Seventy-five years of 'The Magazine Antiques,' 1922-1997

Magazine Antiques, Jan, 1997 by Wendell Garrett, Allison Eckardt Ledes

The 1970s and 1980s were a time of vast acceleration and expanding boundaries in collecting. Impassioned by the hunt and the prize, collectors parted with sums that, in the case of American furniture, broke the million-dollar barrier once reserved only for Continental pieces. The surge of interest in American paintings brought many little-known and largely overlooked artists to the forefront of museum galleries and the art marketplace. Regional studies of seventeenth-, eighteenth-, and early nineteenth-century traditions in furniture, silver, ceramics, and the like became scholarly pursuits, as did the ties that bind the arts of America's past with those of England and the Continent. The stricture that antiques had to be at least one hundred years old to be appreciated (and imported into this country duty free) was exploded when collectors and curators began to acquire pieces in the arts and crafts, art nouveau, and art deco styles of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

In the 1980s a new breed of collector purchased art and antiques for investment and as a hedge against inflation, only to be surprised (and sometimes caught short) when the market plummeted at the end of the decade. The proliferation of books about antiques was matched by the founding of specialist societies and organizations that united professionals and collectors. New magazines devoted to the field were started, some of which are still published today. Symposiums and antiques shows continued to spring up in ever more far-flung locations. In the wake of the wanton destruction of McKim, Mead and Whites Pennsylvania Station in New York City in the 1960s, impassioned preservationists sought to enact legislation to protect architecturally noteworthy buildings throughout the country. The Victorian Society, founded in America in 1966, drew attention to the sadly neglected Victorian heritage of the United States.

More recently, conservation and technology have entered the arena of appraisal and authentication of art and antiques, enabling scholars to make more firm attributions as to place of origin, age, and degree of restoration an object has received over the years. Many objects have been reinterpreted thanks to these scientific aids and have been the subject of articles published in ANTIQUES, including some of the masterpieces examined in this issue. Archaeology, once associated more with science and history than art, has provided reliable date ranges during which certain objects (mostly ceramics and metalwork) were avail: able in America. Archaeology is also an indispensable tool for studying groups such as blacks and American Indians, since objects unearthed near their dwellings can tell us about the lives they led.

In 1983, the principals of the trust created by Dorothy Elmhirst decided to sell the magazine and Garrett was recruited to assist in locating new owners who would be sympathetic to the great tradition and reputation the magazine had enjoyed for so many years. They accepted an offer from Sandra and Peter Brant, who, since taking the helm of the magazine in January 1984, have continued to nurture it with care and high regard.