The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge officially opened V&A Dundee today (Tuesday 29 January). Their Royal Highnesses visited the new international design museum and met with its architect Kengo Kuma, key members of the team who created Scotland’s first design museum, and local designers, schoolchildren and young people who have worked with V&A Dundee. The Duke and Duchess also met with members of V&A Dundee’s Young People’s Collective, a group of 16 to 25-year-olds from diverse backgrounds across Dundee who have created events within the museum and also played a central role in V&A Dundee’s opening event, the 3D Festival, a key event in Scotland’s Year of Young People. The Duke and Duchess toured the museum’s p

Antique Oriental rugs can serve as unifying themes or to establish conversations areas in grand great rooms. Whether used in combination or as statement pieces, these rare vintage rugs from Claremont Rug Company add intimacy and atmosphere to residences that are both personal and majestic. Jan David Winitz, president/founder of Claremont, annually works with dozens of homeowners who employ connoisseur-level antique Oriental rugs as their personal style signifiers. Increasingly antique rug collectors are working with Claremont to unify large interior spaces that characterize residences, whether they are located seaside or magnificent mountains or in more urban environments. “In working with clients,” says Winitz, “I find that they are open to employing rugs to set off spaces within larger rooms and to create more intimate conversation areas. Antique Oriental rugs, with their vibrant colors and subtle patterns,

A recently discovered work of American Impressionist Childe Hassam (1859-1935) comes to the auction market for the first time Feb. 2 at The Potomack Company in Alexandria, Va. Hassam depicts a squatter’s shanty with old brownstones to the left, a new high rise to the right and goats in front of the shanty. The shanty could possibly be the home of “Blind Tom Foley,” whose shanty at Madison and 77th Street was documented by turn-of-the-century photographers such as Jacob Riis. “New York City Shanty” reflects a moment in time when the New York City landscape was shifting from poor abodes to towering high-rises. It was painted upon Hassam’s return from Paris in 1889 where he studied the works of French Impressionists. The work will be included in the upcoming catalogue raisonné of Hassam’s work in preparation