Have you ever heard the conventional wisdom: “buy on the whisper, sell on the news?” People have been whispering about Southern paintings for years and it will not be long before those whispers can be heard even north of Virginia.  But you are not too late to buy before Southern paintings become big news.  The sea of paintings and artists with Southern leanings is deep, wide, and complex. So how do you wade in? These 4 tips will help you get started. Anna Catherine Wiley, Gathering in the Woods, Sold September 2012, $15,340 1. Find your connection Look at a region that is of interest to you. If this is a purchase that you will live with, it will give you a great deal more pleasure if the imagery is evocative for you.  If your grandmother is from New Orleans, you might consider the work of  Will Henry Stevens, who painted both the coast of L...Read More

Shaker oval lapped boxes were made throughout the United States in the 19th century, but two styles were uniquely to Shaker tradition.   "The first is made with a lap where the edge is cut like a sawtooth with the length of the teeth varying from about one fourth of an inch to an inch and a half. This sawtooth lap is uncommon and found almost exclusively on boxes that were made at Alfred, Maine," wrote Charles R. Muller in The Shaker Way.   "The second peculiarly Shaker design is the Gothic lap wherein the edge of the lap is cut in a series of Gothic arches making from two to six fingers," Muller continued. "The Shakers discovered that a straight seam held with a series of nails did not allow for shrinkage. Therefore, the edge of the lap had a tendency to buckle between the nails or split at the nails. The use of fingers prevented splits an...Read More

Bidsquare, the online bidding platform for over 35 leading auction houses, announces Bidsquare Cares: a holiday benefit auction of art experiences to aid the Ebola workers of Doctors Without Borders. Bidding opens at bidsquare.com on Black Friday, November 28th at 12:00PM EST, and closes on Monday, December 8th at 12:00PM EST.   Up for grabs are 35 one-of-a-kind art and city experiences from the leading auction houses that created Bidsquare: Brunk Auctions, Cowan’s Auctions, Leslie Hindman Auctioneers, Pook & Pook, Inc., Rago and Skinner, Inc.   Tour highlights include a walk and talk with David Rago at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; a National Public Radio behind the scenes tour in Cincinnati; and a helicopter ride over Chicago. Among the other gifts to give to yourself or others:  a tabletop bronze sculpture by Klaus Ihlenfeld valued at ...Read More

Jade has been an essential material of art and worship in China since its birth as a culture over 6000 years ago. The myriad of colours and translucencies formed the belief that the natural beauty of the stone held the essence of universe’s qi and thus a quintessential part of early culture. Historical context notes that the birth of jade culture in China corresponds with the beginnings of metallurgy and the invention of written language in the Ancient Near East (Tigris Euphrates). In China, jade was being carved in the areas along the Yellow and Yangzi Rivers, considered to be the birthplace of Chinese civilization including the Neolithic period Yangshao, Hongshan and Liangzhu cultures. Carved jade was an essential part of ritual, as represented in funerary ceremonies. Small jade objects or pendants were kept for personal prayer and larger...Read More

The sugar chest has been called the quintessential piece of Kentucky furniture. More than just decorative, sugar chests were functional. They needed to be, since sugar was once a scarce and expensive commodity. Today, when we think of sugar the granulated form comes to mind, but sugar available from the late-18th to the mid-19th century came in hard, cone-shaped loaves. The loaves ranges in size; with those purchased for family use weighing between eleven and thirteen pounds. The manufacturing process entailed squeezing liquid from the sugar cane plant, with the remaining sucrose compressed into molds. The end product was the solid sugar sold to consumers. Sugar nippers were used to break off pieces from the cone, and then crushed those pieces into granules. Sugar chests became the preferred way to store and secure the product. The decorati...Read More

My previous blog post: “Why Do Vases Sell for More Money than Bowls” may well have left you with the impression that all vases are good and all bowls are bad (at least when it comes to monetary value). As with nearly everything in life of course there are exceptions to the rule that vases are worth more than bowls. Lets take a closer look at the nuances that cause some pottery or glass objects to be more valuable than others. Bowls are usually wider than they are tall and broader at the top than at the bottom. If the opposite were true wed call the object a vase. But some objects don’t follow the traditional bowl shape, and these may be more valuable. Bowls that do have the typical form, but stand out thanks to decorations by a master designer, may also be quite valuable. A closed bowl describes a form that is wider than tall but turns inwa...Read More

I am an average guy who doesn’t have a vintage Porsche or a fabulous wine cellar, but I do have some great oriental rugs on the floor and some folk art hooked rugs on the wall. I think textiles are great objects to enjoy and you don’t have to worry about lead free gasoline or “cork taint.” Textiles span centuries and continents; the beginnings of the field go back centuries, to Peruvian pre-Columbian textiles from 600 B.C. Sophisticated collectors and museums seek out rare Egyptian and Chinese fragments of linen made from the flax plant. However, archaic pieces of this genre consist mainly of fragments or pieces of Persian carpets. Pieces can range from $100-200 for a small fragment from the Chancay Culture of Peru to many millions for early 17th century Kirman carpets. Textiles that appeal to most modern collectors include quilts, coverlet...Read More

Another important election season is upon us. Political campaign literature and television commercials are already besieging us. Hundreds of millions of dollars will be spent on these campaigns nationwide, with each ad vying for our attention – and our vote. In this electronic age, few of us realize just how much electioneering has changed over the history of the republic. Imagine flying a flag with a portrait of your favorite presidential candidate; my how things have changed! In the early years of our country, there was precious little of the sorts of activity that we associate with the heated political campaigns of today. A scattered population with no real means of mass communication meant that office seekers had little way to communicate to the general voter. This was particularly difficult in areas west of the Allegheny and Appalachia...Read More

Rank badges, Buzi (補子), sometimes referred to as ‘Mandarin squares,’ are Chinese dynastical textiles that have survived in surprising numbers. Their preservation is due in large part to the Western collectors that cherished them and gave them their alternate name. These embroidered panels lend themselves easily to different representations, and their custodians proved creative—I have seen them mounted in wood serving trays, repurposed as a lady’s handbag (perhaps a little too creative), and simply framed behind glass as a decorative work of art. Many admirers and collectors do not realize that they were made as functional clothing elements of an official nature. Although Ming and Qing dynasty courtiers wore these insignia badges, the strict regulation and systemization of their design and use only came about when the Manchus began their rul...Read More

When a style of unique furniture and accessories came into fashion in the Victorian era, it took the name of the city where it originated. "Cincinnati art-carved" encompassed a broad spectrum of decorative items, from corner cupboards to fruit plates, and from fireplace mantels to picture frames. At the heart of the movement were a professional woodcarver, Henry Fry, and his son, William. Having migrated from England, they moved to Cincinnati in 1851, where they worked on churches and for owners of estates. Among the latter was Joseph Longworth. Between 1868 and 1872 he commissioned the Frys to carve portions of the interior of Rookwood, his country home, and that of a house he had built for his daughter, Maria Longworth, who later founded the Rookwood Pottery Company. The work in Miss Longworths house caught the eye of her friends, who wan...Read More