COCKTAIL SHAKERS SYMBOL OF CHIC (c) By Polly Guerin

Ah!!! The sound of ice cubes dancing in a cocktail shaker. Nothing is more welcome than that rhythmic sound which signals the hour before dinner when the appetite is whetted by the brew as liquors, fruit juices, syrups mix with various alcoholic beverages are vigorously shaken into libations for the cocktail hour. My aunt Virgie’s husband Bruce, who prized among his possessions a cocktail shaker that looked like an airplane, was a master of the art and his airplane-inspired cocktail shaker went beyond the call of duty. Pictured here: the Duel-Fuel Cocktail Shaker with two side wings that double as flasks.

A POPULAR ARTIFACT The 1920’s prohibition era in the United States. The quintessential era of cocktail shaker history, produced many different cocktail shaker shapes and designs including zeppelins, lighthouses, penguins and towering bullet shaped or skyscraper models. These were the icons of the Jazz Age when they reached their zenith of popularity. The leading expert on these sophisticated and stylish artifacts is Stephen Visakay, a collector and dealer of cocktail shakers and bar accoutrements, and whose fascinating collection numbers over 1,400. These winsome artifacts became celebrities in their own right and were associated with the glamorous lives of movie stars and took star billing in numerous movies. 

SOPHISTICATED CHIC Cocktail shakers became symbols of sophistication and the good life for the cognoscenti and everyone else wanted to get into the act, even some Art Deco devotees who attended a recent vernissage. Visakay introduced some of the cocktail shakers from his rare collection at a meeting /cocktail reception of (ADSNY) the Art deco Society of New York. A lively gathering of Art Deco enthusiasts joined in the social amenities at an ADSNY member’s Deco- inspired apartment furnished with Art Deco artifacts and a spectacular cocktail shaker bar---truly we were in a stratospheric Art Deco venue with magnificent views. For information about ADSNY visit: www.artdeco.org.

COCKTAIL SHAKER LORE
Visakay has been featured in numerous magazines and he has been named one of America’s top 100 collectors so anything you want to know about cocktail shakers can be had in his book Vintage Bar Ware –Identification and Value Guide or visit: www.visakay.com. With the advent of WWII the cocktail shaker had a brief demise because all non-essential uses of metal were redirected towards the war effort. However, the cocktail shaker was never forgotten and it had a brief resurgence in the 1950’s in “rec rooms” with bars. Then the electric blender was the final blow. However, the innkeeper who invented the cocktail shaker as we know it can be rest assured that in bars and in private homes the cocktail shaker is holding its own today as a symbol of acquired taste and sophistication.

Polly Guerin author: THE COOPER-HEWITT DYNASTY OF NEW YORK (HISTORY PRESS 2012)

GEM CULTURE ADDS SPARKLE TO NYC (c) By Polly Guerin

Gem culture’s brilliant venues spark museum exhibitions with historical and modernity. Reaching to the chic of all ages fashion designer and jewelry venues offer the best of New York’s ongoing romance with luxury. Get your first row seat on the red carpet. Only in New York my friends. Here’s a gem of a scoop!!

GIRL WITH THE PEARL EARRING This just in from Lynne Saginaw, “Vermeer’s “The Girl with the Pearl Earring,” the winsome young woman gazing over her shoulder with wide, longing-to-see-you eyes takes up residence as the sole occupant of the Oval Room at the Frick Collection from October 22 through January 19, 2014. Last seen in New York in 1984 this is a rare and special opportunity.” Her portrait will be joined by 14 more works by the 17th Dutch masters in the exhibition, “Vermeer, Rembrandt and Hals: Masterpieces of Dutch Painting” all on loan from the Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis, in the Hague, which is undergoing a two-year, full-scale restoration. Fair warning: This is going to be a very popular exhibition, GET TICKETS EARLY. The Frick Collection is located at 1 East 70th St; Tuesdays thru Saturdays from 10 am to 6 pm. Sunday 11 to 5 pm. Closed Mondays, Thanksgiving and Christmas. 212.388-0700. Frick.org

PRIVATE: GIANCARLO GIAMMETTI has written the quintessential autobiography in a giant, photography-heavy, coffee-table book published by Assouline, and will be at Parsons The New School on Nov. 7th to dish out his life’s adventure with Valentino. Giammetti who met Valentino Garavani in 1960---the same year “La Dolce Vita,” hit the big screen—and who helped him mint multimillions, was in full form recently: dapper, chatty and still slightly in awe of the route that his life has taken. The book features photographs of his daily diaries and images ranging from black and white shots to color-drenched shots of pals including Pat Cleveland, Oscar de la Renta, Jacqueline Onassis, and Meryl Streep to name a few. The book written with W magazine’s Armand Limnander, will be available for purchase on assouline.com and online October 25, and at the publisher’s boutiques on Nov. 4.

SACRED VISIONS; 19th CENTURY BIBLICAL ART from the DAHESH MUSEUM COLLECTION, a dazzling jewel of an exhibition, explores great artwork inspired by the Bible, and Dahesh’s 19th century academicians who excelled at representing biblical themes. This exhibition considers the rich diversity and transformation of biblical subject matter and features approximately 30 religious paintings, drawings and sculptures by well-known artists like Leon Bonnat, Gustave Dore, Jean-Leon Gerome, Alexandre Cabanel, as well as their lesser known, but equally gifted contemporaries. In addition, on display are volumes drawn from the American Bible Society’s Rare Bible Collection. Of popular 19th century Bibles richly illustrated by Dore and James Tissot, Sacred Visions is on view at the Museum of Biblical Art, 1865 Broadway at 61st Street, through February 16, 2014. The Museum is open six days a week Tuesday-Sunday 10 am-6pm.

VARIATIONS on a THEME: 25 Years of Design from the American Jewelry Design Council (AJDC) showcases outstanding jewelry design at the prestigious Forbes Galleries in New York on Fifth Avenue, between 12th and 13th streets. The exhibition will dazzle museum visitors with one-of-a-kind works from over 40 American Jewelry Design Council (AJDC) members on view through February 22, 2014. Annually, the council asks its members to create a design project, interpreting a single concept or theme, the final product is a collection of unique jewelry pieces joined by a solitary concept. Past themes included simple conceptual elements such as “Water”, “Spiral”, “Ice”, and “Flight” imagined into breathtaking masterpieces made of precious metals, gemstones and unexpected materials. Not to be missed!!! www.americanjewelrydesigncountcil.org.

Ta Ta darlings!! “The Girl with the Pearl Earring” is my choice this week. Fan mail welcome at pollytalk@verizon.net . Visit Polly’s Blogs at www.pollytalk.com and in the left hand column click on the link to Blogs on fashion, remarkable men and women.

Author Polly Guerin: The Cooper-Hewitt Dynasty of New York (History Press 2012)

INTERROBANG ?! Punctuation Remembered (c) By Polly Guerin

With the popularity of personal shorthand text messages and tweets with as many abbreviations that the human mind can think up, could the Interrobang punctuation have a new place in today’s culture?

Also known as the quesclamation mark, it sometimes appeared as ?!” A stylish fusion of a question mark superimposed on an exclamation point the mark was used at the end of a rhetorical question for use in sentences like, “You did that?!” At first Interrobang was not available in type and the combined symbols were hand drawn by lettering artists. However, the Interrobang deserves its due recognition as it is the only punctuation mark invented by an American and was also featured in Americana (font). To this end we owe a note of gratitude to Martin Speckter, one of the original “Mad” men in advertising’s hall of fame.

INTERROBANG'S ORIGIN It was introduced in 1962 by Martin Speckter, president of the New York advertising and public relations agency, Martin K. Speckter Associates, Inc. In addition to running the agency with his wife, Penny Speckter. Martin was editor of the magazine, Type Talks, a trade publication put out by The Advertising Typographers Association of America. Speckter invited readers of the magazine to coin a name for the new mark and of all the names submitted Interrobang was chosen. It is a blend of interrogation and bang, an old printer's term for the exclamation mark. It is significant to note that Interrobang is the only punctuation invented in the 20th century. The mark was eventually made available on some typewriters and recognized by several dictionaries. Interrobang continued to be popular much of the 1960s during the time that the television series “Mad Men” is set.

Pictured Left; MARTIN SPECKTER with early interrobang designs. Image from the World-Herald, June 1967.

INTERPRETING INTERROBANG The mark is said to be the typographical equivalent of a grimace or a shrug of the shoulders. For example, the Interrobang could be used in expressions like this “You call that a hat ?!” Most significantly from a business point of view Speckter believed that advertising copywriters needed a new mark to punctuate exclamatory rhetorical questions common in advertising headlines. For example: “What ?! Whiter than White?!” In Allan Haley’s feature “The Interrobang is Back?! he wrote: “In this type of copy, neither an exclamation point nor a question mark (used alone) could fully convey the writer’s intent. Speckter’s solution was to combine the two into a single symbol.”

Penny Speckter, Martin’s widow keeps the Interrobang flame still burning brightly in her memories about the mark’s creator and his passion for typography. Well into her 90s, Penny still fulfills her role as the quintessential “Mad Woman.” Today she is editor of GSMT NEWS, the newsletter for The General Society of Mechanics & Tradesmen of the City of New York, whose motto is “By Hammer and Hand All Arts Do Stand. Penny also serves on the organization’s Board of Governors.

GSMT is located at 20 West 44th Street, New York 10036. www.generalsociety.org

NEW YORK FASHION SCOOPS: Haute Couture, American Style, Dandyism (c) By Polly Guerin

Jean Paul Gaultier's 'Barbes' women's readytowear collection

Fashion is back in town with ever fascinating venues to keep every fashionista in its mesmerizing grip. Reaching to the chic of all ages fashion designer venues and ancient textiles and costumes offer the best of New York’s ongoing romance with design. Get your first row seat on the red carpet. Only in New York my friends. Here’s the fashion scoop!!

JEAN PAUL GAULTIER: What a theatrical spectacle!!! the first international exhibition celebrating the career of the legendary French couturier Jean Paul Gaultier, who shaped the look of contemporary fashion with his avant-garde designs makes its only east coast stop on an international tour at the Brooklyn Museum. Whether showcasing men’s skirts or sending plus-size models down the runway, Jean Paul Gaultier has consistently celebrated individuality and the fun-loving aspect of fashion. The Brooklyn presentation, The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk includes for the first time pieces from Gaultier’s most recent collections and stage costumes worn by Beyonce. They are among 140 haute couture and ready-to-wear ensembles and iconic costumes, such as the clothes created for Madonna’s Blond Ambition, Confessions, and MDNA tours. Accompanying the designs, many of which displayed on specially created, lifelike mannequins by Jolicoeur International are sketches, excerpts from films, concerts, and dance performances and photographs by Richard Avedon, Andy Warhol, Cindy Sherman, and others---all testifying to the daring genius of Jean Paul Gaultier. Opens October 25, 2013 to February 23, 2014, at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. Brooklynmuseum.org IMAGE: Jean Paul Gaultier's Barbes women's readytowear collection l984-85, by Paolo Roversi.

AN AMERICAN STYLE: Global Sources for New York Textile and Fashion Design Thoughout history ancient and ethnic costumes have always inspired fashion designers. However, when the creative direction from Europe was disrupted by World War I, as it would also do so with World War II, a movement began, at first limited in scope. Beginning in 1915, New York’s American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) embarked upon a mission to inspire and energize the American design industry by giving textile designers and manufacturers unprecedented access to the museum’s ethnographic collections. Drawing upon the imperialistic notion that Euro-American culture could lay special claim to indigenous artifacts from the Americas, AMNH anthropology curators sought to innovate a distinctly “American” design idiom. The exhibition is eye-popping attraction at the Bard Graduate Center Gallery 18 East 86th Street, through February 2, 2014.  www.bard.edu

VARIATIONS on a THEME: 25 Years of Design from the American Jewelry Design Council (AJDC) showcases outstanding jewelry design at the prestigious Forbes Galleries in New York on Fifth Avenue, between 12th and 13th streets. The exhibition will dazzle museum visitors with one-of-a-kind works from over 40 American Jewelry Design Council (AJDC) members on view through February 22, 2014. Annually, the council asks its members to create a design project, interpreting a single concept or theme, the final product is a collection of unique jewelry pieces joined by a solitary concept. Past themes included simple conceptual elements such as “Water”, “Spiral”, “Ice”, and “Flight” imagined into breathtaking masterpieces made of precious metals, gemstones and unexpected materials. Not to be missed!!! www.americanjewelrydesigncountcil.org.

DANDYISM The topic of a the new book, “I am Dandy” The Return of the Elegant Gentlemen,” focuses

on the obsession of male preening in a compilation of photographs by photographer Rose Callahan and text, penned by Nathaniel Adams. “It takes a man of supreme confidence to be a dandy. It has to be unshakable confidence. They couldn’t live any other way,” said Callahan. “They are consumed with elegance and self-expression and have a love of dressing. that verges on obsession.” Legendary New York dandy Patrick McDonald, pictured here, defined the dandy as follows: “I wake up in the morning as a blank canvas and some days I feel modern, some days I feel surreal and I just paint myself with my clothes.” Available at major book stores and Amazon.

Ta Ta darlings!! Jean Paul Gaultier’s extravaganza is my choice this week. Fan mail welcome at . Visit Polly’s Blogs at www.pollytalk.com and in the left hand column click on the link to Blogs on fashion, remarkable men and women.

Polly Guerin, author THE COOPER-HEWITT DYNASTY OF NEW YORK (History Press 2012)
www.pollytalk.com

MUSEUM VENUES: THE BEST OF NEW YORk (c) By Polly Guerin

Museum venues percolate with extravagant exhibitions from the Terror of the Soul to Rockefeller's Vision and photography visionaries. It's the best of New York, and Only in New York my friends. Here’s the scoop!!

EDGAR ALLAN POE: TERROR OF THE SOUL The works of Edgar Allan Poe have frightened and thrilled readers for more than 150 years and continues to enchant and intrigue today’s followers. The Terror of the Soul, an exhibition at the Morgan Library & Museum, through January 26, 2014, brings together more than one hundred items related to Poe’s poetry, fiction and literary criticism, and explores his profound influence on his contemporaries and later generations of writers as diverse as Charles Dickens, Valdimir Nabokov, and Terry Southern. “The common perception that Edgar Allan Poe was a writer solely with tales of the macabre and grotesque fails to do justice to the full range of this extraordinary talent,” said William M. Griswold, director of the Morgan Library & Museum. “Poe was also a superb literary critic, and early pioneer of detective fiction, and a celebrated poet. On view will be such works as “Annabel Lee” and “The Bells” in Poe’s own hand; one of the earliest paintings of “The Raven,” the first printing of “The Cask of Amontillado,” and an unprecedented three copies of Tamerlane, Poe’s earliest work and one of the rarest books in American Literature. The Poe Double feature films Nov. 8 at 7pm include adaptations of short stories, House of Usher and Murders in the Rue Morgue. At 225 Madison Ave. , at 35th Street. www.themorgan.org

THE NELSON A. ROCKEFELLER VISION: In Pursuit of the Best. The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Department of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas (AAOA) celebrates the genesis of its permanent collection with a special exhibition that opened this week and runs through October 5, 2014. Highlighting some 50 masterpieces and many unpublished documents select from the more than 3,000 Rockefeller gifts reveals his vision for The Museum of Primitive Art, the first institution dedicated entirely to the artistic excellence of the arts of AAOA. “A generation before ‘globalism’ became a household name, Nelson Rockefeller’s vision for The Museum of Primitive Art was to make evident the enormous spectrum of artistic absent in the Met’s fine art holdings,” said Alisa LaGamma, Curator in Charge of the Dept. From the America’s: a ceramic ‘Baby’ figures, from Oceanic Solomon Island Shields with mother of pearl inlay, from Africa: a monumental D’mba headdress from Guineas and a Tlingit knife from Alaska. Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Avenue. www.metmuseum.org

MoMA'S NEW PHOTOGRAPHY 2013 highlights eight contemporary artists whose works expand the definition of photography in the 21st Century. The exhibition held through January 6, 2014, features 762 recent works: the photographer’s porous practices---grounded in photographic books, mass media, photomontage, music, film and science---mark a shift in the understanding of “what a picture could be. The artists selected for this year’s exhibition include Annette Kelm, Lisa Oppenheim, Adam Broomberg, Oliver Chanarin, to name a few. “Understanding the idea that there has never been just one type of photography,” Roxanna Marcoci, curator, says, “The artists in this exhibition explore reversals between abstraction and representation, documentary and conceptual processes, the uniquely handmade and the mechanically reproducible, analogue and digital techniques. Brendan Fowler (American, b. 1978) is a musician who has been practicing as a visual artist since 2008. In his signature works, Fowler overlaps up to four framed pictures by literally crashing one through another, mixing photography, sculpture, and performance. In her series of photographs "It’s Not My Body" (2011), Josephine Pryde (British, b. 1967) references both the history of the darkroom experiments and contemporary medical imaging techniques. At 11 W. 53 Street. www.MoMA.org

Ta Ta darlings!! A Poe’s Terror of the Soul is my choice this week. Fan mail welcome at pollytalk@verizon.net. Visit Polly’s Blogs at www.pollytalk.com and in the left hand column click on the link to Blogs on fashion, remarkable men and women.

Author: Polly Guerin, The Cooper-Hewitt Dynasty of New York (History Press 2012)

ONLY AUTHENTICS, LUXURY HANDBAG AUCTION (c) By Polly Guerin

Breaking News: A FABULOUS HANDBAG EVENT On view all this week through October 12th an extensive collection is offered for sale—Hermes, Birkins and Kellys plus Chanel featured classics to runway exclusives—co-sponsored by Alice Kwartler and Only Authentics, 445 Park Avenue (betw 56 & 57 Sts.)

THE HANDBAG SULTAN Only Authentics Virgil Rogers, who I call the Sultan of Handbags, showcases an extraordinary collection of luxury handbags, vintage and rare pieces that are truly investment fashion pieces from top luxury brands in mint condition and on-trend colors. The cognoscenti, savvy women are beginning to realize that the treasures they put in their closets have great future value.

HANDBAG S ON DEMAND Only Authentic collection offers women who want a particular bag instant access. Instead of being put on the wait list for a particular bag this event presents a wide range of Hermes, Birkins, Kellys and Chanels that any fashionista or collector will cherish. Rogers’s next luxury handbag event is at the Eastside Jewelry Show, October 18-19 at the National Bohemian Hall, (The Czech Cultural Center) at 321 E. 73 St. (betw First and Second Ave) . For upcoming shows and events visit “onlyauthentics.com” or contact: onlyauthentics@gmail.com