Features

Curated articles that explore the rich intersections of history, craftsmanship, and collecting culture. These long-form pieces are your gateway to learning something new, seeing the familiar in a fresh light, and connecting with the past meaningfully.

September 21, 2020 / Ancient, Bautain Bte opt-n de la Reine 8 Castiglione 16 Ste Avoye, binoculars, Captain Percival Eddy, convex, Cutts two-draw Spyglass, device, Dollond London, europeans, Faberge's, Features, France, Francois de Vaillou a Milan, Galileo, Galileo Galilei, Glasses, Historical, Hugh Powell, Imperial Japanese, ingenieur du roi, invention, inventions, Japanese, jealousy glasses, lense, lenses, London, magnification, magnifying lenses, Melody Amsel-Arieli, MET, metmuseum, Microscope, Middle East, Miniature Dollond Monoculars, monoculars, Nero, ocular, opera glasses, optics, oriental, P. Cutts & Sons, P. Cutts and Sons, Paris, Passemant, Personal, Pliny the Elder, Quizzing Glasses, reading stones, refractor, Roman, science, scientific, smaragdus, South Staffordshire enamel combined etui and spyglass, spyglass, swift, The Met, vintage, World War 2, World War II, world war two

Microscope: 3 convex lenses in the inner cylinder, fitting into shagreen (snakeskin)- covered tube, with gilt-bronze finial cap and tripod stand, optics by Passemant, ingénieur du roi, France, c. 1750 photo: metmuseum.org

The View From Where You Sit: Personal Magnification Devices

by Melody Amsel-Arieli Simple magnification devices, like water-filled spheres and rock crystal (quartz) “burning glasses” were known around the Mediterranean ...

Alexander Graham Bell made the first long-distance telephone call in 1892, reaching Chicago from New York photo: Stefano Bianchetti

The Genius of the Reticent Inventor – Alexander Graham Bell

by Maxine Carter-Lome, publisher “The Boston Advertiser prints an interesting account of an experiment in carrying out a conversation by ...

August 31, 2020 / Features

The flyer for Sears’ Quilt Making Contest featuring the Century of Progress Building reached out to women by asking “You can ‘bake a sweet cake,’ but can you ‘sew a fine seam?’”

The Sears National Quilt Contest

An essay from Quiltindex.org by Merikay Waldvogel The Sears National Quilt Contest organized by Sears Roebuck & Co. in connection ...

August 24, 2020 / Atlantic seaboard, back-stitch, bestiaries, bouillon, British band sampler, british darning sampler, Brunswick Chariton, ceylon, chain stitches, couched, Crafting, cros-stitch, cross, detached buttonhole, double running, E.B. HMS, E.P. Church St. Louis, emblem books, English, Features, ferne-stitch, fisher stitch, flora and fauna motifs, floral design, Florentine, Frances Boyce, French, frost-worke, geometric design, German, gloves, herbals, herringbone, Holbein, irish-stitch, Italian, italian cut-worke, John Taylor, kesemary-stitch, laid worke, linen, linen foundations, Mary Pots, MET, MET Museum, Methodist, Missouri, montegrin cross, mowse-stitch, Museum, needle cases, needlewomen, net-worke, New England, pattern books, Pennsylvnia's Westtown quaker school, purles, Quaker, queen-stitch, Quilting, raisd-worke, Rebecca Marsh, samplers, satin, Shoes, Silk, silk on linen, smarting-whip-stitch, spanish-stitch, spider web, stomachers, Susan Bushey, tent-worke, The Needle's Excellency, tudor, Victoria and Albert Museum of Art and Design

British darning sampler, signed: Frances Boyce/1780, silk on linen, 20 ¹⁄₈ x 20 ¹⁄₈” framed, courtesy www.metmuseum.org

Samplers: An Evolution of Purpose & Design

by Melody Amsel-Arieli Samplers are pieces of fabric worked to demonstrate mastery of ornamental embroidery stitches and motifs. This fine ...

August 17, 2020 / AIDS Memorial Quilt, Baltimore, comfort, Diane Schweier Krail, Elizabeth Roseberry Mitchell, Features, Judy Anne Breneman, Kentucky Historical Society, Memorial Quilt, memorial quilts, Mexican-American war, National Mall, Nina Aura Mitchell Biggs, nineteenth century, Quilting, Quilts, remembrance, San Francisco, Victorian Era

Civil War Memorial Quilt from the Quilt Index and the Massachusetts project. Each of the white strips and the stars are inscribed with the name of a Massachusetts soldier, his company and the date he enlisted.

Memorial Quilts: Expressions of Remembrance

Graveyard Quilts for Mourning By Judy Anne Breneman, womenfolk.com Before modern medicine the loss of beloved friends and family members ...

Oak Reel block dated 1846, Enoch and Mary Worrall quilt, dated 1850. (Starley Quilt Collection)

Friendship Quilts: A Gift of Remembrance

by Maxine Carter-Lome, Publisher In the summer of 1854, inside an enormous four-story brick house at the corner of Main ...

Crewelwork sampler, one of the early projects worked by Erica at the Royal School of Needlework. Their first few projects were designed for them. Students had to pay for their own materials and most proudly kept their projects for the whole of their lives. 2015.0047.004 A, B, Gift of The Family of Erica Wilson, Courtesy of Winterthur Museum

Erica Wilson: Sharing Joy through Embroidery

By Linda EatonJohn L. & Marjorie P. McGraw Director of Collections and the Senior Curator of Textiles at Winterthur Museum Until ...

July 23, 2020 / Features

John James Audubon, Self-portrait, 1822-23

John James Audubon: A Short Reflection on His Life and Works

by Pat Raynock, Biologist and Audubon Collector As a career biologist, I have spent a lifetime looking at the beauty ...

July 8, 2020 / Concord Museum, Erica Lome, Features, Henry David Thoreau

Figure 2: Henry D. Thoreau, ambrotype by Edward Sidney Dunshee, 1862. Th33b, Henry D. Thoreau, Gift of Mr. Walton Ricketson and Miss Anna Ricketson (1929). photo courtesy of the Concord Museum

Collecting Inspiration: Henry David Thoreau & Nature

by Erica Lome, Ph.D. One April morning, when Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) was fishing in a stream outside the center ...

June 29, 2020 / Alphonso Wood, American White Waterlily, Anacardium accidentale, Asa Gray, Blaschka Glass Models of Plants, Bohemia, botanical illustration, botanical illustrator, botany, cashew, Czech Republic, Donald H. Pfister, Dresden, Dresden Germany, Familiar Lectures on Botany, Features, George Lincoln Goodale, Germany, Glass flowers, glass plant models, glass plants, Glasswork, glassworkers, glassworking, Goodale, Harvard College, Harvard Museum of Natural History, Harvard University Herbaria, Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology, How Plants Behave, Isaac Sprague, Jennifer Brown, Leopold, Lincoln Phelps, lithographic, Manual of Botany, Mary Lee Ware, model plants, New England Aster, Nymphaea odorate, Oakes Ames, oconee bells, Rudolf Blaschka, science, scientific, shortia galacifolia, Syphyotrichum novae-angliae, The Glass Flowers, Venice, Ware Collection, Wild Flowers of America

The Ware Collection of Blaschka Glass Models of Plants on permanent exhibition at the Harvard Museum of Natural History, Harvard University Herbaria. Photo by Jennifer Berglund

Inspired by Plants: The Glass Flowers as a Window into Botanical Education

By Donald H. Pfister and Jennifer Brown, Harvard University Herbaria Unless otherwise noted, all images courtesy of the Ware Collection ...

June 26, 2020 / Africa, Akeley, American Museum of Natural History, Animals, Anthropomorphic, Antique, Artistry, auction sites, cabins, Carl Akeley, CITES, Convention on International Trade in Engangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, Deer, Endangered Species Act, EstateSales.com, exotic game, Features, Fighting African Elephants, Fish, Fox, foxes, game birds, gorilla, harmann ploucquet, Henry and Rowland Ward, Henry Ward, Hunting, James Gardner, James Hutchinson, John Cooper, John Cooper & Sons, John Hancock, Jumbo, Kary, Kary Pardy, Marine Mammal Protection Act, Migratory Bird Treaty Act, Milwaukee Public Museum, moose, Mounted Taxidermy Hare with Rifle, naturalist, New York, ornithologist, Pardy, Peter Spicer, Peter Spicer & Sons, preserving, PT Barnum's, Queen Victoria, Rachel Poliquin, Rowland Ward, rustic, sculptr, stuffed, taboo, taxidermy, The Breathless Zoo: Taxidermy and Cultures of Longing, The Field Museum in Chicago, Thomas Gunn, Trophies, US Fish hand Wildlife Service, Van Ingen & Van Ingen, Victorian, victorian mount, Virunga National Park, Walter Potter, Ward's Natural Science Establishment

Carl Akeley, considered the father of modern taxidermy, was also a talented sculptor, naturalist, and an inventor. He worked on these elephants at the Field Museum but also has a history of working with another famous elephant. While an apprentice at Ward’s Natural Science Establishment, he preserved P. T. Barnum’s beloved elephant Jumbo after a train accident. The project took five months. Fighting African Elephants, photo: Field Museum

Taxidermy: Exploring one of the Most Complicated Collectibles

by Kary Pardy Someone mentions taxidermy and a few main themes come to mind: trophies in hunting lodges, decor in ...

June 19, 2020 / adventurer, Africa, African Game Trails, Amazon, Amazon Expedition, American Museum of Natural History, An Account of the African Wanderings of an American Hunter-Naturalist, Antiquities Act, Audobon, Belgian Condo, birds, British East Africa, Candido Rondon, Cherry Kearton, conserationist, conservation, conservationism, Cowboy, Dakota Territory, Edgar Alexander Mearns, Edmund Heller, Egypt, expedition, fauna, Features, flora, Harvard University, hunt, Hunting, insects, John Alden Loring, John James Audobon, Kermit, Khartoum, Kruck Cherrie, Louis Agassiz, Mark Twain, Martha Bulloch Roosevelt, monuments, Movie, Museum of Comparative Zoology, national parks, natural, Natural History, natural world, naturalist, nature, New York, Nile, NY, politician, President, R J Cunningham, Rio da Duvida, River of Doubt, Robert B. Roosevelt, Roosevelt, San Francisco Museum, sea life, Smithsonian, Smithsonian Institution, sparrow wars, statesman, Sudan, taxidermy, Teddy, The Summer Birds of the Adirondacks in Franklin County, Theodore, Theodore Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt Sr, Vienna, writer

A portrait of Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) in buckskin, without his trademark glasses. This portrait is dated 1885, the year he retired to his ranch in the Dakota Territory, following the death of his mother and first wife. photo: TIME

Theodore Roosevelt, Jr.: A Naturalist Collector of Specimens

by Maxine Carter-Lome, publisher In 1867, Theodore Roosevelt began what he called the Roosevelt Museum of Natural History. It consisted ...

May 31, 2020 / amber, amberina, American decorative glass products, Amethyst, art glass collectors, Astra line, avocado green, barware, bluenique, charcoal, cherry glo, cobalt, Cobalt Blue, colonial blue harvest gold, Connecticut, crystal, crystal figurines, crystal glass, Dalzells, Dean Six, decorative glass objects, deep red, ebony, Epic line, evergreen, Features, Flamenco line, For use in American Homes, Fostoria glass, George Metheny, Glass, glass collectors, glass products, Hand Blown Glass, hand-blown, Handmade in America, honey, inkwells, Kenneth B Dalzell, Lamps, luxurious, magenta, Mark Johnson, Mid-Century Glass in America, Molded glass, New Martinsville, New Martinsville Glass Company, Noah's Ark, Noah's Ark animals, Noah's Ark birds, non-utilitarian, Ohio River, olive green, persimmon, pinwheel, ruby, Scandinavian Glass, sculptural items, Silver Glass Company of Meriden, sky blue, Sputnik, Star, traditional pressed patterns, Utilitarian, vanities, Viking, Viking Glass, Viking Glass Company, West Virginia, Yellow

Viking Glass – A Colorful History

Viking Glass grew out of its predecessor, New Martinsville Glass Company, which was established in 1900 by Mark Johnson and ...

Collection of seven antique mercury glass vessels selling for $750 at charish.com

Mercury Glass: Encasing the Brilliance of Silver

Mercury glass is not all it is wrapped up to be as there is no actual mercury used in the ...

The Declaration of Independence boasts of a plethora of signatures from some of America’s most famous men, but whose do you think is the most valuable? The podcast Radiolab conducted in an investigation and the winner is Button Gwinnett! Surprised? Gwinnett’s obscurity increased the value of his signature. He only has 51 documented signature examples and was killed in a duel in 1777. photo: Andrea Izzotti/ Shutterstock and Reader’s Digest

Forged Signatures: Tips to Help Collectors Find the Real Deal

By Kary Pardy, writer of “Exploring Antique Technology” Mickey Mantle’s baseball, a celebrity-signed photograph, the copy of the Declaration of ...

Stan Lee at an autographing event. "I would write the stories, and hope the public would buy them and like them, and then I'd be able to pay the rent. I never really spent time thinking how long will that last, because I knew if the character became unpopular, I can always write another one. I was always writing other ones."

Can I have your Autograph?

by Maxine Carter-Lome, Publisher Since ancient Roman times, a man's ability to sign his name separated him from the masses ...

Rooftops irregular plate by Sascha Brastoff, 10-1/2” longest side, $75-$100

What’s in a Name? Sascha, Marc, and Sometimes, Matthew

Story and photos by Donald-Brian Johnson In the world of mid-twentieth-century décor, it wasn't enough for a designer to be ...

May 14, 2020 / Features

1904 Fostoria Glass Company Catalog lamps and vases

The Fostoria Glass Company: Staying Flexible with Solid Glass

by Mary Sue Lyon, director, Fostoria Glass Society of America The Fostoria Glass Company began operations in Fostoria, Ohio in ...

May 9, 2020 / Features

Black Glass Salt & Pepper Shakers: Black/dark green McKee salt and pepper shakers with art deco styling. Sides of shakers are Roman Arch shaped. Sold on Etsy and seen elsewhere for $50 and up.

Black Glass: Beautiful & Functional

By Michalene Kosinski, Antiques and Collectibles Mall of New England All sorts of functional and attractive vintage kitchen and dining ...

May 3, 2020 / Baskets, birds, bride, bride baskets, circular plates, Consolidated glass, crimped, dotted, elaborate, Features, Flowers, frosted, Gifts, Glass, glass inserts, ovals, Roger Smith & Co, Roger Smith and Co, satin, silver, silver basket, triangles, Victorian, victoriana, wedding, Weddings

Metal floral accent trim on handle highlights a pale blue basket. 10-1/2” w, $1,300-$1,500.

Here Come the Bride's Baskets

Story and photos by Donald-Brian Johnson Something Old … Something New Wait. Stop right there. If you’re on the hunt ...

Blenko Glass Modernist “Opaque” Line large Yellow Bowl, No. 2904 made in 2004

The Allure of Glass is Back

by Peter Wade Something happened this past decade in the glass collecting marketplace that we may all have missed. It’s ...

April 22, 2020 / Art, Corning Museum of Glass, European Glass, Features, Fine Art, Glass, Glass Museum, Glasswork, green glass pilasters, intricate neo classical ornament, large french looking-glasses, Mirrors, Museum, Museums, Sparkling Company, vintage