Desk designed by Donald Deskey, probably made by Schmieg, Hungate & Kotzian, Inc., 1929. Macassar ebony veneer, yellow-poplar, chestnut, ash, plywood faced with mahogany. Yale University Art Gallery, Gift of Mrs. Arthur D. Berliss, Sr.

John Stuart Gordon will explore the varied influences and myths surrounding the appearance of modern decorative arts during the Jazz Age. Mr. Gordon’s themes are drawn from his exhibit, “A Modern World: American Design from the Yale University Art Gallery, 1920–1950,” to present a fully-realized view of the influence, concerns, and ambitions of modern design in America from the Jazz Age to the dawn of the Space Age. His exhibition catalogue interprets approximately 300 modernist objects from a wide range of media, glass and metals to textiles and furniture, that embraces all levels of manufacture, from bespoke sterling to manufactured cookware.

Americans, although skeptical at first, eagerly embraced modernist design during the 1920s and applied its aesthetic to furniture, housewares, textiles, silver and glass. Most histories of modern design in America begin with the 1925 Paris Exposition des Arts Decoratifs. While this ambitious exposition caused many Americans to realize they were out-of-step with international style, discussions of modern design had in fact been circulating through American design circles since the early 1920s.

The earliest promoters of modern design in America were German and Austrian émigrés. Their influence helped form a quintessentially American version of modernism that borrowed freely from a broad range of European influences.

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Grecian pier table attributed to Thomas Seymour for Isaac Vose & Son, Boston, ca. 1823-1825. Mahogany and mahogany veneer, replaced slate top. Private collection. Photograph by David Bohl.

Clark Pearce and Robert Mussey exhaustively researched the work of Isaac Vose, in his various furniture partnerships from the beginning of the 19th century until 1823, in order to reestablish his important role in American decorative arts. The partnership of Vose & Coates, as well as Thomas Seymour, were among the first proponents of the Grecian style in Boston. They drew on literal adaptations of designs that had been unearthed in the 18th century from Pompeii and Herculaneum in Italy (which nevertheless was called the “Grecian” style).

Isaac Vose, when he was in business with Joshua Coates, competed directly with Thomas Seymour as early as 1808 when both men produced furniture for Oak Hill, Elizabeth Derby West’s home in Danvers, Massachusetts. The luxuriousness of some of the heiress’ Oak Hill rooms, and some of her furnishings, are on display at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts (which also owns Vose & Coates’ 1808 receipt to Mrs. West for a cellaret).

After Joshua Coates died in 1819, Isaac Vose combined forces with Thomas Seymour by recruiting him to be his shop foreman. Thomas Seymour also brought with him some of the British-trained immigrant craftsmen whom he had employed in his own shop before it closed in 1817 and/or whom he had supervised when he worked in James Barker’s shop from 1817 to 1819.

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Fancy dress costume, “Infanta Margarita” after Velasquez, worn by Kate Brice to the Bradley-Martin Ball, February 10, 1897, by John-Philippe Worth (1856-1926). White satin overlaid with alternating rows of white organza ribbon and galon d’argent bands; white organza; cream machine-made lace; silver metallic “lei” with spangles; pink taffeta ribbon; brilliants; black velvet ruched ribbon; rhinestone border backed by pink taffeta cockade. Museum of the City of New York, anonymous gift, 1942

When families such as the Belmonts, Carnegies and Vanderbilts amassed vast, new industrial wealth in the decades following the Civil War, they conspicuously consumed jewelry, fashion, interior décor, furnishings and decorative arts. Jeannine Falino will offer us stellar examples of New York’s fashion and design culture from between 1880 and 1914.

Ms Falino will provide an early preview of lavish objects from “Gilded Age New York,” an exhibition she is co-curating which opens on November 13, 2013. Her exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York will include exceptional examples of presentation silver by Tiffany & Company; ball gowns by Charles Frederick Worth, the premier couturier of the era; as well as jewelry by Tiffany, Cartier, Marcus & Company, and Black, Starr & Frost.

Ms Falino will also examine the institutions that created and disseminated those beautiful objects. Tiffany & Company retailed, among many other luxury items, jewelry that was worn to the recently established Metropolitan Opera. A plethora of social events provided a platform for New Yorkers, including Ward McAllister’s legendary 400 members of “Fashionable Society,” to display their newfound — as well as established “Knickerbocracy” — wealth and social status.

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Coupe, ca. 1867, agate with gilded and enameled brass by Charles Duron (French, 1814–1872). Carnegie Museum of Art, Women’s Committee Acquisition Fund, Gift of Baroness Cassel Van Doorn, by exchange, and Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 2008. Shown at the Exposition Universelle, Paris, 1867

World’s fairs — once referred to as universal exhibitions — were the most important venues for debuting advancements in modern living. International expositions functioned as showcases and marketplaces for design — on individual, national and global levels. Above all, they democratized design unlike any previous or period forum.

Decorative arts, particularly objects crafted in ceramic, metal, glass and wood, physically manifested the progressive, economic, and technological ideals embodied in the fairs. Jason Busch will focus on objects that embody the underlying themes of world’s fairs: (1) the importance of inventive or revived fabrication techniques; (2) the representation of cross-cultural and cross-national influence, resulting from increasing global trade and exchange; and (3) the demonstration of nationalistic inspiration and folkloric traditions.

Decorative arts from world’s fairs are sometimes the only surviving elements of these impermanent exhibitions. Jason Busch carefully culled approximately 200 such decorative arts from every major world’s fair from 1851 to 1939. Many of these seminal objects from the 19th and early 20th centuries had never been published or even seen outside of their respective collections, and their important provenance in the world’s fairs has only recently been (re)discovered.

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Summer Cocktail Party with English Butler, 1961, by Larry Salk (American, 1936-2004), watercolor, gouache, ink on paper. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Gift of Jean S. and Frederic A. Sharf

Michelle Finamore’s lecture will present the cocktail as the consummate American potable, a drink that embodies a unique mix of innovation, modernity and glamour. Not merely a libation, the word “cocktail” conjures up a careful melding of tart and sweet spirits, mingling guests and fashion to achieve a balanced, yet stimulating, social concoction. Dr. Finamore’s talk will explore how Americans, for almost 100 years, have embraced the cocktail and its social milieu. From the private cocktail party to the public bar scene, the ritualized performance, distinctive dress and consumption of artfully mixed beverages remain a vital force in cosmopolitan culture.

Cultured men began drinking cocktails in hotel bars in the 1880s, but women weren’t invited to the party of mixed drinks in “mixed company” until the 1920s. Cocktail parties became even more popular — and legal — social events for sophisticates after Prohibition was repealed in 1933. The sophisticated social ritual was widely popularized on the silver screen by fashionably dressed and coiffed Hollywood movie stars who drank from martini glasses in Art Deco interiors, exchanged scintillating quips and listened to Cole Porter’s melodies.

Cocktail parties moved — with many Americans — to the suburbs in the 1950s. Cocktail parties characterized post-war affluence and the sophistication of young, married couples who created the “baby boom.” Michelle Finamore will address the transformations in taste and style occasioned by the cocktail party, through fashion, jewelry, bar accessories and popular imagery.

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Pieced quilt top fragment, England, 1700–1730, silks and metallic threads over earlier paper templates. Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.

With the understanding that quilts have been made and used in America from the earliest years of settlement, Linda Baumgarten asks the incisive question of what is an American quilt. Her response is that the story of American quilts is really many stories, “written” in the stitches of the women — and men — who produced them. Although we might expect the earliest American quilts to be make-do products made of scrap textiles, the opposite is true. The earliest quilts were luxury items made of the finest materials, some imported across oceans from Great Britain and even from India.

A quilt is defined by its layered assemblage — front, batting and backing — all held together with stitches or ties. Despite the relatively simple definition, quilts came in a wide variety of styles and constructions over the past 400 years. The decorative tops could be plain, or whole cloth; embroidered; pieced; appliquéd; or a combination of techniques. The fillings can consist of an even layer of batting, cords or extra stuffing to raise individual areas above the surface.

Each group that settled in our multi-ethnic culture brought individual textile traditions and expanded the definition of American quilting. Some immigrants chose to quilt in the styles of their newly adopted home, while others continued to express the artistic impulses of their ethnic origins. The dignified and beautiful Amish quilts are among the most collectible of American textile artifacts and seemingly unique to the group. Yet research has shown that Amish quilts were influenced by quilts made by their Welsh neighbors in Pennsylvania. African-American quilts varied widely. Some African-American women quilted in the dominant tradition, while others reflected their African roots through the use of asymmetry, rhythmic variation and emphasis of the overall design over the quilting stitches.

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Aeronautical trophy retailed by Black, Starr & Frost (active 1874-1929), New York City, 1907. Silver. The New-York Historical Society, Gift of Alan R. Hawley.

The New-York Historical Society holds one of the finest collections of early American silver in the nation. This trove of nearly 3,000 objects is remarkable because it is composed almost entirely of silver donated by descendants of the original owners, who preserved their inherited tankards and teapots as tangible links to New York’s past. Appreciated today for their workmanship, aesthetic qualities or rarity, the provenance of these pieces have additional layers of meaning conferred by the patina of successive generations of use. The richly documented objects open a window onto silver’s symbolic meanings, its role in sustaining kinship ties and its ability to convey the ambitions and achievements of its owners.

Margaret Hofer’s recent exhibition, “Stories in Sterling: Four Centuries of Silver in New York,” and its companion catalogue, have brought long-overdue attention to the New-York Historical Society’s holdings. Dazzling masterpieces by silversmiths from Myer Myers to Tiffany & Co. are considered along with unassuming heirlooms that offer up historically compelling tales and give texture to the life of early New Yorkers. The selection embraces the full range of lustrous metals available to New Yorkers from European settlement to the present day, including sterling, coin silver and even electroplate. All of the objects were made or owned in New York, although some originated as far afield as Amsterdam, Buenos Aires and Canton.

Margaret Hofer will discuss a sampling of highlights from the Historical Society’s collection, focusing on exciting new finds uncovered during the course of research for the catalogue. She will include the charming teapot crafted by Kiliaen Van Renssealer for Johannes and Elizabeth Schuyler in 1695, one of the earliest teapots made in the colonies; a rare 1750s coffeepot with rococo ornament made in Kingston, Jamaica, previously misidentified as an English manufacture; and a breathtaking trophy in the form of a hot air balloon, awarded in 1907 for a record-breaking balloon flight.

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