The Winterthur Library

 The Joseph Downs Collection of Manuscripts and Printed Ephemera

 

 

OVERVIEW OF THE COLLECTION

 

Creator:          Helen Comstock                                              

Title:               Papers

Dates:             1959-1965

Call No.:         Col. 44

Acc. No.:         82x364

Quantity:        6 boxes

Location:        17 I 1

 

 

 

BIOGRAPHICAL STATEMENT

 

Helen Comstock was born in Kansas City, and educated at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, and at the University of California.  Under her maiden name (she was married to watercolorist Helmut Siber), Comstock wrote numerous articles, edited a two volume Concise Encyclopedia of American Antiques (1958), and wrote the books American Lithographs of the Nineteenth Century (1950), 100 Most Beautiful Rooms in America (1958), American Furniture (1962), and The Looking Glass in America, 1700-1825 (1968).

 

Comstock began her editorial work on the staff of the International Studio magazine in about 1926, rising to Associate Editor by 1931 when it combined with Connoisseur of London.  She eventually became American editor of Connoisseur.  Beginning in 1941, Comstock also joined the staff of Antiques.  It was not until 1958 that she resigned from Connoisseur's staff.

 

 

SCOPE AND CONTENT

 

This collection consists mainly of correspondence generated in the course of research for Ms. Comstock's books American Furniture (1962) and The Looking Glass in America (1968). Correspondents include Alice Winchester, Charles Montgomery, Ima Hogg, Milo Naeve, and other representatives of most of the important collections in the American decorative arts. The collection also includes a great number of photographs showing furniture, period rooms, and art work.  Many of the photographs indicate the name of the institution that provided Comstock with the image. 

 

The collection also came with about one cubic foot of publications, clippings and auction catalogs which are listed on the last pages of this finding aid, but which were removed from the collection and offered to Winterthur's Printed Books and Periodicals Collection.

           

 

ORGANIZATION

 

The materials arranged in alphabetical order.    

 

 

PROVENANCE

           

Gift of Alice Winchester, Newtown, Connecticut.

 

 

ACCESS POINTS

 

            People:

                        Winchester, Alice - Correspondence.

                        Montgomery, Charles Franklin, 1910-  - Correspondence.

                        Hogg, Ima - Correspondence.

                        Naeve, Milo M. - Correspondence.

                       

Topics:

            Furniture - United States.

            Mirrors.

            Women authors.

            Correspondence.

            Letters.

            Drafts.

            Photographs.

            Articles.

            Editors.

            Writers.

 

 

 

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE COLLECTION

 

Location: 17 I 1

 

 

Box 1:

American Furniture, Correspondence post publication, 1962-63

Animals: clippings file

Antiques style sheet

Art: clippings

Art criticism: clipping

Articles and Correspondence for Antiques, part 1, 1962-65

Articles and Correspondence for Antiques, part 2, 1960-63

Articles and Correspondence for Antiques, part 3, 1942, 1959-61

Articles and notes, various, ca. 1949

Birds: clippings file

Catalog, Standun (Ireland), 1967

"Collectors Notes": correspondence, photographs

Correspondence: Antiques, 1960-65

 

 

Box 2:

Correspondence: Atwill, Sanger, 1960-62

Correspondence: Barbour, Frederick K., 1960-61

Correspondence: Beds, 1960

Correspondence: Beirne, Rosamund R. (Mrs. F. F.), 1960-61

Correspondence: Boston Museum of Fine Arts, 1960-61

Correspondence: Brooklyn Museum, photographs for Winterthur, 1960-62

Correspondence: Bulkeley, Houghton, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1960-65

Correspondence: Carpenter, Ralph E., 1960-64

Correspondence: Chester County Historical Society, 1960-61

Correspondence: Christopher, Tom B., 1961

Correspondence: Cogan, Lillian B. (re: Hempsted House, New London, CT), 1960-61

Correspondence: Colonial Williamsburg, photographs, 1960-63

Correspondence: Connecticut Historical Society, 1960-62

Correspondence: Currier Gallery of Art (Charles E. Buckley), 1960-61

Correspondence: Deerfield, 1960-62

Correspondence: Essex Institute, Salem, MA, 1960

Correspondence: Essex Institute: publications from file

Correspondence: Franklin, C. Ray, 1960-61

Correspondence: Ginsburg & Levy, Inc., 1960-61

Correspondence: Hogg, Ima, 1960-61

Correspondence: Hughes, Mrs. W. Gordon, 1964-65

Correspondence: Independence Hall, and miscellaneous, 1960-61

Correspondence: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1960-65

 

 

Box 3:

Correspondence: Miscellaneous [includes: correspondence; Yale Alumni Magazine, January 1962, with article on the Mabel Brady Garvan Collection of Furniture; articles from the New York Historical Society Quarterly;  a Christmas card from Brown's Hotel in London; some photographs; a 1954 press release from the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York; etc.]

Correspondence: Miscellaneous and permissions, 1960-62

Correspondence: Monmouth County Historical Association, 1961

Correspondence: Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute (re: Fountain Elms, etc.), 1961

Correspondence: Museum of the City of New York, 1960-61

Correspondence: New Hampshire Historical Society, 1961

Correspondence: Newark Museum, 1960-61

Correspondence: Old Sturbridge Village, photographs

Correspondence: Parke-Bernet miscellaneous and others, 1960-65

Correspondence: Shelburne Museum, 1960-64

Correspondence: Sleepy Hollow Restorations, 1960-65

Correspondence: Smithsonian Institution, 1960-64

Correspondence: Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, 1959-60

Correspondence: Taradash, Mitchell, 1960-61

Correspondence: Vetter, Robert M., 1965

Correspondence: Walton, John S., photographs, 1960-61

Correspondence: White House, 1961

Correspondence: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art, 1961

Correspondence and photographs: Winterthur Museum, 1960-62

Correspondence: Woodlawn Plantation, photograph, 1961

Henry Ford Museum, 1961-66

Kosmos-Natur-Kalender, 1954

 

 

Box 4:

Mirrors: correspondence, research, and photographs (2 folders)

Notes and Smithsonian photographs, ca. 1960

Pennsylvania German: clippings

Personal publicity

Photographs (around 100, in 2 folders)

 

 

Box 5:

Photographs: mostly American subjects; identified for use (around 55 photos)

Photographs: not specific to Winterthur research; many European (around 65 photos)

Photographs, Southern furniture (2 folders, continued in Box 6)

 

 

Box 6:

Photographs: Southern furniture (continues from Box 5)

"Portraits of American Craftsmen," article by Comstock, 1959-60

Publications about Newport, Rhode Island

Vermont: state publications and correspondence about water, 1957-68

 

 


 

 

List of publications from the Helen Comstock papers which were, according to policy, offered to the Printed Books and Periodicals Collection at the end of October 1990:

 

Loengard, John, photographer, "Serene twilight of a once-sturdy sect; the Shakers," [no date or publication name given, but looks like Life or Look.]

 

Naeve, Milo M., "New Jersey furniture exhibition at the Newark Museum," reprint from The Art Quarterly, Spring 1959.

 

The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, March 1943, June 1943, October 1943, March 1954 (2 copies), March 1955, November 1955, February 1962, October 1962 (two copies), December 1965 (2 copies)

 

The Minneapolis Institute of Arts Bulletin, December 1964

 

Wolf, Edwin 2nd and Smith, Robert C. "A press for Penn's pump," Art Quarterly, Autumn 1961

 

a pair of conjugate leaves from Cleveland Museum of Art Bulletin, Dec. 1960, showing illustration of 17th century table

 

Swan, Mabel M. "Newburyport furnituremakers," Antiques, April 1945

 

Torrey, Julia W., "Ancestors of the turned chair" Antiques, September 1937

 

Old-Time New England, (SPNEA Bulletin), Spring 1956, Summer 1957, Fall 1962, Summer 1963, and winter 1965

 

The Month at Goodspeed's, May-June 1953, November-December 1953, April 1954, October-November 1954, March-April 1956, December 1956, March-April 1958

 

Education as an Art; Bulletin of the Rudolf Steiner School Association, ca. 25 issues between 1958 and 1966, and Education as an Art, published by the Waldorf Schools of North America, Summer 1969

 

Thomas, Milton Halsey, "The King's College Building with some notes on its later tenants," New York Historical Society Quarterly, January 1955

 

Vail, R.W.G. "Unknown views of old New York," (part VII) New York Historical Society Quarterly, April 1959

 

New York Historical Society Quarterly, January 1954, April 1958

 

The Old Print Shop Portfolio, December 1954, November 1955, February 1956 (two copies), November 1959

 

Wallace, David H., ed. "Diary of J.B. Dunlop," New York Historical Society Quarterly, July 1956

 

New York History, April 1959

 

Philadelphia Museum Bulletin, Spring 1953 [issue consists of article on Henry Connelly and Ephrain Haines, Philadelphia furniture makers]

 

Victoriana; an exhibition of the arts of the Victorian era in America; April 7-June 5, 1960; The Brooklyn Museum (exhibition catalog)

 

Connecticut Historical Society Bulletin, January 1956, April 1957, April 1958, January 1960, October 1965 (Ammi Phillips exhibition catalog)

 

George Dudley Seymour's Furniture Collection in the Connecticut Historical Society. Illustrated "Catalogue No. 2" by the Society, 1958

 

Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, March 1935

 

American Processional; 1492-1900. "Published by The National Capital Sesquicentennial Commission on the occasion of AMERICAN PROCESSIONAL, a special exhibition held at The Corcoran Gallery of Art from July 8 through December 17, 1950....", 1950. (exhibition catalog)

 

Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, March 1955

 

Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago, September-October 1941

 

Halsey, R.T.H., Benjamin Franklin: his interest in the arts  [apparently an offprint from an exhibition catalog]

 

Early Prints and Drawings of California from the Robert B. Honeyman, Jr. Collection. Loan Exhibition December 10, 1954-January 16, 1955.  Los Angeles County Museum.(exhibition catalog)

 

Asa Stebbins House 1799, Deerfield, MA: December 1958

 

Museum of the Vermont Historical Society, Montpelier, VT, 1966.

 

Old English Pine Woodwork; its decorative value to interior decoration. London and New York: Stair & Andrew, n.d.

 

Museums of New York City; including historic houses, botanical and zoological gardens. New York: Museums Council of New York City, n.d.

 

Connecticut Antiquarian [Bulletin of the Antiquarian & Landmarks Society, Inc. of Connecticut], July 1965

 

Loyalist House; Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada [brochure]

 

Exhibition of Chippendale Furniture for the benefit of St. Luke's Hospital Social Service  New York: Frank Partridge Inc., n.d. (exhibition catalog)

 

Gaines, Edith. "Quillwork: American paper filigree" Antiques n.d.

 

Bulletin of the Cincinnati Art Museum, April 1934, July 1937

 

American-Anderson News, January 1934 [pub. by American Art Association-Anderson Galleries, Inc.]

 

Museum News; Toledo Museum of Art, September 1935

 

Bury, Adrian. "Some Coaches and Coaching Inns in Aquatint," The Antique Collector, December 1955

 

Waldman, Emil. The Little Masters, New York: M. Knoedler, 1927.

 

The Boston Public Library Quarterly, October 1956

 

Bulletin of the [Boston] Museum of Fine Arts, June 1952

 

The Journal of the Walters Art Gallery, Vol. 12, 1949

 

Parke-Bernet Galleries, Inc.  auction catalogs:

 

            Early American Furniture... The Andrew V. Stout Collection....Public Sale Saturday, April 5...1941 (priced) (catalog 274)

 

            The Notable American Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Norvin H. Green...Public Auction Sale November 29 and 30 and December 1 and 2...1950 (catalog 1202)

 

            Important American and English XVII Century Furniture & Decoration....Public Auction Sale...January 22 & 23...1954 (catalog 1485)

 

            XVII & XVIII Century American Furniture and Paintings.... Public Auction Sale...May 13, 14, and 15...1954 (catalog 1521)

 

            Important American Furniture... Public Auction Sale...May 19...1956  (catalog 1682)

 

            Important American Eighteenth Century Cabinetwork.... Public Auction March 24 and 25...1961  (catalog 2026)

 

            Important Early American Cabinetwork... Public Auction...October 19...1963   (catalog 2215)