Holidays at The Frick

Looking for a new holiday tradition to start with the family this year? Enjoy one of these exhibits at The Frick through January.

All That Glitters: Luxury in the Gilded Age

The Frick Art & Historical Center is offering a special installation and thematic tour of Clayton, All That Glitters: Luxury in the Gilded Age. Artfully using the historic turn-of-the-20th-century home of the Henry Clay Frick Family as an exhibition area, items manufactured by Tiffany; Gorham; Bailey, Banks and Biddle; and others will highlight famous Gilded Age manufacturers of luxury goods, while the tour will incorporate these makers and objects into the larger story of Gilded Age life. 

All That Glitters is not a typical Clayton tour. Within the domestic settings of the rooms of the historic house, visitors will find groupings of objects—small boxes, parasols, fans—both to make comparisons between objects and to have a chance to view smaller, not-often-seen artifacts up close. Other items, such as desk accessories and silver serving pieces, illustrate the trend of making objects for everyday use out of precious and luxurious materials, at a time when luxury was an important indicator of social and economic power. 

Installations in both the dining room and breakfast room examine how changes in dining rituals in the 1880s opened the door for specific serving pieces and tableware that supported and perpetuated elaborate rules of dining etiquette. A growing middle class, lower price of silver, and the widespread use of the technique of silver plating allowed middle class families to begin to own silver tableware that represented growing wealth and status. The dining room table setting represents a traditional Gilded Age formal dinner, while in the breakfast room, groupings of smaller and larger serving pieces let visitors examine a selection of the types of items—tomato servers, jam pots, soup tureens and bon bon spoons—that are typical of the era.

Faberge—The Hodges Family Collection

This exhibit opened in October and remains on view through Jan. 15. Fabergé: The Hodges Family Collection features more than 100 objects made by the world-renowned House of Fabergé, goldsmith and jeweler to the Russian court.

To complement this exhibition, the Frick will display select items from its collection of fine 18th- and 19th-century Russian decorative arts, including an enameled Russian tea set made by A.I. Kuzmichev, purchased by Henry Clay Frick through Tiffany & Co. in 1894, and Russian silver purchased by Helen Clay Frick. 

The Hodges Family Collection is organized by the New Orleans Museum of Art. The Pittsburgh presentation is made possible through the generous support of First National Bank of Pennsylvania and the Richard King Mellon Foundation. Additional support is provided by the Laurel Foundation. 

The Most Perfect Cars

A special themed display at the Car and Carriage Museum featuring three Rolls-Royce automobiles will highlight the early history of this prestigious British automaker. The display includes two cars from the Frick’s collection: a 1914 Silver Ghost owned by Henry Clay Frick and a 1923 Silver Ghost Salamanca Town Car.

They will be complemented by a stunning 1929 Phantom II on loan from a private collection. The Rolls-Royce installation at the Car and Carriage Museum is designed to be part of the sitewide celebration of luxury manufacturers coinciding with Fabergé: The Hodges Family Collection at The Frick Art Museum, and will remain on view through March 4, 2012. The installation will Admission to the Car and Carriage Museum is free. 

The Frick Art & Historical Center is located at 7227 Reynolds Street in Pittsburgh’s Point Breeze neighborhood. Free parking is available in the Frick’s off-street lot or along adjacent streets.  For information, the public may call 412-371-0600 or visit the Frick online at TheFrickPittsburgh.org.