FEATURE
FEATURE
Books
Received
by M.A.D. Staff
T
hese are brief reviews of books
recently sent to us. We have included
ordering information for publishers
that accept phone or online orders. For
other publishers, your local bookstore or a
mail-order house is the place to look.
Edith Halpert, The Downtown Gallery,
and the Rise of American Art by Rebecca
Shaykin (The Jewish Museum, under
the auspices of the Jewish Theological
Seminary of America, and Yale
University Press, 2019, 232 pages,
hardbound, $50).
This book is an overdue celebration of
the life of Edith Halpert (1900-1970) and
her Downtown Gallery in New York City.
It was published in conjunction with an
exhibition of the same name at the Jewish
Museum in New York City that runs through
February 2. Halpert founded her gallery in
1926 at the then-unusual location of 113
West 13th Street in Greenwich Village, at
the time that the neighborhood was gaining
a reputation as a haven for the avant-garde.
Considered the first significant female
gallerist, she embraced art and artists not
considered fashionable at a time when the
American arts scene was still preoccupied
with the Colonial Revival movement.
The 1913 show at the 69th Regiment
Armory had introduced Americans to
modern art, and Halpert, a Jewish Russian
immigrant, established her gallery on the
premise that art should be as pluralistic
as America. At its opening, it was the
only gallery in New York City devoted
to contemporary art by living artists.
The list of artists she championed over
the next decades reads like a roll call of
20th-century American art: Stuart Davis,
Charles Sheeler, Jacob Lawrence, Georgia
O’Keeffe, Marsden Hartley, Marguerite
Zorach, and Max Weber, to name a few.
“Our gallery has no special prejudice for
any school,” Halpert said. “Its selection
is directed by what’s enduring—not by
what is in vogue.” The gallery was a new
kind of place, not only for exhibitions
and sales, but a place for artists to gather.
Halpert was an ardent believer in the
democracy of art, yet her name is scarcely
recognized today, even by art scholars.
This beautifully produced and illustrated
book and the current exhibition may well
restore her reputation as trailblazing figure
in American art.
102 Maine Antique Digest, January 2020
Renoir: The Body, The Senses, edited by Esther Bell and George T.M.
Shackelford (Clark Art Institute in collaboration with the Kimbell
Art Museum, distributed by Yale University Press, 2019, 264 pages,
hardbound, $55).
“It will be the verdict of posterity that Renoir was the greatest painter
of the nude of all time,” read the Manchester Guardian obituary of the
French Impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919). Renoir, famed
as one of the leading exponents of the Impressionist movement, grew up
in the shadow of the Louvre in Paris and attended the École des Beaux-
Arts, where anatomy was a core component of the curriculum. His early
success in painting is well documented, but this catalog explores how by
the 1880s, when Renoir had “wrung Impressionism dry,” his focus shifted
following a revelatory visit to Italy where he studied classic works of art
and applied his experience of them to his work. Paintings such as Gustave
Courbet’s The Bathers were influential, and from that time on his nude
paintings departed into a kind of radical territory, an “Arcadian elsewhere,”
where his compositions of figures seemed to aspire to abstraction, their
flesh catching the light, reflecting their fleeting impressions.
One hundred years after Renoir’s death, this book, a collaboration
between the Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts, and the
Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas, takes an extensive and critical
view of the nudes of his oeuvre. Sterling Clark, the founder of the Clark
Institute, and a major collector of Renoir’s work, said in 1941 that Renoir expression, and critical analysis is through the
was the “greatest of painters for taste and color of feminine beauty.” lens of modern feminism. Sublimely illustrated
The sensuality of his subject matter is undeniable. Renoir was often with not only Renoir’s work but of those whose
reproached for emphasizing the models’ sensuality at the expense of their work intersects in his choice of subject matter,
interior lives, and this is discussed in depth in the book’s six chapters, this book also considers Renoir’s continuing
which range from “Renoir’s Early Nudes” to “Renoir’s Tactile Gaze” and influence on the female figure in art.
“Renoir’s Late Nudes.” Comparison with the nude subject matter of artists The exhibition Renoir: The Body, The Senses
such as Degas, Cézanne, Picasso and others is offered and analyzed. The text is on view at the Kimbell Art Museum through
goes on to examine the ways Renoir used the nude as a means of personal January 26.
Artist in Exile: The Visual Diary of Baroness Hyde de Neuville by
Roberta J.M. Olson (New-York Historical Society Museum &
Library, in association with D Giles Limited, 2019, 268 pages,
hardbound, $49.95).
This handsomely illustrated volume is the first in-depth compilation
of the art of the Baroness Hyde de Neuville, formally known as Anne
Marguérite Joséphine Henriette Rouillé de Marigny (1771-1849),
whose very remarkable life on both sides of the Atlantic came about as
a result of her marriage in 1794 to Jean Guillaume Hide (1776-1857).
The book has been issued in tandem with an exhibition at the New-
York Historical Society that runs through January 26.
The Baroness de Neuville, a gifted artist and a rapt observer of
life, kept a “visual diary” almost all her years, and the vast trove of
her work (the largest surviving body of work by a woman up until
that time), along with the written diaries of her husband, offers an
unparalleled glimpse, not only of life in Paris and its environs during
the French Revolution but also in early 19th-century New York. The
baron, a loyalist to the monarchy, was convicted for allegedly plotting
to kill Napoleon. He and his wife became fugitives, living first under
various assumed identities and then fleeing France altogether. At some
point they changed their surname to Hyde de Neuville. The baroness,
seeking a pardon to clear her husband’s name, pursued Napoleon
around Europe, seeking an audience with him, which was eventually
granted. There was no pardon, but Napoleon did allow the couple to
The illustrations of landscapes, buildings,
retain their wealth in exchange for exile in America, commenting,
bridges, and people, indigenous and immigrant,
“You are a worthy woman. I am sorry that I can’t grant you more.”
by the baroness and her contemporaries paint a
The de Neuvilles arrived in New York in 1807, having been delayed
vivid portrait of a young America, and are further
in Spain because their ship was attacked by pirates. Once in New York
enhanced by explanatory text and essays on this
they became active members of the American political and social
peripatetic duo who come alive in this book’s
society. The baron opened a school for French refugees and eventually
pages.
became an admired diplomat.
Forever Seeing New Beauties: The Forgotten Impressionist Mary
Rogers Williams, 1857-1907 by Eve M. Kahn (Wesleyan University
Press, 2019, 272 pages, hardbound, $35).
This engaging biography of the virtually forgotten American
Impressionist artist Mary Rogers Williams (1857-1907) is culled from
a large trove of letters, artwork, and ephemera found in a house in
Waterford, Connecticut, in 2012 and lovingly assembled by Eve Kahn,
historian, journalist, and former antiques columnist for the New York
Times. Williams, the free-spirited daughter of a baker from Hartford,
studied at the Art Students League in New York City and was a member
of the art department at Smith College from 1888 to 1906. During her
summer vacations she traveled widely in Europe, where she attracted
attention by walking from village to village, sketching people, buildings,
and landscapes. An exuberant writer, she penned letters to her sisters
back home almost every day with anecdotes and sketches of the people
and scenery she saw.
The thousands of pages of correspondence, a good selection of which
is included here, yield a portrait of a witty, spirited, fiercely independent
young woman who bridled against the era’s male-dominated art world.
Despite this, her work was exhibited successfully during her lifetime in Italy in 1907 is documented also, in evocative
and afterward. Her work, many examples of which are included, has letters by her last traveling companions. This is
been described as “Tonalist” because of the sparing use of color she a biography of a most unusual and captivating
used, especially in her landscape pastels and oils. Her untimely death woman.

The Beverly Pottery: The Wares of Charles
A. Lawrence by Justin W. Thomas
(Historic Beverly, 2019, 102 pages,
softbound, $12 plus S/H from Historic
Beverly, [www.historicbeverly.net/shop]
or [978] 922-1186).
Justin Thomas is a collector and historian
of 18th- and 19th-century domestic utilitarian
pottery, particularly from New England,
and is a frequent contributor on this subject
to Maine Antique Digest. This new book
concentrates on the pottery industry in and
around Beverly, Massachusetts, 18 miles
northeast of Boston.
The Beverly Pottery was a major industry
on the Bass River from the 1860s until the
early years of the 20th century. Founded by
Charles A. Lawrence (1829-1904), son of a
Portuguese immigrant who had operated a
pottery in nearby Charleston, it produced a
wide variety of redware jugs, pitchers, and
jars of various sizes, as well as stoneware
and tile pipe. Though many of these pieces
survive, little is known about the factory
itself. Thomas has made a great effort to
close this gap.
Lawrence’s enterprise, so typical of the
19th century, used locally sourced clay and
employed potters and artists who adorned
the vessels with its signature kaolin slip
decoration. The 1876 Centennial Exhibition
in Philadelphia fanned an interest in and a
market for antiquities, and Lawrence was
quick to adopt new styles of pottery that
featured Japanese, Greek, and Egyptian
motifs. Thomas offers a comprehensive
and well-illustrated review of this nearly
forgotten enterprise that was an integral part
of the ceramics industry in New England.
Legacies in Steel: Personalized and Historical German
Military Edged Weapons 1800-1990 by Hermann Hampe
and Rick Dauzat (Casemate Publishers
[www.casematepublishers.com], 2019, 608 pages,
hardbound, $200, with discounted prices available from
some online sellers).
Inside the Head of a Collector: Neuropsychological Forces
at Play by Shirley M. Mueller, MD (Lucia|Marquand,
distributed by ACC Art Books, 2019, 192 pages,
hardbound, $40).
What makes collectors collect? Attempts to answer this
question have often appeared in this publication and in others.
A new undertaking in this realm comes from author Shirley
Mueller, who is all at once a practicing neurologist, a financial
advisor, and a collector of Chinese export porcelain. Mueller
gives us examples from her own collecting adventures in
which authentic and inauthentic porcelains are shown side
by side with accompanying photos of brain imaging and
scientific explanations. To answer the above question, some
of the reasons people collect are (not necessarily in this
order) intellectual reward, social interaction, enjoyment of
possession, and thrill of the hunt. Also, because it makes us
happy!
There are regions in the brain that respond to pleasure,
anticipation, pain, and so on, and these can be identified to
some extent by Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging
(fMRI). Mueller, with her scientific background, has a
particular view of the mechanics of desire and satisfaction,
which include the neurological evidence of what goes on
when a collector is at work. But that is not to say that this
book is a dry, clinical treatise on what neurons do when
confronted with a famille rose teapot. Mueller has the passion
of a collector, and she fully understands the allure and pitfalls
of the hunt.
Besides being full of illustrations of fine porcelain,
Mueller’s book also shares numerous anecdotes. For example:
“I walked into an art gallery on Madison Avenue in New
York. I meant to browse, look at merchandise, perhaps learn a
thing or two and leave. What I found was a Winslow Homer
painting....” Which of us has not had a moment like this?
Mueller takes us through the gamut, with chapters on novelty
and discovery, fakes, damage and loss, bargains, collecting
gone awry (some call it hoarding), art as an investment, and
collection dispersal. She reveals the motivations underlying
what happens when we see that teapot or painting. Striking
an adroit balance between the jargon of behavioral science
and the talk of antiques, this book comes out in the end being
insightful, informative, and entertaining.
The lore of swords and daggers is embodied in
the legends of King Arthur’s Excalibur and Ed Cid’s
Tizona, which were thought to possess mythical
powers. This massive volume, with its unusual
oblong shape to accommodate its elongated subject
matter, pays homage to German military edged
weapons created from 1800 to 1990. One hundred
of these are featured in breathtaking closeup
photographs dramatically set against black or dark
backgrounds that show beyond question the superb
artistry and craftsmanship of these items of war.
The book’s introduction claims it is “the largest
compendium of personalized edged weapons
published to date.” The swords, sabers, and degens
(medieval-style short swords), culled from museums
and private collections, are works of art in their own
right, and were used by nobility, aristocrats, high-
ranking military personnel as well as by soldiers and
seamen. Redolent of heraldry and chivalry, each is
a representation of its bearer. Crafted from Solingen
or Damascus steel, considered the finest in the
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Off the Wall: American Art to Wear, edited by
Dilys E. Blum (Philadelphia Museum of Art, in
association with Yale University Press, 2019, 216
pages, hardbound, $45).
This book traces the ascent of “wearable art,” a
movement within the fashion world that began in the
countercultural days of the late 1960s when fine artists
began experimenting with nontraditional forms and
materials to create similarly nontraditional apparel. The
subject of an exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum
of Art (until May 17), this new volume describes in
detail the one-of-a-kind clothing created by a group of
more than 75 American artists. The 1967 “Summer of
Love,” the ever-present backdrop of social unrest, and
reaction against design parameters inherited from the
Bauhaus movement of the 1930s helped set the stage
for new expressions in form and materials. Protests
against faculty by students frustrated with what they saw
as antiquated ways of teaching art at Brooklyn’s Pratt
Institute were agents of change, as was an exhibition
called Wall Hangings at the Museum of Modern Art in
New York City. These young artists made the migration
from creating fine art to making apparel, attracted by
the colorful textiles of Central and South America, and
designed clothing that treated the human body as an
armature, a framework for their artistic creations. This
gave rise to enthusiasm for “fiber art,” and the pattern
and decoration movement, which was antithetical to
minimalism and conceptual art.
The book is divided into five chapters that trace the
artistic and cultural events of the era, “Collisions,”
“Connections,” “Vibrations,” “Articulations,” and
“Reverberations.” Jean Cacicedo, a student at Pratt at
that time, is quoted as saying that artists were interested
in “art fashioned for the body, not ‘fashionable’ art.”
The reader is taken on a colorful journey from the 1960s
through 1997, by which time the innovations of the
movement had been assimilated into fashion as a whole.
With its 1960s typography, eye-catching apparel, and
engaging narrative and commentary, this book tells the
story of an unrepresented facet of a cultural movement.
world, many are exquisitely engraved and decorated
in gold and ivory.
The descriptive texts attempt to “put a face to these
otherwise inanimate objects” and feature biographies
and photographs of their owners, some of which
are colorized, which makes them seem alive. The
book’s chapters classify its contents with sections
that include “Prussian Naval Daggers,” “Imperial
German Army Sabers, Degens and Pallasches,”
“Imperial German Automobile and Aero Corps
Daggers,” and so on, from the early 19th century
up until the end of the Third Reich. Nazi symbolism
seems deliberately scarce. The texts, set alongside
the beautiful photography, seem more concerned
with the weapons’ owners and their exploits rather
than the provenance of the objects themselves. This
volume would nonetheless be of great interest to any
serious collector of German militaria.
Maine Antique Digest, January 2020 103
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Designs for Different Futures, edited by Kathryn B.
Hiesinger, Michelle Millar Fisher, Emmet Byrne,
Maite Borjabad López-Pastor, and Zoë Ryan
(Philadelphia Museum of Art, Walker Art Center, and
the Art Institute of Chicago, in association with Yale
University Press, 2019, 272 pages, softbound, $40).
How might design reframe our futures—socially,
aesthetically, and ethically? Predicting the future is always
a tricky business. Is the view to be utopian or dystopian?
This provocative book, an accompaniment to an
exhibition that will be seen in Philadelphia, Minneapolis,
and Chicago, operates on the belief that the future can be
better, morally and technologically.
The works by the featured designers are seen as being
profoundly democratic, in which the benefit of good,
thoughtful design is shared for the benefit of society as a
whole. Each of the book’s sections begins with an interview
with designers followed by their actual visions. Topics
include bodies, intimacy, food, materials, resources, cities,
and space. The first section concerns itself with inventions
that could aid people with disabilities, such as a robotic
exoskeleton that simulates and enhances body movement,
a 3-D-printed customized back support for those with
scoliosis, and prosthetics that adapt to the growth of
the user. This seems utopian enough, but what are the
implications of “bioprinting,” which creates living human
tissue cells that multiply into customized organs? The idea
of children’s clothing that grows as they do is appealing,
as is the ZXX typeface that is readable by the human eye
but is indecipherable by text-scanning software, whether
by a government agency or lone hacker.
Over 100 examples are given. Some are purely abstract
dreams while others present concrete ideas. Some are
already in existence, such as a global seed vault, a safe
depository for food crop seeds kept in a climate-controlled
400' deep former mine. The idea by a paleogeneticist
of “resurrecting the sublime” by identifying the gene
pathways of extinct plants in order to re-create their
aromas seems enchanting enough, but again, there are
troublesome implications if one looks farther afield.
Nonetheless, the book looks forward with hope in its
sights, and being a completely collaborative effort, it
offers a plethora of differing vantage points on the future.
The exhibit will be at the Philadelphia Museum of
Art through March 8, 2020, at the Walker Art Center
(Minneapolis) from September 12, 2020, to January 3,
2021, and at the Art Institute of Chicago, February 6,
2021, to May 16, 2021.

An Analysis of the Saltillo Style in Mexican Serapes
by Katharine Drew Jenkins (McCormick Gallery,
2019, 188 pages, softbound, $55 plus S/H from
McCormick Gallery, [www.thomasmccormick.com]
or [312] 226-6800).
The exquisite serapes known as Saltillos are as scarce
as knowledge of their origin is. They were made in
Mexico during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries,
a period of great technical achievement in the art of
weaving. The last were made more than a century ago,
and those that have survived are collector’s items.
Katherine Drew Jenkins (1906-1982) spent most of her
professional life researching and analyzing Saltillos. In
1951 they were the subject of a thesis for her master’s
degree in decorative arts at the University of California
at Berkeley. A pioneering effort at the time, her work has
been referenced countless times in subsequent papers
on the subject, but the thesis itself was inaccessible,
sequestered within the archives of the U.C. Berkeley
library. In his introduction, Thomas McCormick tells
of his efforts to gain access to and ultimately publish
Jenkins’s thesis in the form of this book. It is a companion
to an earlier work, Saltillo Serapes, A Survey: 1850-1920.
It is believed but not certain that the Mexican serape
is descended from the tilma, a shoulder garment worn
by Aztec men. The tilma is mentioned in the Codex
Mendoza, a history of the Aztec people and their
conquest by the Europeans written around 1591. What
is not known is how much of the design of the serape is
related to the region’s indigenous people and how much
was influenced by its Spanish conquerors. A serape
can serve as a coat, blanket, bedspread, tablecloth, or
cape. The earliest use of the word zarape, a derogatory
term, was in 1799. It is closely related to the poncho, a
Mexican blanket with a bocamanga, or neck opening.
Both are colorful woven blankets worn over the shoulder
by men, fastened on one side and open on the other. The
term Saltillo has come to designate a type of old serape,
much finer in quality than the ubiquitous ones intended
for tourists in modern times, produced in and around
Saltillo, the capital of the northeastern Mexican state
of Coahuila. A feature common to both is the diamond-
shaped center medallion.
The exact origin of Saltillos eluded Jenkins during her
many years of study. Her original inquiry and analysis
were confined to 48 examples. Despite her best efforts,
she regarded her work as incomplete. Her efforts to have
the thesis published during her lifetime were unsuccessful,
although she continued her research. After more than six
decades her groundbreaking work is in print, enhanced
with color prints and commentary by contemporary
experts in the field of Latin American textiles.

been seen as too perilous to undertake. My Antiques Journey by Bill

The Last Knight: The Art, Armor, and
Ambition of Maximilian I, edited by Pierre
Terjanian (The Metropolitan Museum of
Art, distributed by Yale University Press,
2019, 340 pages, hardbound, $65).
“What could be more precious to a king than an
armor that will safeguard his body in combat?”
the Emperor Maximilian I (1459-1519) is
reported to have said. Five hundred years after
his death, this lavish volume chronicles the
life—and armor—of the legendary warrior and
king of the Roman Empire, who might have
been crowned pope had the journey to Rome not
Featuring armor and objects from the
Metropolitan Museum of Art in New
York City, along with items from
collections in Europe and the Middle
East, it paints a vivid portrait of this
outsize figure who is not so well
known in the Western world.
This work illustrates the significance
of the armorer’s art during the late
medieval and early Renaissance
periods. Armor was far more than
a protective garb worn during
tournaments and battles. Deeply prized
and not available to ordinary soldiers,
it was literally the currency of power.
At the behest of the emperor, the most
celebrated armorers decorated their
creations with precious metals and
gems. Readers may be surprised to
know that sumptuous textiles were
worn over the armor as well; more
often than not they were destroyed in
battle. Armor was synonymous with
the wearer’s higher standing, and no
one was more concerned with this than
Maximilian, a man preoccupied with
expanding his sphere of influence and
establishing his legacy. This extensive
volume re-creates a world presided
over by a martial hero. The exhibition
of the same name is on view at the Met
through January 5.
D’Anjolell (Outskirts Press,
2019, 260 pages, softbound,
$24.95).
This autobiographical account
of the life of an antiques dealer
and appraiser is the story of Bill
D’Anjeloll, who grew up in
postwar northeast Philadelphia
in a world of close-knit family
and friends that conjures up
images of the Cunninghams
of television’s Happy Days.
This unpretentious tale follows
D’Anjeloll as he discovers the
joys of buying and selling at the
Golden Nugget Flea Market,
through his college days and early
career working in marketing and
at local auction houses, and
finally to his long association
with the Bucks County Antiques
Dealers Association as show
chair and president. Filled with warm and amusing anecdotes, it is peppered
with pricing tips and observations, printed in red, that further illuminate the
landscape of D’Anjeloll’s world.
The author shares with us the trials and tribulations of hosting antiques
shows in a changing economic climate, as the old guard hands over the reins
to a new generation, strategizing against the dilemmas of falling attendance
and rising rents. The book’s 48 chapters are an easy read, told in an upbeat,
positive style, and conclude with advice from D’Anjeloll on what’s hot and
what’s not, as well as tips on how to downsize and sell unwanted items, with
listings of his favorite antiques establishments in the Pennsylvania and New
Jersey area.

104 Maine Antique Digest, January 2020


Fragile Earth: The Naturalist Impulse in
Contemporary Art by Jennifer Stettler Parsons
(Florence Griswold Museum, distributed by Wesleyan
University Press, 2019, 120 pages, softbound, $32.95).
“A museum rarely has the opportunity to activate a
dynamic response to its surrounding environment,” writes
Rebekah Beaulieu, director of the Florence Griswold
Museum in Old Lyme, Connecticut, in the introduction to
this book on the exhibit of the same name, which closed
at the museum last September 8. What the exhibit and this
book strive to do is demonstrate the relevance of ecology
and nature in contemporary artistic practice.
Building upon the success of an earlier exhibit, Flora/
Fauna, this book illustrates the work of five artists who
created installations at the Griswold, all of whom are
concerned with issues of climate change and global
warming in the Anthropocene era, the newly minted term
for the current age in which we live, in which the effects of
human activity are the dominant influence on our planet.
The artists’ subject matter celebrates nature, not so much in
painterly representations but in installations that bring the
denizens of the natural world front and center. In that spirit,
we see the hallway of the 19th-century Griswold house
decorated with wallpaper made of 1000 insects arranged in
concentric geometric patterns created by Jennifer Angus.
There is a window full of jars full of insects preserved in
an amber-like substance. Artist Mark Dion has created
a Louise Nevelson-like cabinet full of colorful marine
debris: bottles, disposable lighters, and plastic balls
and netting; and a work entitled 300 Million Years of
Flight with silhouettes of bats, birds, and aircraft. James
Prosek contributes fine watercolors of plants and animals
reminiscent of John James Audubon as well as taxidermy.
Courtney Mattison re-creates an endangered coral reef in
ceramic sculptures. Amply illustrated, the book contains
essays and discussion by the artists. It asks the question,
“Nature is all around us, but do really we see it?
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Cosmos: The Art and Science of the Universe
by Roberta J.M. Olson and Jay M. Pasachoff
(Reaktion Books Ltd., distributed by the
University of Chicago Press, 2019, 320 pages,
hardbound, $49.95).
This book is about humankind’s fascination with
the heavens and its attempts to understand it through
art and science. It is a collaboration between two
people in unrelated professions: an astronomer and
an art historian. The authors, inspired by the 1985
visit of Halley’s Comet, embark on what they call “an
interdisciplinary study of astronomical phenomena
in art.” Generously illustrated, the book’s text
follows developments in astronomy and Western art
chronologically in broadly named chapters such as
“Astronomy,” “Constellations,” “Meteors, Bolides and
Meteor Showers,” and so on. We see a Renaissance
depiction of the heavens in a 1515 French tapestry and
The Astronomer, a 1668 oil by Vermeer. Farther along,
there is a Dadaist painting by the German painter
George Grosz alongside a discussion of eclipses of the
sun. The text combines cultural history and science
together in a diverse and entertaining narrative.
Kovels’ Antiques & Collectibles: Price Guide
2020 by Terry Kovel and Kim Kovel (Black
Dog & Leventhal Publishers, 2019, 538 pages,
softbound, $29.99).
This perennial antiques price guide, published
since 1968, lists 16,000 prices in 730 categories
with 2500 new color photos. Concentrating
almost exclusively on the American antiques and
collectibles market, its listings are for items that
sold between June 2018 and June 2019. The prices
quoted are either realized prices from auctions
or completed sales. Each section contains an
introductory section to help identify unknown
pieces in that category.
A glance at any of the pages shows the breadth
of the listings offered. These are presented
in a factual, no-nonsense format, with color
illustrations that are useful but not ostentatious, and
if the item is illustrated, this is noted in its listing.
The type size is small to enable more listings to
be included. Each section contains an explanatory
preface. There are tips scattered throughout, not
always germane to antiques or collecting, but
well meaning nonetheless. There is a section on
record-setting prices by category, and a special
center section is devoted to iconic designers of the
20th century. While no periodical guide can give
an absolute portrait of the antiques and collectibles
market in a given year, the Kovels’ guide,
although mainstream in nature, remains
one of the best.
Maine Antique Digest, January 2020 105