John Keith Russell specializes in Shaker antiques and other objects of great design. For over three decades, JKR Antiques has placed some of the finest pieces in major collections and institutions.
John Keith Russell
Founder & Principal
John Keith Russell is a respected member of the American antiques community. He has lectured on Shaker artifacts at prominent museums, art galleries, trade gatherings, and historical societies, and contemporary reference books on Shaker contain numerous references to material sold by Mr. Russell.
John serves as a consultant to collectors and museums and is frequently retained to authenticate and acquire Shaker and other American antiques. He often collaborates with appraisers to evaluate and value Shaker items. He is a founding member of the Antiques Dealers Association of America (ADA) and served as President of the Board of Directors for seven terms. During this time, John assisted with the planning and implementation of ADA’s highly successful antiques shows, the first held in White Plains, New York, and more recently in Deerfield, Massachusetts in conjunction with Historic Deerfield.
He also started the ADA Award of Merit program that honors those whose contributions to the antiques field have impacted the industry. ADA awardees include Albert Sack, dealer, Morrison Heckscher, Director American Wing, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and David McCullough, author and historian.
John served as a member of the Board of Trustees of Hancock Shaker Village Inc. from 2011-16 and was Chair of the museum’s Collections Committee. John created the museum’s “Peer to Peer” program which is an innovative and successful forum that provides collectors with an opportunity for a hands-on experience to study and learn about the museum’s 22,000 artifacts as well as items from the participant’s own collections. This in-depth forum draws collectors from all over the United States.
jkr@jkrantiques.com
@jkrantiques
Sarah Margolis-Pineo
Semi-Associate
Before joining John Keith Russell Antiques, Sarah Margolis-Pineo was a curator of American decorative arts, craft, and design. Most recently, she was curator of Hancock Shaker Village (Pittsfield, MA), where she oversaw the stewardship of the museum’s exceptional collection of 19 historic buildings and over 22,000 works of Shaker furniture, gift drawings, domestic objects, tools, and textiles. At Hancock, she curated exhibitions of Shaker material culture as well as contemporary art and design. She also developed symposia, events, and an artist residency program engaging the history and legacy of the Shakers.
Previously, Sarah held positions in the curatorial departments of American Folk Art Museum (New York), Museum of Contemporary Craft (Portland, OR), and Cranbrook Art Museum (Bloomfield Hills, MI). Her academic and critical writing has been widely published, and she has taught in the undergraduate and graduate programs of Pacific Northwest College of Art, Oregon College of Art and Craft, Burlington College, and Warren Wilson College.
As a Maine native, Sarah’s first introduction to the Shakers was visiting the living community at Sabbathday Lake as a child, where she remembers being awestruck by the Highland cattle and buying candy from the Sisters at the Shaker Store. Decades later, she has come full circle through her work with Shaker furniture and material culture, which she finds captivating as an enduring touchstone of American vernacular design. Sarah presently lives in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, with her husband and son. She attends Shaker meetings with the Sabbathday Lake community as frequently as possible.
smp@jkrantiques.com
@smargolispineo