Majolica made transferware look staid. Majolica is fun. To quote the Majolica International Society, it is a “whimsical, humorous, richly sculpted, and brilliantly glazed Victorian ceramic.” Most authors say the […]
What is a whitesmith? Look it up and you’ll find some variant of: “tinsmith” and “a worker in iron who finishes or polishes the work” (Merriam Webster). The Cabinet Cyclopedia […]
Imagine that your country lost a war a few decades ago, is about to lose another war to the same country; yet you, the owner of a well-established pottery business, […]
Beautiful Soup, so rich and green, Waiting in a hot tureen! Who for such dainties would not stoop? Soup of the evening, beautiful Soup! Lewis Carroll (1865) Soup is a […]
While Edward Hicks’ naïve style painting Penn’s Treaty with the Indians at the Philadelphia Museum of Art is a treasure, it doesn’t make us feel that “we were there.” But […]
Newport shells? Check. Shaker room? Got it. New York Classical chairs? Yes. The Philadelphia Museum of Art’s (PMA) American Collections are not meant to be local, but “to exhibit both […]
Finding Benjamin Franklin’s possessions scattered around Philadelphia is like a scavenger hunt for the soul of the city and a fun way to explore both the city and the man […]
She has a full life; her own consulting practice, a huge garden and a home in Chadds Ford shared with a hardworking husband, a daughter in medical school and a […]
Antiques must be the sexiest form of recycling. “Patina” is the richness of age; we all love the warm glow of old silver, the depth of antique woods, and the […]
When visitors come, what do you take them to see? When a friend showed us The Dream Garden in the Curtis Center in Philadelphia, it felt like a secret treasure […]
