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Roycroft – New York Arts & Crafts Community
After visiting William Morris’s Kelmscott community of artisans, charismatic businessman and writer Elbert Hubbard (1856 to 1915) embarked on his own version in East Aurora, New York. His Roycroft community, America’s only Arts & Crafts campus, began in 1895 as a high quality leather bookbindery and publishing house. The name came from two 17th century London printers. The community’s large and prominently displayed mark, the orb [...] Click here to continue reading.
Heintz Art Metal
The most collected and prized art metalware from the Arts & Crafts era was “brown metal.” Hues ranged from an old tarnished penny to worn leather. One company, Heintz Art Metal Shop of Buffalo, New York, specialized in chocolate brown metal and their dark patina has never been duplicated. The chemical formula died with owner and innovator Otto Heintz (1877 to 1918).
Heintz preferred bronze with a sterling silver overlay, not [...] Click here to continue reading.
David Y. Ellinger (American, 1913 to 2003)
The following obituary for David Y. Ellinger was published in the May, 2003 issue of the Maine Antique Digest, page 4-A.
“David Ellinger wanted to be remembered as an antiques dealer first, then as a painter,” said Charlie Steinberg, the Abington, Pennsylvania antiques dealer. “He was a very good picker. He found many things now in the Geesey Collection at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and he [...] Click here to continue reading.
Pietra Dura
Pietra dura (also pietre dure) is an Italian phrase, with pietra meaning “stone” and dura meaning “hard” or “durable.” While pietra dura is the preferred term (at least according to The Getty’s Art and Architecture Thesaurus at http://www.getty.edu/research/conducting_research/vocabularies/aat/), the terms micromosaic or Florentine mosaic are occasionally encountered. (Some find “micromosaic” to be a little objectionable, applying only to the “rougher” forms of the art produced for the tourist trade.)
Pietra dura is [...] Click here to continue reading.
Types of Ivory and the Legalities of the Ivory Trade
What is Ivory?
Strictly speaking, the term “ivory” refers only to the whitish-yellow material that makes up the tusks of mammals, such as elephants and walruses. Other related materials, such as that which comprises the teeth of sperm whales and, upon occasion, hippopotamuses, is often called ivory, but technically, is not. Two other related types of material are the ivory from the East Indian [...] Click here to continue reading.
China Fairings
Made between 1860 and 1900, primarily for the English market, these figural Victorian china boxes for holding trinkets, pins, matches, etc. were given as prizes at English fairs, hence the name “fairings”. These boxes were generally made in Germany by companies such as Conta and Boehme of Possneck, Thuringia.
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