Objects Personalize and Enliven Your Home

A column in the January, 2025 issue of The World of Interiors prompted me to think about the unique and storied objects in my life.

The last page of each issue of The World of Interiors features a column titled “Object Lesson”. In January, the subtitle ‘An Elephant Never to Forget’ and this photograph of a jade elephant captured my attention. Author Andrew O’Hagan writes about his continuing fascination with a jade elephant in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of New York. Reading his description of the elephant sculpture and his musings about the colors of jade, the unknown Russian maker of the elephant, and the elephant’s history inspired further thought.

 Those of us who visit museums can relate to his passion for an object we have encountered. We might also have objects in our own homes which bring a sense of history and personality to our interior design.

My plan is to write periodically about a particular object, either in the public sphere or in my own home which calls a story to mind and brings me joy.

In December, 2024 Fiona McKenzie Johnson wrote a piece for House and Garden titled ‘How stories and narratives imbue your belonging with a special kind of power’. She began with the story of a woman and a  Meissen porcelain figure of a dancing woman similar to this one. The figure originally belonged to her great-grandmother who took it with her when she fled Poland for London in the 1930’s.

This painted glove box is one of my cherished objects. I keep it on a chest of drawers beside our bed. Inside is a pair of opera gloves with tiny pearl buttons on the wrist.  These gloves belonged to my mother and are so small they will never fit my own hands.

My father’s mother lost her husband and remarried an artist who lived on Nantucket Island. My parents took us to visit one summer and it was a grand adventure for my sister and me.

In preparation for the visit, I read Joan Aiken’s book, Nightbirds on Nantucket. Taking place in the early 19^th century, the main characters are Dido and Dutiful. Dido, cast adrift in the Atlantic Ocean is saved by a ship’s captain and charged with caring for the young Dutiful Penitence Casket who is traveling to America. Drawn into the book, my younger sister and I, assuming the roles of Dido (me) and Dutiful (my sister), crawled out the window of our room in grandmother’s house and down to the ground on the side of the building. With tiny flashlights in our jacket pockets we followed a narrow path between two tall hedges and entered an empty church, making our way to the bell tower. From here we could view the Atlantic!

The next day our grandmother introduced us to a neighbor who could no longer take the stairs to her own attic. After visiting with us for a while she asked if we could help her by going to the attic and bringing down a small trunk. When we returned with the trunk in hand, she surprised us with this intricately painted glove box. My sister and I were going to take turns keeping it, but it seems the box has remained with me forever.

This painted glove box is the first and last thing seen by me every day. The delicate flowers on the outside are the original basis for my interest in painting flower botanicals. You might like to have a painted box of your own, or perhaps to use paint or paper to decorate a box yourself.

(saved-ny.com)

Here is an antique chinoserie painted box.

This is an American folk art box.

What about this “tufted” hat box!

There is joy in having objects in your home which evoke memories and impart beauty.

Doubtless, you have many of your own!