I was pleased to be asked to speak at the Foundation for Appraisal Education annual conference this weekend at Freeman's. This years theme is fakes and forgeries in the art market. It's an impressive line-up of speakers with at least three of us dealing with the furniture trade. Recently scams have rocked the art world … Continue reading Fakes and Forgeries
Drexel’s Rittenhouse
The David Rittenhouse astronomical and musical clock now in the collection of Drexel University in West Philadelphia has been called the "Most Important Clock in America". It is a stunning achievement. The gearing calculations would have been difficult if Rittenhouse had access to modern computing technologies. That this work was done by hand calculation in … Continue reading Drexel’s Rittenhouse
A New View
Ken Finkel’s post on the “Rise and Fall of PhillyPalladian” on the PhillyHistoryBlog along with the upcoming Beer Mansion Mash at Mount Pleasant this Saturday encouraged a visit to the house this week to check on recent developments. There is a cleaned up and restored path on the back/river side of the house but most … Continue reading A New View
A Sneak Preview: Newport in New Haven
In this blog I don't write about my day-to-day work with the Dietrich American Foundation's furniture collection that we are in the process of researching, photographing, and conserving. That will remain proprietary to the Foundation as we gear-up to go live with a website of the Foundation’s collection in the near future. Findings from the … Continue reading A Sneak Preview: Newport in New Haven
Chips and Shoulders
Responding recently to a question about the quality of carving gouges marked C. Maiers, I noticed that in the post I wrote two years ago about some of the C. Maiers tools I own and use I said I had never seen a C. Maiers tool with a shoulder. Since then I’ve acquired two Maiers … Continue reading Chips and Shoulders
In Proportion to the Trouble 