Oh, the stories they could tell. There's a Prohibition-era decanter and drinking glasses found on London's Portobello Road. A traveling case still bearing ocean liner stickers — collectibles in their own right — is filled with the mirror, comb, brush and shoes of a lady traveler. A set of heavy bookends depict the delicate figure of a woman sitting on a chair reminiscent of the one on which Abraham Lincoln is so confidently seated at the Lincoln Memorial.

These and other unusual pieces displayed at the Sweet Briar College Museum provide a quick and intriguing glimpse into the Art Nouveau and Art Deco movements. The exhibit will be open from Oct. 19 to Dec. 2.

The collection belongs to Laura Hand Glover, a 1986 graduate of Sweet Briar and a Lynchburg resident. Glover is the first participant in what the museum's director, Christian Carr, says will be a series of exhibitions of alumnae collections. The Oct. 19 opening will include a talk by Carr and a brief introduction to the exhibition by Glover.

"We've been working on a program of changing exhibitions at the museum and wanted to include students and alumnae. Laura's collection focuses on the 1900s, which is where the current exhibition ends, so it was a natural fit," Carr said.

"It's a small exhibition but a rich one," Carr added.

The Glover exhibition includes lamps, clocks, glassware, toiletries, vases, decorative bookends and some furniture.

The pieces on display come directly from Glover's home, where they are used daily, she said. "My things aren't in pristine condition because we really live with them. I enjoy them and use them."

Although happy to share the collection with museum visitors, "the lamps are the biggest thing I miss," Glover admits.

She built her collection over the years with pieces she purchased while traveling abroad — some discovered with the help of an antique-dealer friend, others found by traveling the "back roads" of Virginia, Texas and Oklahoma.

"I've been attracted to Art Deco and Art Nouveau and have been picking up things since college," Glover said. "I'm from rural Oklahoma. We don't have a lot of antiques there that are hundreds of years old, because the state isn't that old. But Art Deco and Art Nouveau are a part of our history."

Originating in the 1880s, Art Nouveau derives its name from a shop in Paris called La Maison de l'Art Nouveau. Fluid lines and nature themes characterize most Art Nouveau objects.

"I love Art Nouveau because it is so elegant, sensual — quintessentially feminine," she said.

Glover is equally enthusiastic about the Art Deco period, which emerged as a reaction to the Art Nouveau movement with an emphasis on clean, simple shapes suitable for mass production.

"Collecting items from that era allows me to go back in time and picture myself in that time period," Glover said. "I would have loved to have been born in the 1900s and have lived through those succeeding decades. I never got to take art history at Sweet Briar, but my roommate did. She'd have her text books and they just fascinated me."

Visitors to the museum will be fascinated, too, by the "Jack in the Pulpit" Favrile glass vase included in the exhibition. The vase, a creation of Louis Comfort Tiffany, the son of the renowned jewelry and silver magnate, Charles Tiffany, is one of Glover's treasured pieces.

"When people ask you what you'd take with you if there was a fire and you had to leave your home quickly, this would be in the top three for me," she said.

Glover's exhibition can be found in the Yellow Gallery at the museum. Admission is free. Museum hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Friday or by appointment.

The museum's next exhibition, "Lost Virginia," is scheduled for January and will feature Virginia Historical Society photos of Virginia architecture, including Mt. San Angelo, which formerly stood on the Virginia Center for Creative Arts campus.

For more information, please call (434) 381-6246.