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  Aaron Bohrod / F. Carlton Ball, Monumental, Hand Thrown Pottery Eve Vase 1952-56

  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.

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  Luke Lietzke, Large Glazed Hand Thrown Stoneware Floor Vase c.1955

  LUKE LIETZKE (1906-2000), USA
  LIETZKE DESIGNS   Mogodore, Ohio

  Large floor vessel c. 1955-1960

  Blue glazed stoneware cylindrical vessel which has been shaped at the top into an elliptical form; the black glazed lip is rolled over with a flaring collar-like edge and the body is decorated with an abstract incised sgraffito line decoration.

  Signed on bottom: Lietzke (inscribed in oval)

  H: 15″ x W: 14″ x D: 13″

  Price: $17,500

  Luke Lietzke studied art at Michigan State University and the Art Institute of Chicago. At Michigan State she met her husband and life-long partner in design, Rolland. They moved to Ohio when Rolland accepted a job with Goodyear Aerospace and in 1942, when Rolland took a job with Firestone, they moved to Akron, Ohio. It was there that Luke volunteered at the Akron Art Museum. This position quickly developed into a design curator’s position created especially for her. Her memorable exhibits included such notable artists as Charles Eames, George Nelson and Isamu Noguchi. In 1964 she left the Museum and for a short period worked as a design coordinator. In 1966, she and her husband created their own company where she functioned as an exhibition designer, an interior design consultant and most significantly: a designer craftsman. Her porcelain pieces consistently received exhibition awards since 1948 and are included in six museum collections. Her talents  would often combine to develop special projects, such as the design for the Akron-Summit County Public Library. Both her pottery and jewelry reflect her wealth of knowledge as well as her exposure to the world of International art.

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  Salvatore Meli Important large scale Italian Sculpture / Ewer 1952

  SALVATORE MELI (b. 1929)  Italy

  Important Sculpture / Ewer   1952

  Glazed terra cotta, brown and dark green with white scraffito decoration, original stepped and angular wood base.

  Signed: Meli 1952 Roma

  For more info on Meli see: Design 1935-1965, What Modern was, ed. Martin Eidelberg (New York: Harry Abrams, 1991) p. 237.

  Salvatore Meli belongs to that initial group of artists, including Guido Gambone and Lucio Fontana among others, who elevated Italian ceramics to a fine art during the post-war period.  Meli conceived this vessel, first on paper, then by laboriously constructing the body in clay, coil by coil, to achieve the richly textured and dynamic form; the incised and painted decoration is in concert with the organic shape.  The massive scale of this work defies function as a ewer but was created as a sculptural object.  The original wooden base recalls Italian futurist sculpture forms of the early twentieth century.

  H (with base):  23 1/2” x W:  13” x D:  9.5”
  H (without base):  19 1/8”

  Price: $27,500

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  British “Tree Frog” brooch, silver set with green and clear paste jewels, red jewel eyes, marks c. 1895

  Charles Darwin published his theory of evolution with compelling evidence in his 1859 book “On the Origin of Species” overcoming scientific rejection of earlier concepts of transmutation of specie.  By the 1870s both the scientific community and much of the general public had accepted evolution as a fact and awakening the public to the diversity of life. The frog emerging from Darwin’s Pond was a symbol of the times and a favorite theme for jewelry of the era.