Enfilade

Michael Tortorello, “In Praise of the Misunderstood Quince,” The New York Times (2 May 2012) . . .

Assorted quince varieties from the germplasm collection at the USDA-ARS National Clonal Germplasm Repository in Corvallis, Oregon. From top down, Van Deman, Cooke’s Jumbo, Ekmek, and Quince A, a rootstock variety used for grafting pears (Wikimedia Commons)

. . . What most Americans know about quince (Cydonia oblonga) — if they know about quince at all — is that it was once a fixture in Grandma’s garden. O.K., Great-Great-Grandma’s garden. As long ago as 1922, the great New York pomologist U. P. Hedrick rued that “the quince, the ‘golden apple’ of the ancients, once dedicated to deities, and looked upon as the emblem of love and happiness, for centuries the favorite pome, is now neglected and the least esteemed of commonly cultivated tree-fruits.” Almost every Colonial kitchen garden had a quince tree. But there was seldom need for two, said Joseph Postman, the United States Department of Agriculture scientist who curates the quince collection in Corvallis, Ore. Settlers valued quince, above all, as a mother lode of pectin for making preserves. And for that task, a little fruit went a long way.

“If you put the seeds in a cup of water, it becomes almost like Jell-O,” Mr. Postman said. This goo doubled as a pomade. (If you try this at home, please post photos.) Like so many American workers, the quince lost its job to a disruptive technology: powdered gelatin, introduced by Charles Knox in the 1890s. Unemployment has been tough. Today the nation’s entire quince crop covers a paltry 250 acres — about the size of the lawns in Central Park. By contrast, farmers this year will
raise some 350,000 acres of apples and 96 million acres of
corn. . .

The full article is available here»

From CoinWeek (12 December 2011) . . .

Blanchard and Company places world’s most valuable gold coin – the Brasher Doubloon for a record $7.395 million . . .

This rare numismatic treasure is considered America’s first and most important gold coin. It was purchased from John Albanese, founder of Certified Acceptance Corp. (CAC), and the transaction is the single highest price ever paid for a coin in a private transaction. It is truly unique as there is only one known example. . .

The Brasher Doubloon with the punch on the breast was minted in 1787 by Ephraim Brasher, a silversmith and goldsmith in New York City, and it contained $15 worth of gold at the time of its minting. Brasher made a small number of gold coins that historians today believe were intended for public circulation. . . .

The full article is available here»

Additional coverage is available at The Daily Mail.

Press release from the NPG:

Daniel Gardner, "The Three Witches from Macbeth (Elizabeth Lamb, Viscountess Melbourne; Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire; Anne Seymour Damer)," pastel on paper, 1775 (London: NPG)

As it launches a major exhibition of actress portraits, the National Portrait Gallery has announced the acquisition of a large and rarely seen picture of three of eighteenth-century society’s most glamorous and notorious women – as the three witches from Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire and Elizabeth Lamb, Viscountess Melbourne – the most famous political hostesses and society beauties of their day – are shown gathered around the witches’ cauldron alongside their friend, the sculptor Anne Seymour Damer.

The portrait will be seen by museum visitors for the first time at the National Portrait Gallery’s autumn exhibition The First Actresses: Nell Gwyn to Sarah Siddons, where it’s included in a section devoted to amateur dramatics. It was acquired through the Government’s Acceptance in Lieu scheme having been allocated to the Gallery from a private collection in lieu of inheritance tax.

This unusual group portrait of 1775 in pastel by artist Daniel Gardner (1750-1805) shows three intimate friends who enjoyed attending private theatricals and shared a common passion for Whig politics and the arts. Gardner’s choice of the Cauldron scene from Macbeth can be related to their shared and shadowy political machinations as leading members of the Devonshire House circle. The daughter of the First Earl Spencer, Georgiana’s marriage to the fifth Duke of Devonshire placed her at the apex of Whig Society. She held famously libertine parties at Devonshire house in London, and recently was the subject of Amanda Foreman’s hugely successful book and the subsequent film The Duchess with Keira Knightley.

Viscountess Melbourne was married to Sir Penniston Lamb MP and was an ‘enthusiastic manager of her husband’s political interests’. While she had been friends with Damer, the foremost female sculptor of her day, since the early 1770s, her friendship with Georgiana was fairly recent. This pastel portrait may in part be related to Melbourne’s desire to publicise this new friendship. Melbourne is thought to have commissioned the work that has descended in her family. (more…)

As noted several weeks ago by Art Daily . . .

Germain Boffrand and Antoine Coypel, Chancellerie d'Orleans, also known as the Hôtel de Voyer d'Argenson, ca. 1707 (Photo: François Jeanneau)

The World Monuments Fund (WMF) Europe announced today a project to restore and reconstruct the interiors of the Chancellerie d’Orleans, which have been in storage for nearly ninety years. One of the most important Parisian hôtel particuliers of the eighteenth century, the Chancellerie d’Orleans was demolished in the 1920s but its interiors were saved and stored for later reinstatement elsewhere. Now that a preliminary study by a French Architecte en chef des Monuments historiques has been completed, the interiors will be installed in the former Hôtel de Rohan-Strasbourg, a structure contemporary to the Chancellerie and now the Archives nationales.

For more information about the reinstallation of the interiors,
read the full article here»

As reported at ArtInfo (2 September 2011) . . .

Jean-Jacques Aillagon, Photo from his blog (click to visit)

Jean-Jacques Aillagon, the Versailles director who introduced contemporary art into the sanctum of the château, will leave his post on September 30. Faced with mandatory retirement as he turns 65, he wrote in a letter to the palace’s staff that “I will depart our establishment with the regret of leaving you.” Aillagon had hoped that a special dispensation would allow him to serve at least through the end of his current appointment in 2013. But Wednesday French president Nicolas Sarkozy appointed 57-year-old journalist Catherine Pégard to replace him as head of Versailles. . . .

The full article is available here»

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Whereas Aillagon was seen by some as provocative for his inclusion of work by Jeff Koons and Takashi Murakami at Versailles, Sarkozy’s new pick brings its own controversy. As reported at Art Media Agency (30 August 2011) . . .

Versailles (Wikimedia Commons)

The French newspaper Libération has announced today the appointment of Catherine Pégard as President of Versailles. . . . The art world is sad to see the former director retire, who was shocked to see that Catherine Pégard would replace him. She has no university titles, experience or particular predispositions in order to direct such a prestigious museum as the Château de Versailles. She has worked as a political journalist, mostly at the Point, and more importantly, was nominated counsellor to the French president in 2007. Since 2008, she was in charge of his political entourage. . . .

The full AMA article is available here»

Press release (19 May 2011) from The Frick Collection:

The Board of Trustees of The Frick Collection announced the appointment of Ian Bruce Wardropper as the next Director of the institution. Dr. Wardropper, currently Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Chairman, Department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, will take up the post as of October 3, 2011, with the retirement of the Frick’s Director of eight years, Anne L. Poulet. Wardropper will be responsible for the overall vision of The Frick Collection, which includes the Frick Art Reference Library. Comments Margot Bogert, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, “We are delighted to welcome Ian Wardropper to The Frick Collection as its next Director. He comes to the institution with a significant and nuanced combination of experience as a scholar and curator in areas that relate beautifully to the holdings of the Frick. As an administrator over large collections and staffs at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and previously at The Art Institute of Chicago, Ian Wardropper played an increasingly involved role―along with Directors, Trustees, and Development colleagues―in the fundraising efforts required of large-scale projects, among them the multimillion-dollar renovation of the former institution’s Wrightsman Galleries in 2006–7. His top-down involvement in such successful and well-received initiatives, his relationships with collectors and donors, and his appreciation for the high standards and values espoused by the Frick, inspire great confidence in us today as we share this wonderful news.” (more…)