A Print Mystery

A Bergen County, NJ, woman’s search for an artist’s identity. Coral Petretti’s collecting obsession began more than 30 years ago. It was in the mid-1980s. She backed her car out […]

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Vive la Faience!

French faience ceramics have a colorful history. In 1689, France was at war with much of Europe and its military was drastically underfunded. So King Louis XIV demanded that the […]

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In Search of an Opening

Pocket corkscrews were a practical accessory for the well-dressed man or woman. You never know when you might be called upon to uncork a bottle of wine. If you were […]

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Bring on Spring

A variety of antique vessels was made for blooming bulbs. Antiques dealer Jorge Welsh recently offered for sale a group of charming porcelain objects. Made in China in the mid-18th […]

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Kay WalkingStick: An American Artist

The ability to bridge various art movements in single works is a hallmark of her career. In the mid-1960s, Kay WalkingStick was a young wife and mother living in Englewood, […]

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John F. Peto

Island Heights’ trompe l’oeil painter. John Frederick Peto, a 19th-century still life painter, never had a single exhibit in his lifetime. He lived quietly, he made quiet paintings and, when […]

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Beauty in the Night

The “Night Clock” was designed by papal request. Once upon a time, there was a pope who couldn’t sleep… That could be the opening line of a story—a story about […]

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Mystical Symbolism

Outside the mainstream of spiritual art that was done in the service of conventional religions are works inspired by cults and esoteric philosophies. Art and religion go hand in hand. […]

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What Shines Within

Knife boxes were necessities for a well-appointed dining room. At Mount Vernon, George Washington’s Virginia estate, tours of the house begin in the elegant New Room. (Completed in 1787, it’s […]

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