Word: newporter
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...June's auction of the most expensive piece of furniture ever sold: a $12.1 million desk. The mahogany masterpiece was no curlicued Versailles settee or crested English bureau. It was a stately secretary of distinctly American block-and-shell design, crafted in 1760 by the Goddard-Townsend cabinetmakers of Newport, R.I. "For years, Europeans have given us an inferiority complex," says furniture dealer Harold Sack, 78, who bought the desk for an anonymous client, believed to be Texas billionaire Robert Bass. "To finally see American furniture taken as an important art form is enormously gratifying...
...giddy escalation in prices is due in part to scarcity, since pre- Revolutionary furniture is as sparse as its spare Yankee lines. The rarest pieces were handcrafted in the port cities of Philadelphia, Newport, Boston, Salem, Mass., and Portsmouth, Va., where rich patrons financed local artisans. These wealthy merchants, hoping to create heirlooms for their families, combed the Caribbean for the finest, oldest mahogany trees. The wood they found was dense and close-grained, unlike the spongy grain of the younger, forced-growth trees that are planted today. "All the great wood was used up in the 18th century," maintains...
...America, and in Australia he was a hero. "Bondy," as his country called him, was the prime mover in the syndicate that funded the design, construction and testing of Australia II, the 12-meter sloop with the controversial winged keel that swept to victory over the U.S. defender off Newport in 1983, leaving, for the first time in yachting history, an empty plinth in the New York Yacht Club where the America's Cup used to stand...
...Dalai Lama's headquarters in Dharmsala, India, news of the award prompted 1,000 exiled Tibetans to dance in the streets. "It is a victory for oppressed people everywhere," read an official statement. The Dalai Lama, attending a spiritual conference in Newport Beach, Calif., responded to the fuss with characteristic humility. "My case is nothing special," he said. "I am a simple Buddhist monk -- no more, no less." Authorities in Beijing, who have been struggling to convey an image of national calm and restored normality, only wish that were true...
...analyzed 1,500 "inappropriate" letters sent to dozens of Hollywood celebrities. Only 5% of the writers cast themselves as enemies or would-be assassins. Others saw themselves as business associates, friends or religious saviors. But the rest acted like spouses or suitors. Says Park Dietz, a forensic psychiatrist in Newport Beach, Calif., who directed the project: "If you didn't know who the two people were, you would think it was a normal love letter." About 15% of the writers tried to approach the stars personally, usually at their homes...