By Anne Gilbert    Holidays are the time when fancy food molds prove their worth, dressing up everything from cranberry sauce to fish mold appetizers. There couldn’t be a better time to start a collection. The variety ranges from elegant ceramic culinary molds made in England by Wedgwood, Staffordshire and other English potters to humble American pottery and pewter.    Historically, gelatin […]

By Anne Gilbert    To a generation used to sterile cubby hole office spaces for them and their computers, the Wooton desks may seem an oddity. Strangely enough they are finding their way into many home offices. There is room for that lap top and spaces for all kinds of office supplies. They were a popular and useful antique collectible in […]

   By Anne Gilbert     For centuries lavishly decorated furniture was trendy, and pricey. These days as auction prices prove, the fake and repro gilt and ormolu 18th century pieces languish. Has their time in history passed? Should you buy now, hoping it will make a comeback in your lifetime?    Ancient furniture may not have been comfortable but it was certainly […]

By Anne Gilbert      Have you ever heard of fore-edge book paintings or even seen an example? Probably not, unless you are a rare book collector or have inherited an example. However, these unique paintings, part of book history, date back as early as the 10th century. Just what are they? How are they hidden?    Look at the edging of […]

 By Anne Gilbert      Since the 1980s interest has continued to grow in African-American quilting history. The recent opening of the Civil Rights Museum is sure to bring more examples to light.    Eli Leon, an Afro-American, began an important collection when he acquired a Guggenheim Award to aid in his research of historical Afro-American quilts. This resulted in his writing […]