Klismos Gallery

Klismos Gallery Klismos Gallery offers a curated selection of fine furniture and objects of art drawing from Antiqui

Carnegie Hall, Mississippi Industrial College, Holly Springs, Mississippi. Taking ancient Roman thermal complexes for i...
01/20/2025

Carnegie Hall, Mississippi Industrial College, Holly Springs, Mississippi. Taking ancient Roman thermal complexes for its inspiration, it was built in 1923 to designs of Nashville firm McKissack and McKissack, the oldest minority-owned architecture firm in the United States. The firm was founded in 1905 by Moses McKissack III, the grandson of a West African man, Moses McKissack I, who was enslaved and brought to the United States where he was trained as a brickmaker and eventually became a master builder.

The auditorium which seated 2,000 was the largest of its kind intended for Black audiences in the state of Mississippi at the time. The curriculum of Mississippi Industrial College was heavily rooted in Classics, requiring several years of both Latin and Greek. Though its president during the Civil Rights movement actively opposed participation by its students, many did join neighboring Rust University in acts of civil disobedience and protest of racial inequality throughout the South.

Rust University, the alma mater of Ida B. Wells, has recently acquired the antebellum mansion Airliewood, headquarters for Gen. Ulysses S. Grant during the Winter of 1862-3. It is now the home of the school’s President. Rust has also acquired the old MIC campus which shuttered its doors in 1982. The buildings are in a critical and near irreparable state, with its first building, Catherine Hall, having been demolished in 2012. Yesterday captured rolls of film of this ruin, including this image of me in front of the looming red brick and limestone of Carnegie, with hundreds of Turkey Vultures roosting in its open-sky roof.

Today as we swear in a new administration and remember the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr., I hope that the philanthropic spirit and perseverance that erected this edifice will move again. I’m ready to ward off vultures and put up a fight.

Disclaimer: this is not the Woods House. This simple house was built of board and batten cypress barely 20 years ago, ...
12/11/2024

Disclaimer: this is not the Woods House. This simple house was built of board and batten cypress barely 20 years ago, and it precipitously fell into disuse and disrepair not long after. The “Blue House,” as it became known, had been used as an unmaintained dog pen just prior to our family’s acquiring the property. A stone’s throw down the road from the historic Woods House, we scrubbed up the place and have stayed in the Blue House while working on the Woods. My father has hosted his famed annual orthopedic Wilderness Journal Club here for many years. Eight months ago just days before this year’s Club meeting, a hot water heater disaster flooded the entire house, collapsing the ceilings and destroying the floors. We suddenly had an unplanned, total gut renovation on our hands. The antediluvian Blue House was for all its utility and good memories an unremarkable and uncomfortable place. I maintain that the flood was the best thing that ever happened to it. I have reimagined the house as a Gilded Age hunting lodge (fully aware of how OTT it is), in a nod to the history of the area that was a favorite sporting and hunting haven for the robber barons of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Hundreds of hours were spent by my father, and myself retrofitting a mahogany staircase from a recently lost circa 1860 Italianate rectory salvaged by . And the japanned 1880s chandelier in the first picture is one of the only elements of the fabled Chicago Potter Palmer mansion to survive its destruction 75 years ago. Today I fly back to Tennessee for the final push on this house, that my mother has cleverly dubbed “Après Bleu,” where we ambitiously plan to spend Christmas night.

No Visigoths. No plundering hordes. But the stench of decay is clear in streets of the city on the hill.
11/06/2024

No Visigoths. No plundering hordes. But the stench of decay is clear in streets of the city on the hill.

Last night the hosted a small group of young collectors in the “study room” of the museum. We had the extraordinary op...
09/21/2024

Last night the hosted a small group of young collectors in the “study room” of the museum. We had the extraordinary opportunity to hold not one but two Leonardo da Vinci drawings and the greatest drawing of Michelangelo’s oeuvre (and maybe anyone’s, ever), the study for the Libyan Sybil of the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Feeling the weight of these cultural touchstones in my hands is something I will never forget, and I am so grateful to the , to the curators who took the time to speak with us and share their passion, and particularly to my friends Nick and Sean for including me.

Serious question to pose to the audience: is the study for the Libyan Sybil the GOAT drawing?

Behind every good mantiquarian… But to be perfectly honest, he’s usually two steps ahead and tapping his foot. Couldn’t...
09/20/2024

Behind every good mantiquarian… But to be perfectly honest, he’s usually two steps ahead and tapping his foot. Couldn’t do it without you

This picture is now eight years old, which means Klismos Gallery celebrates its eighth year of operation. To all of you...
09/19/2024

This picture is now eight years old, which means Klismos Gallery celebrates its eighth year of operation. To all of you who support us and steward collecting, classicism, and connoisseurship into the future, my deepest and sincerest thanks. This platform has connected me to a vast international community of likeminded, passionate people that I couldn’t have imagined growing up in Memphis where beauty and preservation had been imperiled long before I was born. Thank you all for your patronage, guidance and friendship. To many, many years ahead.

Second Branch Bank of the United States, Metropolitan Museum of Art. Cladding the American Wing of the is Martin Eucli...
09/17/2024

Second Branch Bank of the United States, Metropolitan Museum of Art. Cladding the American Wing of the is Martin Euclid Thompson‘s 1822-4 bank facade which once stood on the north side of Wall Street until its demolition in 1915. The courtyard today was empty just as the sun was directly overhead casting perfect shadowed score lines all over the facade.

Low-hanging fruit. One of the largest and handsomest tole shade chandeliers I’ve ever seen. Unfortunately a little too...
09/11/2024

Low-hanging fruit. One of the largest and handsomest tole shade chandeliers I’ve ever seen. Unfortunately a little too large for the Woods House, or this light would become part of the permanent collection. Inquire for details.

One of the treasures of Klismos is an ancient Roman “veristic” portrait head which for many decades belonged to the tita...
09/05/2024

One of the treasures of Klismos is an ancient Roman “veristic” portrait head which for many decades belonged to the titan of Spanish fashion and design Elio Berhanyer. Apprenticing under Balenciaga, Berhanyer founded his own house in 1956 and became an icon of the couture world in the 1960s and 70s, dressing the likes of Ava Gardner, Cyd Charisse, Queen Sofia of Spain, Infanta Pilar, and the Duchess of Alba to name a few. Berhanyer was known to drive around Madrid with his pet cheetahs hanging their heads out the window. Scroll to see Berhanyer and some of his designs, featuring Marisa Berenson, and a later portrait of Berhanyer with his prized Roman head. Inquire for details.

This room, specifically this apse to me represents the apogee of the Beaux-Arts movement, in New York anyway. McKim, Me...
09/02/2024

This room, specifically this apse to me represents the apogee of the Beaux-Arts movement, in New York anyway. McKim, Meade and White completed the private library of J.P. Morgan in 1906 after four years of construction. 1924 the building and its collection were opened to the public, and is in its centennial year of operation as a museum. Rachmaninov’s Second Symphony which plays in the background was completed in 1907, just a year after the library.

Available from Klismos Gallery - one of the most beautiful forms of sonnenschrank or “sun armoire” to survive from early...
09/02/2024

Available from Klismos Gallery - one of the most beautiful forms of sonnenschrank or “sun armoire” to survive from early-19th century Bremen. Inquire for details.

Klismos is proud to present an 11th-12th century Indian sandstone figure of a deity Pink sandstone22 inches (25 inches w...
08/27/2024

Klismos is proud to present an 11th-12th century Indian sandstone figure of a deity

Pink sandstone
22 inches (25 inches with plinth)

Against a backdrop of an 18th century block print and dyed kalamkari. Inquire for details.

Monumental Napoleon III pier mirror, Tuscan credenza, Meiji vases - inquire for details. The large 16th century Amsterd...
08/26/2024

Monumental Napoleon III pier mirror, Tuscan credenza, Meiji vases - inquire for details. The large 16th century Amsterdam tile on the credenza is from the floor of Rembrandt’s studio. Zanzibar chest 🔴

Every so often I come across pieces that align perfectly with the sensibilities of my frustrated inner classical archite...
08/24/2024

Every so often I come across pieces that align perfectly with the sensibilities of my frustrated inner classical architect and make me question my professional path. This mantel embodies that frustration: restrained, distilled, and governed by the same design philosophy that gave rise to the Erectheion and Pope’s Jefferson Memorial. I consider myself so lucky to have it sprawled out like a Cleopatra on my living room rug.

This particular Ionic order derives from the Temple of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae (420-400 BC) and was designed by the architect Iktinos, also responsible for the Parthenon. The temple was not widely known until it was studied by British architect Charles R. Cockerell and German scholar Karl Haller von Hallerstein in 1811-12. The only known volute from this rare capital form from the temple at Bassae was brought back to England and presented to the British Museum where it remains today.

Inquire for details

Current Klismos
08/22/2024

Current Klismos

Many of you know my sister, Kay, as an accomplished equestrienne and marathoner, but she has finally answered her callin...
08/18/2024

Many of you know my sister, Kay, as an accomplished equestrienne and marathoner, but she has finally answered her calling as a fine artist this past year in beginning .art . Her line drawings stem from a tradition started in prehistoric cave painting, and the influence of her hero Mississippi Gulf artist Walter Anderson is clearly evident in her rhythmic, bold forms. Kay, I could not be more proud, and we are looking forward to your upcoming pieces at the

Available from Klismos - a scarce and fine form of Parisian ormolu mantel clock featuring the famous Spartacus. The bro...
08/16/2024

Available from Klismos - a scarce and fine form of Parisian ormolu mantel clock featuring the famous Spartacus. The bronze is faithfully modeled after Denis Foyatier’s (1793-1863) sculpture of the Thracian slave turned gladiator turned rebel military leader against Imperial Rome. The first iteration of Foyatier’s Spartacus was created at the Villa Medics in 1827 and exhibited in the Salon of the same year. Charles X subsequently commissioned a marble version, now housed at the Louvre. Following the Trois Glorieuses, the sculptor cleverly changed the date on the inscription to 1830 and aligned the sculpture with the spirit of the July Revolution and the rise of “popular sovereignty” in France, which found a ready symbol in Spartacus.

Inquire for details

Back at Klismos HQ
08/14/2024

Back at Klismos HQ

Address

1168 Dean Street Apartment 2
New York, NY

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Klismos Gallery posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Museum

Send a message to Klismos Gallery:

Videos

Memphis snow today while hunkered down with the family in quarantine. Dad is recovering well and chomping at the bit to get back out to the farm.

Shortcuts

Share

Category