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Zsolnay
Art Nouveau belonged to the major cities of Europe — Paris, Glasgow, and Berlin — with one major exception. The small Hungarian town of Pecs (PAY-shh) produced some of the period’s most significant, colorful and creative pottery.
Hungarian native Jozsef Rippl-Ronai brought the sensuous whiplash lines of the Secessionist Movement, as Art Nouveau was called in Eastern Europe, across the Austrian Alps from Paris. Also contributing to the Secessionist’s foothold in Hungary was [...] Click here to continue reading.
Pisgah Forest Pottery
At the 2006 Arts & Crafts Conference pottery dealer and former American Art Pottery Association President Linda Carrigan described Pisgah Forest Pottery as “underappreciated.” She listed the North Carolina pottery among the most collectible art pottery in the post-1925 period.
Walter B. Stephen (1876 to 1961) opened Pisgah Forest Pottery in 1926. It barely survives today (2006) operated by Stephen’s step-grandson, Tom Case assisted by contemporary potter Rodney Leftwich.
Stephen’s [...] Click here to continue reading.
Teco Art Pottery
Chicago entrepreneur William Day Gates made his fortune in architectural terra cotta before turning to art pottery. Terra cotta was extremely popular among turn-of-the-century builders and architects as a lightweight, immensely adaptable alternative to stone. Its fireproof qualities appealed to builders in the wake of the devastating Chicago fire of 1871.
At the midpoint of America’s art pottery period, 1899, Gates incorporated Gates Potteries. It was an endeavor born of expertise [...] Click here to continue reading.
Meeks Furniture Makers
The Meeks family firm had been in business at least forty years in New York by the time that Belter and Hunzinger arrived on the island of Manhattan. This furniture making company went through four distinct phases, always successful and always in family hands. Joseph Meeks (born in New York or New Jersey) ran the company from 1797 to 1828 under his own name, his two sons joined him from 1829 [...] Click here to continue reading.
Salted Paper Prints
It was Englishman William Henry Fox Talbot who in 1834 developed the photographic process that would become known as Salted Paper Prints. The process involved several steps. First, a good quality writing paper was soaked in a solution of sodium chloride or common salt and then was allowed to dry. After the paper had dried it was covered with a 20% solution of silver nitrate. This solution adhered to the paper’s [...] Click here to continue reading.
Magic Lanterns & Slides
The magic lantern is an early form of slide projector using a focusing lens and light source to project an image. The images are on glass and either hand-painted, lithographed or photographic.
The earliest forms of magic lanterns appeared in the 1400′s and through development they were transformed into the lanterns we recognise today. Because of their age, unlike other forms of collectible photographica, it is impossible to say [...] Click here to continue reading.
Edward & Henry T. Anthony
Edward Anthony trained as a civil engineer before turning to photography. He was educated at Columbia University where he studied science. Anthony took an interest in photography from the time it was first introduced to the U.S. in 1839. He studied under one of the pioneers of American photograph, Samuel Morse. Helped by his sound scientific background Anthony soon became an accomplished Daguerreotype photographer.
By 1842 Anthony was [...] Click here to continue reading.
Stereograph & Stereoviews
A stereograph or stereoview is a pair of almost identical images mounted side by side on a pasteboard card. The mounted images are then placed in a stereoscope. When viewed the images merge to form one three-dimensional image.
Some of the key names in early stereo photography in the U.S. working in the 1850′s and 1860′s were E. & H. T. Anthony, George Baker, Charles Bierstadt, Matthew Brady, C. D. Fredericks, [...] Click here to continue reading.
Stereoscope or Stereo Viewer
In 1832 British scientist Sir Charles Wheatstone invented a viewing device incorporating angled mirrors that became known as the “Wheatstone Stereoscope”. In 1838 he published a paper entitled Contributions to the Physiology of Vision on Some Remarkable and Hitherto Unobserved Phenomena of Binocular Vision. The basic theory of the paper stated that the human eye perceives objects in three dimensions because each eye sees things from a slightly different perspective. [...] Click here to continue reading.
American Brilliant Cut Glass
Overview
From about 1875 to 1905 prospective brides looked forward to receiving as wedding gifts pieces of the fabulous cut glass then being created in American glasshouses. It was said that these crystal gifts should “look like a million and weigh a ton”. In the dim lighting of the period, tables at family dinners and parties laid with the faceted punch bowls, vases, trays and every manner of cut glass [...] Click here to continue reading.
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