Product Description
Burma, “Naga” dragon ring, high carat gold (22K +) enameled and set with 27 cabochons consisting of rubies, sapphires, emeralds, diamonds and other precious stones, second half 18th Century

These impressive and rare dragon rings have been a feature of all the great ring collections, including the Harari, Guilhou, Spitzer, Franks, and Koch collections. They are known as ‘Naga rings’ because they are thought to represent the naga dragon which is thought to have sheltered the Buddha during a prolonged period of meditation. Chadour suggests that these rings were made for Royalty. The extravagant design certainly re-enforces the idea that they were made for lavish ceremonial use. Another example is in the British Museum.
Burma, “Naga” dragon ring, high carat gold (22K +) enameled and set with 27 cabochons consisting of rubies, sapphires, emeralds, diamonds and other precious stones, second half 18th Century
ARAM GESAR USA
Venetian Blinds 1979
Ciba-chrome print, maple frame
Signed: 790069, LXXIX (on back)
Framed size: H: 17 9/16” x W: 23 ½”
Price: $24,000
Aram Gesar has been published internationally and has exhibited his photographic work in New York, San Francisco, Zurich and Geneva since 1977. As a producer, art director and photographer, Gesar created advertising campaigns for major corporations in the U.S. and Europe focusing on the fields of travel, banking, financial services, aerospace and motion pictures. He also created and produced documentaries on travel, aviation and yachting for national cable networks and the home video markets and television commercials and corporate programs for various U.S. and European corporations.
Gesar is currently one of the leading international experts on travel and air transport, and the founder and CEO of The Pyramid Media Group, which includes several magazines, newsletters, web sites, books, eBooks and other publications integrating a spectrum of business, travel and aviation content.
REINHOLD KLAUS (1881-1963) Vienna, Austria
CARL GEYLING ATELIER (founded 1841) Vienna, Austria
Man with tophat and flowers c. 1930
Window of stained and hand-painted leaded glass
Provenance: Estate of Carl Geyling (1814-1880), Vienna
H: 17 3/4″ x W: 14 1/2″
Reinhold Klaus studied from 1898-1902 with Alfred Roller at the Kaiserlich-Königliche Kunstgewerbeschule in Vienna. In 1914 Klaus married into the Carl Geyling family and became extensively involved with with stained glass painting. As early as 1918 Klaus worked on a stained glass window for the Siegestempel am Bisamberg in Vienna. In 1934 he became a professor of stained glass painting at the Kunstgewerbeschule, as well as creative director of the C. Geylings Erben glass painting company. Reinhold Klaus, a member of the Künstlerhaus since 1924 received many prizes and honors. He worked on commissions for the St. Veits cathedral in Prague, the St. Stephan cathedral in Vienna and many others.
TIM LIDDY
“Oy Vey” (1979) The game where you become a JEWISH MOTHER! Get your sons to become doctors—Get your daughters married to doctors! If not, OY VEY! 2008
Oil and enamel on copper, plywood back
Signed in script: Tim Liddy, red circular ring, “circa 1979”, 2008
Provenance: William Shearburn Gallery, St. Louis, MO
H: 10 ¼” x W: 20 ½” x D: 1 ¾”
With his recent paintings, Liddy has both reasserted the construct of hyperrealist painting and developed a thoroughly unique advancement of that mode by extending the cultural reality of the indexed original. Based on the illustrated box lids of vintage board games, Liddy has recontextualized a subject, which evokes the underlying rules of life. Painted on copper or steel in the precise dimensions of the original, the metal is then manipulated to demonstrate the exact rips and tears from years of usage and includes trompe-l’oeil renditions of the scotch tape that might be holding the cardboard box together, the assorted stains, or the various graffiti of time. Liddy leaves no possibility of ambivalence, these works speak to a concurrent understanding of their original object identity and to themselves as works of art engaged in historical and psychological dialogue.
KARL BENJAMIN (1925-2012) USA
Geometricized figure 1954
Oil on canvas
Signed: Benjamin 54 (lower left)
For more information see: Dictionnaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs, Vol. 1 to 10, E. Bénézit (Paris: Librairie Gründ, 1976).
Canvas: H: 17″ x W: 6″
Framed: H: 24 1/2″ x W: 13 1/2″
Karl Benjamin was born in Chicago, IL in 1925. He received his BA from the University of Redlands, CA and his MFA at Claremont Graduate School, CA. Benjamin belonged to the Hard Edge group of West Coast painters led by John McLaughlin during the 1950s, 60s and early 70s. He was awarded the National Endowment for the Arts Grant for Visual Arts in both 1983 and 1989. His work has been featured in numerous museum exhibitions and is included in the public collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Museum of Modern Art, Israel; Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA; Seattle Art Museum, WA; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, NY, among others. For many years, Benjamin taught painting at Pomona College and Claremont Graduate School, and currently is Professor Emeritus. He lived in Claremont, CA.