Beauport's amethyst glass window in New York
In New York City, Ari Koppelman, chairman of Chanel, Inc., and of the Winter Antiques Show, opened the 56th annual exhibition at the Park Avenue Armory on January 21. One hundred ten Historic New England supporters were on hand for the “Philanthropists Opening,” one of the most important events of the museum and antiques world each year. Historic New England presented the one museum exhibition included in the show, Colonial to Modern: A Century of Collecting at Historic New England. Fifty stellar items from our collection–including the amethyst glass window from Beauport– were beautifully presented to illustrate the range of the organization’s 36 houses and collections, from folk art to high style and from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries.
Portrait of Woman and Quillwork in Shadowbox, possibly Italian 1700-1750
But don’t worry if you missed it, there are more collections from Beauport on the move. This weekend is the opening of “Papers Capers” at the Wenham Museum in Wenham, MA. This exhibit details the role paper played in the lives of families from the 17th century to today. (http://www.wenhammuseum.org/)
Historic New England has loaned two paper quillwork shadow boxes that normally hang in the Pineapple Room at Beauport. Quilling is a form of paper art that has been around for hundreds of years. As early as the 1500s, monks were using it as a decoration for their manuscripts, often in imitation of scrolled ironwork. Originally, the strips of paper were coiled around the end of a quill pen, hence the term quilling or quillwork. Another term, paper filigree, came about because the end result had the artwork looking as if it were made of ivory or very fine wood. Celebrate the opening of the exhibit this Sunday, February 7 at 2 PM with a paper snowflake party and curator-led tour.
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