BOOKS
Learn about new publications in the decorative arts field in these articles from our member magazine, The Magazine of the Decorative Arts Trust. Please feel free to contact the Trust to feature your upcoming books.
Summer Reading Recommendations: Collecting and Collections
Enjoy Collecting the Globe: The Salem East India Marine Society Museum, In Pursuit of History: A Lifetime Collecting American Arts and Artifacts, and Fine American Antiques in The Stanley Weiss Collection.
New Books on Dealers and Collectors
We review Duveen Brothers and the Market for Decorative Arts, 1880–1940 by Charlotte Vignon and Inside the Head of a Collector: Neuropsychological Forces at Play by Shirley M. Mueller, MD.
Summer Reading – 18th and Early 19th Century America
This summer the Decorative Arts Trust chose The Power of Objects in Eighteenth-Century British America by Jennifer Van Horn for the 2019 summer...
An Interview with Frank Vagnone, Old Salem’s New Head
“Provocative,” “edgy,” and “borderline offensive” are not descriptors typically applied to historic house museums. Frank Vagnone, the new President and CEO of Old Salem Museums and...
Portrait of a Woman in Silk: Hidden Histories of the British Atlantic World
Dr. Anishanslin’s new book explores the story behind one of the treasures at Winterthur Museum, Robert Feke’s portrait of Anne Shipping Willing. Organized into five parts, her book focuses on four historical figures central to the creation of the painting…
Leroy Graves Shares 50 Years of Experience in Upholstery Conservation
Although it is, in part, a conservation manual, Early Seating Upholstery: Reading the Evidence by Leroy Graves is a stellar addition to any decorative arts library.
Printed Textiles: British and American Cottons and Linens 1700–1850
There are books with beautiful photographs, those that present complex information, and ones that possess lively and engaging writing. Linda Eaton’s Printed Textiles offers all three. Part history and part catalogue, the text is a gracefully expanded update of Florence Montgomery’s groundbreaking 1970 publication.
American Adversaries: West and Copley in a Transatlantic World
Trust members based in Houston may well be already familiar with the highly praised show from whence this publication takes its name, wherein West’s The Death of General Wolfe and Copley’s Watson and the Shark were exhibited together for the first time.
Book Review: Samuel F.B. Morse’s Gallery of the Louvre and the Art of Invention
As the centerpiece of a nationwide travelling exhibit scheduled from 2015 through 2018, Morse’s narrative painting Gallery of the Louvre (1831–33) has come to be regarded as part of the canon of early-19th-century American art. This catalogue presents essays discussing both the painting’s content