Product Description
Eugene Fontenay (1823-1887) “Wisteria” brooch and fitted with original pendant attachment in 18k gold with extremely fine detailing, marked, c.1875, matching French open wirework long necklace in 18k gold
Eugene Fontenay (1823-1887) “Wisteria” brooch and fitted with original pendant attachment in 18k gold with extremely fine detailing, superb granulation and hanging pendant blossoms, marked: EF in a diamond poincon (the mark of Eugene Fontenay), French Eagle’s head touchmark for 18k gold (2x), c.1875
Length of pendant: 3 and 3/8 inches x width: 1 and ½ inches
Weight: .60 Troy ounce / 18.6 grams / 11.9 pennyweights
Matching French open wirework long necklace in 18k gold with fine detailing and delicate beadwork details, marked: TM in a diamond poincon (maker’s mark and possibly that of Michel Tricaud), French eagle’s head touchmark for 18k gold (3x), c.1875
Length: 58 inches long x width: 3/8 inches
Weight: 2.01 Troy ounces / 62.7 grams / 40.3 pennyweights
Pendant and necklace combined weight: 2.61 Troy ounces / 81.2 grams / 52.3 pennyweights
Nineteenth century French goldsmith Eugène Fontenay (1823-1887) was born into the profession, with a family name long known for their skills as goldsmiths. Fontenay opened his own studio in 1847 after apprenticing with Marchand and working for the Parisian jeweler Dutreih. Influenced by the archeological revival style of the period, a response to the Campana Collection of classical jewels, brought to France in 1861. Fontenay became an author as well, and published books including “Les Bijoux Anciens et Modernes” in 1887, after selling his workshop.
Eugene Fontenay (1823-1887) “Wisteria” brooch and fitted with original pendant attachment in 18k gold with extremely fine detailing, marked, c.1875, matching French open wirework long necklace in 18k gold
GUTTIEREZ VEGA (active 1930s) Bogotá, Columbia
Four-piece modernist coffee / tea set c. 1935
Radical form cone and triangular shaped four piece sterling silver with bold design exotic handles.
Marks: T.A.N. Sterling (Maker’s mark), serial number F925
Coffee pot H: 5″ x L: 10 1/2″
Teapot H: 4 3/8″ x L: 10 1/2″
Creamer H: 3″ x L: 8″
Sugar bowl H: 4 1/2″ x L: 7 3/4″
In the 1930s, Colombia began to embrace modern and Art Deco architecture. The new Liberal Party government tore down many older buildings to reject the conservative past. In their place, it constructed modern buildings with an international flavor and interiors and decorative arts were designed to complement these newly stylized buildings.
GERRIT V. SINCLAIR (1890-1955) USA
Town along Railroad c. 1942
Oil on board, gilt frame
Signed: GV Sinclair (lower right corner on front of painting)
For more information see: Who Was Who in American Art (Madison, Conn.: Sound View Press, 1985) p. 571.
Painting H: 15” x W: 20”
Framed H: 20 7/16” x W: 25 7/16”
Price: $29,500
Gerrit V. Sinclair was born in Grand Haven, Michigan in 1890. He studied art at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago from 1910 to 1915. His most well known teachers at the Art Institute were John Vanderpoel and John Norton. In 1917 the artist enlisted in the Army Ambulance Corps and served in northern Italy and Austria. Scenes from his experience abroad are recorded in his works of the early 1920s. Following the war, Sinclair settled in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he became a member of the faculty of the Layton School of Art upon the school’s founding in 1920. He continued to teach at the Layton School and at the Oxbow Summer School of Art in Saugatuck, Michigan until his retirement in 1954. Sinclair is recognized both as an important artist and teacher from the Great Lakes region. During his lifetime Sinclair’s paintings were exhibited at the Salon d’Automne in Paris, the Salon Printemps in Paris, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, the National Academy of Design, the Whitney Museum in New York, the New York Watercolor Club, the Brooklyn Museum, the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh, the Art Institute of Chicago and in many other museums and galleries. He received numerous prizes and commissions for his work including a W.P.A. mural commission for the Federal Building in Wassau, Wisconsin. Sinclair was a member of Wisconsin Painters & Sculptors, Wisconsin Federation of the Arts and the Wisconsin Painting Museum. His style is a blend of realism and Impressionism but is clearly modern in its abstract concern for composition and color. Sinclair is best known for his regionalist paintings of rural and urban Wisconsin. His farm scene entitled ”Spring in Wisconsin” was exhibited at the 1939 World’s Fair in New York. Gerrit V. Sinclair died in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1955.