Online Learning

“My Dinner Set from China”: Charles Manigault’s Chinese Export Porcelain

BY CHAD STEWART

In the decades following the American Revolution, Charleston, SC, stood at the cultural, social, and economic center of one of the young nation’s wealthiest regions. The vast resources wielded by the slave-owning planter and merchant classes facilitated the acquisition of expensive, refined objects including splendid furniture, silver, art, and imported Chinese porcelain.

Understanding Wyck’s Chinese Desk

BY GRACE FORD-DIRKS AND CRISTINA FREIRE

For nearly 200 years, a small Chinese writing desk has been the prized and lamented possession of generations of Quaker women in Philadelphia. Today, it sits in the front parlor at Wyck, the ancestral home of nine generations of the Wistar-Haines family in Germantown.

Undercut and Cut Glass “from Below”

BY JOSEPH H. LARNERD

The forthcoming University of Delaware Press publication, “Undercut: Cut Glass in Working-Class Life during the Long Gilded Age,” was supported by a generous Publishing Grant from the Decorative Arts Trust. The book offers a social art history of cut glass—bowls, vases, and other domestic objects incised with geometric patterns against stone and metal wheels—during the medium’s heyday.

Raising the Edge: A Scrutiny of Historic Frames at the Art Gallery of Ontario

BY ERIC BIRKLE

An edge, a border, an ornament, a container—even a fitting—these are various ways in which picture frames have been described, studied, and understood over time. The notion of the frame as a work of art—as either a standalone object or a crucial component of an interdependent whole—is a less familiar concept.

Enlivening Ancient Vessels: Interactions with Roman Bronze Figural Balsamaria

BY ARIELLE SUSKIN

Balsamaria are a somewhat enigmatic genre of Roman metalwork. They are small containers in the shape of human heads or busts, ranging from approximately two to eight inches tall, typically featuring hinged lids and applied handles.

Shapes and Motifs in Motion: Rethinking Ivory Pipe Cases Across Worlds

BY NUR’AIN TAHA

Ivory has long been one of the most charged raw materials of global exchange, prized for its smooth texture, lustrous surface, and capacity for fine carving. The ivory pipe case—a portable yet striking item—offers a revealing window into the intersections of trade networks, cultural exchanges, and material.

Changing Identities: 17th-Century Netherlandish Miniatures

BY JASPER MARTENS

Netherlandish miniature portraits with costumed mica overlay share a uniform visual language and were produced within a relatively short span during the 1630s and 1640s. These little-studied objects are primarily female portraits accompanied by about 20 translucent overlays depicting a wide range of costumes, both male and female, that often reference distinct geographical identities and social and economic roles.