Autumn 2016 Preview

Autumn 10 www.afamag.com |  www.incollect.com Clive Devenish Antiques clivedevenishantiques@comcast.net www.clivedevenishantiques.com phone (5 10) 414-4545 The Place For Mechanical Banks Established 1976 “Professor Pug Frog” American Mechanical Bank Circa 1886 W e’ve all witnessed the razing of a historic building or district and its replacement with physically and aesthetically inferior structures. But though we express frustration at our changing landscape, we can feel powerless to do anything about it, particularly when faced with inadequate town ordinances or powerful contractors. If you think one person is incapable of making a difference, you may change your mind after reading Alyssa Lozupone’s article on Katherine Warren (pages 102–106). Warren spearheaded efforts to protect the historic fabric of Newport, Rhode Island, in the years following World War II, when economic changes threatened neighborhoods with large-scale demolition. Such destruction would have erased many of the “sturdy little houses” (as she referred to them) and the Gilded Age mansions we know today. A founding member of The Preservation Society of Newport County, Warren invoked the assistance of residents and used preservation as a means to drive the economy—advocating that a “city’s future would only be assured through its past.” Her vision extended to the world of collecting, where she was considered radical in her taste for the work of artists such as Piet Mondrian and Pablo Picasso. As Lozupone writes, “Warren’s marriage of heritage and modernism dispels the long-held misconception that the two are mutually exclusive and, moreover, that preservation is a barrier to change.” Nearly a century after Warren began her efforts, the threats to our built past remain, making it all the more important to support small house museums that have stood the test of time. This year is the 300th anniversary of the Warner House in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, the oldest high-style brick merchant’s residence in America. Run by the nonprofit Warner House Association since 1932, prior to that the mansion remained in the same family for 220 years. In their article on pages 152–157, Joyce Volk and Richard Candee convey the historic importance of the house and its collections; many items of which have been returned by relatives through the years. Here you will read about circa-1718–1720 wall murals painted by Nehemiah Partridge (whose work is also cited elsewhere in this issue; see pages 124–129), as well as the earliest dated example of Queen Anne furniture in America—among other gems. The Warner House descended through the female line for more than two centuries. The Quincy House in Quincy, Massachusetts, also owes a great deal to the preservation efforts of its several generations of female occupants. Before the research was undertaken prior to reinstalling the interiors to the date of the last Quincy inhabitants (ca. 1880), Historic New England knew nothing about the women’s efforts, about which curator Nancy Carlisle writes on pages 136–143. I hope these stories will inspire you to visit and support house museums, become active in preservation efforts in your community, energize your friends and neighbors to do the same, and, if necessary, start a grassroots campaign to preserve our shared environment. Embrace Katherine Warrens’ belief that saving the past does not mean turning your back on the future; the two are intertwined. We’ll all be better for it, as will the generations to come. Thank you, Johanna McBrien Founding editor Photography by Ellen McDermott Letter from the editor