PODCAST · arts
Curious Objects
by The Magazine Antiques
Through interviews with leading figures in the world of fine and decorative arts, Curious Objects—a podcast from The Magazine Antiques—explores the hidden histories, the little-known facts, the intricacies, and the idiosyncrasies that breathe life and energy into historical works of craft and art.
Episodes
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The Glass Gaze - Learn about the history of the prosthetic eye!
Host Ben Miller is joined by Dan Roche, author of Eyes by Hand: Prosthetics of Art and Healing to discuss a curious object that quite literally catches the eye.
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The Road to Destruction - How one man stole the divine
Join podcast host Ben Miller in a highly engaging episode with investigative journalist Matthew Campbell discussing an Indiana Jones-esque heist that will have you on the edge of your seat all the way through.
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Oops I Did It Again - Editing Errors in a Pre-Digital Print World
We are joined by writer and Art History instructor, Rachel Churner to talk about the intriguing realm of reprints in a pre-online world. Host Ben Miller and Churner discuss the Yale University Library's “Beauties of My Style” exhibition in one of our most fascinating episodes yet!
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Curious Objects at Brunk Auctions
Join host Benjamin Miller in conversation with Andrew Brunk, Bert Parsons and George Manger at a special discussion about ceramics at Brunk Auctions.
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Camera Ready
In this Curious Objects episode, host Benjamin Miller is joined by New York Times photo editor and writer, Anika Burgess to discuss a very significant daguerreotype and the history of photography.
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An Earthly Paradise
In this episode of Curious Objects, host Benjamin Miller is joined by Art Historian and author extraordinaire, Verity Babbs to talk about the wondrous world of William Morris’s wallpaper. Verity Babbs received a degree in Art History from Oxford University and also works as a stand up comedian....
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Have Hope Will Sparkle
This is an episode worthy of going into the "rock" star hall of fame - get ready for an exciting hour about the Hope Diamond! Host Ben Miller is joined by Melise Ozkardesler to discuss this curious object, its history and the world of collecting ancient gemstones.
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Something Blue - Delftware ceramics and the women who made them
Join Curious Objects host, Benjamin Miller in a conversation with Genevieve Wheeler Brown, the author of Beyond Blue and White to talk about the history of Delftware ceramics through the female lens. We learn about the fantastic women who made these coveted ceramics and understand the humor…
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Painting with Glass in Limoges
In this episode, Host Benjamin Miller is joined by Laura Kugel of the Galerie Kugel in Paris to discuss the fascinating art of enameling from Limoges, France. Described by the poet Théophile Gautier in 1866 as “the immarcescible (indestructible) enamel”, these objects from the Renaissance still...
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135,500 Pieces (Of Wood)
In this episode, the fine line between obsession and madness, illustrated in a piece of furniture. Toledo Museum of Art curator Erin Corrales-Diaz joins Ben to discuss a unique secretary desk which might hold the world record for inlay: thousands upon thousands of pieces of wood, which in its...
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Fighting for Freedom
This episode brings two Curious Objects veterans and one first-timer back to the show to discuss the groundbreaking exhibition they've curated, Fighting for Freedom: Black Craftspeople and the Pursuit of Independence. Our object is a fine neoclassical table made in Norfolk, Virginia, in 1819, by…
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"Junking" with Ralph Lauren Creative Director Mary Randolph Carter
You may know Mary Randolph Carter (who goes by the name Carter) as the longtime director of Ralph Lauren. But she is also a savvy collector, and an eloquent exponent for the art of the same. Her latest book, Live With the Things You Love, and You'll Live Happily Ever After, delves into private...
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Lost and Found in Cleveland
In this episode Ben Miller welcomes Keith Gerchak and Marisa Guterman, makers of the upcoming film Lost and Found in Cleveland. Featuring beloved stars like Martin Sheen and Jon Lovitz, along with *checks notes* “Constipated Appraiser” (Denise Dal Vera), the film follows a cast of characters...
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THROWBACK: Thirty-Five Saxon Suits of Armor, with Chassica Kirchhoff
It's kinetic sculpture, it's haute couture, it’s . . . armor! This month, Ben speaks with Chassica Kirchhoff, an assistant curator at the Detroit Institute of Arts, about a suite of metal suits from the 1500s that were worn and jousted in by the dukes of Saxony. Emblematic of the feisty…
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Introducing the Fine Objects Society
In this episode, Ben Miller introduces the Fine Objects Society, a new “association of forward-thinking professionals and enthusiasts who share a devotion to fine handcrafted historic objects” of which he is president. Officers Brenton Grom, Bailey Tichenor, Sarah Margolis-Pineo, and Benjamin...
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THROWBACK: The Argument for Silver Tableware
They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. And in the antiques world the sincerest form of imitation is reproduction: the humble and studious attempt to conserve the lessons of the past because of their timeless value. One firm that’s well-versed in this particular form of...
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From Barn to Yarn: The story of spinning wheels, with Heavenly Bresser
In this episode, Ben Miller speaks with knit maven Heavenly Bresser, founder of the store Heavenly Knitchet and devotee of ye olde spinning wheel. The pair gets into the mechanics of spinning wheels, the form’s centuries-old history, and the largest wheel in Bresser’s extensive collection, which…
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Learning to Love Antique Rugs, with Jan David Winitz: Part 2
In this episode with Claremont Rug Company, president and founder Jan Winitz and Ben Miller explore myths about rugs, and the symbolic meanings of colors in rugs and importance of signatures. Winitz introduces his Oriental Rug Market Pyramid, which categorizes rugs from high collectible to...
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Learning to Love Antique Rugs, with Jan David Winitz: Part 1
In part one of a two-part episode with Claremont Rug Company, president and founder Jan Winitz gives Ben the goods on the first Oriental rug he ever acquired. Made on a vertical loom over the course of nearly a year by a group of women, its imagery includes dragons (for the masculine principle of...
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The curious histories behind board games, at the American Folk Art Museum
In this week’s episode, Ben Miller speaks with Emelie Gevalt, curatorial chair for collections and curator of folk art at the American Folk Art Museum in New York. On view starting September 13 at the museum is the exhibition Playing with Design: Gameboards, Art, and Culture, an exhibition...
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Tiffany's frog-shaped creamer and pufferfish sugar dish, at the Met
In this week’s episode, Ben Miller speaks with Annamarie Sandecki, who describes herself as the “semi-retired former director” of the Tiffany Archives, and Medill Higgins Harvey, curator of American decorative arts at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. On the light table are a curiously shaped…
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CO Bites: Pretty, Dangerous
In this week’s episode, host Ben Miller speaks with Sarah Margolis-Pineo about a turning chair prototype made at the Mount Lebanon Shaker community. But don’t sit in it. Looking like a Wendell Castle sculpture avant la lettre, its bird-bone-thin spindles and threaded metal swivel mechanism are…
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Introducing Mitchell Owens
ANTIQUES has a new editor in chief! Mitch Owens, formerly of World of Interiors, joins Ben Miller on this special episode to give listeners an inside look at his art and design philosophy, and his plans for the magazine. Sneak preview: when Ben asked what would be the salvation of the antiques...
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The "Confirmed Bachelor" Who Forever Changed American Homes
In this episode, Ben digs into the history of Beauport, the Gilded-Age mansion perched on a rock ledge overlooking Massachusetts’s Gloucester Harbor. Built by Henry Davis Sleeper, one of the country’s first interior designers, it was conceived as a house-sized Valentine for the statesman and...
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THROWBACK: The WPA Origins of the American Doll, with Allison Robinson
During the Great Depression, the Works Progress Administration funded an interracial labor program in Wisconsin that employed over five thousand women to craft handmade goods: the Milwaukee Handicraft Project. Especially noteworthy among the rugs, quilts, costumes, and books that the women…
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Whale Teeth and the Pirate Princess
This week on our Curious Objects podcast, host Benjamin Miller is joined by Marina Wells to discuss scrimshaw. Whalebone, teeth, and other products of the sea adorned with nautical scenes and remembrances of home, scrimshaw is a portal into the lives and daydreams of whalers confined for months…
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Are Trends Sooo Over?
This week, Ben is joined by Dan Rubinstein, design journalist and host of the Grand Tourist podcast, to discuss TRENDS. But first of all . . . do they even exist anymore? Or are we living in a post-trend world ruled by the math of the algorithm and the magnetism of sui generis celebrities? Ben…
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The Secret Code Book at the Independence Seaport Museum
In Part 2 of a special two-part podcast, host Benjamin Miller speaks again with Peter Siebert, president and CEO of Philadelphia’s Independence Seaport Museum, this time about a Revolutionary War–era naval signal book made for English Admiral Richard Howe. “Prepare to haul to the wind together on...
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Discovering a Forgotten Folk Artist at the Independence Seaport Museum
In Part 1 of a special two-part podcast, Curious Objects’ host Benjamin Miller speaks with Peter Siebert, president and CEO of Philadelphia’s Independence Seaport Museum about a folk art watercolor from the late 1700s that’s been the subject of a major research project. Called Navigation Lesson,...
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A Precious 17th-Century Kleenex
On this week’s episode, Ben Miller speaks with Elena Kanagy-Loux, lacewear trendsetter and co-founder of the Brooklyn Lace Guild. The focus object is a seventeenth-century Italian handkerchief, but Ben’s and Elena’s conversation also touches on that time she worked for Courtney Love; good (and…
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Rescued by the Romanovs, a Fabergé Treasure Comes to Market
The Romanov dynasty was wiped out in 1918 . . . but what happened to all their stuff? Well, some of it ended up at Heritage Auctions, whose Imperial Fabergé and Russian Works of Art auction on May 17 hopes to move a treasure trove of ikons, furniture pieces, diaries, and gold-encrusted baubles.…
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Advice Ep: How to Buy an Antique/Vintage Rug
In the newest installment of our advice series, Ben Miller speaks with Jordan Heres, co-founder with his wife, Ingrid, of the Charlottesville, Virginia, rug purveyor Weft and Wool. The focus object is a rug from Karaja, Iran, made in about 1900, but Ben’s and Jordan also tackle such subjects as…
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THROWBACK: This Chair Is Made of America
In this special throwback episode, Benjamin Miller speaks with Ellery Foutch, assistant professor of American studies at Middlebury College, about a “relic Windsor chair” assembled by Henry Sheldon (founder of the Middlebury museum named in his honor) in 1884. This unique piece of furniture was...
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CO Bites: A Pitch-Perfect Vermont Songbook
In this Curious Objects Bites episode, Benjamin Miller examines an 1830s manuscript tune book from rural Vermont. Bound crudely in leather, this book of sacred music was made by a farmer named Bernard Ward as a gift for his grandson, and many years later passed into the major collection of…
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The Book of Dragons (and the Con Artist Who Made It), with Rebecca Romney
Rebecca Romney, co-founder of rare book dealer Type Punch Matrix and a frequent guest on Pawn Stars, returns to our podcast Curious Objects this week. She has with her a mid-nineteenth-century abecebestiary, or calligraphic treatment of the alphabet with animal motifs, made by Englishman Charles...
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Remembering Greg Cerio
Greg Cerio, editor of The Magazine ANTIQUES, died Saturday. In this special episode, Ben pays tribute to the man who gave Curious Objects the green light, and who foresaw a rich future for objects from the past. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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CO Bites: Toshiko Takaezu's "Closed Form," with Glenn Adamson
This week Glenn Adamson returns to the pod to discuss an exhibition he co-curated at the Noguchi Museum in Queens, New York. Worlds Within: The Art of Toshiko Takaezu focuses on the work of the Okinawan-American ceramicist, which bridges the gulf between art and craft. In this inaugural…
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Taylor Thistlethwaite Gets Excited About "Brown Furniture"
Taylor Thistlethwaite, proprietor of Thistlethwaite Americana in Middleburg, Virginia, returns to the pod to defend the merits of “brown furniture.” Whether it’s earthy, richly figured black walnut or the sometimes-overlooked black cherry, it’s important not to “think of wood as just something...
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THROWBACK: Once Upon a Bowl
If you ever start to feel like history is abstract, spend a little time with an object or two that were actually there. For instance, a silver bowl and a pair of candlesticks that once belonged to New York grandees Pieter and Elizabeth Delancey, which suddenly reappeared recently after being lost...
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Ben visits the Art Slice podcast
Last month Benjamin Miller made a guest appearance on Art Slice, hosted by the podcasting power couple—and artists and art historians—Stephanie Dueñas and Russell Shoemaker, and now available here. The trio’s conversation focuses on a dazzling group of mixed-metal wares made by Tiffany and…
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Advice Ep: How to Buy a Vintage Engagement Ring
How much should you spend? What kind of stone should you get? Is antique better than modern? These are just a few of the many questions that any courter must consider when ring-hunting. Here to share his ring lore on this special Valentine’s Day episode is a true jewelry expert, Matthew Imberman…
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The Woman Who Saved Wedgwood
In 1909, Daisy Makeig-Jones was hired by the Wedgwood firm in Staffordshire, England, to decorate pottery. She would go on to develop the “Fairyland” luster pattern, which combined dazzling iridescent glazes with motifs from fairy tales and would serve to revitalize the Wedgwood brand. Bailey...
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"Enriching Your Life Through Collecting" at the Winter Show
In what has become an annual tradition, Curious Objects host Benjamin Miller capped off January with a panel discussion at the Winter Show. This year’s edition was named “Catching the Bug: Enriching Your Life Through Collecting,” and featured three distinguished collectors and the objects they…
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The Beatles as Painters
In the summer of 1966 the Beatles were in Japan, whirling through the first leg of what would be their final world tour. Hoping to forestall the dangerous excesses of Beatlemania, Japanese authorities confined the Fab Four to their hotel suite at Tokyo’s Hilton Hotel for almost the duration of...
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The Marginalia That Made Christie's Value This Book at $1 Million
In 1543 Andreas Vesalius published a seven-part book that would become the foundational text of modern anatomy: On the Fabric of the Human Body. With it, the Flemish anatomist overturned more than a millennium’s worth of medical dogma, many of his breakthroughs coming while dissecting human...
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Advice Ep: Making Your Home a Source of Inspiration, with Tara McCauley
In this week’s episode, interior designer Tara McCauley gives listeners an inside look at her practice, which she likens, curiously, to a travel agency. She says: “I like to think of myself like I’ve gone into the market and I’ve done the research and I’ve talked to the experts and the locals and...
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Ask Ben Anything
Over the past couple weeks we’ve been fielding and compiling questions that listeners have put to host Benjamin Miller. A taste: “Has any object ever truly baffled you?” “What’s the best town for antiquing?” and “Will Curious Objects ever do an adults-only episode?” This week’s episode represents…
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END OF YEAR THROWBACK: A Conversation with Luthier Paul Becker
A top-tier orchestra might well have tens of millions of dollars–worth of instruments on stage. Many of them are antiques. And there are few people who know these instruments more intimately than Paul Becker. He’s the fifth-generation owner and director of Carl Becker and Son, a 150-year-old...
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Lewis Littlepage and the Amazing Silk-embroidered Dreamsuit
“Conservative” by the standards of its day, the three-piece suit worn by American statesman and bon vivant Lewis Littlepage (1762–1802) at the court of Catherine the Great is sewn of silk and embroidered with sprays of blue, white, and grey flowers. Neal Hurst, curator of textiles and historic...
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What makes Thomas Cole's "Course of Empire" Cycle as Relevant Today as in the 19th Century
This week Benjamin Miller is joined by filmmaker Rachel Gould, better known on YouTube as the Art Tourist, to discuss Thomas Cole’s Course of Empire cycle of about 1834–1836. A watershed in the genre of landscape painting, Cole’s canvases use an allegory of empire—germination, prosperity,...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Through interviews with leading figures in the world of fine and decorative arts, Curious Objects—a podcast from The Magazine Antiques—explores the hidden histories, the little-known facts, the intricacies, and the idiosyncrasies that breathe life and energy into historical works of craft and art.
HOSTED BY
The Magazine Antiques
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Curious Objects have?
Curious Objects currently has 134 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Curious Objects about?
Through interviews with leading figures in the world of fine and decorative arts, Curious Objects—a podcast from The Magazine Antiques—explores the hidden histories, the little-known facts, the intricacies, and the idiosyncrasies that breathe life and energy into historical works of craft and art.
How often does Curious Objects release new episodes?
Curious Objects publishes regularly with 134 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
Where can I listen to Curious Objects?
You can listen to Curious Objects on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Curious Objects?
Curious Objects is created and hosted by The Magazine Antiques.
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