AFA 20th Anniversary

2020 Antiques & Fine Art 97 Left  Fig. 2: Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848-1933), Side Chair, ca. 1891-93. Primavera and American ash, varicolored wood and metal micro-mosaic marquetry, glass balls in brass claw feet. 35¼ x 18¼ x 18½ in. Courtesy, Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. Right  Fig. 3: A Pair of German Parcel-Gilt Silver Torah Finials, Jurgen Richels, Hamburg circa 1688-89. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Purchase with funds by the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation and Jetskalina H. Phillips Fund. T he Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library in Delaware acquired two paintings, Family Group in a New York Interior (Fig. 1) by François-Jules Bourgoin (active 1796–1812), and Self-Portrait of John Lewis Krimmel with Susannah Krimmel and her Children by the Philadelphia artist John Lewis Krimmel (1786–1821), whose principal value may be on the light they shed on life in the still new United States of America. The Morgan Library & Museum took possession of a collection of eighteenth-century manuscripts and books bequeathed by Jayne Wrightsman in honor of her friend and longtime Morgan board member, Mrs. Annette de la Renta. Among the illustrated books are the two editions of La Fontaine, the four-volume folio with plates after Jean-Baptiste Oudry, and the Fermiers Généraux two-volume octavo with plates after Charles Eisen, both bound in gilt-tooled dentelle morocco. Also included are books on politics, religion, court entertainments, music, and military strategy. The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, California, added to its decorative arts collection with a circa 1891–93 side chair by Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848–1933), better known for his stained glass Art Nouveau pieces. The side chair (Fig. 2), purchased from a dea ler, is ornamented with intricate mosa ic, marquetry, floral carvings, and tapered legs that terminate in sma ll glass ba lls. While this chair’s form is based on traditional early nineteenth-century British furniture designs, its ornament takes inspiration from East Indian woodwork that was a popular import at the time. The Tiffany chair strengthens the links between the Huntington’s American decorative arts display and the works on view in the Huntington Art Gallery, where objects from the British Aesthetic Movement are highlighted. The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston , may be principally known for its Egyptian artifacts and its decorative arts and paintings by eighteenth- and nineteenth-century American artists, but the museum has been expanding its reach into other areas, such as contemporary art and objects by African- American artists. It also has sought to increase its holdings of Judaica, acquiring from a Sotheby’s auction two silver parcel- gilt Torah f inials: a pair from Hamburg, Germany (ca. 1688–89) (Fig. 3), and a pair by British silversmith Edward