UPCOMING EVENT
Discovering America’s Treasures With Lark E. Mason Jr.
Thursday, July 17, 2025
Lecture from 6-7pm | Reception from 7-8pm
Tickets: $45 Non-Member | $35 Member
How do treasures make their way from the walls, attics and closets of homes to museums and auction houses? Lark E. Mason Jr. will provide a behind-the-scenes look at how incredible works of art and craftsmanship are rediscovered and authenticated. Drawing on his experience as an appraiser with Sotheby’s, New York and his involvement with PBS’s “Antiques Roadshow,” Mr. Mason will share the stories of discovery that delight and inform us about art, history and the human tendency to collect.
Lark E. Mason Jr., President of the Appraiser’s Association of America, 2019-2021, was for nearly 25 years a senior officer, generalist and expert in Chinese works of art with Sotheby’s, New York, and Chairman of Asia Week New York 2016-2017. He is an expert in Chinese art and antiquities, he has appeared on PBS’s “Antiques Roadshow” since its inception in 1996. He is the author of “Asian Art,” published in 2003, and translator of Wang Shixiang’s “Connoisseurship of Chinese Furniture.” Mason serves as a Trustee of The Preservation Society of Newport County, representing historic Newport’s collections and historic mansions. He is the founder of iGavel Auctions, an online auction platform; Lark Mason Associates, a full-service auction house; and Lark Mason Art Advisory, art advisory and appraisals.
To learn more and purchase tickets, click here.
Thomas Couture (1815-1879), Richard Morris Hunt, 1849 (detail). Courtesy National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
Richard Morris Hunt: In a New Light
May 30 – November 2, 2025
Rosecliff
Richard Morris Hunt (1827-1895) was America’s premier Gilded Age architect, but his effort to transform both the built and the cultural landscapes of America is his greatest legacy. This exhibition will examine Hunt’s achievements in a new light, presenting his lived experience and how it is reflected in his life’s work: a pursuit of national pride in art and architecture.
Hunt believed America needed “culture.” As he witnessed a succession of political uprisings and cultural change in Paris during his days as a student at the École des Beaux-Arts, Hunt also experienced how the arts and building trades communicated national identity. Elevating architecture’s place in his home country became his greatest pursuit. Designing private, public, residential, business, recreational and civic structures resulted in a built environment reflecting the rapid changes of the 19th century.
Hunt was also a collector and aided his wealthy clients in acquiring significant works of fine and decorative art. This act of collecting reflected how he sought to influence the evolution of culture in America’s Gilded Age. He advanced appreciation of and education in the arts by contributing to the founding of museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and professional organizations like the American Institute of Architects.
For the first time, Hunt’s materials from the Library of Congress, Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, Vermont Historical Society, Bennington Museum (Vt.) and the Preservation Society’s collection – including architectural and interior drawings, his personal sketchbooks and scrapbooks, and intimate family objects and collections – will be exhibited in one location. Together they provide deep insight into Hunt’s approach to culture, private and public collecting, and architectural practice.
To learn more, click here.
NOW ON VIEW
A Canton rose medallion covered tureen with stand
Chinese Export Porcelain Returns to Chateau-sur-Mer
Visitors to Chateau-sur-Mer can now see something that’s been missing from the house for more than 50 years: a collection of approximately 70 pieces of Chinese export porcelain from the late 18th or early 19th centuries, brought back from Canton by William Shepard Wetmore during his time as a merchant in China.
The collection includes dishes and plates of all sizes, platters, covered tureens and bowls, a tea set, bulb pots, vases and more.
Wetmore kept these beautiful pieces at Chateau-sur-Mer, his Newport home, and there they stayed until 1969, when they were sold at auction along with a majority of the house’s contents. The buyer of the porcelains was tobacco heiress Doris Duke, who acquired them on behalf of the Newport Restoration Foundation as part of a new collection of Newport furniture and decorative arts first displayed at the Samuel Whitehorne House.
This past December, the Newport Restoration Foundation, which owns and operates Rough Point for tours, transferred these precious pieces to the Preservation Society free of charge. They once again display their vibrant colors in their original place, the Chateau-sur-Mer pantry. We are deeply grateful to our friends at NRF for their generosity.
Come visit Chateau-sur-Mer, a National Historic Landmark and a true treasure chest of Victorian antiques, open daily now through September 1!
NEWS
We are proud to announce that The Celestial City: Newport and China, groundbreaking exhibition at Rosecliff from September 2023 to February 2024, has been honored by the American Association for State and Local History with its Award of Excellence.
The exhibition and accompanying programming shed light on a little-known aspect of Newport’s history: the contributions of Chinese and Chinese American individuals to life in Newport from the 18th century through the Gilded Age.
This prestigious award is a tribute to the thorough and thoughtful work of our Curator of Collections, Dr. Nicole Williams, and staff researchers who uncovered information and stories that had been untold for decades. Bravo!
To learn more about this exhibition, click here.
The Preservation Society of Newport County, Rhode Island, is a nonprofit organization accredited by the American Alliance of Museums. It is dedicated to preserving and interpreting the area’s historic architecture, landscapes, decorative arts and social history. Its 11 historic properties – seven of them National Historic Landmarks–span more than 250 years of American architectural and social development.
