Curious Objects
Arts
About
Through interviews with leading figures in the world of fine and decorative arts, Curious Objects—a podcast from The Magazine Antiques—explores the hidden histories, the little-known facts, the intricacies, and the idiosyncrasies that breathe life and energy into historical works of craft and art.
Episodes
- Camera Ready
In this Curious Objects episode, host Benjamin Miller is joined by New York Times photo editor and writer, Anika Burgess to discuss a very significant daguerreotype and the history of photography .
- An Earthly Paradise
In this episode of Curious Objects, host Benjamin Miller is joined by Art Historian and author extraordinaire, Verity Babbs to talk about the wondrous world of William Morris’s wallpaper. Verity Babbs received a degree in Art History from…
- Have Hope Will Sparkle
This is an episode worthy of going into the "rock" star hall of fame - get ready for an exciting hour about the Hope Diamond! Host Ben Miller is joined by Melise Ozkardesler to discuss this curious object, its history and the wo…
- Something Blue - Delftware ceramics and the women who made them
Join Curious Objects host, Benjamin Miller in a conversation with Genevieve Wheeler Brown, the author of Beyond Blue and White to talk about the history of Delftware ceramics through the female lens. We learn about the fantastic women who…
- Painting with Glass in Limoges
In this episode, Host Benjamin Miller is joined by Laura Kugel of the Galerie Kugel in Paris to discuss the fascinating art of enameling from Limoges, France. Described by the poet Théophile Gautier in 1866 as “the immarcescible (indestruc…
- 135,500 Pieces (Of Wood)
In this episode, the fine line between obsession and madness, illustrated in a piece of furniture. Toledo Museum of Art curator Erin Corrales-Diaz joins Ben to discuss a unique secretary desk which might hold the world record for inlay: th…
- Fighting for Freedom
This episode brings two Curious Objects veterans and one first-timer back to the show to discuss the groundbreaking exhibition they've curated, Fighting for Freedom: Black Craftspeople and the Pursuit of Independence . Our object is a fine…
- "Junking" with Ralph Lauren Creative Director Mary Randolph Carter
You may know Mary Randolph Carter (who goes by the name Carter) as the longtime director of Ralph Lauren. But she is also a savvy collector, and an eloquent exponent for the art of the same. Her latest book, Live With the Things You Love,…
- Lost and Found in Cleveland
In this episode Ben Miller welcomes Keith Gerchak and Marisa Guterman, makers of the upcoming film Lost and Found in Cleveland . Featuring beloved stars like Martin Sheen and Jon Lovitz, along with *checks notes* “Constipated Appraiser” (D…
- THROWBACK: Thirty-Five Saxon Suits of Armor, with Chassica Kirchhoff
It's kinetic sculpture, it's haute couture, it’s . . . armor! This month, Ben speaks with Chassica Kirchhoff, an assistant curator at the Detroit Institute of Arts, about a suite of metal suits from the 1500s that were worn and jousted in…
- Introducing the Fine Objects Society
In this episode, Ben Miller introduces the Fine Objects Society, a new “association of forward-thinking professionals and enthusiasts who share a devotion to fine handcrafted historic objects” of which he is president. Officers Brenton Gro…
- THROWBACK: The Argument for Silver Tableware
They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. And in the antiques world the sincerest form of imitation is reproduction: the humble and studious attempt to conserve the lessons of the past because of their timeless value. One…
- From Barn to Yarn: The story of spinning wheels, with Heavenly Bresser
In this episode, Ben Miller speaks with knit maven Heavenly Bresser, founder of the store Heavenly Knitchet and devotee of ye olde spinning wheel. The pair gets into the mechanics of spinning wheels, the form’s centuries-old history, and t…
- Learning to Love Antique Rugs, with Jan David Winitz: Part 2
In this episode with Claremont Rug Company, president and founder Jan Winitz and Ben Miller explore myths about rugs, and the symbolic meanings of colors in rugs and importance of signatures. Winitz introduces his Oriental Rug Market Pyram…
- Learning to Love Antique Rugs, with Jan David Winitz: Part 1
In part one of a two-part episode with Claremont Rug Company, president and founder Jan Winitz gives Ben the goods on the first Oriental rug he ever acquired. Made on a vertical loom over the course of nearly a year by a group of women, it…
- The curious histories behind board games, at the American Folk Art Museum
In this week’s episode, Ben Miller speaks with Emelie Gevalt, curatorial chair for collections and curator of folk art at the American Folk Art Museum in New York. On view starting September 13 at the museum is the exhibition Playing with…
- Tiffany's frog-shaped creamer and pufferfish sugar dish, at the Met
In this week’s episode, Ben Miller speaks with Annamarie Sandecki, who describes herself as the “semi-retired former director” of the Tiffany Archives, and Medill Higgins Harvey, curator of American decorative arts at the Metropolitan Muse…
- CO Bites: Pretty, Dangerous
In this week’s episode, host Ben Miller speaks with Sarah Margolis-Pineo about a turning chair prototype made at the Mount Lebanon Shaker community. But don’t sit in it. Looking like a Wendell Castle sculpture avant la lettre, its bird-bon…
- Introducing Mitchell Owens
ANTIQUES has a new editor in chief! Mitch Owens, formerly of World of Interiors , joins Ben Miller on this special episode to give listeners an inside look at his art and design philosophy, and his plans for the magazine. Sneak preview: wh…
- The "Confirmed Bachelor" Who Forever Changed American Homes
In this episode, Ben digs into the history of Beauport, the Gilded-Age mansion perched on a rock ledge overlooking Massachusetts’s Gloucester Harbor. Built by Henry Davis Sleeper, one of the country’s first interior designers, it was conce…
- THROWBACK: The WPA Origins of the American Doll, with Allison Robinson
During the Great Depression, the Works Progress Administration funded an interracial labor program in Wisconsin that employed over five thousand women to craft handmade goods: the Milwaukee Handicraft Project. Especially noteworthy among t…
- Whale Teeth and the Pirate Princess
This week on our Curious Objects podcast, host Benjamin Miller is joined by Marina Wells to discuss scrimshaw. Whalebone, teeth, and other products of the sea adorned with nautical scenes and remembrances of home, scrimshaw is a portal int…
- Are Trends Sooo Over?
This week, Ben is joined by Dan Rubinstein, design journalist and host of the Grand Tourist podcast, to discuss TRENDS. But first of all . . . do they even exist anymore? Or are we living in a post-trend world ruled by the math of the algo…
- The Secret Code Book at the Independence Seaport Museum
In Part 2 of a special two-part podcast, host Benjamin Miller speaks again with Peter Siebert, president and CEO of Philadelphia’s Independence Seaport Museum, this time about a Revolutionary War–era naval signal book made for English Admi…
- Discovering a Forgotten Folk Artist at the Independence Seaport Museum
In Part 1 of a special two-part podcast, Curious Objects ’ host Benjamin Miller speaks with Peter Siebert, president and CEO of Philadelphia’s Independence Seaport Museum about a folk art watercolor from the late 1700s that’s been the subj…
- A Precious 17th-Century Kleenex
On this week’s episode, Ben Miller speaks with Elena Kanagy-Loux, lacewear trendsetter and co-founder of the Brooklyn Lace Guild. The focus object is a seventeenth-century Italian handkerchief, but Ben’s and Elena’s conversation also touch…
- Rescued by the Romanovs, a Fabergé Treasure Comes to Market
The Romanov dynasty was wiped out in 1918 . . . but what happened to all their stuff? Well, some of it ended up at Heritage Auctions, whose Imperial Fabergé and Russian Works of Art auction on May 17 hopes to move a treasure trove of ikons…
- Advice Ep: How to Buy an Antique/Vintage Rug
In the newest installment of our advice series, Ben Miller speaks with Jordan Heres, co-founder with his wife, Ingrid, of the Charlottesville, Virginia, rug purveyor Weft and Wool. The focus object is a rug from Karaja, Iran, made in about…
- THROWBACK: This Chair Is Made of America
In this special throwback episode, Benjamin Miller speaks with Ellery Foutch, assistant professor of American studies at Middlebury College, about a “relic Windsor chair” assembled by Henry Sheldon (founder of the Middlebury museum named i…
- CO Bites: A Pitch-Perfect Vermont Songbook
In this Curious Objects Bites episode, Benjamin Miller examines an 1830s manuscript tune book from rural Vermont. Bound crudely in leather, this book of sacred music was made by a farmer named Bernard Ward as a gift for his grandson, and m…
- The Book of Dragons (and the Con Artist Who Made It), with Rebecca Romney
Rebecca Romney, co-founder of rare book dealer Type Punch Matrix and a frequent guest on Pawn Stars , returns to our podcast Curious Objects this week. She has with her a mid-nineteenth-century abecebestiary, or calligraphic treatment of t…
- Remembering Greg Cerio
Greg Cerio, editor of The Magazine ANTIQUES, died Saturday. In this special episode, Ben pays tribute to the man who gave Curious Objects the green light, and who foresaw a rich future for objects from the past. Learn more about your ad ch…
- CO Bites: Toshiko Takaezu's "Closed Form," with Glenn Adamson
This week Glenn Adamson returns to the pod to discuss an exhibition he co-curated at the Noguchi Museum in Queens, New York. Worlds Within: The Art of Toshiko Takaezu focuses on the work of the Okinawan-American ceramicist, which bridges t…
- Taylor Thistlethwaite Gets Excited About "Brown Furniture"
Taylor Thistlethwaite, proprietor of Thistlethwaite Americana in Middleburg, Virginia, returns to the pod to defend the merits of “brown furniture.” Whether it’s earthy, richly figured black walnut or the sometimes-overlooked black cherry,…
- THROWBACK: Once Upon a Bowl
If you ever start to feel like history is abstract, spend a little time with an object or two that were actually there. For instance, a silver bowl and a pair of candlesticks that once belonged to New York grandees Pieter and Elizabeth Del…
- Ben visits the Art Slice podcast
Last month Benjamin Miller made a guest appearance on Art Slice, hosted by the podcasting power couple—and artists and art historians—Stephanie Dueñas and Russell Shoemaker, and now available here. The trio’s conversation focuses on a dazz…
- Advice Ep: How to Buy a Vintage Engagement Ring
How much should you spend? What kind of stone should you get? Is antique better than modern? These are just a few of the many questions that any courter must consider when ring-hunting. Here to share his ring lore on this special Valentine…
- The Woman Who Saved Wedgwood
In 1909, Daisy Makeig-Jones was hired by the Wedgwood firm in Staffordshire, England, to decorate pottery. She would go on to develop the “Fairyland” luster pattern, which combined dazzling iridescent glazes with motifs from fairy tales an…
- "Enriching Your Life Through Collecting" at the Winter Show
In what has become an annual tradition, Curious Objects host Benjamin Miller capped off January with a panel discussion at the Winter Show. This year’s edition was named “Catching the Bug: Enriching Your Life Through Collecting,” and featu…
- The Beatles as Painters
In the summer of 1966 the Beatles were in Japan, whirling through the first leg of what would be their final world tour. Hoping to forestall the dangerous excesses of Beatlemania, Japanese authorities confined the Fab Four to their hotel s…
- The Marginalia That Made Christie's Value This Book at $1 Million
In 1543 Andreas Vesalius published a seven-part book that would become the foundational text of modern anatomy: On the Fabric of the Human Body . With it, the Flemish anatomist overturned more than a millennium’s worth of medical dogma, ma…
- Advice Ep: Making Your Home a Source of Inspiration, with Tara McCauley
In this week’s episode, interior designer Tara McCauley gives listeners an inside look at her practice, which she likens, curiously, to a travel agency. She says: “I like to think of myself like I’ve gone into the market and I’ve done the…
- Ask Ben Anything
Over the past couple weeks we’ve been fielding and compiling questions that listeners have put to host Benjamin Miller. A taste: “Has any object ever truly baffled you?” “What’s the best town for antiquing?” and “Will Curious Objects ever…
- END OF YEAR THROWBACK: A Conversation with Luthier Paul Becker
A top-tier orchestra might well have tens of millions of dollars–worth of instruments on stage. Many of them are antiques. And there are few people who know these instruments more intimately than Paul Becker. He’s the fifth-generation owne…
- Lewis Littlepage and the Amazing Silk-embroidered Dreamsuit
“Conservative” by the standards of its day, the three-piece suit worn by American statesman and bon vivant Lewis Littlepage (1762–1802) at the court of Catherine the Great is sewn of silk and embroidered with sprays of blue, white, and gre…
- What makes Thomas Cole's "Course of Empire" Cycle as Relevant Today as in the 19th Century
This week Benjamin Miller is joined by filmmaker Rachel Gould, better known on YouTube as the Art Tourist, to discuss Thomas Cole’s Course of Empire cycle of about 1834–1836. A watershed in the genre of landscape painting, Cole’s canvases…
- A Met Curator Tells the Strange Story of Louis XIV's Carpets
This week we travel back to the seventeenth century, to the glorious court of the Sun King, Louis XIV, in France, and his astonishing commission for a suite of ninety-three carpets to cover the 1440-foot-long Grande Galerie at the Louvre,…
- Jewelry We Love and Hate, with Gem X
This week Ben speaks with three bigwigs of Gem X, an international club for jewelry aficionados. Founder Lin Jamison, Simon Teakle gallery director Christine Cheng, and returning Curious Objects guest Levi Higgs of David Webb discuss men i…
- THANKSGIVING THROWBACK: The House that Vanderbilt—Gilded Age Mansions of Newport, RI
In this special throwback episode of Curious Objects , Ben Miller takes listeners on a virtual tour of the suite of beaux-arts abodes built for the Vanderbilts, Oelrichs, Astors, and Berwinds by the likes of Richard Morris Hunt and Stanfor…
- Debunking the Hitler Diaries and Other Adventures, with Kenneth Rendell
Friend of presidents and billionaires, nemesis of Hitlerism, and helicopter skiing enthusiast, Kenneth Rendell is an antiquer who needs no introduction. But listeners hankering for more had best apply to Safeguarding History: Trailblazing…