Allison Eckardt Ledes, editor of The Magazine Antiques , died at home of cancer on January 8. She was 53.
The publication’s fourth editor in 86 years, Ledes succeeded Wendell Garrett, the magazine’s editor at large, in 1990. She brought to her post a near perfect combination of talents: scintillating intellect, a scholarly disposition, editorial precision and the spirited love of collecting that has defined Antiques since it debuted in 1922.
Deeply knowledgeable about art and architecture, Ledes was also a canny marketplace observer and prescient source on the latest developments in the field. A trusted confidante of dealers, curators and collectors, she was equally admired by her colleagues in the press corps, who prized her irreverent wit and lack of pretense. Her enthusiasm for an unpublished treasure or breakthrough finding was undiminished after 30 years. A born traveler, she relished discovery.
“Allison Ledes was the voice of competence, of common sense, of compassion and a believer in the healing power of humor †at The Magazine Antiques , at Attingham and everywhere in the world of Americana,” said Morrison H. Heckscher, the Lawrence A. Fleischman Chairman of the American Wing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
“Allison’s love of the world of art and antiques went so deep that it seemed to be part of her DNA. She devoted her entire working life to the magazine, and her passion for its content, as well as the integrity with which she approached the material, will forever be part of the magazine’s history,” said Sandra J. Brant, Antiques’ publisher and chief executive officer.
Born in Port Chester, N.Y., Ledes was educated at Rippowam Cisqua School in Bedford, N.Y., and Miss Hall’s School in Pittsfield, Mass., before receiving a degree in art history in 1975 from Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. She wrote her bachelor’s thesis on Matisse and Cubism. A convert to the decorative arts, she confessed to Antiques and The Arts Weekly in 1990, “If I had to put my money in one place, I’d put it on the wall. A tour de force is possible in any material, but I don’t think it is quite as apparent in a lot of decorative arts.”
Wendell Garrett and Elisabeth D. Garrett spotted Ledes when they taught a class in American culture at Vassar.
“We led a field trip to Yale. Allison was transformed by Charles Montgomery and Patricia Kane’s tour of the Garvan Collection,” recalled Wendell Garrett, who invited Ledes to join him at Antiques. Her first project was helping him compile a bibliography for American Furniture 1620 to The Present by Jonathan L. Fairbanks and Elizabeth Bidwell Bates.
“Something of her personality, her clarity and grace, was reflected in her skill with a blue pencil,” said Garrett.
“She knew exactly what she wanted in the way of articles †scholarship and beauty combined †and she always found it, even when I had my doubts,” said Eleanor H. Gustafson, Antiques’ executive editor.
Hired to “carry on the tradition,” as she told Antiques and The Arts Weekly, Ledes, like Garrett, Alice Winchester and Homer Eaton Keyes before her, sought to maintain, as Winchester put it, “the magazine’s character †its standards of integrity, quality, authority, dignity and pleasantly human approach.”
“Allison was showered with words of congratulations following her promotion,” said R. Scudder Smith, editor and publisher of Antiques and The Arts Weekly. Recalling a luncheon celebrating the editor’s appointment hosted by needlework authority Betty Ring at New York’s Cosmopolitan Club, Smith said, “There was great applause when one guest offered that, ‘Many people follow, but Allison Ledes.’ She took up the reins of the editorship of the magazine and maintained the high standards that had been set by her predecessors.”
Under the direction of Brant and Ledes, Antiques broadened its focus, expanding its date range and featuring more European and Asian art and design.
“The scholarly niche is where we find ourselves, but we are also geared toward the consumer market,” Ledes told Antiques and The Arts Weekly. Under her watch, the publication maintained its discreet approach to reporting on personalities and prices.
“Our attitude is that if a piece of furniture brings $12 million, we are interested in what about it makes it a masterpiece or who has discovered who did the carving,” said Ledes. Involved in every aspect of the magazine’s production, she also found time to write two monthly columns, “Current and Coming” and “Design Notes.”
Ledes attended Attingham Summer School in England in 1979. Between 1998 and 2002, she served as president of the American Friends of the Attingham Summer School. On the board of the Decorative Arts Trust and the council of Historic New England, she also volunteered her time and expertise to the Victorian Society in America, the American Museum in Britain, Strawbery Banke Museum and the Colony Club in New York City. She edited the Walpole Society Note Book and contributed articles to a range of publications.
In May 1987, she married George M. Ledes, a publisher of trade journals. With their two daughters, Meredith Adams Ledes and Abigail Eckardt Ledes, the couple split their time between Bedford, N.Y., and Manhattan, where their comfortable Upper East Side apartment offered rich evidence of many interests and a common devotion to family and intellectual life.
“Allison had incredible integrity and courage to go along with her wit and intellect, which she brought to both The Magazine Antiques and her family every day I knew her. We will miss her so much,” said Eleanor Gustafson.
In addition to her husband and daughters, Ledes is survived by her mother, June M. Doyle of Redding, Conn.; and two sisters, Lynne A. Eckardt of Brewster, N.Y., and Anne E. Demas of Hanover, N.H.
Funeral services were January 12. A celebration of her life is planned at the Park Avenue Armory in New York City on January 23 at 10 am, during the run of the Winter Antiques Show. In lieu of flowers, contributions in Allison Ledes’ name may be sent to the American Friends of Attingham in New York City, www.attinghamtrust.org , or Miss Hall’s School, www.misshalls.org .
