ONCE upon a time there were four little Rabbits, and their names were Flopsy, Mopsy, Cotton-tail, and Peter. They lived with their Mother in a sand-bank, underneath the root of a very big fir-tree … and so goes the story of Peter Rabbit. I think we all remember it and other Beatrix Potter stories from our childhood. Helen Beatrix Potter (28 July 1866 – 22 December 1943) was an English author, illustrator, mycologist and conservationist. She is best known for her many best-selling beautifully illustrated children's books that featured animal characters. Potter wrote the story of Peter Rabbit when she was 27, contained in a letter to the 5 year old son of a former governess. She later expanded it, added more pictures and self-published it in 1901. The Tale of Peter Rabbit was commercially published the next year. Potter was a shrewd business woman and patented the character Peter Rabbit, making him the first patented literary character. She followed it with The Tale of Squirrel N...

I just added a new set of links to the sites that I use most for researching antiques. I hope you will find these as useful as I have. Chicago Silver has created a massive list of just about every online site that provides silver and jewelry marks. This site is also an excellent source of information on American Arts & Crafts Metalwork. Illusion Jewels has an extensive list of jewelry history, marks and signatures. There are also excellent articles on a wide variety of 20th century jewelry designers. My Granny's Antiques has an excellent list of pottery, porcelain and china backstamps, along with a bit of history of manufacturers. For English Potters, I recommend Pottery-English.com , which has extensive information on famous English potters. A very good general reference is the International Ceramics Directory . Jan-Erik Nilsson of Gotheborg.com , has put together a collector's help and information site for collectors of antique Chinese and Japanese Porcelain. It ...

Artistic Luxury: Fabergé, Tiffany, Lalique is the first comparative study of the work of the three greatest jewelry and decorative arts designers at the turn of the 20th century: Peter Carl Fabergé, Louis Comfort Tiffany, and René Lalique. Fabergé, Tiffany, and Lalique found their rivalry at the 1900 World’s Fair in Paris—the only exposition where all three showed simultaneously and where the work of each was prominently displayed. Some of their most elaborate designs for the Paris World’s Fair are reunited for the first time in a gallery recreating the ambiance of this opulent international exposition. Looking critically at the development, design, and marketing of each firm, this exhibition explores how these designers responded to the demand for luxury goods in the years leading up to World War I. • Preamble to the exhibit at the Legion of Honor, 2009 We finally got our chance to go to this fabulous exhibition … and we were definitely not disappointed. One word will suffice … WOW!...

On a recent trip to Southern California, we made a detour to a shop we had heard about that was in Fullerton – Gilding the Lily . We drove through the netherlands of the mid-LA metro area to find this little oasis that is the downtown area of Fullerton. A real delight! Both the town and the shop. Nancy Jamar has this little shop which opens onto an old-time courtyard, packed with vintage stuff – from books and paper to jewelry making supplies galore! What’s more, Nancy holds classes at a big table in one end of the shop. Instructors from all over show enthusiastic crafters how to make beautiful things, like jewelry and shadow boxes, how to work with textiles and beads, and just have fun. We found some interesting items for our own cache of crafting stuff. A few old books – a botany treatise from the late 1900s, a delightful little French book and an old Farmer’s Record filled with handwritten notes on butter & cream, feedstock, tools and all sorts of things. Then there were ...

Marti Somers stopped in Vintages a while back and bought an old autograph album. It was a lovely red velvet covered book, half filled with autographs from friends of Alice in the late 1880s. Alice was from Kemptville, Ontario, Canada. While most folks would love this book for the autographs, beautiful writing and clever notations, Marti saw something more. She loved the old paper from the unsigned pages! Marti is an artist. Her art “takes you into the artist's world of whimsical canvases and playful narrations. She explores such subjects as the fragility of nature in contrast to modern life, the human form in balance with other living creatures, and simply the magic found in an ordinary day.” So Marti Somers transformed Alice’s book … it’s pages resurfaced in a painting she has titled Vintage Alice . Alice is now a 30”x36” mixed media work that uses 24 pages from the autograph album, each with its own special image, that are imbedded in the larger painting in which she manages to p...