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 maker’s own words, “will do more in ten minutes to inspire young people with the possibilities of life than ten years of haphazard and scattered endeavor.

135,500 Pieces (Of Wood)

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 a firm where enslaved cabinetmaker James worked. Ben and his guests explore some of the misconceptions around enslaved craftspeople, the complicated relationships they often had with their enslavers, and what this table can tell us about all of it.



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Fighting for Freedom

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 collections the world over, drawing connections between environments full of interesting objects and the good life. In this episode Carter expounds on objects in her own collection, from the odd “Jello Rock Clock” to the sublime painted-plaster-and-wood Statue of the Blessed Lady.



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"Junking" with Ralph Lauren Creative Director Mary Randolph Carter

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 intertwined with and connected to the world of antiques. Miller, Gerchak, and Guterman dig into the nitty-gritty behind the picture, the post-industrial American Dream in the Midwest, and the inspiration aplenty that came from Antiques Roadshow.



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Lost and Found in Cleveland

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 Protestant state’s chivalric past and supreme examples of Saxon metalworking prowess, by the 1700s the suits of armor had come to represent “a fulcrum between the early modern past and the Enlightenment present,” Kirchoff says. Shortly thereafter they went on display at the famous Green Vault in Dresden, a precursor of modern museums.



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THROWBACK: Thirty-Five Saxon Suits of Armor, with Chassica Kirchhoff

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 Davidson, all former guests on the podcast, are on hand to detail the goals of this exciting new endeavor in the antiques field.



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Introducing the Fine Objects Society

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 historical homage is James Robinson, Inc., whose hundred-year partnership with a legacy silver workshop in Sheffield, England, has resulted in what host Ben Miller calls “the best historical-style silver flatware being made today anywhere in the world.”

In this throwback episode, James Boening, director of James Robinson, Inc., and Craig Kent, workshop manager in Sheffield, come on the pod to dish about the vital importance of age-old processes like annealing, and the irony that homeowners would run themselves ragged trying to decide which rug to buy, but will settle for cold, unbalanced steel tableware without even blinking.



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THROWBACK: The Argument for Silver Tableware

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 is also her favorite: a pendulum wheel manufactured by Justin B. Wait in the 1800s, whose drive wheel is 46 1/2 inches in diameter.



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From Barn to Yarn: The story of spinning wheels, with Heavenly Bresser

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 reproduction levels, illustrating this and other points with four Persian Ferahan Sarouks, each of which represents a different quality level and degree of rarity.



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Learning to Love Antique Rugs, with Jan David Winitz: Part 2

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 the cosmos) and phoenixes (for the receptive, earth-rooted feminine principle). It made such an impression on Winitz that he’s never attempted to sell it.



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Learning to Love Antique Rugs, with Jan David Winitz: Part 1

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.