Washington Winter Show 2022

40 W hen the socially prominent art collector, philanthropist, and business executive Marjorie Merriweather Post (1887–1973) left her estate in northwest Washington, D.C., to the public, she endowed the United States with the most comprehensive collection of Russian imperial art outside Russia, exquisite eighteenth- century French decorative art, a large collection of apparel and jewelry, and 25 acres of serene, landscaped gardens and natural woodlands. Open to the public since 1977, Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens is today home to some 20,000 works of art (fig 1). The selection of pieces from Hillwood’s collection on display at the 2022 Washington Antiques Show embodies Post’s taste in porcelain, tableware, silver, gemstones, SPLENDOR   & SURPRISE HILLWOOD ESTATE, MUSEUM& GARDENS Kate Markert, Executive Director Wilfried Zeisler, Chief Curator Fig. 1: This hand-colored photograph from 1923 shows Marjorie Post ready to attend a fancy dress costume ball dressed as Queen Marie Antoinette. She is on the steps at Hogarcito, her first home in Palm Beach, Florida. Photograph by Frank E. Geisler, 1923. Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens, Archives and Special Collections.