Aesop's Mirror: A Love Story

by Maryalice Huggins

Book Overview

"Everything I needed to know about Fox and Grapes mirror, I knew the moment I first I saw it" What antiques restorer Maryalice Huggins knew when she stumbled across the mirror at a country auction in Rhode Island was this: She was besotted. Rococo and huge (more than eight feet tall), the mirror was one of the most unusual objects she had ever seen. Huggins had to have it. The frame's elaborate carvings were almost identical to a famous eighteenth-century design. Could this be eighteenth-century American? That would make it rare indeed. But in the rarefied world of American antiques, an object is not significant unless you can prove where it's from. Huggins set out to trace the origins of her magnificent mirror. Fueled with the delightfully obsessive spirit of Susan Orlean's The Orchid Thief , Aesop's Mirror follows Huggins on her quest as she goes up against the leading lights of the very male world of high-end antiques and dives into the historical archives. And oh, what she finds there! The mirror was likely passed down through generations of the illustrious Brown family of Providence, Rhode Island. Throughout history, mirrors have been seen as having mystical powers, enabling those who peer into them to connect the past and the future. In Aesop's Mirror , Maryalice Huggins does just that, creating a marvelous, one-of-kind book about a marvelous, one of-a-kind American treasure.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0374101035
• ISBN13: 9780374101039
• Release Date: November 2009
• Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux
• Length: 270 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.8" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Aesop's Mirror

I loved this book and loved learning how much is involved in the restoration of antiques. Maryalice has captured the intensity involved when you love what you do. Her perseverence is remarkable and I love the way she incorporated her family into her quest.

A Not-To-Be-Missed Book

Maryalice Huggins, a masterful story teller, has produced one of the most compelling books I've ever read. I couldn't put it down, yet (shades of Harry Potter) never wanted the magical experience to end. I enthusiastically recommend it to everyone who loves a suspense-filled story and/or has a passion for history, antiques, the decorative arts and material culture in general, plus genealogy. Don't miss it!

I wish I had written this book!

Let's face it, there haven't been many non-information driven books written about antiques and the people whose lives they touch. 'Aesop's Mirror' is worth having for those of us who regularly struggle with issues of provenance, authenticity and artistic attribution. It's a vicarious thrill that makes the telling of her manically thorough research project worthwhile. The author - a restoration specialist and gilder - buys a very large (8.5 feet high) 19th century mirror at a Rhode Island auction in 1995. Based on preliminary research, she surmises it may have come from the estate of a well known Providence family, and the bulk of the story relates her extensive research of family records and interviews with descendants, hoping to find a link. 45 pages of historical fiction about the family in the 1870s is well written, and adds background to keep the book moving along. A juicy little side story is the lambasting of Leigh Keno, as one of "a tight cabal of authorities who control the market". He is portrayed as a "ferociously ambitious" opportunist who buys a gem of a Classical dolphin sofa from Huggins for $50,000 (including her time and expenses to restore it) which he re-sells for more than three times that amount to the Detroit Institute of Art. This is almost ten times what she paid for it at a country auction, and no one else was biting at the time, but still she chafes at his fabulous profit. Her blunt candor about the experience would be a bridge-burning episode for most of us The "love story" subtitle is a bit of hyperbole, although Huggins does wax poetic about how the carved figures on the mirror speak to her. Maybe I'm cynical but I'm unconvinced that she would have kept the mirror if she could have positively connected it to the Rhode Island family. But what the heck, it's a great read.

The Thinking Person's Bon-Bon

I've bought too many books that, by page 30, were predictable examples of their category. Not so Aesop's Mirror. It jumps categories, pirouettes around expectations, and speaks in a voice at once knowing, witty, and snappy---a pinch of Dorothy Parker, a touch of the historian, a whiff of romance, politics, mystery, and suspense---and for me, a surprise finale! The book is at once profound and playful. It addresses Time itself. It describes in concrete terms what gives life, not only to objects but to oneself. I'll tell you no more. Whatever else you do don't miss this book. It is that very rare treasure: a one of a kind FIND!

Aesop's Mirror: A Love Story by Maryalice Huggins

This book gives a wonderful and witty you-are-there look at the worlds of art, antiques and restoration, the auction business, and New England history. It's written with a breeziness that makes it fun to read and an honesty that can take you by surprise. More deeply, the author describes her voyage of philosophical discovery, tracing the trajectory of her obsession with an object to uncover what ultimately determines any object's "value". A great read - interesting, funny, informative, and iconoclastic.