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- Feb 23, 2018
150 Stories About Indians: An Offering From Our Selection of Rare Books & Works on Paper
As our auction house product photographer, all materials cataloged for online sale pass through the studio and, ergo, my hands. I have the privileged opportunity, on an almost daily basis, to closely examine museum quality works of art-- without a security guard breathing down my neck, or anxiously shifting their weight from side-to-side in anticipation of my nose grazing the canvas. I have handled, with extreme delicacy, the most valued of porcelain, including our recently
- Feb 22, 2018
George Nakashima : The New Hope of Modernism
George Nakashima. When you hear that name it is indistinguishably kindred with great modernist furniture. Never to be replicated; each piece made with the spirit of the tree and his heart and soul. Image courtesy of Woodworking Network Nakashima was an architect, working with Antonin Raymond in India and Japan. He later realized that while he appreciated architecture, he wanted to create furniture so that he could be in charge of the quality from beginning to end. He moved to
- Feb 14, 2018
Local History: Early Documents from New Castle, Delaware
A recent consignment yielded two contracts of significant historical importance pertaining to the early years of the city of New Castle in Delaware. The first is a land transfer agreement that ratified the sale of lands once held by William Penn. The charter traces the ownership of the land, about 200 acres in the Mill Creek Hundred, from Penn, who surrendered it in 1688 to Philip Davies, a fellow Quaker who later helped establish their first church in Lancaster County. Davie
- Feb 13, 2018
Back to the Future: Commemorating 80s Sci-Fi Art Thru Retro Reads
It's 2018, and pretty much everyone's got a Netflix account in this day and age. And if you're the cheapskate that doesn't want to shell out the ten bucks a month for an account, you've certainly managed to snag someone's login. I've been harvesting the passwords of my exes parents for at least 5 seasons of Game of Thrones....shhhh. Netflix has certainly been shaking up the scene in the entertainment industry these past few years. They're producing some of the best original c
- Feb 8, 2018
Early Printing: Incunable, Uncunable, and Post-Incunabula
As we all remember from 8th grade history class, Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press in 1450. Well, that’s not true. None of that is factual. Stop saying it. Printing presses in some form have been around since about AD 700 in China and were in use in other Asian countries well before the 15th century. What Gutenberg invented was mechanical moveable type, and he first used it in 1439. Gutenberg’s metal types were able to be mass produced with typefounding molds, ma
- Feb 1, 2018
Richard Satava: Art Glass That is Out of This World
Do you recognize this jellyfish? via: Satava.com You may have noticed two similar sculptures featured in Marvel Comic's recent film Guardians of the Galaxy. image via: imbd.com If you can't recall seeing them among the array of art glass on display during the broker scenes on Xander, be sure to look for these pieces the next time you watch the movie (they are on the left side of the broker's desk). The Magnum Moon Jellyfish and Purple Ribbed Jellyfish featured in the film are
