Antiques expert, Lark Mason, appraiser on the wildly popular PBS series, The Antiques Roadshow, and founder of iGavel Auctions, gives his predictions for the top 10 antiques collecting trends of 2013. One category that he believes will remain timeless? Watches. “In times of economic uncertainty, when stocks, bonds, and everything else has taken a lickin, […]
Stained glass and wood window panel, Iran, 18th-19th century. From Anavian Gallery. For our last post of 2012, we’re taking a look back at some of our favorite antiques and works of art we’ve featured on the-maac.com over the past year. With over 100 galleries and 60+ dealers, we can only skim the surface of […]
1) “Currier & Ives and Other Tales of Winter” at Museum of the City of New York Currier and Ives’ idyllic scenes of winter in New York represent a world gone by. Yet in these iconic images suffused with warm colors and fine details, the past seems very present. The prolific print makers’ work has […]
“I still have to buy my gifts,” is the frazzled refrain often heard just around this time. The balancing act of coordinating holiday travel, planning dinner menus, arranging family visits, and a multitude of other frenzied seasonal obligations leave many people with little time to buy holiday gifts. With Christmas just five days away, you […]
August 30, 2012–In a moving editorial in the New York Times, Eve. M. Kahn discusses the emergence of newly discovered pottery and fragments of vessels by David Drake, an enslaved 19th-century potter in Edgefield, South Carolina. Drake signed his works “Dave” and sometimes inscribed them with poems that were odes to the “noble jar” or […]
Today, the Olympic Games is the foremost sports competition in the world with representatives of over 200 countries vying for the glory of their nations but the origins of the tournament belong to the realm of the spiritual. Founded in 776 B.C. on the ancient plains of holy Olympia, the Games were closely linked to […]
Among the world’s oldest jewelry type, pins and brooches date at least as far back as the Bronze Age. Along with the Ancient Greeks, Romans wore a pin called the spina, which was a thorn or thorn-like brooch used to hold up garments. Throughout the centuries, many cultures contributed to the aesthetic evolution of pins […]
The striking fully-manned, full sail ship above recalling Shakespeare’s famous verse on the pleasure of seeing sails “grow big bellied in the wanton wind” is more than an elaborate metalwork. This ornate vessel, known as a nef, actually served the utilitarian purpose of housing spices, cutlery, napkins and even wine at elaborate dinners in the […]
On January 1, 2013, the lifetime gift tax exemption is scheduled to drop from $5 million to $1 million leaving both collectors and appraisers scrabbling to figure out how to pass on as much tax-free wealth to heirs as possible within a quickly shrinking window. Learn how you can most effectively gift a collection in […]