Journal — Object Lesson

The Writing Of...Jazz Age Chainmail Purses

March 20, 2025

We are not “fashion people.” Luckily, we had a guide for our piece on Jazz Age chainmail purses for the Magazine Antiques. The collection we dove into is specific, and quite possibly singular.

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The Writing of...Masters of Disguise (Tea Caddies, Antiques J/F 2025)

January 12, 2025

With tea caddies as our jumping off point, we knew we had to zoom in closer. The form is so varied — from Chinese porcelain caddies to European wood to American metal — that writing about them all ...

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The Writing Of...Ostrich Eggs in Dress Up (Magazine Antiques Nov/Dec 2024)

November 3, 2024

The egg came from my grandmother's home after she'd passed. It was wrapped in tissue paper, but already broken. The shards removed, there was no hope of a patchy glue job. A new egg would, my mom s...

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The Writing Of: Bringing Stained Glass Up Close (Magazine Antiques July/August 2024)

June 27, 2024

We had been looking for a way into Tiffany, and especially Tiffany glass, for a while. We didn't want to go the lamp route, as neither of us is particular taken by the lamps that were designed by L...

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The Writing Of: A.W.N. Pugin’s Gothic Revivalism (Magazine Antiques May/June 2024)

May 2, 2024

In this "The Writing Of," we go behind the scenes of our May/June 2024 Object Lesson column for the Magazine Antiques focused on the gothic revivalism of A.W.N. Pugin.

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A Stitch from Time Past: On Collecting Antique Sewing Boxes

February 21, 2024

  For the March/April 2024 issue of the Magazine Antiques, we wrote about the sewing boxes as symbol, object, and tool through the lens of female architect Theodate Pope Riddle (1867-1946) and her ...

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The French Influence: Cabinetmaker Léon Marcotte in 19th C. New York City

January 10, 2024

Léon Marcotte, a now-mostly-forgotten Frenchman, once shaped the tastes and adorned the homes of the richest of the rich in New York. His firm even took on a room in the White House.

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The Enduring Appeal of Puzzle Jugs — Object Lesson: May/June 2023

April 14, 2023

For our Object Lesson column for the May/June 2023 issue of the Magazine Antiques, we looked at puzzle jugs. Puzzle jugs were an early form of drinking game and a fitting topic, we felt, for an i...

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Object Lesson: Everyday Silver — Magazine ANTIQUES March/April 2023

March 7, 2023

While researching for this article, we found it notable that of those we spoke with—all of whom are under forty years of age, ourselves included—four of the five choose to make Queen Anne their eve...

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