2013 Expert Eye Lectures with Book Signings

Lectures are held in the "Tiffany" Room at the Park Avenue Armory. Seating is on a first-come basis and is complimentary with Show admission.


Creating a Sense of Place:
The Role of Antiques in Contemporary Interiors
Friday, January 25, 4:00 p.m.
Thomas Jayne
Author, American Decoration: A Sense of Place

Thomas Jayne, chronicler and creator of fine interiors, is the author of the recently published book, American Decoration, A Sense of Place, which documents his own interior decoration, and also The Finest Rooms in America, 50 Influential Interiors from the 18^th Century to the Present. The presentation will focus on the way he uses antiques in the rooms he creates using examples from his new book.

Thomas Jayne is the founder and principal of Jayne Design Studio in New York City. His interiors reflect his passion and wide-ranging knowledge of classical traditions and his quest to foster those traditions within more contemporary design. Jayne holds a Master’s degree in American decorative arts and architecture from Wintethur, and has completed fellowships at the American Wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the J. Paul Getty Museum.



Painters and Paintings in the Early American South: 1735-1780
Presented by The Magazine Antiques and Elle Shushan
Saturday, January 26, 5:00 p.m.
Carolyn J. Weekley
Juli Grainger Curator, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation

This lecture from Carolyn Weekley presents new and older research from letters, diaries, newspapers, and other sources about painters and paintings in the early American South from about 1735 to1780.  Issues covered include the web of relationships connecting sitters, friends and relations, clients, and artists; stylistic trends of the period; the lives and training of artists; and the range of paintings created for the wealthiest southerners to the middle class.  The talk focuses primarily on art from the settlements along the east coast from Maryland to Georgia. 

Carolyn J. Weekley is the Juli Grainger Curator at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. She has also held key curatorial and management positions at the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. She is the author of John Singleton Copley: An American Painter Devoted Entirely to His Art; The Kingdoms of Edward Hicks; Joshua Johnson: Freeman and Early American Portrait Painter; and Painters and Paintings in the Early American South.

The Life of the House: How Rooms Evolve
Sunday, January 27, 4:00 p.m
Lady Henrietta Spencer-Churchill, BIID, FIIDA,
Spencer-Churchill Designs


Lady Henrietta celebrates the life of great rooms over the years and the evolution of their architectural features and interior decoration.

The eldest daughter of the 11^th Duke of Marlborough, Lady Henrietta has long been dedicated to the world of interior design, forming her first company, Woodstock Designs, in 1981. Her fabric and textile collections are sought internationally and her work encompasses full-service interior design and renovation of country house properties. Lady Henrietta is also an international lecturer and author, and has lectured at the Smithsonian, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Royal Ontario Museum, and the Victoria & Albert Museum.



French Art Nouveau Horn Jewelry
Monday, January 28, 2:30 p.m.
Benjamin Macklowe
Vice President, Macklowe Gallery

Benjamin Macklowe’s lecture on Art Nouveau horn jewelry bridges the worlds of Fashion, Jewelry History, and Art History, not only documenting how the horn jewelry was made but also examining how its aesthetic wove together artistic and fashion trends of the day.  The social milieu of the department store, La Vie Parisienne, advertising and popular concepts of women’s fashion will provide an exciting backdrop for the discussion. The lecture will also explore how prominent themes of the period such as Japonisme and a fascination with the East are reflected in both the vocabulary of insects and flowers as well as in the shapes of many horn bijoux de fantaisie.

Benjamin Macklowe, Vice President of Macklowe Gallery, has served as managing director of the world’s premier dealer of 20^th Century Decorative Arts for the last 16 years.  Celebrating 41 years on Madison Avenue, Macklowe Gallery is known for Tiffany—lamps and glass, French Art Nouveau furniture, bronzes, and ceramics, French cameo glass by Daum and Gallé, pâte-de-verre by Walter and Argy-Rousseau, and lithographs by Alphonse Mucha as well as Fine Antique and Estate Jewelry from 1800 forward. 



Lust & Love: The Eye Miniature in Georgian England
Wednesday, January 30, 5:00 p.m.
Elle Shushan
Co-Author, The Look of Love: Eye Miniatures from the Skier Collection


Elle Shushan is the co-author of The Look of Love, a stunning volume that explores the little-known subject of "lover’s eyes," hand-painted miniatures of single human eyes set in jewellery and given as tokens of affection or remembrance. In 1785, when the Prince of Wales secretly proposed to Mrs. Maria Fitzherbert with a miniature of his own eye, he inspired an aristocratic fad for exchanging eye portraits mounted in a wide variety of settings including brooches, rings, lockets and toothpick cases.

As the largest resource for exceptional portrait miniatures in America, Elle Shushan specializes in the full realm of the art. American, British and European miniatures on ivory, vellum and in enamel, ranging from the 16th through the 21st centuries.  In addition to many notable private collectors, Elle Shushan works with outstanding museum collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Worcester Art Museum, MESDA and the Yale University Art Gallery.



The Western Pursuit of the American Dream:
The Challenge of Collecting and Idea
Saturday, February 2, 4:00 p.m.
Kenneth W. Rendell
Author, The Great American West: Pursuing the American Dream


Private collections that have become world class, and frequently become permanent cultural institutions, all have two factors in common:  a vision or concept and a practical approach to acquiring the artifacts.  The thread that ties a collection together may not always be apparent at first, but it becomes apparent as the collection is formed.  The practical means may not seem to be an issue if there are many dealers and auction houses in the field, but can be very limiting if important pieces that are the lynch pins of the subject can’t be acquired.  Mr. Rendell will discuss these issues, tracing a collection that started as a kid buying war surplus in the 1940’s to what is now described as the most important World War II Museum in the world. 

Kenneth W. Rendell has been a dealer since 1959 in historical letters and documents, from the Renaissance to the present time, with offices in Boston and a gallery in New York City.  The business encompasses all areas, from the law, to politics, art, literature, music, science, etc.  He authored the standard reference books in the field, including History Comes to Life.

Loan Exhibition Lecture Series Schedule