rare books, autographs and more combined for a dizzying $5.2 million gross at a two-day sale held May 17-18 by Philip Weiss Auctions. It was a record take for the firm.

“Not long ago, $5 million would have represented an entire year for us,” said Philip Weiss, “and we did that in a single weekend. I'm tired, but
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California dreamin' ...of awesome cars, that is

2008-05-21T04:00:00+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - 1941 Chrysler Town & Country Barrel Back - Image Courtesy RM Auctions|} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_05/2008_0521_33imperial.jpg {/slimbox}

Art Astor Collection goes on the block in Anaheim, CA, June 27-29

In my daily rounds of the Web, I like to check out the major Internet arms of the big press names in the country: New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Dallas Morning News and then The Los Angeles Times, which is where I came across this in blogger Collin Ryan’s column, linked below:

“Art Astor's car collection is astonishing. Plus all the antique gas pumps, vintage radios, telephones, televisions and various other gems from way
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Utah antiques scammers busted

2008-05-21T03:25:40+00:00

{slimbox title=|Style Century Magazine - - Image Copyright iStockPhoto|} http://www.stylecenturymagazine.com/images/stories/2008_05/2008_0519_prison.jpg{/slimbox}

Two out of four caught, look out for the other two in Salt Lake

I always like to see this. When law enforcement gets on the criminals, and local media picks it up and puts out the word. Mmm-mmm. Tasty.

It’s a common scheme. Antiques are stolen by people who know only that the objects are worth something, and fenced through local dealers who certainly know better but have no scruples.

I urge anyone in the Salt Lake City area to click on the link below and check
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