Spanierman Gallery | An American Art Blog

Lisa N. Peters

1908 Dinner Menu, Salmagundi Club, from the Spanierman Gallery, LLC, Charles Warren Eaton Archive

Our recent show of the work of Charles Warren Eaton led us to notice an archival storage box on a high shelf in our library that was catalogued under the artist’s name at some point in the past and then forgotten. It contained what scholars always wish for: a number of primary source materials that had never received scrutiny. Among them was the ledger book in the artist’s hand, from which we made many discoveries—one reported on this blog earlier. We also found an eight-page booklet measuring 10 x 6-3/8 inches with the title: Testimonial Dinner given to Mr. A. T. Van Laer by his friends in the Salmagundi Club, over whom he has long presided. Inside the booklet was a photograph of Van Laer, a photograph of one of his landscapes with his signature below it, and the menu for the dinner, which included fried perch, paté of sweetbread, roast Long Island duck, and strawberry ice cream. What was remarkable about this find was not the booklet itself, but that the plain brown coversheet that enclosed it, and two inside pages, contained original signatures of those who attended the dinner, a group of artists, collectors, and dealers that included a great number of important figures of the time. Bob Mueller, chairman of the curator committee at the Salmagundi Club, which since it was established in 1871 has been a gathering place for artists that also offers art classes and holds exhibitions, reported that a copy of the booklet exists at the club, but without the signatures and without a record of those who attended. Read the rest of this entry »