But the U.S. is home to a host of 19th and early 20th century homes inspired by the antique examples across the ocean.
For the first time ever, the museum, which has many very rare, antique examples of the art form, will also dedicate a space to contemporary paperweights.
With such lessons being offered here, let's hope that if contemporary Islamic institutions ever want to teach their schoolchildren about the many scientific contributions of the West, they will not choose these exhibitions as models, but follow more antique examples.
The aesthetics of the antique and modern examples are distinctly different; while a gracefully shaped writing chair and drop-leaf table from the late 1700s have a sturdy, utilitarian heft to them, two comparable pieces by Thomas Throop, a New Canaan woodworker, have an airy, ethereal quality.
The antique merchandise he displays (a 1950s Weston AC Voltmeter, for example, runs $19) can draw puzzled looks.
She is the example I hold up to my young daughter, Sydney: the handsome young woman in the antique photograph, grasping a stethoscope.
"The antique districts and antique malls have just faded.
Vomit and urine stained the antique carpets.
Since the Antique Era, the intensity of land use has increased.
This little box, on the antique side of the junk/antique divide, has a small drawer.
