G Home: Good Hunting

When Mary Lawson and her husband, Jeff, a rheumatologist, bought their circa-1925 Willie Ward home in 1979, the budding collectors intentionally allowed for plenty of wide open spaces with the idea of filling the void with antiques and art.

More than thirty years later, the Lawsons’ home is brimming with acquired items—all beautiful and many quite rare—spanning two centuries. “It’s been a work in action for twenty-five years,” offers Mary, the Greenville County art museum’s head of development. Not coincidentally, that’s also about how long she’s been working with the museum coordinating its annual Antiques Show, which raises funds to help the gallery expand its own ever-growing collection.

Although Mary’s acquisitions can be found in every nook, cranny, and corner of her Augusta Road-area home, the living room—with its original coal-burning fireplace and carefully (and comfortably) arranged furniture selection—is the heart of the couple’s well-amassed collection. Above the mahogany mantle hangs a 1926 impressionistic landscape by William Partridge, whose work can be found on display at the museum. To the right hangs another museum-featured artist’s work: a portrait by Charles Hawthorne, which Mary bought at auction in the Midwest. Under the Hawthorne portrait is an eighteenth-century English chest, one of the first antiques she ever bought. And sitting on the mantel are favorites from her ceramics collection—two Coalport plates—early-English porcelain dating to 1820.

Many of the accessories that grace her home are items she acquired from the Antiques Show over the years. “There’s nothing like picking up a piece of antique porcelain to feel the glaze on it and the weight of it,” Lawson offers. “It’s hands-on learning at its best.”