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When a $2,000 barrel isn’t a barrel

For thousands of years, artisans have found ways to make one material look like another. The history of furniture is filled with examples, like wood painted to resemble marble, metal, lacquer or other expensive or exotic materials. Sometimes, other materials are sculpted or painted to look like wood. The faux bois (literally “false wood”) technique was popularized in France, as its name suggests, in the mid-1800s, although its roots go deeper. Garden furnishings made of reinforced concrete sculpted into tree or branch shapes, which blended into the natural landscapes but were not ...

Fall

Fall has just begun. On Sunday, September 22, the autumnal equinox occured. The word “equinox” comes from the Latin words “aequus” meaning “equal” and “nox” which means “night”. So “equal night,” simply put, is the time when daylight hours are roughly the same length as nighttime. After the autumnal equinox the daylight hours become shorter and the nighttime hours lengthen. This all ends with the winter solstice when daylight hours lengthen and nighttime hours shorten. Most of us don’t mark the passing of the season with such a scientific explanation. We like ...

Form vs function: Debate surfaces over teapot

By Terry and Kim Kovel Artists of all levels, critics and admirers alike have long wondered: What is art? Collectors of ceramics face a slightly more specific question: What is art pottery? To a collector, the term “art pottery” usually refers to a kind of pottery made in the U.S. from ...

Climate Prep Week

This past week is designated as Climate Preparedness Week. Many organizations across the country host informative or practical events to better understand weather or to prepare for emergencies. Our big event each year is the New Ulm Emergency Preparedness Fair held, for the past two years, in conjunction with the city’s National Night Out festivities. I would like to extend my gratitude to all of our community partners who make the emergency preparedness fair a success. Truly, when we work together we can achieve so much more. For centuries, the go-to topic of polite, banal ...

Identifying the maker of furniture is not always easy

Identifying furniture can be tricky. Crediting a maker is often a matter of “style” or “attributed to.” Some makers’ names come to mean entire styles or time periods, like Chippendale for example. Some styles remain popular for centuries or get revived multiple times. Well-made copies of early pieces can even fool museums. So, when you find a piece of antique furniture with a maker’s mark or signature, like this Louis XVI Revival chair by Alexander Roux, which sold for $1,230 at Brunk Auctions, it’s a rare and fortunate event. The auction’s description noted that Roux, ...

Celebrating National Library Card Sign-Up Month

“Libraries are community treasure chests, loaded with a wealth of information available to everyone equally, and the key to that treasure chest is the library card. I have found the most valuable thing in my wallet is my library card.” – Laura Bush Library cards are indeed valuable. Consider these statistics for just last month at the New Ulm Public Library: · 11,272 physical items checked out · 710 eBook checkouts · 1,072 eAudiobook checkouts · 905 computer sessions · 5,337 wifi sessions All of these things were free at the library! But library value cannot be ...