Painting on walls goes back to prehistory, when humans sketched animals, hunts, daily scenes and even their own handprints directly onto the interiors of their cave dwellings. Crude pigments made from plants, blood, red and yellow ochre (clay), charcoal, and other powdered minerals were used to render the images. Some wall art dates to 64,000 […]
Regardless of whether your childhood was good or bad or something in between, cartoons were part of it. The thrill of collecting original animation cels is holding a piece of your childhood in your hands and displaying it in a place of honor. Thousands of drawings comprise the animated shows and movies created between 1930 […]
Decorative arts objects represent the pinnacle of luxury. There’s something inherently decadent about buying something that serves no purpose except to sit there in a corner or on a shelf and look pretty. That’s it, that’s it’s job – to look pretty, and to make you happy. On September 1, starting at 7 pm Eastern […]
Anyone familiar with Chinese art history would be familiar with Qi Baishi (1864-1957), the renowned painter whose whimsical depictions of common objects and creatures made him a darling among collectors and art aficionados. Largely self-taught, Qi Baishi painted everything from animals to scenery to figures to vegetables. He was particularly fond of painting shrimps, fish, […]
A woman’s work is never done, and rarely receives the appreciation it is due. Even when the name of the artist is lost to history, antique American textiles – be they quilts or samplers or something else entirely – are almost always the product of the labor of women or girls. Hundreds of hours of […]
Though the notion is not complete and utter bunk, Vikings generally didn’t wear helmets with horns on them. They did wear jewelry, however, and their jewelry is remarkably fine and sophisticated for a group of people (not a nation – there’s no such place as Vikland) from medieval Scandinavia who made their mark on history […]
The one-cent coin that became known as the “wheat penny” was minted in the United States for nearly half a century, from 1909 to 1958. Yet that span of time represents one of the most collectible periods for the penny because of the unusual number of changes to its design. The 1909 centennial of the birth […]
NEW YORK — Toy robots have been popular for decades, and nobody built them better than Japanese manufacturers of the 1950s and 1960s. Several Japanese toymakers achieved global market dominance by pioneering technology that powered tinplate toys with batteries. Japan’s oldest toy company is Masudaya, also known as Modern Toys. During the post-World War II […]
You can own a Picasso. Yes, you. You can also own a Calder, a Chagall, a Dali, or a fine work by another well-respected Modern artist. Woodcuts, lithographs, and other forms of prints place these storied names in reach of budding collectors. On August 11, starting at 1 pm Eastern time, Jasper52 will conduct a […]
Heirloom jewelry carries its own unique magic. Even if a given piece is not to your taste, it’s hard to deny the romance of knowing that your grandmother wore these glamorous Colombian emerald drop earrings, or your great-great grandfather proposed to his bride with this five-carat diamond ring, or the eldest daughter in your mother’s […]