Halcyon House Antiques will have a pop-up shop at the Sixth Annual Ladew Garden Festival on Saturday, May 3, 2014. We hope that you will come by and visit us there, and check our selection of garden antiques, summer goods and fun jewelry!
For more information on the Garden Festival, please click here.
As many denizens of the area know, it’s Hunt Cup Weekend here in the Valleys. 
This race has a long and storied history and is central to the lives of a lot of people in these parts.
From Wikipedia:
The Maryland Hunt Cup was established in 1894, as a contest between two hunts, The Elkridge Fox Hunting Club and the Green Spring Fox Hunting Club, to determine the relative merits of the local hunting horses. In the first running of the race, the riders and owners had to come from either of the two hunt clubs. A year later the race was opened up to horses owned and ridden by members of any recognized Hunt Club in Maryland. In 1903 this was further expanded to horses owned and ridden by members of any Hunt Club in North America. Nowadays there are no restrictions on where the horse and rider are from. Throughout its history, the Maryland Hunt Cup has been limited to amateur jockeys.
In the late 1970s women were allowed to ride in the race for the first time. The first female amateur jockey to win the race was Joy Slater on Cancottage in 1981. To prove this was no fluke, Slater and Cancottage repeated in 1982. Since then, other female riders to win this race include Blythe Miller and Anne Moran.
In 1922, a permanent location for the Maryland Hunt Cup was established, in Worthington Valley, where it remains to this day. Prior to this date, the race was run at a variety of locations.
The Maryland Hunt Cup is a timber race, which is a steeplechase run over solid timber fences. This form of steeple-chasing is unique to America. The timber fences mimic the hunt country over which many of these horses are prepared. The Maryland Hunt Cup is part of a series of timber races run in Maryland in the Spring, which also includes My Lady's Manor (second Saturday in April), and the Grand National (third Saturday in April). The Maryland Hunt Cup is known for the size of its timber fences, some of which are close to 5 feet tall.
The third fence (4 feet and six inches) and sixteenth fence (4 feet and ten inches) are particularly challenging.
Of course, a big part of the day is the picnic and tailgate party before the race. It’s very competitive as to who has the most beautiful flowers, and the best-looking food. 
The day wouldn’t be complete without a cocktail or two, preferably a Southside from Mr. Lee’s coveted recipe, in an inherited silver julep cup.
Stop by and see us as you’re on your way up Greenspring Avenue! We’ll be open.
After the dreary winter, I think that everyone’s ready to add some color to their wardrobes! Banish the blacks! Gone with the grays! Wipe out the winter whites! And think PINK GREEN PURPLE BLUE!
We have so many bright colors in the shop now, that all of the winter pieces have been banished and bright, light pieces are in place!
No more furry winter hats! It’s time for a light straw or canvas hat to wear poolside, on the boat or just sitting on the deck having a drink!
Ditch those dreary terry towels and take up with a Turkish towel in a wide range of fun stripey combinations. They’re so much fun, and as an added benefit, they dry very quickly!
As ever, contact Eric to get more information on anything you see here!
One thing that is a certainty when you attend a party at Halcyon is that there will be gorgeous flowers. Thursday’s launch party for Henry Koehler was no exception. Our below-freezing temperatures over the past few days had Stiles worried, but he and Jonathan managed to find enough beautiful flowers to fill the shop.
And then there were the paintings! Henry Koehler, now a spry 90-something, has been a force in the art world for decades. His wife Audrey was an interior decorator, and he was friends with many decorators in NYC in the 50’s and 60’s, including Baltimore native, Billy Baldwin. 
These three sketches show the elegant grace that was Mr. Baldwin’s trademark, and in fact, one of Mr. Koehler’s sketches is on the title page of Billy Baldwin Remembers.
The show was styled with a lot of thought as to how the paintings worked together, and one of the most fun props was a pair of Stubbs & Wootton slippers that nearly matched a pair in two of the paintings. 
Many of Mr. Koehler’s friends and family from the area came to celebrate his latest show. Many, many red dots spotted the walls, indicating that the show was a huge success!
As you may know, we are having a show and sale of Henry Koehler’s paintings from April 18 to May 31, 2014. Mr. Koehler is a prolific painter of hunt and equestrian scenes, and is widely acknowledged to be one of the finest living sporting artists in the world. His long association with the sporting life began when his illustrations appeared in The New Yorker, Town & Country and Sports Illustrated.
His first exhibition was in 1961 and since that time he has shown 58 times in London, Paris, Dublin, Johannesburg and throughout the United States. His paintings have been collected by some of the biggest names in the art and equestrian worlds, including Paul Mellon and HM Queen Elizabeth II and her son, Prince Charles. 
Mr.Koehler’s works reflect the myriad details of a race meet, and through his pictures, you can see the pieces that go into making the colorful races such a beloved pastime. 
In addition to the racing images, Halcyon House Antiques also has some paintings of gardening tools,
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including a set from Baltimore’s own Harvey Ladew of Ladew Gardens, which we’re great friends with.
The other main theme of Mr. Koehler’s paintings, and one which he’s been doing for many years, is artichokes!
This piece is/was in Lars Bolander’s home in Palm Beach.
He has a passion for artichokes and has a large collection of artichoke-themed items, including ties, cufflinks, doorknockers, and slippers and pieces made from gold, silver, wood and ivory!
There’s a marvelous story of one of Mr. Koehler’s early paintings which he did of Jack and Jackie Kennedy sailing. It’s told by the artist’s step-son, CBS newsman, Anthony Mason.
For more information on the Henry Koehler show, please contact Eric.
