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Shaker Crafts
Shaker crafts were the product of the United Society of Believers – the Shakers – who lived in twenty “communities” throughout the northeast and mid-west. Shakers were active from about 1790 to 1900, with most of their crafts produced in the 1820 to 1870 period. Shaker wares are characterized by simple, plain design. They feature severe lines, minimal ornamentation and very high craftsmanship. The Shakers believed that outward appearances should reflect the [...] 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.
Crocodile Inn Tavern Sign
(courtesy Sotheby’s)
More than 200 years ago, the painted wooden sign announcing Garret DeWitt’s Crocodile Inn hung in front of the DeWitt family home just south of Kingston, New York, on the road leading from the village of Hurley to the DeWitt gristmill on the Greenkill. The mill which was located immediately across the road from the house, was an important resource for Ulster County both before and after the [...] Click here to continue reading.
Nantucket Lightship Baskets
The simple, sturdy oval and round woven Nantucket baskets, open or with lids, with handles or without, are fittingly the symbol of the industrious seafarers who made Nantucket Island the greatest whaling center in the world. The whalers aboard the lightships stationed near the island worked in shifts and in their spare time took up weaving baskets to sell ashore. Some of these early basketmakers were exceptionally prolific. Charles B. Ray, [...] Click here to continue reading.
Chinese Ruyi
Visitors to Beijing’s Forbidden City will notice a valuable exhibit called ruyi (formerly spelled as juyi) with a head like a shred of cloud and a long body or handle in the shape of a flat S. It may be made of any of a wide range of valuable materials: gold, jade, jadeite, crystal, agate, coral, agolloch eaglewood, bamboo, bone and what not. And the workmanship is often quite meticulous: it is [...] Click here to continue reading.
Chalkware
Sometimes called the “poor man’s Staffordshire”, chalkware is a misnomer for decorative figures or plaques made of plaster or plaster of Paris. The ware was developed in the mid-19th century as a means of producing affordable replicas of the popular, and pricey, Staffordshire pottery figures of the mid- to late 1800s. Pieces were made in half molds and the two parts cemented together, leaving a hollow center. Some large pieces were cast in [...] Click here to continue reading.
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