Jay Robert Stiefel

Jay Robert Stiefel studied History at the University of  Pennsylvania (B.A.with Distinction 1968, General Honors Program, Dean's List) and as a graduate student at Oxford University (Christ Church, 1968-69), where he was elected Chairman of the Graduate Common Room, chaired the Shakespeare at Stratford program and was a member of the Christ Church and Oxford University Boat Clubs.  His International Relations degree from the University of Pennsylvania (M.A. 1971) was pursuant to an interdisciplinary program including courses in International Law at the Law School and Economics at the Wharton School of Business. He was elected a member of the Executive Committee of the International Relations Program of the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences (1970-71). He also attended the Universités de Bordeaux et de la Toulouse (French, Certificat d'Assiduité 1965). Mr. Stiefel worked at the British House of Commons as a member of the Conservative Parliamentary Power Committee's Subcommittee on Amendments, chaired by Sir John Eden, Bt., and as Parliamentary Personal Assistant to Sir Peter F.H. Emery, P.C. (1969-70). He was one of two U.S. Delegates to the International Conference on the U.S. Bicentennial, Philadelphia (1970).

Mr. Stiefel graduated from the Dickinson School of Law (J.D. 1974) where he was an editor of the Dickinson Law Review and a member of the Appellate Moot Court Board and of the Legal Aid Society. He completed programs on Public and Private International Law at the Hague Academy of International Law, The Netherlands, where he served as U.S. Embassy Liaison (1972); and on the British legal system at Emmanuel College, Cambridge University (1997, 1998). He has lectured on law at Temple University and authored law review articles on International and Constitutional Law. For his paper, "The Rights of the Accused Before Trial," delivered at Oxford University (1977), Mr. Stiefel was awarded le Prix des Anciens Presidents, the top prize of the Association Internationale des Jeunes Avocats (Young Lawyers International Association), a bar association whose U.S. operations he was elected to head (1978).  He has also served on the PBA's Committees on International Law, Services to the Spanish-speaking Community, the Federal Courts and Lawyers for the Arts.

Mr. Stiefel is also a historian of early American commerce and the decorative arts.  He has lectured at Winterthur Museum, the American Philosophical Society, Oxford University, Villanova University, the University of Wolverhampton, and the American Museum in Britain, and also before the Decorative Arts Trust, The Washington Decorative Arts Forum, and the Alexandria Association, among other venues. Mr. Stiefel serves on an advisory committee of the Delaware Antiques Show for Winterthur (1998-present). He has been admitted to various educational programs of the Attingham Trust in Great Britain and elsewhere (Summer School, 1996; and several Study Programs). Mr. Stiefel's "Philadelphia Cabinetmaking and Commerce, 1718-1753: the Account Book of John Head, Joiner" and "The Head Account Book as Artifact" inaugurated the American Philosophical Society's online historical journal, the Library Bulletin, vol. 1, no. 1, new series (Winter 2001). His discoveries were the subject of two feature articles: Lita Solis-Cohen, "Account Book Becomes Rosetta Stone for Philadelphia Furniture," Maine Antiques Digest (April 2001), and "The Cabinetmaker's Account," Masterpiece (June 2001). Mr. Stiefel's articles on Philadelphia's colonial craftsmen have appeared in various scholarly periodicals, including the Bulletin of the Pewter Collectors' Club of America (Winter 2002); Antiques and Fine Art (Spring 2003, Spring 2004 and Autumn/Winter 2008); the Magazine Antiques (August 2006); and Antiquarian Horology (December 2006).