Antiques :: The New York SunAntiques :: Stories from The New York SunVintage Automobiles in the Litchfield Hills- August 27, 2008 Antique car enthusiasts from the Northeast and beyond will travel to Lime Rock Park this weekend for the annual Rolex Vintage Festival of historic car races, car shows, and coveting thy neighbor's car. The hilly, winding, recently repaved racetrack, which sits at the foot of the Berkshires in Connecticut's rural Litchfield Hills, occupies a sacred place in American motor sports. Built by the son of a local farmer who laid out the course with a bulldozer, the 1.54-mile track opened in 1957...http://www.nysun.com/antiques/vintage-automobiles-in-the-litchfield-hills/84678/ Teaching Children the Benefits of Restoration- August 27, 2008 One of the most desirable features of antique furniture is the patina that comes with age so much so that an aggressive refinishing job will often diminish the market value of a piece. Dirt and grime aren't as glamorous, however, when the antique in question is a prominent work of public, outdoor art. That's why the area around Grant's Tomb in Morningside Heights is once again home to hundreds of busy volunteers as they restore "The Rolling Bench," a 35-year-old, multicolor mosaic sculpture...http://www.nysun.com/antiques/teaching-children-the-benefits-of-restoration/84677/ Williamsburg, Now Rising on the Antiques Map- August 20, 2008 Williamsburg, Brooklyn, may be known for its edge-pushing art and music scenes, but when it comes to antiques, the neighborhood watchword is "used." Home to innumerable thrift, vintage, and secondhand stores, Williamsburg has comparatively little in the way of antiques. But that may be changing. Where there's money, there's a market for antiques. And that scene is taking shape along Grand Street, running west from the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway to the East River. Portmanteau (81 Grand St.,...http://www.nysun.com/antiques/williamsburg-now-rising-on-the-antiques-map/84204/ Sotheby's To Sell British Guns- August 20, 2008 Every serious sportsman knows that by late August, the Scottish Highlands offer an array of riches. Grouse season is a couple weeks under way. Deer stalking is at its peak, and the fly-fishing doesn't get any better. Sotheby's annual sale of antique sporting guns at the Gleneagles Hotel in Scotland is popular this time of year because winning bidders can walk out the door and take to the field with their elegantly engraved rifles and shotguns. City bankers and sundry members of the English...http://www.nysun.com/antiques/sothebys-to-sell-british-guns/84200/ Masks, Jade & More- August 13, 2008 While all eyes are on the athletes at the Olympic Games in Beijing, collectors of Chinese art and antiques will have a chance to flex their competitive muscles, too. On August 24, the I.M. Chait Gallery's International Fine Arts Auction in Beverly Hills, Calif., will feature sculpture, porcelains, and a substantial cache of jade carvings. The Chait Gallery customarily holds the majority of its sales in New York City, but this month's sale is located on the West Coast to accommodate the...http://www.nysun.com/antiques/masks-jade-more/83790/ Shopping for Art Deco in Manhattan- August 13, 2008 If there's a genre of antiques that suits New York best, it is Art Deco. Even today, the city still dreams in the Deco style, which reached its peak between the mid-1920s and World War II. Manhattan is dotted with first-rate examples of the streamlined, machine-age, and, above all, elegant style, from the Chrysler Building to the Sherry Netherland Hotel. "Deco represented modernity," historian David Garrard Lowe said. Mr. Lowe, who is the author of "Art Deco New York," said that while the...http://www.nysun.com/antiques/shopping-for-art-deco-in-manhattan/83739/ Key Moments in Art Deco- August 13, 2008 1925 The Exposition Internationale des Arts Dcoratifs et Industriels Modernes takes place in Paris from April to October. It is believed that the name "Art Deco" originated at this fair, where major designers Emile-Jacques Ruhlmann and Jules LeLeu showed their work. 1928 Construction begins on New York's Chrysler Building on September 19. Designed by William Van Alen, the building was one of the first clad with a stainless steel faade. Its terraced crescent shapes and automobile motifs make...http://www.nysun.com/antiques/key-moments-in-art-deco/83740/ Wallpaper Lives On- August 6, 2008 Wallpaper makes the background, rather than the main attraction of a room. But at Secondhand Rose, the reverse is true: wallpaper is front and center. The store, which bills itself as the largest seller of antique wallpaper in the world, occupies the first two floors of a cast-iron storefront on Duane Street in TriBeCa. Though it also trades in antiques and furniture, Secondhand Rose's specialty is wallpaper 50,000 rolls of it, lining the back of the store and filling a second-story attic...http://www.nysun.com/antiques/wallpaper-lives/83248/ Rooms Preserved in Watercolor Paintings- August 6, 2008 Henry James described his novel "The Spoils of Poynton" in which a mother and a son fall out concerning the fate of the contents of the family home as nothing less than a tragedy about furniture. It is "a story of cabinets and chairs and tables," he wrote in the preface to the 1908 edition, and of the "passions, the faculties, the forces that their beauty ... like that of antique Helen of Troy, sets in motion." If this sounds extreme, it was an extremism characteristic of the age. In...http://www.nysun.com/antiques/rooms-preserved-in-watercolor-paintings/83256/ Antique Rugs With Stripes and Stars- August 6, 2008 Though antique rugs are functional, they're also works of art. In appreciation of this duality, ABC Carpet & Home is organizing an exhibition and sale of rugs with a shared design motif: stars and stripes. On view and available for purchase this Friday, the rugs are far from symbols of American patriotism. Used in disparate nomadic cultures, the stripe designs come in every length and shape. And though stars may be thought of as religious imagery, they are more likely to have been inspired...http://www.nysun.com/antiques/antique-rugs-with-stripes-and-stars/83247/ |