ALEXANDRE NOLL (1890-1970) France
Covered box c. 1930
Mahogany with ebony peg details and 1 ¼ inch thick Saint-Gobain glass.
Marks: ANoll
Provenance: Private Collection New York, Galerie de Beyrie Paris, Odile Noll (A. Noll’s daughter), Alexandre Noll Estate
For more information see: Alexandre Noll, Olivier Jean-Elie, Pierre Passebon (Paris:Edition du Regard, 1999); Alexandre Noll: Les Matres de L’ Art Decoratif Contemporain, Collection dirigée par R. Moutard-Uldry edited by (Geneve: Pierre Cailler, 1954); Le Mobilier du Xxe Siécle: Dictionnaire des
Créateurs, Pierre Kjellberg (Paris: Les Éditons de l’Amateur, 1994) p. 455-456.
H: 2 1/2″ x D: 5 3/8″ x W: 8″
Jean Despres (1889-1980) France.
Modernist covered centerpiece, circa 1940.
Hand-wrought and hand-hammered silver plate.
Marks: J. Despres (script incised signature on the edge on one handle),
JD French Jean Despres touchmark (2x).
For related works see: Jean Després: Maestro Orafo Tra Art Déco e Avanguardie, Melissa Gabardi (Milano: IDEA Books, 1999) Metallkunst: Kunst vom Jugendstil zur Moderne (1889-1939) Band IV, Karl H. Brohan (Berlin: Brohan-Museum, 1990); Silver of a New Era: International Highlights of Precious Metalwork from 1880 to 1940 (Rotterdam: Museum Boymans van-Beuningen, 1992)
H: 5 ¼” x W: 11 ½” x diameter: 8 ¾”
AARON BOHROD (1907-1997) USA
F. CARLTON BALL (1911- 1992) USA
“Eve” vase 1952-56
Monumental glazed stoneware vase with a brown and cream beige glaze with sgraffito decoration of four stylized nudes.
Signed: A. Bohrod F.C. Ball (inscribed)
Illustrated: Aaron Bohrod: Figure Sketches, Edwin E. Elliott and Howard E. Wooden (Dodge City, Kansas: Gall and Shaull, 1990) p. 17, fig. 32. A Decade of Still Life: Aaron Bohrod (Madison, Wis.: University of Wisconsin Press, 1966) p. 41.
H: 20 3/4 x Dia: 12 1/2″
Price: $29,000
***Aaron Bohrod himself considered this vase his most important work in ceramic. This exact vase is illustrated in “A Decade of Still Life: Aaron Bohrod” in a bisque state. There is a stable firing crack that is visible on the base (see photo) near the Bohrod signature which happened in the firing, but in no way affects the structure of the piece. A letter from Aaron Bohrod himself describing this piece and the history surrounding it also accompanies the vase.
For more information see: The Potter’s Art in California: 1885-1955, Hazel V. Bray (Oakland: Oakland Museum Art Department, 1980) pp. 56-57.
A painter of cityscapes, landscapes and trompe l’oeil paintings, Aaron Bohrod lived in Chicago from birth until 1948, when he moved to Madison, Wisconsin. There he was a member of the University of Wisconsin’s art faculty. Bohrod was a graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and he also attended the Arts Students League in New York.
Aaron Bohrod was an American artist who was nationally known in his lifetime. He was the subject of frequent exhibitions and gallery shows in various locations, generally focusing on a particular chronological period of his artistic production. The recipient of numerous prizes and awards (including two Guggenheims and the purchase prize at the “Artists for Victory” exhibition of 1942-43 at the Metropolitan Museum in New York), he was both proficient and prolific as a painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and as an illustrator. In addition, he was the author of several books on art and an autobiography. Although he studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Art Students League in New York with a number of well-known and influential teachers, the one who exerted the most profound influence on him was John Sloan, who taught him to value both the Old Masters and the visual reality of the urban American scene. Bohrod returned to Chicago after studying with Sloan in New York “determined to do in my own way with my own city what Sloan had done with New York.” (Bohrod’s stylistic development has been typically characterized in terms of his early relationship to the gritty urban realism of the Ashcan School with which Sloan was associated and his later magic realism style with its virtuoso and meticulous technique and witty visual repartee, almost as if they were two separate and unrelated developments. Although his own description of the origins of his unique still life approach in his autobiographical book, A Decade of Still Life, may have guided critics to look at his oeuvre in this way, a closer assessment reveals clear connections between the earlier and alter periods. Before 1940, for example, he had created a prototype of the still lifes that were to become his hallmark. By the mid 1950s, he began to dedicate himself to the creation of paintings that are by turns resonant, mysterious, evocative and humorous. The studied and careful detail of the bricks on the buildings foreshadow the care that Bohrod will lavish on each of the carefully observed and realized objects in his later still lifes, while the anecdotal detail predicts the accumulation of objects on which his later work depends. The polished and masterful technique of this later work also suggests the Old Masters to whom he was introduced by Sloan.
F. Carlton Ball (1911-1992)
F. Carlton Ball was born in Sutter Creek, California, He studied art at Sacramento Junior College before enrolling at USC. He graduated from the University of Southern California in 1933. He later did graduate studies under Glen Lukens at USC. He taught at several colleges/universities, such as the CCAC (his first position in 1935), Mills College, University of Wisconsin at Madison, University of Southern Illinois at Carbondale, USC University of Puget Sound and etc. From our research, we believe his last teaching position was in Tacoma, Washington, at the Tacoma Community College. Primarily known for his throwing, he did combine his pots with the decorative artistry of his first wife Kathryn Uhl Ball and most importantly, the Wisconsin artist, Aaron Bohrod. He exhibited at the Association of San Francisco Potters, 1952 Los Angeles County Fair’s 6000 Years Art in Clay and the Crocker-Kingsley of Sacramento, California, to mention a few locations. Exhibited at the Nationals in 1941-1949, 1951-1960 and 1966.
DIDIER GARDILLOU France
Trompe L’Oeil Porcelain “Plat des moules et serviette” c. 2008
High fired porcelain with a matte and shiny glaze, blue border detail on the napkin and realistically painted mussels.
Marks: DG (Didier Gardillou) monogram
H: 4 1/2″ x D: 10″ x W: 11″
Price: $5,450
Didier Gardillou is a master porcelain artist who creates Trompe L’Oeil masterpieces. He revived the antique craft of the porcelain florist. This technique and style first appeared in France in the 1740’s at the Manufactory of Vincennes, which in time would move and become known as the Royal Manufactory of Sèvres Porcelain.
Clasp illustrated: Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration, Band XIV, April 1904-September 1904, p. 506 (see image attached)
KNOX MARTIN (1923-) USA
Eight 1958
Magna and oil on canvas
Signed: Knox Martin on lower left on front of canvas, Knox M on back of canvas
Marks: From: CORE, 38 Park Row, New York 38, NY, To: Martin, Knox, Eight, 1958, Magna/Oil, 30×40, 700. (paper label), Fischbach Gallery, 799 Madison Avenue, New York 21, Knox Martin, Eight, C.O.R.E., Price $700 (paper label), Mr. Ned L. Pines, 605 Park Ave., New York 21, NY (address label).
Exhibited: Fischbach Gallery, New York 1963; I. Jankowski Gallery, New York, 1975
Provenance: Personal Collection of the artist; Private Collection New York
Canvas: H: 40 1/4” x W: 26 1/4””
Framed: H: 52 3/8” x W: 38 3/8”
From 1957 to about 1964, the spirit of art in New York City was moving in directions for which Abstract Expressionism had not prepared us. By 1965, the strokes, swipes, drips, and splatters of New York painting had given way to cool, laconic representations of the most ordinary of ordinary objects. It was a transformation in artistic culture in which intellectual rewards replaced, or at least supplemented, visual ones, and the whole philosophical face of art was beginning to disclose itself in a particularly vivid way. I saw Knox Martin’s paintings as embodying this transformative moment. In them, I thought, the tension between the two rival philosophies of art could be felt. the way I saw them: they appeared at first glance to be collages, made of large, irregular, overlapping swatches of patterned cloth. Some of the swatches were striped, some appeared to be decorated with circles. It must be conceded that stripes and circles belong to the vocabulary of one kind of abstract art, while the irregular shapes, which felt as though they had been torn from bolts of material, belonged to another.
So one might properly claim that Martin was synthesizing an expressionist abstraction with a geometrical one. For me, however, Knox’s stripes and circles evoked the life of the circus: the striped tents, the loudly patterned costume of clowns. And Martin’s colors—pistachio, raspberry, banana—were festive and impudent. That is why I felt that the paintings referred to vernacular reality, as much so as Campbell Soup cans or Coca Cola bottles. The circus was a recurring theme in modernist art, and I thought it appropriate for late modernist painting to reduce the circus to patterned rags expressive of its raucous gaiety.
SHOWA PERIOD (1926-1989) Japan
Occasional table c.1930
Water-worn ebonized cypress with a prominent grain pattern on four splayed legs
H: 12 ½” x W 29” x L: 41 ½”
CHARLES CATTEAU (1880-1966)
BOCH FRERES KERAMIS La Louviere Belgium
Tulip vase c. 1930
Glazed earthenware
Marks: “Keramis” Made in Belgium , D. 2524 B, 945
H: 10 1/4″ x D: 6 1/2″
Charles Catteau could be regarded as one of the most versatile ceramic artists of his generation, especially for the style of Art Deco. Catteau advanced the forms, techniques and decoration of modern ceramics, creating an exceptionally original, new and decorative genre.
Hired as a ceramic decorator in Ecole Nationale de Sèvres from 1903 to 1904, he began producing designs that were rather traditional, based on the observation of nature, and showing the influence of Japonisme, characterized by pure lines and meticulous details. From 1904 to 1906, he worked in Nymphenburg Porzellan Manufaktur near Munich, a factory specializing in new hand painting procedures under a slip, as well as Art Nouveau.
In 1907 he finally moved to Louvière in Belgium where he was promoted to head of the decoration department at Boch Freres Keramis at the age of 27. This is where most of his exceptional talent came to the fore especially during the period between the two World Wars. Influenced by the great creative art movements of the time (Africanism, Japonisme, Cubism, Abstraction) and his observation of nature gave him inspiration for his designs, with the integration of plants, stylized animals and geometric motifs. The international avant-garde movements were also an influence leading to his use of purely abstract, geometric designs and intense colors. Charles Catteau was incredibly resourceful and explored various harmonies of form, techniques, designs, colors, shades, topics, variants and influences. In this way Catteau became a representative par excellence of Art Deco designs, giving it his personal touch. He was instrumental in introducing technical innovations during the 20’s and 30’s to aid mass production of ceramic products and expand availability of affordable products. During difficult times in Europe, he created vivid, colorful, original and uplifting ceramic wares.
Charles Cotteau motto was “Art for All” and he also taught decorative painting at the School of Industrial in Louvière. In 1925 he obtained international recognition in the exhibition of Decorative Arts in Paris. which helped raise the profile of Boch Freres. He remained at the company until he retired to Nice in 1946 .
Marcel Kammerer (1878-1959) Austria
Gebrüder Thonet Vienna
Pedestal with four-ball shelf, circa 1905.
Ebonized beech.
Marks: Thonet (original paper label).
For more information on Thonet see: Thonet Bentwood & Other Furniture, Christopher Wilk introd. (New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1980) (reprint of the original 1904 catalogue); Casa Thonet, Storia dei mobili in legno curvato, Giovanna Massobrio, Paolo Portoghesi(Roma: Editori Laterza, 1980); Against the Grain: Bentwood Furniture from the Collection of Fern and Manfred Steinfeld, Ghenete Zelleke, Eva B. Ottilinger and Nina Stritzler (Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago, 1993).
H: 46 3/4”
D top: 12”
D base: 13 1/2”
Shelf: 9 3/4″ x 10”
Price: $14,000
PAUL COLIN (1892-1985) France
“Le Tumulte Noir” portfolio 1929
Color lithographs, limited edition of 500, in original wraps
Published by Éditions d’art, Succès: Paris, 1929
Dimensions:
Book: H: 19 11/16” x W: 13 1/16”
Custom leather box: H: 21” x W: 14 3/8” x D: 1 5/16”
Custom silk slipcase: H: 21 ¼” x W: 14 1/16” x D: 1 11/16”
ITALIAN MAJOLICA
Pair of “Rose” wall pockets c. 1885
Three dimensional realistically rendered pink roses with leaf and stems all in the Barbotine technique
Marks: Made in Italy
Barbotine is the French term for ceramic slip or a mixture of clay and water for molding or decorating pottery. This technique was used to create applied adornments on 19th century majolica items.
H: 13″ x W: 7 1/4″ x D: 4 1/4″
AMÉDÉE DE CARANZA (active 1875-1914) (b. Turkey / active France)
COPILLET ET CIE Noyon
Nasturtium vase 1903-1906
Blown glass with floral & foliate luster decoration handpainted on a muted iridescent ground.
Signed: A. de CARANZA (on the side near base)
Marks: Copillet et Cie, Noyon, 842 (twice)
For more information and related illustrations: European Art Glass (New York: Ray & Lee Grover, Charles E. Tuttle Publishers, Inc., 1970) pp. 69, 94-96; L’Art Du Verre En France 1860-1914, Janine Bloch-Dermant (Edita Denoel, 1974) pp. 36-37; Glass: Art Nouveau to Art Deco, Victor Arwas (New York: Abrams, 1987) pp. 56-58; L’Europe de L’Art Verrier, des Precurseurs de l’Art Nouveau a l’Art Actuel 1850-1990, Giuseppe Cappa (Liège: Mardaga, 1991) pp. 72-74.
H: 10″
Copillet, H.A. Thomas Henri Alfred Copillet was originally a printer, and produced a local newspaper in Paris. When he moved his works to 13 Fauburg de Paris he acquired a kiln in the process, and thus in 1903 was began a new glass works. His designers were Amedee de Caranza and Edouard de Neuville. They produced a whole range of Art Nouveau glassware, many with a dark iridescent finish. They also produced opaline glass, and glass panels for use in church windows. The company went bankrupt in 1906, although the new management (Lefevre and Lhomme) kept a little of the production going for a while, the factory was destroyed during the First World War.
JAPANESE MEIJI PERIOD (1868-1912) Japan
“Koi” covered box c.1900
Cloisonné with silver wire and wireless orange enamel with silver foil backing and cobalt blue enameled background with silver foil and enameled underside, red woven silk interior.
Original wood hinged box with padded cotton interior, attached paper label of an unidentified artist cipher (see box cover).
Dimensions of wood box:
H: 3 5/8″ x W: 5 3/4″ x D: 4 3/4″
Raymond Subes (1893-1970), France.
Coffee table, circa 1935.
Wrought iron, beige, ecru, and dark brown Afghanistan jasper top.
Related work illustrated: R. Subes, Ferronnerie Moderne (Paris: Editions Vincent, Fréal et Cie., n.d. [c. 1937]).
For more information see: Art Deco, Victor Arwas, (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1980) p. 305; Encyclopedia of Art Deco, ed. Alastair Duncan, (New York: E.P. Dutton, 1988.) p. 152, 167.
H: 19 1/3” x D: 35 1/2”
Price: $38,000
During the 1930s, Raymond Subes became one of the foremost designers of wrought iron in his native Paris. Subes studied at the Ecole Boulle and the Ecole des Arts Décoratifs before going to work for Emile Robert, a leading ironwork designer. He later became the artistic director of Borderel et Robert. At this venerable firm he created iron grills and doors for architectural commissions, many of which may still be seen all over Paris. His work was exhibited at the Paris 1925 Exhibition of Decorative Arts and he designed the wrought ironwork for the ill-fated ocean liner the Normandie. Subes’ early work was ornate and naturalistic, but gradually became more geometric and linear. This Art Deco table is a particularly lyrical example of his mature style, with its gracefully scrolling iron legs.
ALYSSA MONKS (b.1977) USA
Push 2006
Oil on canvas
Signed: Alyssa Monks 2006 (on lower back of canvas)
Exhibited: DFN Gallery, New York 2006
Illustrated: American Art Collector, May 2006, p. 155
H: 30” x W: 56”
“Push” is somewhat of a response to the long tradition of bathtub paintings where a nude woman is displayed. However, the figure is me, the painter, so that the subject is also the artist, juxtaposing the objectification of women in that tradition. Also, the figure wears a black negligee and red lipstick, white makeup gently drips down the cheek, closing the door on naturalism.
At the New York Academy of Art, Alyssa Monks studied with Vincent Desiderio, Wade Schuman, Brenda Zlamany, John Jacobsmeyer, Harvey Citron, Deane Keller, Edward Schmidt, Steven Assael, Lisa Bartolozzi, Patrick Connors, Peter Cox, Jon DeMartin, Leonid Lerman, and Hong Nian Zhang. Alyssa’s sensibility of paint and color allows one to be seduced into the illusion of each image. Striving for anatomical and realistic accuracy, it is her intention to elicit a serious confrontation. The work requires attention to detail and a slow and rich execution. It is this artist’s concern to visually relate the contemporary human experience with sensitivity, empathy, and integrity.
MARION FALLER USA
HOLLIS FRAMPTON USA
Apple Advancing 1975
Signed: 782. Apple advancing [var. “Northern Spy”] from “Sixteen Studies from Vegetable Locomotion,” 1975 by Marion Faller & Hollis Frampton) on back of photograph; Marion Faller Hollis Frampton (in script on the bottom of the back of the photograph)
H: 10 7/8” x W: 13 7/8” (unframed)
H: 15 3/16 “ x W: 20 15/16” (framed)
NIGERIA
Benin Head of King Oba, c. early to mid-20th Century
Lost wax cast bronze with a rich brown and black patina with light desert sand patina in some of the recessed areas.
The art of Benin is the product of an urban royal court, and is meant to symbolize and to extol the power, mystique, grandeur, continuity, and endurance of the ruling dynasty and its governing institutions. From the 14th century until its fall in 1897, Benin was ruled by the Oba, a divine ruler at the head of the political system of titled chiefs. Under royal support, a number of craftsman’s guilds produced bronze, brass, and wood sculptures and embroidered cloth, all of which have become prized by museums and collectors.
These heads were typically placed on altars dedicated to each of the past Oba’s of Benin. The altars are semicircular mud platforms that have been packed hard and rubbed smooth and are located in open courtyards of the palace. The royal altars are the settings for one of the two most important rites of divine kingship in Benin, Ugie Erha Oba, when the Oba honors the spirit of his late father and performs sacrifices to the royal ancestors and to the earth in which they are buried. Acknowledging his role as his fathers’ successor, the chiefs pay homage to the king and greet him in order of seniority. The rite expresses the continuity of divine kingship, and the altar before which it takes place provides the means by which the connection between the living king and his predecessors was established and made.
H: 14 1/2″ x D: 7 1/2″ x W: 8 1/2″
SOMALIA
Head rest early to mid 20th Century
Carved wood with rich natural patina
H: 4 3/4″ x W: 13″
Headrests are used by both Somali men and women while resting or sleeping. It is popularly believed that the headrest serves a protective function by elevating the head off the ground during sleep, thereby preventing any possible attack by snakes or scorpions. Men’s headrests, such as this one, generally feature a smaller base that makes them somewhat unstable to sleep on, while the rectangular bases of women’s headrests are usually more stable. Scholars suggest that this instability is purposeful as it prevents the user from falling into a deep sleep while guarding the herds at night. It is in this sense that the headrest itself has become a symbol of vigilance among Somali nomads. Headrests also play an important role in the nuptial ceremonies of Somali nomads. On his wedding night, the groom places the tubash (a sum of money) under the bride’s headrest. The morning after the marriage is consummated, the bride will use this money to purchase an amber necklace, the symbol of her new status.
CHARLES GREBER France
“Chameleons” vase c. 1905
Stoneware with crystalline-structure glaze in creamy white beige and blue tones with floral motifs and three full scale chameleons perched on the edge.
Marks: C. Greber (incised script)
H: 6 1/4″ x Dia: 7 1/2″
The potter-sculptor has awakened Darwin’s theory of evolution with this vase and has furthermore humanized these reptiles with an amusing sense of cameraderie.
GEORGE WASHINGTON MAHER (1864-1926) USA
Rockledge “Man’s chest of drawers” for E.L. King (unique) 1911-12
Original vintage cream/white painted surface (some losses to the top surface) on hardwood structure with original bronze drawer pulls (natural patina)
Provenance: Ernest & Grace King, henceforth descended through the King family; Private Collection, Wisconsin from Hollander Auction Gallery, Milwaukee WI (1982); Private Collection, New York
Illustrated: The Western Architect, “Geo. W. Maher, a democrat in Architecture” (March 1914, n. p. – for a period photograph showing this model in situ in the master bedroom), Prairie School Architecture: Studies from “The Western Architect” H. Allen Brooks (Toronto, 1975, p. 179).
H: 71” x W: 44 ¾” x D: 26 ¼”
(Gift to The Wolfsonian-FIU, Miami Beach, FL)
Information and other examples from the Maher / Rockledge commission can be found in the following books and publications: The Art that is Life: The Arts and Crafts Movement in America, 1875-1920, ed. Wendy Kaplan, (Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Little, Brown and Company, 1987), pp. 396-400,The Ideal Home: The History of Twentieth Century American Craft, 1900-1920, Janet Kardon (New York: Abrams, 1993) cover illus. and p. 205; Geo. W. Maher Quarterly, Oct.-Dec., 1992, pp. 1, 16, 17; Arts, December, 1995, The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, Minn. cover and back cover.
Examples of artworks from Rockledge are in the permanent collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, NY, The Brooklyn Museum of Art, The Newark Museum, The Baltimore Museum of Art, The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, The Milwaukee Art Museum, The Wolfsonian, Miami Beach, FL, The Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, the Dallas Museum of Art and the St. Louis Art Museum.
In 1912 George Washington Maher designed Rockledge, a summer residence near Homer, Minnesota, for E.L. King. Sited just beneath a cliff along the Mississippi River, Rockledge is considered the finest residence of Maher’s career and a perfect example of his motif-rhythm theory of architectural design.
***Please note that the chest in the period illustration (as the pairing on view) is the woman’s version chest of drawers, which is slightly smaller and has the open segmental arched top. This chest can now be found in the collection of the Milwaukee Art Museum. On the other hand the man’s chest of drawers is a larger piece of furniture and has the segmental arch contained within the overall rectangular form of the back support. As a further note, the rocker is now in the permanent collection of the Detroit Institute of Art, courtesy of Historical Design Inc.
ROYCROFT COPPER SHOP East Aurora, N.Y.
Pair of candlesticks c. 1915.
Hand wrought and textured copper, silver-plated.
Marks: impressed R, in orb with cross, ROYCROFT
For more information see: The American Arts & Crafts Movement in Western New York 1900-1928, Bruce A. Austin (Rochester Institute of Technology, 1992); Arts & Crafts Movement in New York State 1890’s – 1920’s, Coy Ludwig (Hamilton, N.Y.: Gallery Association of New York, 1983).
H: 6″ x W: 6 7/8″ x D: 2 5/8″
Paul-Auguste Gagné (Sculptor) France
Egyptian Revival garniture set, circa 1875
Gilt bronze and carved rouge marble mantle clock and candelabra in a high Egyptian Revival style
Marks: P.A. Gagne (elaborate incised scroll signature on the back of the portrait bust)
For more information on Gagné see: Dictionnaire des peintres, sculpteurs, dessinateurs et graveurs, vol. 4, E. Bénézit (Paris: Librairie Gründ, 1976) p. 579.
For other related Egyptian Revival garniture sets see: Egyptomania: Egypt in Western Art, 1730-1930 (Paris: Éditions de la Réunion des Musées Nationaux and Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, 1994)
H: 20 3/4″ x D: 6 3/4″ x W: 14 1/2″
HENRI MATISSE (1869-1954) France
“Verve” Vol. IX No. 35 & 36 1958
Revue artistique et littéraire paraissant quatre fois par an
Created and editioned at the Mourlot Studio, Paris.
Published by E. Tériade, Paris 1958.
Dimensions:
Book: H 14 1/2” x W: 10 11/16”
Custom leather box: H: 15 13/16” x W: 11 5/8” x D: 2 1/16”
Custom linen case: H: 16 3/4” x 12 5/16” x D: 2 5/8”
SUZANNE BIZARD (1873 – 1963) France
Pair of French Art Deco “Snail” bookends c. 1925
Original silvered cast bronze full dimensional snails on black Portoro marble plinth bases
Signed: S. Bizard
H: 5 1/8″ x D: 5 3/4″
W. P. HARTGRING
ROZENBURG POTTERY The Hague, The Netherlands
Blackbird mantle clock 1904
Handpainted earthenware with exotic foliage and a bird, porcelain face, gilt bronze surround, original clock mechanism.
Marks: H (artist’s monogram) 534, Rozenburg den Haag trademark, date mark symbol for 1904
For more information see: Art et Décoration, vol. 8 (1900) 193, illus. p. 189 (A. Sandier, La ceramique à l’Exposition); Kunst und Kunsthandwerk, vol. 3. (1900) 395, illus. p. 392; Art et Décoration, vol. 9 (1901) 56 Abb. S. 54 (A. Sandier, La Ceramique à l’Exposition II); Der Moderne Stil, Julius Hoffmann, Vol. 3, (1901) Taf. 53.; La Kunstgewerbeblatt Neue Folge, Vol. 12. (1901) p. 95, Abb. S. 82,89; “The International Exhibition of Modern Decorative Art at Turin – The Dutch Section,” Enrico Thovez in The Studio, vol. 26 (1902), pp. 204-6; Kunst und Kunsthandwerk, Vol. 7 (1904), p. 568, Abb. S. 574-5, (K. Ruge, Kunst und Kunstgewerbe auf der Weltausstellung zu St. Louis); Art et Décoration, vol. 17 (1905) p.86 Abb. S. 77, 88 (G. Mourey, L’Art Decoratif Hollandais); Sprechsaal, Vol. 38, (1905) p. 517 (W.H. Zimmer, Die Weltausstellung in St. Louis; Rozenburg, Monographie einer Manufaktur 1883-1917, Marjan Boot et al. (Munich: Verlag Künst & Antiquitäten, 1984); Sammlung Bröhan: Kunsthandwerk 1-Jugendstil, Werkbund, Art Deco, Glas, Holz, Keramik, (Berlin: Karl H. Brohan, 1976) p. 367-380.
H: 15″ x W: 10″ x D: 5 1/8″
WALTER NICHOLS China
Art Deco / Modernist rug c. 1935
106” x 137”
Walter Abner Burns Nichols was one of the most colorful of the American adventurer/entrepreneurs in 1920s China. The Nichols name has come to be used almost synonymously with the ‘Chinese deco’ rugs manufactured in Tientsin, China in the 1920s and 1930s. Nichols did not originate the Chinese deco style, but he did a great deal to popularize it and to maintain its high standards of manufacture.
Nichols began in his youth as a first-class wool grader who went to Tientsin around 1920 to work for the Elbrook family of wool merchants. Nichols started his own business a couple of years later. In a brochure he produced in the late ’20s, with the assistance of Pande-Cameron, he announced: “In 1924 W.A.B. Nichols of Tientsin, North China, introduced the Super Chinese Rug which has become world famous. It is known in every market as the most durable and beautiful product of the modern Chinese weavers art and adorns the homes of people all over the earth.”
INGEGERD TORHAMN (1898-1994) Sweden
Modernist rug c. 1930
Hand-knotted wool
Signed: it (Ingegerd Torhamn) lower left
Exhibited: Stockholm Exhibition 1930, Stockholmsutställningen 1930, Villa 42; V.I.P. in Swedish Design, Kalmar Konstmuseum 1996.
Illustrated: Katalog Över Bostadsavdelningen: Stockholms Utställningen 1930 (illustrated in situ) Stockholm Exhibition1930 (Stockholm: Tryckt Hos Bröderna Lagerström, Boktryckare, 1930) p. 149
Drawing illustrated: V.I.P. in Swedish Design: Axel Larsso, Ingegerd Torhamn, Inga Linden & Paula Sokolow, Arkiv for Svensk Formgivning, Kalmar Konstmuseum
For more information see: Svenska Textilier 1930, Stockholm 1930, Nils G. Wollin, plate nr. 50
Dimensions: 7’2” square
One of the ten rugs of her designs (including this rug as part of the music room) exhibited at the important Stockholm Exhibition of 1930 is now in the permanent collection of the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm.
BELGIAN ART DECO
Carpet c. 1930
Hand woven wool cut pile formed with “Spanish” knots, cotton
Grey, cranberry, and two shades of pink
66 ½” x 35 ¼”
WALTER NICHOLS China
Chinese Art Deco stripe & chevron rug c. 1935
36″ x 54″
Walter Abner Burns Nichols was one of the most colorful of the American adventurer/entrepreneurs in 1920s China. The Nichols name has come to be used almost synonymously with the ‘Chinese deco’ rugs manufactured in Tientsin, China in the 1920s and 1930s. Nichols did not originate the Chinese deco style, but he did a great deal to popularize it and to maintain its high standards of manufacture.
Nichols began in his youth as a first-class wool grader who went to Tientsin around 1920 to work for the Elbrook family of wool merchants. Nichols started his own business a couple of years later. In a brochure he produced in the late ’20s, with the assistance of Pande-Cameron, he announced: “In 1924 W.A.B. Nichols of Tientsin, North China, introduced the Super Chinese Rug which has become world famous. It is known in every market as the most durable and beautiful product of the modern Chinese weavers art and adorns the homes of people all over the earth.”
Benin King Oba bronze standing figure, Nigeria, 20th Century
Lost wax cast bronze with a verdigris patina and a desert sand surface highlighting a rich brown patina.
H: 15″ x D: 4 1/2″ x W: 4 1/2″
The art of Benin is the product of an urban royal court, and is meant to symbolize and to extol the power, mystique, grandeur, continuity, and endurance of the ruling dynasty and its governing institutions. From the 14th century until its fall in 1897, Benin was ruled by the Oba, a divine ruler at the head of the political system of titled chiefs. Under royal support, a number of craftsman’s guilds produced bronze, brass, and wood sculptures and embroidered cloth, all of which have become prized by museums and collectors.
Ifugao Tribe Northern Luzon, Philippines
Side table/cabinet circa 1940.
Solid hardwood or ebony with an adzed surface, interior shelf.
H: 19” x W: 15” x D: 12”
SOLD
TLINGIT TRIBE / NORTHWEST COAST
Chevron/diamond storage basket, late 19th Century, early 20th Century
Handwoven split conifer root (buff), bear grass (white), woodwardia fern stem dyed with alder bark (rust), maidenhair fern stem (black), willow shoots
For more information see: The Fine Art of California Indian Basketry, Brian Bibby (Sacramento/Berkeley: Crocker Art Museum, Heyday Books, 1996), p. 90.
H: 8 1/2” x D: 11”
Walter Nichols Chinese Art Deco rug c. 1935
WALTER NICHOLS China
Chinese Art Deco rug c. 1935
Walter Abner Burns Nichols was one of the most colorful of the American adventurer/entrepreneurs in 1920s China. The Nichols name has come to be used almost synonymously with the ‘Chinese deco’ rugs manufactured in Tientsin, China in the 1920s and 1930s. Nichols did not originate the Chinese deco style, but he did a great deal to popularize it and to maintain its high standards of manufacture.
Nichols began in his youth as a first-class wool grader who went to Tientsin around 1920 to work for the Elbrook family of wool merchants. Nichols started his own business a couple of years later. In a brochure he produced in the late ’20s, with the assistance of Pande-Cameron, he announced: “In 1924 W.A.B. Nichols of Tientsin, North China, introduced the Super Chinese Rug which has become world famous. It is known in every market as the most durable and beautiful product of the modern Chinese weavers art and adorns the homes of people all over the earth.”
DONG OR MEOW PEOPLE Southern China
Spiral counterweight early 20th century
Handwrought silver (Dutch coin silver) with custom stand
H: 10 ¼” x W: 5 1/4” x D: 2 ¾” (dimensions on stand)
These beautifully dynamic spiral objects were worn on the back to support a ceremonial apron worn across the front.
CHINESE HILLTRIBE / DONG OR MIAO PEOPLE Southern China
Drum table mid 20th Century
Exotic wood with vellum drum top and button, decorative iron ring
mounts and patinated brass decorative nails.
H: 22 ½ x Dia top: 18” x Body Dia: 20”