Delaware Antiques Show 2025

heraldry and storytelling, actions associated with the theater that fall under the realm of Hermes as the messenger god. 7 On the left-hand side, in contrast, the objects represented move beyond the traditional representations of theater and take a more specific lens. An inverted crown floats near the bottom corner of the tile; the crown is often interpreted in Shakespeare’s plays as representing power and the internal conflict it can bring, as is famously described by the bard’s King Henry IV, who, while battling unease and insomnia, laments, “Uneasy is the head that wears the Crown.” 8 Above the crown, we see a full quiver of arrows and a bow, specifically known as a Tartar’s bow. This type of bow is referenced in A Midsummer Night’s Dream , where Robin states he will be “swifter than an arrow from the Tartar’s bow.” 9 The quiver full of arrows and the bow in a relaxed position suggest the scene is capturing a moment in between actions. Aside from the bow, the top-most object on this side of the border is a torch. Mentioned frequently within Shakespeare’s plays, torches often reference guiding, such as in The Merchant of Venice , when Lorenzo asks Jessica to be his “torch- bearer” at Bassanio’s party. 10 They can also, however, be tools to depict intense emotion, such as love, that, when extinguished, portray to an audience a change in feeling, a shift in the story, or an approaching tragedy. While this border is full of significant imagery, there is a rigidity to it. The instruments are not being played, the crown is overturned, and the torch depicted as lit or recently extinguished suggests that these items are tools used to transition between comedy and tragedy, success and failure, peace and discord. Thus, the border positions the viewer in a moment between acts and scenes, in which the agency of the objects relies on the actor depicted on the tile, and the ever-important interpretation of the viewer. The discussions around the theatrical visuals of the tile gave them meaning. One can simply imagine the inspired conversation that surrounded them. 7 Ibid. 8 William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part II, ed. Peter Davison, foreword by Adrian Poole (London: Penguin Books, 2005), 3.1. References are to act and scene. 9 William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Cambridge, Eng.: Chadwyck-Healey, 1994), 3.2. Reference is to act and scene. 10 William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice , eds. Raffel Burton and Harold Bloom (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2006), 2.4. Reference is to act and scene. Each year, student scholars from the Lois F. McNeil Fellows in the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture are invited to write and present their research at the Delaware Antiques Show. — 17 —