Collector’s Guide to Decorative Arts & Antiques

Artful Objects

Each year sees countless fine art and antique shows, many of them concentrated on the East Coast, migrating with the seasons from the quaint New England enclaves of Nantucket, Massachusetts, and Newport, Rhode Island, to Delaware, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., all the way down to Palm Beach, Florida.

Classical George Washington shelf clock, made for the American market likely by Jean-Baptiste Dubuc (1743-1817), Paris, ca. 1815. Retailed by Thomas, Benjamin, and Samuel DeMilt, New York. Image courtesy Sotheby’s.

These shows feature an eclectic mix of historic fine art, Americana, antiques, furniture, decorative arts, jewelry, silver and more. Often staged to simulate a room in a grand home, dealer booths allow collectors to step back in time and experience fine art in situ with complementary décor.

Through our coverage of these fine art and antique shows, and speaking with event producers and exhibitors about the demographics of their visitors, we have learned that our readers’ interests extend beyond painting and sculpture to include other decorative items of historical note.

American silver three-handled loving cup, mark of Tiffany & Co., New York, ca. 1898, 9½ in. © Christie’s Images Limited.With this in mind, we bring you our annual Collector’s Guide to Decorative Arts and Antiques, a special section devoted to this sector of the art market and how it relates to the historic American art at the core of this magazine’s focus. In the following pages you will hear from Yale University Gallery’s decorative arts curator John Stuart Gordon about how, when viewed together, art and other examples of material culture provide greater insight into periods of history than when considered separately. In another piece, Christie’s head of Americana Cara Zimmerman discusses the success of their January sale and what it indicates about the decorative art market at large. We also have a feature on an exhibition at the Gibbes Museum of Art that combines paintings, sculpture and decorative arts to illuminate aspects of Southern culture during the Colonial era that have largely been obscured.

residential dinner plate from the White House State Dinner Service ordered by Mary Lincoln in May 1861, Limoges, France: Haviland & Co., 1861. © Christie’s Images Limited.

We also have previews of upcoming fairs, including the Philadelphia Show, which is among the most prestigious events of its kind; and, at the very end of the section, a comprehensive calendar of this year’s fine art shows so you can begin planning your 2024 collecting adventures.