Appraising Art the Definitive Guide to Appraising the Fine and Decorative Arts Wendell D Garrett
A la country, before Ralph Lauren.
Wendell D. Garrett, 83, died November 14 most Burlington, Vt., where he moved recently to be near his family. His loss is incalculable. Among other things, Garrett would have known only how to characterize this occasion. He combined a thorough familiarity with the field of American art with a fine appreciation for its citizens and a knack for locating all inside a big frame.
His talent with words and people put him at the center of the antiques business for nigh threescore years, from the fourth dimension that he enrolled in the Winterthur Program in Early American Civilisation in 1955 to his concluding years as a guest appraiser on PBS's Antiques Roadshow . He was widely known for the upright, heavily inked signature that appended each of the 474 editorials that elevated The Mag Antiques showtime in 1972, when he assumed its editorship. To those who knew him well, he was a friend, mentor, advisor and confidante. His sly sense of humor and non indecorous love of gossip betrayed a biographer's fascination with the man condition.
Garrett was built-in October 9, 1929, to Lucille and Ennis Garrett, who moved from Florida to California in search of piece of work during the Great Depression. As a pupil at the University of California in Los Angeles in the early on 1950s, Garrett abased thoughts of a career in medicine after meeting Page Smith, the starting time of several men whose influence he acknowledged throughout his life. Smith, a Dartmouth and Harvard-educated professor of history, urged Garrett to railroad train at Winterthur.
Every bit a member of Winterthur'south fourth graduating class of 1957, the young scholar cottoned to instructor Charles F. Montgomery. Garrett later told Antiques and The Arts Weekly , "Montgomery was a passionate homo, the virtually charismatic individual I've ever known. His students would take followed him over a cliff if he had asked."
Montgomery instilled in others a visceral rapport with objects that no amount of book learning could supply. The professor also excelled at introductions. When Walter Muir Whitehill, librarian and manager of the Boston Archives, toured Henry Francis du Pont'southward new museum, Montgomery insisted that Garrett be Whitehill's guide.
Wendell at Sotheby's. ⁂ette Marshall photo.
"You're coming to Boston," Whitehill ordered Garrett before the tour ended. Garrett earned a second main's degree in American history at Harvard between 1957 and 1960. His first married woman, Jane, worked as Whitehill'southward assistant. In 1965, Wendell and Jane Garrett, after an editor at Knopf, produced the bibliography that accompanied Whitehall's book The Arts in Early American History.
Whitehill encouraged Garrett to join the staff of the Adams Papers at the Massachusetts Historical Society in 1959. The Adams trove dates from 1639 to 1889 and includes correspondence, diaries, literary manuscripts, speeches, and legal and business papers. In 1961, Garrett discovered the earliest diary of John Adams at the Vermont Historical Society and edited it for Harvard University Press. He was near proud of the four-book Diary and Autobiography of John Adams , which he co-edited.
The publicity surrounding the Diary 'due south publication, including a review by President John F. Kennedy, brought Alice Winchester, editor of The Magazine Antiques , to Boston. Garrett joined the magazine's staff in New York in 1966. He became editor when Winchester retired in 1972 and was named editor and publisher in 1975.
"For the cover of his start effect as editor he chose an image of Thomas Jefferson's architectural masterpiece, Monticello. Garrett's calligraphic signature at the bottom of the page became iconic," recalled Allison Eckardt Ledes, who succeeded Garrett when he joined Sotheby's in 1990.
"Over the course of the ensuing 2 decades at Antiques , he increased the number of colour illustrations and orchestrated single-topic problems devoted to the architecture and arts of a detail land or city. These are awe-inspiring and enduring contributions to the field of regional studies," Ledes, who died in 2008, told Antiques and The Arts Weekly.
"He loved the physicality of the magazine †the experience of the paper, the scent of the ink and the sound of the press. It was the ground of his interest in blazon and press," said historian Elisabeth Donaghy Garrett Widmer, Garrett's second wife and the female parent of his iii children. The writer of At Dwelling house: The American Family, 1750‱870 , Widmer is a by museum ambassador and executive at Sotheby's and Christie's.
The Garrett family unit at the Du Pont Award ceremony, from left, Abigail, Nathaniel, Maria and Betsy.
Garrett's fascination with publishing extended to letterpress press. He acquired his starting time press while working on the Adams Papers project, installing information technology in his house in Cambridge, Mass. A collector of aphorisms, he published his favorite expressions in The Ultimate Quire of Quotes , an anthology that he edited and printed in several editions with Sun Hill Press.
Rarely without a volume project, he wrote or co-wrote more than a dozen volumes, among them Apthorp Firm, 1760‱960; Thomas Jefferson Redivivus; Thomas Jefferson's Monticello; George Washington's Mount Vernon; The Arts in America: The Nineteenth Century; Classic America: The Federal Style and Beyond; Victorian America: Classical Romanticism to Gilded Opulence; Monticello and the Legacy of Thomas Jefferson; C lassic America ; and American Home: From Colonial Simplicity to the Modern Adventure.
While at Antiques , Garrett developed a reputation every bit a lecturer, traveling widely and cultivating audiences nationwide. He was instrumental in organizing and promoting programs such as the Natchez Antiques Forum in Mississippi, which recently celebrated its 35th anniversary, and spoke more than than a dozen times at the almanac Colonial Williamsburg Antiques Forum, often bringing the audition to its anxiety with his stirring presentations.
He served on dozens of boards, including those of the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation, Monticello; the New-York Historical Society; the Decorative Arts Trust; Old Sturbridge Village; The Majestic Oak Foundation; and the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
Many groups honored Garrett. Winterthur Museum awarded him the Henry Francis du Pont Laurels for distinguished contribution to the American arts in 1994. A decade later on, in 2004, the Antiques Dealers' Clan of America presented him with its Award of Merit. He was the 3rd individual to exist honored, after Albert Sack and Elinor Gordon.
In the showroom at Sotheby's, always with time to slow his auto down to greet a friend.
Companionable and gregarious in an agreeably understated way, Garrett cherished his membership in organizations such as the Club of Odd Volumes, the American Antiquarian Guild and the Walpole Club, an aristocracy fraternity of antiquarians whose members have included John Carter Brown, John Nicholas Brown, Joseph Downs, Charles Montgomery, Henry Flynt and Henry Francis du Pont.
Not least, Garrett was a portrait of backbone. Diagnosed with muscular dystrophy and confined to a wheelchair 23 years ago, he executed his professional obligations with vigor and dignity even as his wellness declined. He avoided complaint and encouraged others to practise the same. He navigated New York City's streets without fear, zipping between his apartment and his offices in a motorized chair equipped with book bags and his signature walking stick.
Wendell Garrett leaves a brother, Ronald Garrett; his old wives Jane N. Garrett and Elisabeth Donaghy Garrett Widmer; his three children and their spouses, Maria Garrett and Miguel de Lievano, Abigail Garrett and Matthew Looft, Nathaniel Garrett and Michelle Mulkey; and four grandchildren.
A memorial fund has been established at Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library to honour Garrett through an award that will recognize achievement in melding decorative arts and history with the originality and eloquence that defined his career. For farther data or to make a contribution, please contact Matthew Thurlow, Major Gifts Officeholder, Winterthur Museum, 5105 Kennett Pike, Winterthur, DE 19735, mthurlow@winterthur.org or 302-888-4878.
A celebration of Garrett's life is planned for Jan during Americana Week in New York.
Days after the 2001 bombing of the World Merchandise Towers in New York, Garrett wrote near the feel in the November issue of Antiques. Drawing lessons from history, he observed, "America is non only a place, but an idea." His pursuit of ideas, expressed in the nation's arts and letters, endears him to usa always.
Wendell D. Garrett Remembered
Wendell, at a tender historic period in the early 1930s.
Throughout his life, Wendell Garrett passionately extolled the significance of American history and the beauty of its expression in our nation's material culture. His middle was unerring, and his passion infectious. Equally I came of historic period in the field of American decorative arts, there were ii superhuman forces propelling its ascendancy, each amplifying the other. The first was Charles Montgomery, who successfully inducted American material culture into the university of art history through his shaping of the Winterthur Program. The second was Wendell Garrett, a student of Montgomery's who became a powerful spokesman for the field, equally the scholar/editor of The Magazine Antiques . One could likewise say he became the siren of the field, as few could "sail" past each calendar month's eloquent essay without succumbing to the ensuing pages.
In his pantheon of worthies, Wendell offered special devotion to Thomas Jefferson, America's greatest Enlightenment thinker. Wendell admired Jefferson'southward insatiable quest for knowledge and his devoted application of that noesis to human progress, whether in government, architecture, gardening or wine. Garrett became a steward of Jefferson's dear Monticello when he was elected to the Board of Trustees in 1971. He remained a trustee †first active, so emeritus and finally honorary †until his death. He was an officeholder for 17 years, and chairman during the celebration of Jefferson's 250th altogether in 1993, also the year Clinton and Gore met at Monticello to journey to Washington for their inauguration.
I was fortunate enough to exist in attendance at Wendell's final visit to Monticello in June of 2008, having simply arrived to assume my duties equally president of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation. He was both delighted and benedictive about my decision to leave Winterthur for Monticello. He delivered his remarks, entitled "Thomas Jefferson Revealed," on the iconic West Lawn of Monticello. He called Jefferson "all things to all men: a culture hero," and concluded, "And, as America was to be a model for the gratis world, to show what man was capable of when gratis, Jefferson devoted himself passionately to strengthening this nation, expanding its territory, building its resources, maintaining its security, fostering its culture and its virtue."
It was a cute summer evening, and I think remarking to myself on the many kindred traits between Thomas Jefferson and his gentleman, and amidst them, their beloved of country, the arts, literature, books and learning; and their limitless passion to share that which had so profoundly shaped them, with others. Each took upwards the pen to promote his quest, and at present that I think of information technology, each had remarkable signatures, that none of us will ever forget, on newspaper and on our lives.
⁌ESLIE GREENE BOWMAN, PRESIDENT THOMAS JEFFERSON FOUNDATION,
MONTICELLO
Jump of 1992, when Wendell gave the annual lecture at the Scarsdale Historical Society.
Perhaps it was his innate civility and thoughtfulness about others, combined with a rare talent for enlivening the intersection of American art and American history (has everyone else e'er used Bartlett's Quotations to such good result?), that then endeared Wendell Garrett to and so many people.
⁍ORRISON H. HECKSCHER
LAWRENCE A. FLEISCHMAN
CHAIRMAN OF THE AMERICAN WING,
METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF Fine art
Wendell Garrett changed lives. As a brilliant lecturer, distinguished writer and seminal effigy who remained at the center of the antiques world for one-half a century, he influenced so many people in so many ways. Yet, for me, his legacy extends far across his scholarly and journalistic accomplishments. Nigh of all, I will recall Wendell as a kind and generous friend who treated everyone with respect and good cheer. Groundwork or class made no difference to Wendell. If you lot had an involvement in history or the arts, he welcomed you, he engaged yous in conversation and he remembered you lot. I will forever miss his democratic spirit, which led then many to cherish America'south past and celebrate the artful creations of this country'due south craftsmen.
⁂Rock JOBE, PROFESSOR OF AMERICAN DECORATIVE ARTS, WINTERTHUR MUSEUM
A scholar, a gentleman and a part model to all of us whom he encouraged in our research and publications, I will always fondly and vividly remember him. Equally a immature graduate of the Winterthur Programme working at The Brooklyn Museum in the early 1970s, I first knew Wendell through an antiques group that met for lectures at the Grolier Club. He was warm, friendly and always enthusiastic about my work on the Brown family of Providence and encouraged me to set up several manufactures for The Magazine Antiques . In those early years of my career he was both mentor and model, and every bit the years and decades passed he not only continued in those roles, but also became a colleague and close friend. But then he was a friend to all †respected, admired and mightily loved. Despite what he had to overcome, he was ever interested in what I was working on, it was never near Wendell †but always most others whose work he constantly inquired about. How ironic †for Wendell was the brilliant one, whose knowledge was far greater than anything I might ever promise to embrace!
⁗ENDY A. COOPER
LOIS F. AND HENRY S. McNEIL
SENIOR CURATOR OF FURNITURE
WINTERTHUR MUSEUM,
GARDEN AND LIBRARY
A happy father with daughter, Maria.
The phrase is overused, but Wendell Garrett's passing really is the end of an era. Everyone knows that he was a scholar, a gifted speaker and writer, and a gentleman, simply he too could put absolutely anyone at ease within three minutes of meeting them. Wendell'due south insights into the field, his turn of phrase and his thoughtful, personal approach made him a constant favorite with Colonial Williamsburg staff and visitors alike. He will be genuinely missed.
⁒ONALD Fifty. HURST,
VICE PRESIDENT FOR COLLECTIONS,
CONSERVATON & MUSEUMS THE CARLISLE H. HUMELSINE CHIEF CURATOR COLONIAL WILLIAMSBURG FOUNDATION
A year later on receiving the ADA Award of Merit in 2004, Wendell Garrett wrote in one of his insightful editorials for The Magazine Antiques that Nineteenth Century intellectuals wrestled "… with the trouble of work and leisure." Garrett, as an intellectual spanning the end of one century and the beginning of another, seemed to take no such result. Piece of work was his leisure. He was a man whose various interests all seemed to converge around the central element of history. He offered his knowledge to all, and in doing so, benefited the various antiques trades, publications, auction houses, schools and museums. Everyone was a educatee of Wendell'due south. Those who were intimidated by his impressive reputation upon start meeting him, walked away as a friend. His interest was infectious and he spawned new generations of inquiry and appreciation of fine art, compages and decorative arts. He was the image of what the Antiques Dealers' Association of America stands for: honesty, integrity and ethical carry. We were proud to award him in life, and know his legacy volition comport on by death.
⁊UDITH LIVINGSTON LOTO,
PRESIDENT, ANTIQUES DEALERS Association OF AMERICA
All dressed up for the ADA Award.
I was not sure what to await when I joined Antiques as its editor in February of 2008. I had been warned that I might be rejected as a foreign organ by the trunk of curators, dealers and collectors who brand up the field. From twenty-four hour period ane Wendell was a generous comrade. He was amused past my questions and amusing in his answers to them. Mayhap he welcomed an outsider here because, and this is a subject area for a longer give-and-take, he knew more than a petty about existence an outsider himself. Every bit the months went by he was quick to call when he approved of something I had done and helpful when he did non. Wendell knew a lot more about this land than its art, artisans and fabric culture. He knew what it was to have a full education in the crude and tumble of American life. I admired what he did with that cognition. I admired his courage.
⁅LIZABETH POCHODA, EDITOR,
THE Mag ANTIQUES
I came to Antiques the twelvemonth Wendell succeeded Alice Winchester as editor in master. His loss to all with whom he so generously shared his extraordinary breadth of noesis and vision of America is incalculable. His legacy is to be constitute in the hundreds of editorials and reams of articles he wrote for the magazine, equally well as the books he authored or edited, in the lectures he delivered across the country to organizations large and small and the antiques forums he was instrumental in founding †all of which gave life to American decorative arts. In many ways Wendell always reminded me of his heroes, Adams and Jefferson. The most telling measure out of his legacy is the number of friends, colleagues, family unit members and admirers who volition mourn his loss for years to come.
⁅LEANOR H. GUSTAFSON,
EXECUTIVE EDITOR,
THE Magazine ANTIQUES
Wendell Garrett's great love of books is quite obvious in his office at Sotheby's, 1994.
Like many serious students and professionals in the world of Americana, my bookshelves both at home and at work are chock total with the published output of Wendell's extraordinarily productive and legendary career. Scores of books, decades of The Magazine Antiques , numerous manus printed broadsides and booklets from Christmases dating from 1990 to 2011, and yards of Sotheby's Americana catalogues with appreciations, footnotes, indices, tributes and biographies written for diverse collections and collectors whose interests were nurtured and informed through his writing. Wendell's erudition, his honey of reading generally and history particularly, his love of the printed give-and-take and of printing itself, and his all-encompassing lectures fabricated him amongst the most profound and constant shepherd of the flock of collectors, institutions, dealers who love the American decorative arts and the American history that surround those objects. With awesome clarity, he seemed, magically, to transform vast quantities of historical fact into elegant prose, creating an historical context for the discipline at hand.
He was rock-solid and relentlessly dependable despite mounting concrete challenges and hurricanes, blizzards and tornadoes. Aught deterred him from meeting his obligations. Only for all of this remarkable accomplishment, I cherish virtually his humanity, his humility, generosity, steadfastness †the warmth, wit and humour and the joy of our sharing a actually good conversation. He was willing to spend the fourth dimension to talk nearly any number of subjects †Americana, collections, collectors, the ballet, Shakespeare, an editorial in The New Yorker . And, as if by magic, he would shape that conversation into a conversation with form and meaningful content. He had the gift of engaging with his colleagues, of coming together them on a companionable common ground. He made the states all feel worthy. That is a precious and rare gift and one that I as his friend and colleague volition cherish forever.
⁎ANCY DRUCKMAN
Head, AMERICAN FOLK ART
DEPARTMENT, SOTHEBY'S
I was exploring my options to travel to the Burlington, Vt., area, going either by car or by plane with my grandson at the controls, when I learned that Wendell was upward there to exist closer to his family, and and so I received the bad news about him and my plans to visit my longtime friend vanished. It was truly bad news, and not just for me, but for family, his shut friends, the readers who welcomed his editorials month after month for all those years, and the countless people he inspired through his talks, writings, friendships or merely a simple greeting.
Over the years that I knew him, and at the many, many functions we attended and met, he was never too busy to say hello, ask after the family and shake hands. He was rarer than any of the antiques he talked and wrote about, and lots more fun.
⁒. SCUDDER SMITH
EDITOR/PUBLISHER ANTIQUES
AND THE ARTS WEEKLY
Source: https://www.antiquesandthearts.com/wendell-d-garrett-1929012/
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