Cora Ginsburg LLC

Cora Ginsburg LLC Dealers and specialists in historic textiles and fashion since the 1940s, est. 1971. Owner and director T**i Halle has been with the gallery since 1981.

Since the 1940s, the name Cora Ginsburg has been associated with fine and rare costume and antique textiles. Founded in 1971 as Cora Ginsburg Inc., we specialize in museum-quality clothing and textiles of the 16th to 20th centuries. Michele Majer, Professor Emerita at Bard Graduate Center, has been part of the Ginsburg team since 1995. Billy DeGregorio, PhD, joined the gallery in 2012. Gallery man

ager Martina D'Amato has been with Cora Ginsburg since 2015. We are located in Sharon, Connecticut by appointment only Monday through Friday.

Florals… and ensnaring swans… for spring? Gouache on paper designs for embroidery for men’s waistcoats, executed in Fran...
05/18/2026

Florals… and ensnaring swans… for spring? Gouache on paper designs for embroidery for men’s waistcoats, executed in France, ca. 1780–90.

A real treat arrived in the mail: ’s latest monumental book Chintz, featuring the extraordinary collection Karun Thakar ...
05/15/2026

A real treat arrived in the mail: ’s latest monumental book Chintz, featuring the extraordinary collection Karun Thakar has amassed over the last decades. We’re thrilled to see so many old friends, including the entirety of a scrapbook of fragments that Cora herself lovingly put together many years ago. Congratulations Karun on another wonderful achievement ❤️

Some of the treasures on view in “Dressing the Revolution: Fashion and Politics 1760–1789,” curated by , including a fe...
05/13/2026

Some of the treasures on view in “Dressing the Revolution: Fashion and Politics 1760–1789,” curated by , including a few old friends from Ginsburg: the wonderful Spitalfields sack on loan from , a glorious round gown of Indian chintz borrowed from the collection of Peter Lee, and the delicious red damask frock-like banyan and waistcoat in Deerfield’s collection. Don’t miss the show; on view through Jan 3, 2027.

Mining some favorite 18th-century American portraiture for illustrative fashions for our talk tomorrow , which will incl...
05/02/2026

Mining some favorite 18th-century American portraiture for illustrative fashions for our talk tomorrow , which will include a few of the wonderful paintings here and more, in addition to garments and accessories from our collection.

Preparing for our presentation (and show and tell!) “Dressing Up in 18th-Century New England” this Sunday May 3rd, so w...
04/21/2026

Preparing for our presentation (and show and tell!) “Dressing Up in 18th-Century New England” this Sunday May 3rd, so we’re rounding up images of a few of our most treasured finds with local provenance.

This ca. 1775 gown of green Spitalfields silk was worn in the Boston area, probably by a member of the Sumner family. Rarer still, the matching shoes survived with the dress and descended together in the family. Now at .

Before the Revolution, French silks were effectively banned under British law, making this ca. 1765 sacque or negligee of rich brocade an especially unusual find, as it descended in the Hamilton family of Southbury, CT. Was it smuggled in to the US? Now at and just exhibited in their fantastic show “Art X Fashion.”

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s grandmother, Miriam Manning, wore this ca. 1790-1810 round gown made of reused 1770s Indian painted chintz in Salem, MA. Now in the private collection of a dear friend and on loan to in “Dressing the Revolution,” on view now!

Finally, the transitional silhouette of the 1790s is on display in this open robe of figured pink taffeta that was worn in Philadelphia. Now at .

Space for May 3rd is very limited; email [email protected]

“Fond of the gaudiest colours, of fantastic designs.” That’s how Edward Bulwer-Lytton described Pompeians in his novel T...
04/13/2026

“Fond of the gaudiest colours, of fantastic designs.” That’s how Edward Bulwer-Lytton described Pompeians in his novel The Last Days of Pompeii (1834). Some might say the same for Lytton’s own time. But even the busiest and brightest patterns of the 19th century have a compositional elegance, as with this Pompeian-revival furnishing cotton depicting women wearing chitons and himations in niches surrounded by a grotesque framework of centaurs, flora, architectural forms, and more (including some playful mice!). Alsace, roller printed by Scheurer-Rott, ca. 1888. This sample comes from the archives of Scheurer-Rott, later Scheurer, Lauth et Cie.

A dive in the archives, inside and out of a lovely ca. 1770s gown (nightgown?) of earlier Spitalfields silk that we sold...
04/08/2026

A dive in the archives, inside and out of a lovely ca. 1770s gown (nightgown?) of earlier Spitalfields silk that we sold a couple years ago. Even in its imperfect state, it mounted gorgeously.

The flowers and birds on this embroidery very strongly recall the designs by Giovanni Alfonso Samarco, an embroidery and...
04/05/2026

The flowers and birds on this embroidery very strongly recall the designs by Giovanni Alfonso Samarco, an embroidery and lace designer active in Bari in the mid-17th century whose drawings are now at Palazzo Davanzati . Worked entirely in satin and long-and-short stitches using silk floss couched to a linen surface, the composition was then outlined with a couched twisted brown silk cord. The embroidery would have originally hung vertically (the birds would have been upright) suggests it was used in a tall, grand space like a palatial home, and was later remade into its current form as an altar frontal with metal rings for hanging horizontally.

Silk embroidery, Italian, mid- to late 17th century. 32 x 83 in. DM for inquiries.

Address

PO Box 425
Sharon, CT
06069

Telephone

+12127441352

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