Past Loan Exhibitions
2009: The Fragile Art: Extraordinary Objects from The Corning Museum of Glass
The Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, New York, is home to the world’s most comprehensive collection of glass. The museum displayed more than 50 exceptional objects at the 55th annual Winter Antiques Show. The loan exhibition presented works spanning four continents, more than three millennia, and the full range of artistic ingenuity and technical innovation in glass. Internationally renowned Vignelli Associates created the loan exhibition installation for the Winter Antiques Show. 
Installation views of the 2009 Winter Antiques Show loan
exhibition from the Corning Museum of Glass
Installation view of the 2009 Winter Antiques Show loan
exhibition from the Corning Museum of Glass
Amphoriskos (miniature amphora). Eastern Mediterranean or Italy, late third to second century B.C. Cane slices fused and shaped
by slumping and tooling. This unique object was made in two parts attached at the shoulder with rivets. The missing handles were also attached with rivets: two in the
neck and two in the shoulder. 
Covered Jar. Venice or Low Countries, late 16th to early 17th century. Vetro a filigrana (blown glass made with colorless and white canes), tooled. The white canes decorating this piece were formed and then arranged on the inside of a mold so that they could be picked up on a gather of colorless glass and tooled into the soft surface.
Sugar Bowl and Cream Pitcher. U.S., New York, probably Redwood or Redford Glass Works, 1835–1850. Blown, applied; coins enclosed in stems. Each stem encloses a U.S. silver half dime. The coin in the creamer is dated 1829, and that in the sugar bowl is dated 1835. There is another 1829 coin in the hollow knop of the sugar bowl’s lid. This pair of objects was probably made by a glassblower on his own time as a gift for his mother or wife. The Redwood and Redford glasshouses, both in northern New York State, made window glass, not tableware.
Bottiglia allegria (Happiness bottle). Italy, Murano, Vetri Decorativi Rag. Aureliano Toso, Dino Martens (Italian, 1894–1970), 1952. Blown zanfirico glass. This is an extraordinary example of the Muranese technique of picking up a flat arrangement of canes on a cylindrical marvered bubble of glass with neither overlap nor gaps, and without disturbing the arrangement.
The Corning Museum of Glass is home to the world’s most comprehensive collection of glass from all periods and cultures, ranging from ancient Egyptian and Renaissance Venetian masterpieces to contemporary works by such masters as Dale Chihuly and Josiah McElheny. The Museum’s scientific and technological exhibits—featuring interactive installations, original film footage, and objects such as the world’s largest piece of cast glass and intricately faceted lighthouse lamps—tell the story of historic advancements and contemporary innovations in glass technology. Live glassblowing demonstration stages and a state-of-the-art glassmaking studio are just two of the museum’s many resources. An Artist-in-Residence program gives six artists annually the opportunity to expand their work and to master new techniques. The Museum also houses the Rakow Research Library, the world’s foremost library on the art and history of glass and glassmaking. Two scholarly publications, New Glass Review and Journal of Glass Studies, are published annually by the Museum. For more information, please visit www.cmog.org.
2008: An Eye Toward Perfection:
The Shaker Museum and Library
The Shaker Museum and Library in Old Chatham, NY holds the most important collection of Shaker materials in the world. With more than half obtained directly from Shakers, the collection exhibits remarkable original finishes, superb quality, comprehensive scope, and impeccable provenance. The Museum's recent acquisition of the North Family property at Mount Lebanon Shaker Village united the collection with the site that was once the center of all Shaker life.
An Eye Toward Perfection included some of the best examples of objects that demonstrate Shaker principles of faith, community, industry, and design. Whether sacred or temporal, everything created by Shakers was done with the understanding that it reflected a commitment to earthly perfection. As a result of the Shakers' constant interaction between the physical and spiritual worlds, the standards for objects they created in this world were set by standards of the next. For more information, visit shakermuseumandlibrary.org. 
Installation view of the 2008 Winter Antiques Show Loan Exhibition
2007: Southern Perspective:
A Sampling from the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts
The Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts (MESDA) in Winston-Salem, North Carolina is home to the world’s most comprehensive collection of fine and decorative arts made in the American South before 1820. MESDA exhibited over fifty of its rare, historic objects at the 53rd annual Winter Antiques Show. The loan exhibition, designed by Stephen Saitas and sponsored by the Chubb Group of Insurance Companies for an eleventh consecutive year.
Founded in 1965 by Frank L. Horton and his mother, Theo L. Taliaferro, MESDA's mission is to collect, raise awareness of, and pioneer research in the category of early southern decorative arts. The antebellum American South was an area of diverse peoples, cultures, lifestyles and geographic regions. According to Robert Leath, Vice-President of Collections and Research at MESDA, the collection helps “dispel the myth that the South was a cultural monolith. In fact, it was a vibrant place with a mixture of cultural and religious groups—English, Scottish, African, German, Dutch and French Huguenot—that melded and, in the process, created distinctive objects that are part of our shared American culture."
The loan exhibition featured works that represent the three areas of MESDA’s South: the Low Country, the Chesapeake region and the Backcountry. The Chesapeake area and the Low Country are situated on the southern coastline. Both areas prospered in early America by exporting cash crops, such as cotton and tobacco, leading to the creation of urban trade centers that emulated sophisticated notions of English style and design. Located inland, the Backcountry encompasses parts of present day Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia and the Carolinas. Many of these settlers were Europeans who had escaped religious persecution and found a new home that became a potpourri of national cultures and ethnic styles.
For more information, visit the MESDA website at MESDA.org. 
Installation view of the 2007 Winter Antiques Show Loan Exhibition
2006: George Washington's Mount Vernon
George Washington's Mount Vernon Estate & Gardens is steeped in American history, with the richest and most comprehensive collection of George Washington-related artifacts and works of art in the world. Although primarily remembered for his contributions as general of the Continental Army and first president of the country, Washington was also a farmer, inventor, and architect. Mount Vernon's collection show Washington's awareness and interest in 18th century style and design and offers a glimpse into how the Washingtons lived over 200 years ago. The historic home of the nation's first president displayed dozens of significant treasures at the 52nd annual Winter Antiques Show. Designed by Stephen Saitas, the Winter Antiques Show loan exhibition was underwritten by the Chubb Group of Insurance Companies for the tenth consecutive year.
Most of the objects included in the loan exhibition were not on display at Mount Vernon. In October 2006, these objects joined hundreds of others displayed in their new home at Mount Vernon, in the Ford Orientation Center and Donald W. Reynolds Museum & Education Center. The education complex is the major component of a campaign by George Washington's Mount Vernon Estate & Garden to create a state of the art facility that will help illuminate the life and legacy of the "Father of Our Country."
A new book on the fine and decorative arts of Mount Vernon, written by Curator Carol Borchert Cadou, was published by Hudson Hills Press to coincide with the Museum's opening.
For public information call 703.780.2000; 703.799.8697 (TDD) or visit Mountvernon.org.
Installation view of the 2006 Winter Antiques Show Loan Exhibition
2005: The New-York Historical Society Bicentennial:
Celebrating Two Centuries of Collecting
The New-York Historical Society holds one of the world's foremost collections of historical artifacts, American art, and other materials documenting the history of the United States and New York. It is home to both one of the nation's most distinguished independent research libraries and New York City's oldest museum. Founded in 1804, its mission is to explore the richly layered history of New York City and State and the country, and serve as a national forum for the debate and examination of issues surrounding the making and meaning of history.
Highlights of the New-York Historical Society exhibition includedthe original watercolor rendering Great Blue Heron from John James Audubon’s famed Birds of America series; the armchair used by George Washington during his inauguration ceremony, and also in the ceremonies of presidents Ulysses S. Grant and James A. Garfield; a rare Tiffany Studios Cobweb lamp; and a selection of colonial and early American silver, including a teapot (ca. 1695) that may be the earliest extant example made in New York, and an elaborate presentation vase (1829) by noted Philadelphia silversmith Thomas Fletcher.
For more information, visit nyhistory.org. 
Open storage at the New-York Historical Society
2004: A Celebration of the American Wing,
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
At the 2004 Winter Antqiues Show, A Celebration of the American Wing, the Metropolitan Museum of Art showcased the Museum's vast collection with a selection of paintings and decorative arts objects from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Colonial period highlights included a fine portrait (1773) by John Singleton Copley, a beautifully carved Philadelphia Chippendale tea table (1765-75), and a magnificent basket (1770-76) by master silversmith Myer Myers. The nineteenth-century display included a Federal-period pier tea table (1815-19) by Charles-Honore Lannuier, a secretary desk (c. 1882) by the Herter Brothers, Augustus Saint-Gauden's bronze Diana (1894 or after), John Singer Sargent's Mr. and Mrs. I.N. Phelps Stokes (1897), and a selection of favrile glass vases by Louis Comfort Tiffany. This exhibition, which included many rarely loaned objects, suggested both the depth and breadth of the American Wing's collection.
Housed in the American Wing, the Metropolitan Museum of Art's collection of American art is the most comprehensive in the world, reflecting the Museum's long commitment to acquiring, exhibiting, and studying the nation's fine and decorative arts. More than 18,000 paintings, sculptures, and decorative arts are currently accessible to the public on four floors of the gallery and study areas. The period rooms and galleries survey American art from the seventeenth to the early twentieth century. The American Wing has recently completed two phases of significant alteration, which reflect the Metropolitan's continual dedication to the acquistion, display, and interpretation of American art of the highest quality, breadth, and interest.
For more information, please visit metmuseum.org.
The newly renovated Englehard Court in the American Wing
2003: American Dreams, American Visions:
The Collections of Shelburne Museum
Founded by Electra Havemeyer Webb, the Shelburne Museum has been described as "Vermont's Smithsonian." One of the earliest collectors of Americana and American folk art, Electra Havemeyer Webb opened the museum to the public in 1947. Aptly characterized as a "collection of collections," the museum houses one of America's most extensive collections of folk, fine, and decorative arts in 37 historic buildings and houses. The product of a lifetime of collecting by Mrs. Webb, the offerings include European Impressionist paintings displayed in Mrs. Webb's recreated Park Avenue residence, hundreds of duck decoys housed in an 1832 country home, and the 220-foot steam boat Ticonderoga, a National Historic Landmark.
American Dreams, American Visions: The Collections of Shelburne Museum showcased the eclectic mix of Shelburne's collection of more than 80,000 objects spanning three centuries, and demonstrated Webb's commitment to establishing one of the most impressive assortments of paintings, folk art, textiles, decorative arts, artifacts, and architecture. The Mary Cassatt pastel Louisine Havemeyer and Her Daughter Electra (1895), Grandma Moses' After the Wedding (1942), and the pair of portraits by William Prior of The Reverend John Lawson and Mrs. Lawson (1843), were joined by striking examples of weather vanes, trade signs, textiles, and decoys.
For more information, visit the Shelburne Museum website at Shelburnemuseum.org.
Mary Cassatt, Louisine Havemeyer and Her
Daughter Electra
2002: Shells, Scrolls & Cabrioles:
American Furniture from Winterthur
The 2002 Winter Antiques Show loan exhibition came from the Winterthur Museum, Garden, and Library, which celebrated its 50th anniversary that year. Located in Winterthur, Delaware, Wintherthur Museum is known worldwide for its preeminent collection of more than 85,000 American antiques. The special loan exhibition featured masterpieces from Henry Francis du Pont's comprehensive collections. Henry Francis du Pont was committed to establishing one of the most impressive assortments of ceramics, glass, textiles, silver, paintings, and prints made or used in America from 1640 to 1860. The loan exhibition included outstanding furntiure from Winterthur's extensive collection.
During the week of the Show, Winterthur also presented the Henry Francis du Pont Award for Decorative Arts and Architecture, which honors those who have contributed significantly to the understanding and enjoyment of America's heritage through collecting, studying, or promoting the American arts, particularly the decorative arts and historic architecture.
For more information, visit the Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library website at Winterthur.org.
The Winterthur Museum
2001: "The Best Is Not Too Good For You":
Colonial Williamsburg Celebrates 75 Years of Collecting
The 2001 Winter Antiques Show honored the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation with a special exhibition. The display featured some of the finest pieces from the Foundation's more than 60,000 objects, including furniture, paintings, folk art, scultpure, textiles and clothing accessories, prints and maps, ceramics, glassware, metalware, tools, and instruments.
Colonial Williamsburg, the nation's oldest and largest outdoor living history musuem, comprises the reconstructed 18th century capital of Virginia and also houses two world-class museums: The DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum and the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum. The Wallace Museum, supported by the DeWitt Wallace Fund for Colonial Williamsburg, displays the Foundation's exceptional collection of British and American decorative arts. The Folk Art Museum, which houses the late Mrs. Rockefeller's permanent collection of 484 objects and several changing exhibitions each year, is the first institution in the U.S. devoted exclusively to collecting, exhibiting, and researching American folk art. For more information, visit the Colonial Williamsburg website at Colonialwilliamsburg.org.
Gallery in the Dewitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum
2000: Away off Shore: From the Collection of the Nantucket Historical Association
1999: A Centennial Celebration: Collections from the New York State Historical Association
1998: Historic Deerfield: Collecting for a New England Village
1997: Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum: Celebrating 100 Years
1996: My Favorite Chair
1995: Edgewater on the Hudson: Drawing Room Collection of Richard Hampton Jenrette
