Terry and Kim Kovel
King Features Syndicate
Sometimes a reproduction of an antique is worth almost as much as the original antique. Wallace Nutting (1861-1941) was a collector, expert, photographer, furniture maker, author and an important part of the Colonial Revival in the U.S. He went to Harvard, married and started taking photographs of the New England scenery.
Soon he furnished his home with authentic antique American furniture, using the furnishings as props in pictures he staged with men and women dressed in Colonial clothes. The pictures were black and white, but he hired colorists to turn the pictures into color photos. He sold millions of copies that soon hung in the average home. The furniture was admired, and he soon made accurate copies to sell to the public. This, too, was a success. He also wrote books about New England, furniture and history.