Michael Haskell opened his first shop in 1969 after several years of selling at antique fairs and American Indian Art Shows. The business was a success from the beginning with much of the inventory coming from local Santa Barbara collections and estates. At about that time Michael whom had studied and collected antique Native American art also developed an intense interest in early Spanish and Spanish Colonial Antiques, encouraged by his trips to visit relatives in Mexico he began to travel extensively in Mexico and South America buying Spanish Colonial art when great things were plentiful and comparatively inexpensive, it was an irreplaceable learning experience.
Michael Haskell has traveled and lectured extensively including the Huntington Library on Spanish Colonial Art, and curated, Symbols Of Status, Spanish Colonial Silver In California, For the Santa Barbara Historical Museum and authored the 1996 exhibition catalog. He was also co-curator for the 1975 exhibit, Visions Of Life: Art of the Plains Indians for the Santa Barbara Museum of Art.
Michael also offers appraisals of Native American Indian Art, Pre-Columbian Art and Early Spanish and Spanish Colonial Art to collectors and institutions, including the Southwest Museum (now The Gene Autry Museum), The Santa Barbara Art Museum, The Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History The Museums of Santa Fe, including, The International Folk Art Museum, The Spanish Colonial Art Museum and the, Palace of The Governors among many others.
Eric Haskell- In 2003 Michael Haskell was joined in business by his son Eric, a recent Graduate of The University Of California Santa Barbara with a degrees in Business And Communication and History of Art and Architecture. The business at that time, was in the transition of creating a line of reproduction furniture, lighting and decorative objects which continues to grow. Eric Haskell also has a successful design business, Haskell Design Inc., which specializes is high end design. Eric, deals with many of our design and trade clients to create custom furniture design and source rare and hard to find objects. Eric, like his dad is an avid surfer and former member of the U.S Surf Team and loves the adventure of sourcing rare objects throughout the world.
Michael Haskell antiques specializes in 16th-18th Century Spanish, Italian, Spanish Colonial, Mexican and European Antiques. We also deal in Native American tribal items.
Our line of reproduction furniture and lighting is quickly becoming one of the top sources for design professionals.
Michael Haskell Antiques and Haskell Lighting work closely with the trade. Please contact us to set up a trade account.