See Also:
Art |
Book Collecting |
Home and Interior Design
- Allison Delarue Collection - Part of the William Seymour Theatre Collection at Princeton University, the site includes photographs of dancers in
porcelains,
prints, and
posters
,
- Hubbell Trading Post - National Historic Site is administered by the National Park Service and houses one of the world's finest collection of Navajo rugs.
- Shapes and Uses of California Indian Basketry - Images of baskets accompanied by brief descriptions from the California Indian Library Collection, UC Berkeley.
- American Decorative Arts: 20th Century Modern Design
- American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works - Has information on Caring For Your Treasures. There are sections for furniture, photographs, textiles and several others.
The Society of American Silversmiths is a good starting point.
You can search the Library of Congress Catalog for Silverwork, American (subject heading). Useful books to consult include
- Books
- Early American Silver (1973) by Martha Gandy Fales
- American Silver: A History of Style, 1650-1900 (1971) by Graham Hood
- Encyclopedia of American Silver Manufacturers (2004) by Dorothy T. Rainwater
- Colonial Massachusetts Silversmiths and Jewelers: A Biographical Dictionary Based on the Notes of Francis Hill Bigelow and John Marshall Phillips (1998), edited by Patricia E. Kane
- Silver in American Life: Selections from the Mabel Brady Garvan and Other Collections at Yale University (1979), edited by Barbara McLean Ward, and Gerald W.R. Ward
- Marks of Achievement: Four Centuries of American Presentation Silver (1987), by David B., Warren, Katherine S. Howe, and Michael K. Brown
- Books About Silver and Silversmiths - Joslin Hall Rare Books
- Museums - Institutions with strong collections of American silver include:
- Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum
- Yale University Art Gallery,
- Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
- New-York Historical Society - "Has one of the preeminent collections of silver, comprised of approximately 2000 silver objects made or owned in New York" and their Henry Luce III Center for the Study of American Culture has many online images (see, for example, four late 18th century urn-shaped creamers by:
- Joel Sayre, ca. 1796
- Garret Schanck, ca. 1790
- Alexander & Riker, 1797-1798
- Peter & Ann Bateman, 1791
- The Newark Musuem's Style, Status, Sterling The Triumph of Silver in America is also useful. Other silver-related resources include the
- Society of American Silversmiths
- London Silver Vaults - Chancery Lane, London
- Ag&Au SilverResearch - Janjaap Luijt
- Silver Magazine
- SilverWarehouse - Search for silver patterns,
- William Walter Antiques - UK dealer in antique silver
- Argentum - The Leopard's Head - San Francisco
- Antique Spectacles - "On-line museum and encyclopedia of vision aids" curated by David A. Fleishman M.D.
- AntiqueWeek
- Antiques and the Arts
- Antiques and Fine Art - Has a list of dealers
- Antiques and the Arts Online
- Antiques Roadshow - PBS series is a rich source of information. The site is
seachable and provides information on
appraisers, a
glossary, an archive of
Peter Cook's Columns, and descriptions of
Past Shows.
- Antiques Trade Gazette
- ArtNet - A rich resource for art and antiques. (See their
Site Map.) The weekly
ArtNet Magazine offers news & reviews, with archives back to 1996. The
Galleries database is searchable by gallery name, artist name, gallery specialty, location, and furniture or design. There is a
Decorative Arts/Antiques Index.
- Artisans Gallery of folk art, outsider art, antiques, and Americana
- Les Arts Décoratifs - 107, rue de Rivoli, Paris
- Arts in Victorian Britain - Part of George Landow's Victorian Web.
- Classical Chinese Furniture - Curtis Evarts
- International Netsuke Society
- Kutani Ware
- Wajima-Nuri - Japanese traditional lacquer ware
- American Fan Collectors Association - With extensive photographs of ceiling, desk and mounted fans
- Art and Antique Dealers League of America Inc.
- National Art & Antique Dealers' Association of America
- Art Dealers Association of America
- Private Art Dealers Association
- Confédération internationale des négociants en oeuvres d'art (CINOA)
- Association of Restorers
- Association of Art and Antiques Dealers (LAPADA)
- British Antique Dealers' Association (BADA)
- Society of London Art Dealers (SLAD)
- Art Dealers Association of Canada (ADAC)
- British Antique Furniture Restorers' Association (BAFRA)
- Maine Antiques Dealers Association
- Museum Association of New York - Has a Consultant Database
- New Hampshire Antiques Dealers Association
- New Hampshire Furniture Masters Association
- American Art Pottery Association
- Vermont Antique Dealers' Association
- Adam A. Weschler's & Sons - Washington, D.C.
- Bonhams Auction House - London
- Brunk Auctions - Asheville, North Carolina. You can search past catalogs to locate descriptions, prices and photographs.
- Bukowskis Auktioner - Stockholm
- Butterfield & Butterfield - San Francisco
- Charles A. Whitaker Auction Company - Auctioneers and appraisers of period costume, textiles, fine art and antiques
- Christies International - New York and London
- Cowan's Auctions - Cincinnati, Ohio. "One of the nation's leaders in the sale of Historic Americana, American & European Furniture, Decorative Arts, and American Indian Arts."
- Dorotheum Auction House - Austrian auction house
- Gazette de l'Hotel Drouot - Paris auction house. With catalogues, a search engine and links to auctioneers.Gazette Web is the auction sales weekly magazine.
- Guyette & Schmidt Decoy Auction Firm - St. Michaels, Maryland and West Baldwin, Maine.
- Hawker Antiques - London. "dedicated to the acquisition and sale of Country House and formal furniture, objects, curiosities, sculpture and natural history."
- James D. Julia - Fairfield, Maine
- Lunds Auctioneers & Appraisers - Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
- Nagel Auctions - Stuttgarter Kunst Auktionshaus
- Northeast Auctions - Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Ronald Bourgeault is the owner, chief auctioneer and appraiser
- Phillips Auctioneers - New York, London & Sydney
- Skinner - Boston
- Sloan & Kenyon - Chevy Chase, Maryland
- Sotheby's - New York
- Auction Results
- Schedules
- Online Catalogs Include: Furniture: Antiques for the Modern Home - London,15 Mar 06, Sale W06776.
- Features
- Collecting
- Stockholms Auktionsverk - Stockholm
- Swann Auction Galleries - New York
- Treadway Toomer Galleries - Cincinnati. With Sale Results for
20th Century Art & Design Auction, March 5, 2006. The Sales Catalog, September 11, 2005 has a description and photograph of the Finn Juhl Bwana chair.
- Baltimore Album Quilt Tradition - Maryland Historical Society online exhibition.
- Baseball Cards: 1887-1914 - 2,100 early baseball cards dating from 1887 to 1914 in the Library of Congress. Searchable by keyword and browsable by player, team, league, city and card set.
- BBC: Antiques
- Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec: PISTARD - A search for meubles anciens retrieves a number of interesting photographs:
- Vieille table canadienne au Musée provincial de Québec by Raymond Audet, 1944
- Vieille table (type gate-legs) au Musée provincial de Québec
- Vieux coffre au Musée provincial de Québec - E6,S7,SS1,P22341
- Chaise haute de bébé au Musée provincial de Québec
- Deux berceuses (rocking chairs) au Musée provincial de Québec - Cote : E6,S7,SS1,P24513
- Banc-lit au Musée provincial de Québec - Cote : E6,S7,SS1,P22360
- Amazon.com - Online book, video and music store offers many books on antiques and collectibles. Some recommended titles:
- Antiqueman's Diary: the Memoirs of Fred Bishop Tuck describes the experiences of Fred Bishop Tuck (1867-1953), an antiques dealer in Kennebunkport, Maine.
- Hidden Treasures: Searching for Masterpieces of American Furniture by Leigh Keno, Leslie Keno and Joan Barzilay Freund, also available on Audio Cassette (abridged).
- F. Russack Books - Specializes in books about American decorative arts and objects likely to have been found in American homes of the 17th-19th centuries, categorized by subject.
- Joslin Hall Rare Books - Concord, Massachusetts book shop specializing in "books exploring the skills, trades and ways of other times, including antiques and the decorative arts."
- Conservatoire Numérique des Arts et Métiers (CNUM) - Among the titles in the collection is Julien Turgan's Les grandes usines de France. Turgan's monumental 18 volume work on French manufacturing, written between 1860 and 1885, has an index (in pdf format) and includes chapters (in French) on:
- Sevres
- Haviland
- Christofle
- Baccarat
- Verreries de Murano
- Built in America: Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) and the Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) - Library of Congress collection of measured drawings, large-format photographs, and written histories for more than 35,000 historic structures and sites dating from the seventeenth to the twentieth century. Search by keyword or browse by subject or geographic location.
- Cased Image Preservaton and Access Project - Joint project of the Chicago Historical Society and the Chicago Photographic Collectors Society to preserve rare, early photographs, known as "cased images" because of their elaborate cases, which were deteriorating due to age, use, and the inevitable breakdown of original materials.
- Céramique 1900
- Chipstone Foundation - Created to preserve the decorative art collections of Stanley and Polly Stone of Fox Point, Wisconsin. You can search or browse over 400 images through the Digital Library for the Decorative Arts and Material Culture at the University of Wisconsin Madison.
Atlantis, Baccarat, Bryce, Cambridge, Corbett, Costa Boda, Denby, Duncan, Fostoria, Franciscan, Gorham, Heisey, Imperial, Lalique, Lenox, Libby, Lotus, Morgantown, Noritake, Orrefors, Rosenthal, Royal Doulton, Royal Worcester, Seneca, Spode, St. Louis, Stuart, Sven ensen, Tiffin, Val St.-Lambert, Waterford, Webb.
- Cristallerie Schweitzer - French firm repairs glass and crystal. 84, Quai de Jemmapes, 10th arrondissement, Paris.
- Circline - Antique marketplace is browsable by antique type, area of origin, era, style and price.
- Classic Typewriter Page - Richard Polt's site, devoted to the "strange and beautiful world of early writing machines", includes a Brief History of Typewriters, a Typewriter of the Month and information on typewriter collecting and care.
- Collecting Calculators - Guy Ball provides historical and collectible information for collectors of calculators.
- Collector's Guide to the Art of New Mexico - Detailed guide to galleries and museums in Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Taos and Southern New Mexico. Also provides articles, photographs and interviews with artists.
- Coins of Colonial and Early America - By Louis Jordan. A Project of the Robert H. Gore, Jr. Numismatic Endowment, University of Notre Dame, Department of Special Collections. See also the Gore Numismatics Collection.
- Colonial Williamsburg
- John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library - A search for furniture in the online catalogue retrieves over 1600 results
- Cornell University Collection of Political Americana - "Over 2,000 "presidential promotional and commemorative items dating from 1789 to 1980."
- Corkscrew.Com - Raj & Justine Kanodia have been collecting corkscrews for over twenty years. Their site "describes essentials of a good corkscrew and introduces major types of corkscrews through its picture gallery. It will help you start or build a corkscrew collection, and introduce you to other corkscrew resources."
- Curioscape - Searchable directory of some 3,500 antiques & collectibles sites.
- Agence photographique de la Réunion des musées nationaux - French museum database has over 100,000 color images. A title (titre) search for fleurs, for example, retrieves 1334 objects. You can also create your own album - click on Ajouter à l'album.
- Base Palissy - French database contains 260,000 records with 15,000 digital images. You can drill down by object categories (meuble domestique - meuble de rangement - armoire - buffet). There's a color image of a fine armoire-bibliothèque with marqueterie (IM02000987) from the Hôtel d'Ecrivain dit Maison Jean de la Fontaine in Picardie. Try a search for charpente. There are over 100 images of la maison dite Villa Kérylos, located in Beaulieu-sur-Mer, "conçus entre 1902 et 1908 par l' architecte niçois, Grand prix de Rome, Emmanuel Pontremoli, pour l'helléniste parisien Théodore Reinach."
- D'Arcy Collection - This collection, held by the Communications Library of the University of Illinois, consists of almost two million original advertisements published between 1890 and 1970, donated by the D'Arcy, MacManus & Masius advertising agency. The index is arranged by product category. Black and white microfilm reels circulate both on- and off-campus.
- Machine Age: 20th Century Design and Technology - Multi-dealer site
- A La Vieille Russie - Jewelry, snuff boxes, Faberge, silver, Russian icons and works of art.
- Alfred Bullard
- Aronson Antiquairs of Amsterdam
- Associated Artists - Southport, Connecticut
- Deco-Echoes
- Didier Aaron Inc. - New York
- Dillingham and Company - New York.
- Eli Wilner & Co. - New York City art gallery specializing in American and European frames from the 19th through early 20th Century. Provides photographs and descriptions of
19th Century American Frames,
19th Century European Frames and
Early 20th Century American Frames.
- Eve Stone Antiques - Woodbridge, Connecticut. Specializing in boxes, candlesticks, brass, copper, fire tools, Imari, iron, lighting and scales.
- F. Dervieux - Arles, France, firm sells "Meubles provencaux". Also in Arles is Antiquités Maurin
- Florian Papp Antiques & Art Gallery - New York.
- Fitzroy & Everest Gentleman's Antiques - Rotterdam.
- Frank H. Boos Gallery - Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.
- Fred Giampietro - New Haven, Connecticut. "Dealer, appraiser and leading expert in 19th and 20th century American folk art and antiques."
- Fred Moheban Gallery - New York. Oriental and European carpets.
- Galerie J. Kugel - Paris.
- Hirschl & Adler - New York.
- James Robinson, Inc. - New York.
- Jan Whitlock, Textiles & Interiors - Malvern, Pennsylvania.
- Kentshire Galleries - New York
- Leigh Keno - See A Cool Hand and a Keno Eye, by Christopher Mason, New York Magazine, January 24, 2000 and Leigh & Leslie Keno - Library of Congress webcast, 19 October 2004.
- Lillian Nassau
- M. S. Rau Antiques - New Orleans.
- Maastricht earthenware decorations, 1836-1969 - 17574 images from pattern books. Search for Société Céramique or handgeschilderd, kind, dier, Jac van Lijff. A few examples:
- Decor: 107 classe 2bis - Petrus Regout/Sphinx
- Decor zonder naam - Petrus Regout/Sphinx
- N. Bloom & Son - ""ealers in fine Old jewellery & silver."
- Newel Art Galleries - New York firm New York warehouse full of 17th-20th century antiques from all over the world. Presents its entire inventory of over 20,000 items online, with images and a search function. (Free registration.)
- RagoArts - David Rago, 20th century decorative arts, Trenton, New Jersey.
- Ralph M. Chait Galleries - Chinese art.
- Robert Young Antiques - London.
- S. J. Phillips - Antique jewellery
- S. J. Shrubsole - English Silver, Antique Jewelry, Old Sheffield Plate and Glass, Antique Silver, Irish Silver, American Silver...
- S. Scott Powers Antiques - Treen, burl treen, snuffboxes and "objects of fancy".
- Soren Jensen - New York firm sells vintage jewelry by Georg Jensen and other Scandinavian designers.
- Todd Merrill Antiques - New York. "American and European vintage furniture, antiques, and lighting from the 1920's to the 1980's. Including rare and unique furniture from Paul Evans, Karl Springer, James Mont, Milo Baughman, Gio Ponti, Adnet, Fornasetti, Venini, Tommi Parzinger, LaVerne, Vladimir Kagan, Paul McCobb."
- William Doyle Galleries - New York.
- Design Registers - British National Archives online exhibition. "Design Registers features a selection of 300 designs registered by designers, individuals and companies from the mid-Victorian period, in order to obtain copyright protection." View by object, proprietor and Register/date order.
- Digital Library for the Decorative Arts and Material Culture - University of Wisconsin Madison. E-Facsimiles Temple of Flora, or, Garden of the botanist, poet, painter, and philosopher(1812) by Robert Thornton.
- Directory of Design and Decoration - Designers, antique dealers and resource houses, searchable by keyword.
- Early American Antiques - "Web sources for everyone interested in early American antique furniture and accessories." University of Delaware Library.
- Early American Industries Association (EAIA) - With links to Related Organizations and Related Web Sites.
- Early Islamic Tile - Images of 102 tiles from the collection of Lockwood de Forest II (1850-1932) currently owned by dealer Anthony Slayter-Ralph of Santa Barbara.
- eBay - Online auctions
- Ecclesiological Society - Site devoted to Church architecture, furnishings and liturgy "provides picture essays, links to interesting church sites, research tools and details of related organisations..."
- English Heritage
- Ephemera Society of America - Information on collecting postcards, broadsides and posters, baseball cards, tickets, bookmarks, photographs etc.
- Eva Zeisel: Town and Country - Dinnerware line produced by Red Wing Pottery in the 1940s and 1950s. (Doug Way)
- La faïence de Quimper
- Field Cameras of the United States: 1879-1930
- Find! - PBS series. There is an Index of Episodes.
- 1stDibs - "The most beautiful things on earth."
- Flora Danica Online - Danish National Library of Science and Medicine project to digitize 3240 folio-sized pictures of wild plants in Denmark from Flora Danica and provide a searchable database of plants. The Flora Danica porcelain dinner set, made between 1790 and 1802, consisted of 1802 pieces, of which 1500 survive. You can browse the images by plate number. Examples include
Digitalis purpurea (foxglove), Dipsacus silvester (teasel) and Delphinium Consolida (larkspur).
- Flowers Underfoot: Indian Carpets of the Mughal Era - November 20, 1997 to March 1, 1998 exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
- Forbes: Collecting - The archives includes
Piece of the Week,
What's Hot Now and
Connoisseur's Guide.
- France Antiques
- Furniture: Meubles : Mobili : Muebles : Möbel - Pamela Lucas, a Special Collections Librarian at Grand Rapids Public Library, has assembled a collection of Internet resources on various aspects of furniture, including industry, history and design.
- Georg Jensen - Denmark. (Sterling silver brooch with two leaping dolphins, vine, and waves. 1/12 x 1/14 inches. Generally priced between $225 and $400.)
- Goreyography: the works of Edward Gorey - "Graphical galleria of gratuitous Gorey, a continuous choreography of calamitous characters. Goreyography is also a resource for the collector and aficionado of the works of Edward Gorey. Bibliographical and biographical, Goreyography strives to deliver a comprehensive collection of information about Gorey's enigimatic genius."
- Greek Jewelry: 5000 Years of Tradition - Hellenic Silver and Goldsmith Centre.
- Guide to the Pennsylvania German Broadsides and Fraktur Collection
- Pennsylvania State University Digital Library Collections. "Each item has a digital surrogate viewable on the Pennsylvania History Pictorial Collections webpage.
- Harvard University Library Open Collections Program - Includes digitized catalogs for
B. Altman & Co.,
Abercrombie & Fitch,
Barker Bros.' home-furnishing, and
White-Warner Company Quaker ranges and parlor stoves. Books include
Old English furniture of the 15th, 16th, 17th, & 18th centuries: a guide for the collector (1924) by G. Owen Wheeler;
The pottery and porcelain of the United States : an historical review of American ceramic art from the earliest times to the present day (1893) by Edwin Atlee Barber;
Lead poisoning in potteries, tile works, and porcelain enameled sanitary ware factories (1912) [by Alice Hamilton];
Lace, its origin and history (1904) by Samuel L. Goldenberg;
The lace book (1904) by N. Hudson Moore;
The history of the art of tablesetting : ancient and modern, from Anglo-Saxon days to the present time (1921) by Claudia Quigley Murphy.
- Here Today, Here Tomorrow: Varieties of Medical Ephemera - National Library of Medicine exhibition held in 1995.
- Historic Charleston Foundation
- Colonial Williamsburg
- Historic Deerfield - Deerfield, Massachusetts.
- Genesee Country Village and Museum - Mumford, New York.
- Historic New England - Formerly known as the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities.
- Shelburne Museum - Shelburne, Vermont.
- Old Sturbridge Village - Sturbridge, Massachusetts.
- Monticello, Home of Thomas Jefferson
- National Register of Historic Places - "Nation's official list of cultural resources worthy of preservation...properties listed on the Register include districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects that are significant in American history, architecture, archeology, engineering, and culture." You can search by name, location, agency and theme.
- National Trust for Historic Preservation
- National Trust - Index of protected houses, gardens, coast and countryside in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
- Horse Racing Memorabilia Online Museum - Cindy Pierson. With sections on:
- Glasses
- Decanters
- Pins
- Phone cards
- Advertising signs
- Shot glasses
- Games
- Postcards
- Man O'War
- icollector - Access to over 200 auction houses, dealers and galleries.
- Index of American Design - More than 1,000 artists participated in the Works Progress Administration project (1935-1942) in which over 17,000 full-color watercolor drawings were made of decorative, folk and popular arts. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
- Index to Colonial Homes Magazine, 1976-1999 - John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
- Industrial Designers Society of America - With a site index, Hotlinks and 100 Years of Design, photographs of objects from 1896 to 1967.
- Industrial Home - Vintage furniture
- Interactive Collector - "Resource for buying, selling and researching art, antiques and collectibles."
- International Arts, Antiques and Collectibles Forum
- International Cultural Property Protection - United States Department of State collects Recent Reports of Looting, Theft, Prosecution and Recovery on the World Wide Web. There is a Site Index and an Image Database of Restricted Objects which includes Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Peru, Mali and Cyprus.
- Jacobsen Oriental Rugs - Charles W. Jacobsen, Inc., Syracuse. Offers a Guide to Oriental Rugs with map and information about past and current rug production, and an album of rug types and prices.
- Jewels of the Romanovs: Treasures of the Imperial Court - Travelling exhibition sponsored by the American Russian Cultural Cooperation Foundation
- Joyce Sports Research Collection - University Libraries of Notre Dame. Features guides to the Libraries' holdings in five subject areas: Baseball, Basketball, Boxing, American Football, and Wrestling. There is an Autographed Baseball Collection with an Index of Signatures and an Index of Baseballs which includes photographs of the balls from several angles.
- Kalo Shop Metalsmiths - Chicago Historical Society
- Kovels - Ralph & Terry Kovel. See Ralph Kovel, Antiques Writer, Dies at 88 by Margalit Fox, New York Times, September 6, 2008.
- Library of Congress Webcasts - Include:
- Leigh & Leslie Keno - 19 October 2004
- Live Auctioneers
- Louis Wine - Toronto. Antique silver and jewellery.
- Machine Age: 20th Century Design and Technology - Multi-dealer site
- Antiques and the Arts Online
- Smithsonian Magazine - Site is searchable and offers a list of issues from January 1995 to the Present. Examples of antique-related articles include:
- The Magic of Madame Alexander Dolls (March 2001)
- Old Radios: Tuning in to Yesteryear (February 1997)
- Stitches in time: Heirloom quilts at the Renwick Gallery (November 1996)
- Maine Antique Digest Magazine - Provides:
- Antiques Show and Auction Calendar
- Stolen Art and Antiques Database
- Prices Database - Over 6500 prices with pictures
- FindArticles.com has a free online article-search service which allows you to search for (and read) articles published over the last 1 to 2 years in more than 300 reputable magazines and journals. You can view publications by subject or by name. Some of the magazines indexed include:
- the Magazine Antiques (alas, no photographs included)
- Gifts & Decorative Accessories
- Better Homes and Gardens
- Interior Design
- Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine
- Sunset
A few examples of articles:
- French soft-paste porcelain by Allison Eckardt Ledes, the Magazine Antiques, August 1999.
- Behind the Scenes at the Antiques Roadshow by Kimberly Lankford, Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine, February 1999.
- Hardware with History by Daniel Gregory, Sunset, May 1995.
- Trace Magazine - Includes a free search facility, enabling you to search the complete Trace database of stolen & recovered items from the magazine issue 100 onwards.
- Country Living
- Galleries Magazine: Art Galleries in the UK - You can search antique dealer by name or location.
- New England Antiques Journal - Among it's Feature Articles is one on Quimper Pottery.
- HomeArts - Rich resource for antiques information. Hearst also publishes House Beautiful and Country Living. Has a search feature.
- Meg Andrews - “Collectable, hangable & wearable antique costume & textiles.” See also her Beyond the Fringe: Shawls of Paisley Design
- Marla Mallett Textiles and Tribal Oriental Rugs - Atlanta gallery specializes in antique flatwoven tribal Oriental rugs, kilims and bags, but also features tapestries, embroideries and other textile art. There are over 1300 photos illustrating a variety of textile topics.
- Meillassoux Postcard Collection - French postcard collection from the Le Ministère de la culture et de la communication.
- Five hours - 300 postcards.
- One hour - 55 postcards.
- 30 minutes - 20 postcards.
- Milestones of Modernism 1880-1940: Selections from the Norwest Collection - Minneapolis Institute of Arts exhbition (July 9 - September 12, 1999) features images and descriptions of over 200 objects - furniture, metalwork, ceramics, glass and works on paper.
- Mission Style and Craftsman Architecture - Tom Stermitz
- Museum Collectibles: Pencil Sharpeners, Toasters, Mixers & Miscellaneous - Jens Veerbeck (in German)
- Bauhaus-archiv museum für gestaltung - Berlin. Architecture, design and art of the Bauhaus period (1919-1933). In German only.
- Bröhan-Museum, Berlin. Specializes in Art Nouveau, Art Deco and Functionalism.
- Chicago Historical Society - Their Decorative and Industrial Arts collection includes Kalo Silver, dolls, and Abraham Lincoln's death bed.
- Chipstone Foundation - Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
- Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum - New York.
- Corning Museum of Glass - Corning, New York.
- Danish Museum of Decorative Art (Det danske Kunstindustrimuseeum) - Copenhagen.
- Fine Arts Museums - San Francisco. The Imagebase has over 82,000 objects (including 3,000 Japanese prints). A search for New York will locate hundreds of objects made in New York, by John Henry Belter, Herts Brothers, Firth & Hale, R.J. Horner, Joseph Meeks & Sons, Duncan Phyfe, Slover and Taylor, Steuben Glass Works, Leopold Stickley, and Louis Comfort Tiffany and many others.
- Geffrye Museum - London museum specializes in English domestic interiors.
- J. Paul Getty Museum - Los Angeles. They provide over 1,000 images of the objects in their Collections including
Furniture,
Decorative Objects and Vases,
Architecture & Room Elements and
Implements and Costumes. Among the objects pictured are
Pair of Mounted Lidded Vases (Porcelain: Chinese, Kangxi period),
Pair of Sevres Vases (Pot Pourris à Bobèches),
Filippo Pelagio Palagi Daybead (Italian, 1832-1835),
Mantel Clock (attributed to Pierre-Philippe Thomire),
Marquetry Floor (German, about 1715-1720) and
Roman Gold Bracelet (about A.D. 400).
- Gilbert Collection of Decorative Arts - London.
- Metropolitan Museum of Art: American Decorative Arts - New York. There's also a section for European Sculpture and Decorative Arts.
- Musée du Louvre - Paris. Search for images in Atlas, a database of nearly 20,000 images (select Seulement les oeuvres illustrées). Search for:
Aiguières,
Bibliothèque,
Bureau,
Cabinet,
Canapé,
Candélabres,
Cassolette,
Cartel,
Chaise,
Chenets,
Chiffonnière,
Coffre,
Coffret,
Commode,
Console,
Coupes,
Couvert de table,
ébène,
Encoignures,
Flambeaux,
Fauteuil,
Gaine,
Guéridon,
Lit,
Lumière,
Lustre,
Miroir,
Pendule,
porcelaine de Sèvres,
Pots-pourris,
Secrétaire,
Table,
Tapis,
Vases,
Versement du Mobilier national.
Some examples from the collection:
- Lit de Madame Récamier (vers 1799)
- Salon de Madame Récamier
- Suite de quatre chaises et une bergère à la Reine
- Chaise à la Reine
- Bureau plat - Bibliothèque de Louis XVI à Fontainebleau.
- Canapé en Ottomane - Cabinet de la comtesse de Matignon au château de Fontainebleau en 1787.
- Armoire (vers 1710)
- Cabinet (vers 1700)
- Cabinet orné de la figure de Louis XIV
- Cabinet - Augsbourg, milieu du XVIIe siècle.
- Musée national de céramique-Sèvres
- Museum of American Folk Art - New York.
- Museum of Fine Arts - Houston.
- Museum of London Ceramics and Glass Collection. There are images of a Doulton Faience tazza on a foot designed by Matilda S. Adams.
- Museum of International Folk Art - Santa Fe.
- Museum of the City of New York
- National Gallery of Art - Washington D.C. museum has 224 images of objects, primarily ceramics, from the Chinese Qing Dynasty, 1644 - 1912, also known as Anonymous Chinese Qing Dynasty. Many of the objects have detailed images showing several views - see the cup, the brush washer and the reticulated box
- National Gallery of Canada - Ottawa. Cybermuse provides access to over 10,000 images. See, for example:
- "Os de mouton" Armchair c. 1700-1799
- Armoire c. 1775-1799
- Desk-bookcase (1820 - 1850)
- Gate-legged Table c. 1700 (Quebec)
- Louis XIV Style Desk c. 1750-1799 (Quebec)
- Mr. and Mrs. William Croscup's Painted Room c. 1846-1848 (Karsdale, Nova Scotia), with audioguide
- Refectory Table c. 1700-1799 (Québec)
- National Portrait Gallery - There is a Collection and Research Records Search and an Expanded Person Search. You can search for books, caricatures, collages, decorative arts, drawings, medals, paintings, photographs, prints, sculptures, silhouettes, and 'others'.
- National Numismatic Collection - Part of the Smithsonian Institution, the NNC is one of the largest numismatic collections in the world.
- New York State Museum - Albany. Major Historical Collections includes Weitsman Stoneware
- State Hermitage Museum - St. Petersburg, Russia. Their Digital Collection is a virtual gallery of high-resolution artwork images, browsable by country. Search for such terms as armchair, bureau, secretaire, cabinet, table, vase, bowl, Svirsky, Doiarat, Peterhof Lapidary Works etc. Here are some representative pieces:
- Secretaire with a Folding Top - Heinrich Gambs, St Petersburg. Early 19th century.
- Cabinet Decorated with Panels with Mosaic Arabesque Design .
- Cupboard with the "Tropical Forest" Panel.
- Console Table.
- Victoria and Albert Museum - London. The National Art Library has an index and provides access to the Library Catalog. You can Search the Collection for images or browse through 19th Century British Ceramics, 19th Century textiles and Chinese Ceramics. There are images of works by Christopher Dresser, Walter Crane, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Josef Hoffman, Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin, Charles Locke Eastlake, Edward William Godwin and William De Morgan.
- Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library
- Worcester Porcelain Museum
- Nekrassoff Informational Pages - Photographs and description of Jeff Kelley's collection of hammered pewter, copper/pewter, enamelled copper and hammered aluminum. Includes items by Serge Nekrassoff, a Russian craftsman working in the U.S. from the 1920s to the 1970s.
- Nesle - Antiques, lighting fixtures, decorations.
- New England Antiquing - Links to antiques, antique centers, historic homes, inns and villages.
- 19th and 20th Century Architecture and Design - The Aesthetic Movement - Good collection of links to resources on architects, designers, artisans, and antiques provided by Felhandler Steeneken & Wilk, Architects.
- Old-Time Radio - Louis V. Genco.
- Online Directory of Multi-Dealer Antiques Shops, Malls, Co-Ops - Herbert C. Breese.
- Online Microscopes - Images and descriptions of over 40 microscopes, ranging from the 1760s through the 1920s from the Moody Medical Library, University of Texas.
- Operating Under the Influence of William Morris - Subtitled "Manufacturing Practices of Late 19th & Early 20th Century Decorative Artists", Robin S. Schuldenfrei 's 1995 online Senior Honors Thesis has chapters on Louis Comfort Tiffany, French Art Nouveau Glass, Rookwood & Newcomb Pottery, and the Gorham Manufacturing Company.
- Painted Furniture of French Canada: 1700 -1840 - Canadian Museum of Civilization.
- P. E. Guerin - Foundry for antique hardware.
- Pattern Finders - Discontinued china, stemware and sterling. See also Replacements, Ltd. of Greensboro, North Carolina.
- Photography
- Canadian Antique Phonograph Society
- Daguerreian Society - "Dedicated to the history, science and art of the daguerreotype".
- Daguerreotypes, 1842-1862 - 600 daguerreotypes consisting primarily of portraits but also including architectural views, outdoor scenes, and painted portraits by the Mathew Brady Studio; American Memory Project, Library of Congress.
- Albumen Photographs: History, Science and Preservation - 19th century primary source materials, contemporary research, a gallery, and video of albumen print manufacture.
- Pond Lily Mill Restorations - Information and services relating to mill restoration compiled by T. R. Hazen. With index.
- Pop Goes the Page: Movable and Mechanical Books from the Brenda Forman Collection - Exhibition at the Special Collections Department of the University of Virginia Library is organized by artist:<
a href="http://www.lib.virginia.edu/exhibits/popup/meggen.html">Lothar Meggendorfer
Ernest Nister,
Voitech Kubasta),
genre (Space,
Contemporary), format:
- Tableau,
Pop Up,
Rivet Books,
Slats, Tabs, Cards)
series (Dean and Son,
Showman,
Bookano,
Blue Ribbon Pleasure Books, Jolly Jump Ups
- Postcard Resources - Jack D. Mount, a postcard collector and a librarian at the University of Arizona, has gathered an extensive collection of links to vintage postcard resources.
- Posters
- World War II Poster Database - Comprehensive collection of over 300 posters issued by U.S. Federal agencies from the onset of war through 1945. (Government Publications Department at Northwestern University Library.)
- Produce for a Victory: Posters on the American Home Front (1941-45) - National Museum of American History exhibition of 35 posters that helped mobilize Americans during World War II to"produce for victory". The exhibition focuses on posters targeting factory workers to support the war effort by stepping up production.
- Pottery and porcelain of the United States: an historical review of American ceramic art from the earliest times to the present day by Edwin Atlee Barber (1851-1916), G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1893. Full-text, from Home Economics Archive Research, Tradition and History (HEARTH), Cornell University.
- Quilts and Quiltmaking in America - Two collections consisting of 229 photographs and 181 recorded interviews with six quiltmakers in Appalachian North Carolina and Virginia from the he Blue Ridge Parkway Folklife Project Collection (1978) and images of approximately 180 winning quilts from the Lands' End All-American Quilt Contest collection. (Library of Congress)
- Reference:
- Dictionary of Art Historians: a Biographical Dictionary of Historians, Museum Directors and Scholars of Art - Lee Sorensen, Duke University Libraries. The database is searchable by name, methodology and country of origin.
- AATA Online (Abstracts of International Conservation Literature) - Getty Conservation Institute. Unregistered users can use the quick search, registration (free) is required to use advanced search. A simple search for kimono, for example, retrieves 21 results, including Shifu, a unique cloth from Japan by Susan Byrd, Ornament 12, no. 2 (1988 Winter), pp. 66-71.
- Art & Architecture Thesaurus - J. Paul Getty Trust. Provides "a comprehensive vocabulary of nearly 120,000 terms for describing objects, textural materials, images, architecture and material culture from antiquity to the present."
- Getty Union List of Artist Names
- Getty Research Library Catalog
- Archives of American Art Oral History Interviews
- Smithsonian Art Inventories Catalog
- Library of Congress Authorities
- Resources for Phonograph Collectors - Maintained by Allen Koenigsberg, a knowledgeable collector of antique phonographs and records, the site provides a selection of historic voices and music in RealAudio.
- Rhode Island School of Design - The Museum's Decorative Arts collection encompasses European and American decorative arts (furniture, silver and other metalwork, wallpaper, ceramics, and glass) from the Medieval period to the present.
- Richard August Neubert's Valentine Collection - Exhibit in the deGrummond Children's Literature Collection at the University of Southern Mississippi. See also Making Valentines: A Tradition in America, an exhibition at the American Antiquarian Society.
- Richard Ginori - Sesto Fiorentiino, Italy. " By the 1930s, it employed some 2,000 workers, executing the visions of Gio Ponti, one of Italy's most renowned designers and architects."
See:
- In Italy, a Factory Too Fragile for Its Time by Elisabetta Povoledo, New York Times, February 7, 2013.
- Monumental Urn, Circa 1924 - By Gio Ponti for Richard GinoriChristies, Sale 7578, Lot 58. Sold for $83,428 on 30 April 2008.
- Richard-Ginori 1737-1937. Ceramiche del Museo della manifattura di Doccia-Ceramics from the Manifattura di Doccia Museum (2007)
- Bowl (circa 1885) - Victoria & Albert Museum
- Manifattura Richard Ginori - Museo de Doccia
- Road Map Collectors of America
- Save America's Clocks - Organization dedicated to locating, inventorying and assisting in the preservation and maintenance of all of America's public clocks.
- Scandinavian Design - With links to Personalities and their designs.
- Scientific and Medical Antiques Collecting Guide - Thomas E. Jones provides information on scientific and medical antiques which include “telescopes, astronomy, microscopes, scales, electrical and magnetic items, calculating, drawing, surveying, navigation, meteorology, maps, globes, slide rules, astronomy, surgical instruments, bloodletting, pharmaceuticals and medical chests, electrotherapy devices, and more.” He has also written A History of the Light Microscope.
- Sewing Machines: Historical Trade Literature in Smithsonian Collections - Includes 248 digitized items.
- Shaker Workshops - “Makers of fine Shaker furniture and accessories.”
- American Antiques Show
- Biennale des Antiquaires - Paris.
- Grosvenor House Art and Antiques Fair - London.
- International Fine Art and Antiques Fair - Maastricht
- Philadelphia Antiques Show
- Pleasant Hill Antiques Show and Sale - Held at Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill near Lexington, Kentucky.
- Radio Netherlands - Has some stories in English.
- A night-time rummage [audiofile] by Vanessa Deij, 16 June 2005, describes the May Market rummage sale in Tilburg, the Netherlands.
- Winter Antiques Show - Invitation only show is held annually in January in New York and is limited to 75 exhibitors.
- Small Worlds: the Art of the Carte de Visite - Online exhibition of William B. Becker's collection of Carte de Visite photographs, small albumen prints mounted on cards 2-1/2 by 4 inches, which were popular worldwide in the latter half of the nineteenth century. (American Museum of Photography.
- Smithsonian Institution Libraries Digital Library - Among the digitized publications is Le Garde-meuble, ancien et moderne, 1839-1935 (Furniture repository, ancient and modern), "a bimonthly periodical published in Paris, exerted an enormous influence throughout the world by promoting French styles in furniture, fabrics, and interior decoration for a nearly a century, beginning in 1839 during the reign of Louis Philippe and ceasing in the waning years of the Third Republic around 1935. Examples of furniture include:
- Directoire Sofa (Plate L. 47 Pl. 264);
- Louis XVI Music Chairs (Plate L. 69 Pl. 398);
- Rococo Revival Sofa & Chairs (Plate L. 71 Pl. 410);
- Directoire Beds (Plate L. 28 Pl. 072);
- Renaissance Revival Bookcase (Plate L. 38 Pl. 215)
- Louis XIV Console Table (Plate L. 45 Pl. 257)
- Society of American Period Furniture Makers
- Spode Story
- Spratling Silver - William Sprating was a designer of Mexican jewelry, silver hollowware, tin, copper, and furniture. There is a searchable database with nearly 1,000 items. See also
- Spratling Silver: A Field Guide : Recognizing a William Spratling Treasure (2003) by Phyllis M. Goddard.
- The Silver Gringo: William Spratling and Taxco (2000) by Joan T. Mark.
- The Color of Silver: William Spratling, His Life and Art (2000) by Taylor Littleton.
- Spratling Silver (2000) by Sandraline Cederwall ("search inside" this title at Amazon.com).
- State Archives & Historical Societies - Ohio Historical Society.
- Stolen Garden Antiques - Dedicated to the reporting and retrieval of stolen garden antiques including
statuary, urns, furniture, and ornaments.
- Symmetry and Pattern: the Art of Oriental Carpets - Developed by Carol Bier as a collaborative project of The Textile Museum in Washington D.C. and The Math Forum at Swarthmore College.
- Tending the Commons: Folklife and Landscape in Southern West Virginia - Offers 679 excerpts from original sound recordings and 1,256 photographs from the American Folklife Center's Coal River Folklife Project (1992-99) documenting traditional uses of the mountains in Southern West Virginia's Big Coal River Valley. Photographs include Exterior of log house built by Woody Boggs. Front porch with old saw and license plates used for decorative purpose, Ben Burnside's hoes, Log cabin playhouses built by Ivan Jarrell's nephews on Rock Creek, Outbuildings on the Dickens property: saddle-notched log barn and Cobby Dillon's cabin, built of chestnut logs in the early 1900s. (Library of Congress American Memory Project.)
- Textile Museum - Washington, D.C.
- Theriault's - Annapolis, Maryland auction house specializing in dolls, toys and teddy bears.
- Tias.com: Antique & Collectibles Mall
- Tiles on the Web - Tom Colson's site on handmade and historic ceramic tiles.
- To Honor and Comfort: Native Quilting Traditions - One of many exhibitions to be found on the Smithsonian's SITES page.
- Toaster Museum - Jens Veerbeck, Mülheim, Germany.
- Tool Chests: Symbol and Servant - Virtual exhibition by the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.
- Toronto's Historical Artifact Collection Database
- Tribu Design - Offers a 20th Century Design Database
- TurkoTek: Oriental Rugs - Steve Price maintains this noncommercial site devoted to collectible Turkoman, Caucasian, Baluch, and other tribal weavings.
- Getty Union List of Artist Names - You can lookup by role. A search for cabinetmaker, for example, retrieves over 300 names. Other terms: carver, chairmaker, stone carver etc.
- Virtual Museum of the Printing Press - Luis Humberto Marcos, Porto, Portugal.
- Victoria Magazine
- Victorian Web - See, for example, Aesthetic Movement
- Victoriana: Resources for Victorian Living
- WGBH Forum Network - “Audio and video streaming Website dedicated to curating and serving live and on-demand lectures given by some of the world's foremost scholars, authors, artists, scientists, policy makers and community leaders.” Archived lectures include:
- Irish Furniture and the Irish Georgian Society - James Peill, Desmond Fitzgerald, October 21, 2008.
- Thomas Hope at Duchess Street - Philip Hewat-Jaboor, Boston Athenaeum, October 1, 2008.
- Wallace Nutting Center - Jan K. Liberatore.
- Weather Vane Home Page - Alfred and Beth Denninger.
- Webpage of the Roycrofters.
- William Morris Home Page - Mark Samuels Lasner.
- Winterthur Program in Early American Culture - University of Delaware program for American decorative arts scholarship. "Today that graduate program is considered a crucible of the American decorative arts scholarship. The library du Pont founded is world-renowned for the study of American arts and material culture. The conservation laboratory is host to one of the most respected art conservation graduate programs in the world." (Introduction - Winterthur by Leslie Greene Bowman, Magazine Antiques, Jan, 2002).
- Work of Charles and Ray Eames:A Legacy of Invention - Library of Congress exhibition.
- World of Interiors - Condé Nast site provides a browsable Directory of resources in the UK.
- Yahoo! - Collecting
- Zoar Village - Ohio Historical Society.
