Catalog: Sold Items (420)

A beautiful original oil on canvas board by Renowned Laguna artist signed lower right and dated measuring 20 x 24 framed in a quality 24k gold leaf frame by Sean Speck of Los Angeles.

Biography>Born in Ravenna, Ohio, Anna Althea Hills was a prominent California landscape painter who was also remembered as a civic leader in Laguna Beach. In addition to painting in her native state, she was active in Arizona. She was raised in Olivet, Michigan, and attended Olivet College. She studied at the Art Institute of Chicago, Cooper Union in New York, and privately with Arthur Dow. After further study at the Academie Julian in Paris and traveling throughout Europe for four years, she moved to Laguna Beach in 1913 and was painting in Arizona as early as 1914. The landscape of the West inspired her to adopt a light, colorful Impressionist palette. In spite of a severe spinal injury, she took adventurous painting trips into remote mountain areas. She also supervised a Sunday School for ten years, and was a six-year president of the Laguna Beach Art Association and helped raise funds to build the existing museum. Her early works of genre and interiors were much darker than her later California landscapes and marine scenes. She combined watercolor and oil and painted in a decorative style. Sources: Edan Hughes, Artists in California, 1786-1940

A Beautiful antique S Kirk and Sons sterling silver covered urn with heavy chased repousse a floral finial and ram head finial handles monogramed with a letter P measuring approx. 9.5 inches tall marked 11 oz. In very fine condition.

A fine pair of Sheffield Silver Candlesticks by Mathew Boulton c.1790. Boulton a famed English inventor and manufacturer of fine Sheffield Silver Plate. Each candle stick is hall marked with the Boulton touch mark. Measuring 8.5" T x 4.5"W. in very good condition some copper showing through.

A Japanese Ivory netsuke artist signed figure of Hotei or Buddha. A fine carving with nice details and color. A fine addition to any collection. Measuring approx. 2 1/4 inches tall or 6 centimeters.

Antique carved wood Buddha Burma circa 1850. Finely carved image of the Buddha seated on a lotus made from a hardwood with a rich deep brown patina. Measuring approx. 10 inches tall in excellent condition. This fine example would make a nice decorative and inspirational piece.

A beautiful antique carved stone statue of a Hindu deity 10 - 11th century. Of a red sandstone measuring approx. 18.5 inches tall. A fine example would be a nice addition to any collection.

A beautiful original watercolor painting of a New York landscape by Harry Roseland signed lower right in excellent condition in quality frame site approx. 10x 14 inches. An investment quality work. Harry Roseland 1868-1950 Genre painting enjoyed tremendous popularity in nineteenth-century America. It was a style that allowed a painter to tell a story, evoke an emotion, tell a joke, or educate. Largely superseded in the twentieth century by changes in popular taste and improvements in photographic technology, genre painting nevertheless remains a strong sub current in popular taste. One of the most notable painters in this mode was Harry Roseland. Roseland, born in Brooklyn, New York in 1868, matured as an artist while waves of change were sweeping over the art world. Largely self-taught, he chose to paint what he saw. He received some education in art under J.B. Whittaker in Brooklyn, and at first painted some landscapes and still lifes, but his natural flair was for telling a story in his paintings. His subject matter was at first highly sentimental and heavily influenced by fashionable taste: smartly turned-out young women, old folks, and idealized farm scenes. He abandoned the mawkishness that is the downfall of so many self-educated artists when he found a topic that was close to home and yet largely unnoticed: the post-Civil War blacks who formed the underpinning of Northeastern society. Roseland's clever, skillful scenes of homely activities - such as checkers or letter-reading, were remarkably dispassionate and candid for the time, though to modern eyes they may seem condescending and dated. They capture with gentle humor of a way of life that existed through the first half of the twentieth century and has now vanished. Harry Roseland never left his native Brooklyn, dying in New York in 1950, but enjoyed a remarkable success as an artist in his chosen specialty, improving and maturing continually. The archetype of the independent American artist, he never traveled to Europe to study or observe, choosing to carve his own path. During his career as an artist he exhibited:Brooklyn Art Club, 1888 (gold),Boston, Mass., 1900 (medal), 1904 (gold),Charleston Expo, 1902 (medal), National Academy of Design, 1898 (prize),Brooklyn Society of Artists, 1930 (prize), American Art Society, Philadelphia, 1902 (medal), 1907 (gold),Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Art Institute of Chicago. His memberships include: Brooklyn Arts Club,Brooklyn Society of Artists, Brooklyn Painters Society, Salmagundi Club. Public Collections representing the work of Harry Roseland: Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Science, Brooklyn Museums,Charleston Art Museum,Heckscher Museum, Long Island, New York.

An exquisite antique Burmese Mandalay style gilt bronze Buddha c. 18th century. measuring approx. 13 inches or 33 cm. tall . A fine example would in good antique condition some losses and wear.

A fine pair of antique portrait miniatures of a man and woman signed Dubbison and dated 1823 oil on Ivory in leather cases. In very good antique condition the lady has a restored hairline crack to her left. measuring approx. 3 x 4 inches. a beautiful pair.

A beautiful oil painting on board signed lower left of a Dramatic landscape. Titled on the reverse Twilight glow and with the University of Nebraska Museum label with inventory number 1029 Attributing this painting to Blakelock and a partial museum exhibition label. Measuring 6 x 8 inches framed in a quality presentation frame 13 x 15 inches overall. This is an absolutely stunningly powerful image by this renowned artist.

Biography

Born in New York City, Ralph Blakelock earned a reputation for nocturnal, misty scenes, especially moonlit landscapes, large oak trees, and Indian encampments. He also did a small number of floral still lifes. His work has a mysterious quality, which some associated with the type of music he habitually played on the piano during interludes from his painting. Towards the end of his career, his paintings became increasingly haunting, a reflection of his insanity brought on by horrible poverty and his inability to support his family of nine children. He was both a late exponent of the Hudson River School of painting and also of the American West. He also foreshadowed the romantic, visionary, and modern tendencies that marked the turn of the 19th to 20th centuries. This romanticism, especially of escapism, was increasingly pronounced towards the end of his career. Blakelock was the son of a prominent English-born, New York physician, and first took medical studies, but his love of music and art led him away from medicine. He graduated from the College of the City of New York, studied briefly at Cooper Union, and at the Free Academy of the City of New York. In 1867, he first exhibited at the National Academy of Design to which he was ultimately elected, after he was incarcerated for insanity. During this time, he painted a series of New York City scenes, primarily of un-glamorous areas such as his work, Shanties, New York City. He also painted in Hudson River Style and was in locations that included the Adirondacks and the White Mountain. It is thought he learned this style during his brief and only art education at Cooper Union. Primarily self taught, he declined his father's offer to pay for more extensive art schooling, and instead, at age 22, embarked on a three-year (1869-1972) horseback tour of the West. He lived with plains Indians, painting pictures of their villages, and traveled and painted through the Rockies and the Sierra Nevadas. In San Francisco and Oakland, he painted city scenes, the tree landscapes, and coastal views, and then he headed south to Mexico. These western paintings were also in the Hudson River style, although they were rough and more painterly. Returning to New York, he developed what became his signature expression: quiet, moody, nocturnal scenes accented with bright colors depicting light, and trees silhouetted against the sky. He had a labor-intensive technique, which was building up of multi layers of thick paint, scraping some away, and "adding more to build a complex tonality". (Zellman 420) It is said that his real travels were introspective from which he created these moody, dark landscapes, and they did not satisfy the current public taste for uplifting Hudson River style painting. Ahead of popular taste, his work was overlooked, and crooked dealers took advantage of him. With the desperation of trying to support his huge family, he sold his work cheaply. Ironically, many years after his death, his work became so valuable that forgers, including a dealer who changed the signature on canvases of Blakelock's artist daughter, Marian, to that of her father, sold paintings at very high prices by using his signature. Norman Geske, Director Emeritus of the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery in Lincoln, Nebraska, became the authenticator of Blakelock's work, and has seen many, many illegitimate so-called Blakelocks. Under Geske's direction, a catalogue raisonne has been published that classifies paintings with Blakelock's signature into three categories according to their degree of perceived authenticity. In 1899, the artist had a mental breakdown and spent the last twenty years of his life in an asylum in Middleton, New York. He died on August 9, 1919. However, his work had already begun increasing in value, and by 1916 was bringing as high as $20,000. Of Blakelock's career, Norman Geske wrote: "Considered in the context of American landscape painting in the second half of the nineteenth century, Ralph Albert Blakelock can be seen first as a late exponent of the Hudson River School, second as a highly personal contributor to the painting of the American West, and third and most important, as part of the romantic, visionary, and modern tendencies that marked the turn of the century."(16)

A fine antique Kentucky Rifle with tiger maple stock and silver decorations percussion muzzle loader approx. 50 caliber. The lock mechanism is by Whitmore and Wolfe of Pennsylvania the barrel octagon by N. Schennefelt Penn. A fine gun in very good antique condition.

Heriberto Juárez Castañeda" This "El Toro" the bull bronze sculpture is by important artist Heriberto Juárez. He's considered one of Mexico's most important contemporary artist. This bronze measures Approx. 9 inches in length mounted on a white marble base artist signed in the work. A great example of this artists work It would be a very nice addition to any collection of Mexican art. Heriberto Juárez was born in San Juan Teotihuacan, State of Mexico, and it was precisely there, land of pyramid builders and legendary sculptors, where he took his first lessons on artistic pottery, sculpture and drawing which helped him acquire the knowledge and skills he materializes in his work perform on chromium plated iron and tin, onyx, marble, bronze... The quality, strength, expressive ability and good taste found in his work have taken him through important galleries and museums around the world and have made him worthy of recognition as one of the prominent artists who have collaborated most different cultural fields in Mexico.

A Beautiful original oil painting Robert William Wood of a Texas landscape with bluebonnet flowers and old homestead and oak trees. Oil on canvas measuring approx. 25x30 inches. Condition is excellent the canvas has been relined due to age cracking overall a fine example of this artists work ready to hang. Biography A painter of realistic landscapes reflecting a vanishing wilderness in America, Robert Wood (not to be confused with Robert E. Wood) is reportedly one of the most mass-produced artists in the United States. His painting became so popular he was unable to meet all of the demands, and many of his works were reproduced in lithographs and mass distributed as prints, place mats, and wall murals by companies including Sears, Roebuck. He was born in Sandgate, Kent on the south coast of England near Dover, the son of W.L. Wood, a famous home and church painter who recognized and supported his son's talent. In fact, he forced his son to paint by keeping him inside to paint rather than playing with his friends. At age 12, Wood entered the South Kensington School of Art. As a youth, he came to the United States in 1910, having served in the Royal Army, and he never returned to England. He traveled extensively all over the United States, especially in the West, often in freight cars, and also painted in Mexico and Canada. His itinerant existence took him to Illinois where he worked as a farmhand, to Pensacola, Florida where he married, briefly in Ohio, Seattle, Washington, and Portland, Oregon. In 1912, he was in Los Angeles, and In the late 1920s and early 1930s, in San Antonio, Texas, where he lived and in 1928 exhibited in the "Texas Wildflower Competition." From San Antonio, he gained a national reputation for his strong colored, dramatic paintings. Some of that prestige has been credited to his asssociation with Jose Arpa, prominent Texas artist. Wood also gave art lessons, and one of his students was Porfirio Salinas. During this period, Wood sometimes signed his paintings G. Day or Trebor, which is Robert spelled backwards. In 1941 he went to California and painted numerous desert and mountain landscapes and coastal scenes. He lived in Carmel for seven years, and then moved to Woodstock, New York, but he soon returned to California, settling first in Laguna Beach, then San Diego, and finally in the High Sierras, where he and his wife built a home and studio near Bishop and lived until his death in 1979.

A fine Chinese carved Ivory Snuff bottle depicting an Elephant with a Empress. Finely carved with great detail the inside is well hollowed. Measuring approx. 3 inches tall in excellent condition. A fine addition to any collection.

A fine Japanese Ivory netsuke of a Noh Drama character artist signed measuring approx. 2.5 inches 6 cm. tall in excellent condition.

Charles Dorman Robinson impressionist seascape A beautiful atmospheric seascape painting of a sunset with ships off the coast of San Francisco. Oil painting on artist board framed in the original arts and crafts era frame signed lower right. In excellent condition some very minor touch ups in the sky area professionally cleaned and re-varnished. A fine example of this highly acclaimed artists work.

Biography

Charles Robinson was born in East Monmouth, Maine, and his father, David Robinson, was a theatre producer for Gold Rush mining towns and constructed the first theatres and plays for stage productions in San Francisco. In 1850, his family moved to San Francisco where he was educated in the public schools and grew up sketching harbor scenes. He took lessons at the age of seven from Charles Nahl, a painter of mining genre and landscape, and earned a diploma at age 13 from the Mechanics' Institute for best marine drawing for a juvenile. From 1861 to 1873, he lived in Vermont because the family was forced out of San Francisco by threats resulting from his father being on the Vigilance Committee. On the East Coast, he became the pupil of marine artists William Bradford and M.F.H. De Haas as well as Impressionist George Inness. He was also much influenced by Albert Bierstadt and James Hamilton. He lived in Clinton, Iowa from 1873 to 1874 to court and marry Kathryn Wright, and then returned to San Francisco. He first worked as a retoucher of photos, and he and his wife wrote and did illustrations for "Overland Monthly" and "Century" magazine. By 1876, Robinson was exhibiting regularly as a painter, and in 1880 began making trips to Yosemite Valley. He was also in Paris between 1899 and 1901 and offered the Paris Exposition in 1900 a painting of Yosemite that was 50 x 380 feet and weighed five tons. When the committee rejected the panorama, he cut it into pieces, which he sold for passage money home. In the earthquake and fire of 1906, many of his paintings were destroyed in a warehouse where he had thought they would be safe. In 1921, a fire in his home destroyed twenty years worth of Yosemite paintings. He died May 8, 1933 in San Rafael, California. Source: Edan Hughes,

His paintings can be found in: The National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York The Louvre, Paris Constant Troyon began his career as a porcelain painter. By the late 1830s he turned his attention to landscape painting, and his first Salon entries were views of Saint Cloud and Sevres, near the state porcelain works. These early paintings were characterized by bright colors based on his experience working with porcelain glazes In 1843, Troyon became friends with Theodore Rousseau and Jules Dupre, and began to frequent Fontainebleau, which would provide him with a new subject for his painting. In 1846, he was awarded a first-class medal at the Salon. The turning point in Troyon's career was in 1847 when he visited the Lowlands. Here he fell under the influence of the two great 17th century Dutch animal painters' Albert Cuyp and Paulus Potter. When he returned to France he concentrated on animal painting and the Salon of 1849 saw his first entry devoted to an animal subject. From this point on he was a great success, both critically and financially, and his influence was felt in France, the Lowlands and Germany. Troyon became the first Barbizon artist to win overall acceptance. Exhibitions of his works were held in London, Manchester, Brussels, Vienna, Antwerp and The Hague. A perfect balance of color, line and composition characterizes his paintings of animals, rooted in their natural surroundings. Whether painting a cow in a pasture or a pointer in a field, animal and nature coexist in total harmony when they are recorded by Troyon's brush. When Troyon died in 1865, his reputation as one of the greatest animal painters of the 19th century was firmly established.

Antique Japanese Bronze planter with dragon image on one side and Mt Fugi on the other. Original deep brown rich patina. The bottom has been replaced with a wood stand. Measuring 10" x 9".