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Antiques & Collecting: Get along little doggie letter opener

It’s a Wiener dog from a Wiener workshop! Vienna, Austria, or “Wien” in German, was a major European cultural center. The Weiner Werkstatte may be the most famous Viennese workshop of the 20th century, but it was not the only one. This dachshund-shaped letter opener sold for $813 at a Rago auction. It was made by Werkstatte Hagenauer, which was founded in Vienna by goldsmith Charles Hagenauer in 1898. Like many studios, it was a family business. Hagenauer’s sons became influential art deco designers. The workshop closed in the 1980s. Now there is a museum and shop on its former ...

Off the Shelf: Spring planting

Spring…we are waiting! I hope by the time you are reading this, we have jumped off the roller coaster of spring/winter weather and have settled into beautiful spring days. We have new gardening books for you! I’m starting with “The Old Farmer’s Almanac Flower Gardener’s Handbook” because you can’t go wrong with that! They will walk you through everything from the last frost date in your area, figuring out what kind of soil you have, to everything about seeds and composting. And of course, information about flower varieties galore. Julia Watkins has written an ...

Off the Shelf: Celebrate National Library Week

Each year libraries across the United States celebrate National Library Week. National Library Week is sponsored by the American Library Association, which provides leadership for the development, promotion, and improvement of library and information services and the profession of librarianship. All types of libraries – school, public, academic, and special libraries – participate in National Library Week. It’s a chance for us to celebrate what libraries and librarians offer to our communities and to promote library services. In 2022, National Library Week will be celebrated April ...

Antiques & Collecting: Chinese art decorations carried many meanings

By Terry and Kim Kovel The Hundred Treasures theme was popular in Chinese art during the Qing dynasty (1644-1911). Many objects of daily life that impart symbolic meaning were incorporated into artwork. A single vase can be a symbol of female fertility, yet this red Chinese porcelain has several small relief vases on its surface to suggest even more meaning. Flowers are not only painted to decorate the small raised vases, but are also painted on the red ground to look like they are floral arrangements in the raised vases. Flowers are eternal symbols of beauty, and the brilliant red ...

Antiques & Collecting: Lalannes were known for surrealist sculptures

In 1966, Claude and Francois-Xavier Lalanne became known as the co-creating duo “Les Lalanne” (The Lalannes). The husband-and-wife team made surrealist dreamlike sculpture, bridging the real and the unreal to create unique hybrid sculpture. Francois-Xavier is best known as a creator of sculptural animals that were not only pieces of art but also were furniture. Claude’s inspiration is drawn from vegetation and body parts, often combining the two to produce original surrealist forms. Claude created cast body parts in the 1970s including the “Doigt” sculptures. “Doigt,” ...

Off the Shelf: It’s finally spring!

Spring has finally sprung! I am so happy the vernal equinox has finally occurred and it’s spring. I am looking for green grass, new buds on the trees, flowers pushing up from the soil, and new books to read while I wait out the next three or four weeks until spring really starts here in south central Minnesota. New to the library, though first published in English in 2021, is “The Capybaras” by Alfredo Soderguit. Displaced by hunting season a group of capybaras make the chicken’s run their new home. The chickens are not pleased and their temporary home comes with lots of rules. ...