Philadelphia Antiques Show 2016_

W 143 W From the Collection of… From the Collection of… Paul Vandekar Earle D. Vandekar of Knightsbridge, Inc., Maryknoll, NY I started horse riding at the age of 8. I rode every day and became, in my teens, a fox- hunter, competitive show jumper, and one- day eventer. The charm of Antique English pottery animals has always grabbed my soul and this model of a stallion stole my heart. I originally purchased it in 1987 and sold it to the Philadelphia collector Richard Kantor. When his estate was sold many years later, I was determined to add the figure to my own collection. The animation in the modelling and the spark in the eyes that the potter captured, all make me feel this piece is one of the great achievements of British pottery and one that I can enjoy every day. WilliamVareika WilliamVareika Fine Arts, Newport, RI In 1971, as a sophomore Pre-Law Political Science major at Boston College, I enrolled in a required art history course as part of a Jesuit liberal arts curriculum. To this day, this is the only art history course that I have ever experienced; but it is there that I discovered the art of John La Farge. This was quite by accident one day while practicing Transcendental Meditation in Boston’s Trinity Church, decorated in 1876 with murals and stained glass windows by this important American artist. That course changed my career path and my life. The major thesis that I wrote on La Farge in this college course included a black- and-white photo that I bought with the last ten dollars in my pocket from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, photo department. I was intrigued by the advanced qualities of this 1864 painting in the MFA collection that sparkled like the jewels in the artist’s famous stained glass windows, created later in his career. Four decades later, I have probably owned more works by La Farge than anyone in history, including this “Wood Interior” painting, deaccessioned from the MFA. Appropriately, we will donate it to my alma mater when Boston College opens a new art museum in 2016, complete with a special permanent John La Farge Room, decorated in part by earlier gifts from Alison and me, some given in memory of the artist’ son, the Jesuit John La Farge.