No one looking at the deft and sensitive renderings of the Edwardian era’s wealthy and blue-blooded society would think that John Singer Sargent found portraiture tedious. Yet, had it not been for Sargent’s excellence we would be cheated of his art and of understanding the growth of conspicuous consumption that characterized the lifestyles of the rich and famous of the 19th and early 20th centuries. For that is what a portrait painted by Sargent was—a display of wealth, class and breeding. Nouveaux riche families aspired for landed estates and possibly titles, but they needed the art and treasures to legitimize their new social status. After American and Industrial millionaires ransacked the castles, chateaux, villas, palaces and Schlösser of impoverished aristocrats for priceless art, furniture and furnishings, they turned to John Singer Sargent to detail their ascent up the social ladder in gorgeous detail.

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Michael Immerso, in his book “Coney Island: the People’s Playground,” describes the epicurean delights found at the year-round New York amusement park “as combustible as its fastest rides.” It was Coney Island where Americans—native born or immigrant—tasted the literal melting pot that is American cuisine. From saltwater taffy to clams to hot dogs to pizza, food was an indelible part of the Coney Island experience.

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Kick back this summer and be swept away to another time with the following books:

buy from: Amazon | Borders | B & N | Indiebound | Powell’s

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More than a century before Roger Federer and Andre Agassi faced off in the U.S Open tennis finals in New York, players were donning fancier attire and taking to the courts of Newport to compete in championship matches.

The earliest incarnation of the tournament, then known as the U.S. National Championships, began in Newport in 1881. Players competed on grass courts while musicians performed classical music in a decidedly genteel setting.

The tournament moved to New York, but Newport for years after continued to host some of the sport’s best and, in 1954, became home to the International Tennis Hall of Fame & Museum. Read the rest of this entry »

The theft of the Irish Crown jewels in 1907 remains an unsolved mystery and a lingering scandal. Technically, the jewels were not royal, consisting of “the insignia of the Grand Master of the Order of St Patrick (the Lord Lieutenant) and the collars and badges of the Knights of St Patrick.” The former was a star—made of Brazilian diamonds with eight star points encircling a shamrock-shaped emerald and a cross of rubies on a background of blue enamel—and a badge, which was also made of emerald shamrocks and a ruby cross surrounded by blue enamel and rose diamonds and within Brazilian diamonds. They had originally been the property of Queen Charlotte, and then of her sons George IV and William IV, the last of which granted the insignia to the Order of St Patrick, which was founded in 1783 as an Irish equal to the Order of the Garter, for the Lord Lieutenant to wear on ceremonial occasions.
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