Collection: SOLD

The pictures visually resemble smaller scale profile portraits and are primarily conceived as black and white images, like silhouetttes, although color is used sparingly in the faces and quite dramatically in the woman's striped dress.
Paper on original canvas mounts with the sitters' names and address inscribed on the back of one.
19 1/2" x 23 1/4" framed

One of the original group of three stone drawn lithographs of Ithaca, New York, drawn by Henry Walton. Hand-colored and in period frames under Museum glass, that is non-reflective, and mounted with acid-free materials. The first image of the group was made in September of 1837 and is a View from East Hill. Cornell University is built on East Hill , and the view is into the downtown of Ithaca from a position on Eddy Street.
Restoration and stabilization of the images; washing, de-acidifying and flattening, were done by Alan Firkser of Paper Conservation Studios in New York City. The images are remarkably detailed and the settings are renouned for their historic accuracy and beauty.

This example of Noguchi's work, one of the classic forms of mid twentieth century furniture, widely recognized as a powerful and expressive piece of modern sculpture, was created for G. Conger Goodyear, the then President of MOMA in 1939. Two examples of this table were put into the design collection of the museum, one in birch and the other in ebonized birch.

Multiples of this unique design were first reproduced by Herman Miller in 1947. This firm was recognized for its early role in promoting personal and industrial modern furniture design. They produced the table briefly in birch, cherry, and walnut. Birch and cherry now very rare and highly sought by collectors. Noguchi's signature was reproduced on the polished edge of the glass of the table's top and under a medalllion with his signature under it which was placed beneath its famous base, which is often described as an example of "subversive design", for being a three-legged table with only 2 legs.
These early tables were 15 inches tall, and their glass tops measured 36 x 50 inches. The glass itself was 7/8 " thick, and many people prefer the next iteration of the table which had a 3/4 " thick glass tops, which are much easier to handle. The two pieces of curved biomorphic wood that formed the base are interlocked and form a self-stabilizing unit.

In 1965 Herman Miller, which had briefly stopped producing the table re-entered it in its line of manufacture with a height of 15 3/4 inches, a design modification suggested by the artist.

The table continues to be made by Herman Miller and many other firms. These later examples incorporate more design changes. The artist's signature diappears in 1965, the glass gets thinner, and the wooden legs are often pieced when made by some of the later companies who enter the table in their design repertoire, as opposed to being made each from a single piece of wood. If one buys one of these tables, changed to cheapen their manufacturing cost and made with changes not introduced by the artist, they are buying the table for its attractive design and not its existance as an example of this early masterpiece. Generally, this loss of stature results in a cheaper price, and the work is then referred to as in the style of Isamu Noguchi, or, a t least, it should be so described.

A woman and child are at an open window watching a parade on the street below. In this work of great emotional power and affect, people wave and cry out from their windows. An American flag and one celebrating the NYV69 flies for the 69th Infantry Regiment of the United States Army. It is better known as the "Fighting Sixty-Ninth", or its nick name the "Fighting Irish'. The regiment was immortalized in Joyce Kilmer's poem, " When the 69th Comes Home". The work is signed Paul Schnitzler and dated 1868. Its intense color, high action level, and densely drawn detail contibute to its sense of melodrama and bereavement, personified by a tearful woman and her child at a window.

The "credits" of this work include multiple museum exhibiitions in which it has been displayed: the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1968, a gift of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, and the Brandywine River Museum the same year; the American Federation of Arts in 1970; and the Museum of the Borough of Brooklyn in 1986.

Watercolor on paper, original or period frame, 18 1/2 x 22 inches maximum frame dimension. Probably New York City. Central image cut from its background and remounted. Artist's signature and the date are on the edge of the oval which contains the image area.

A special theorem, distinguished by its history, unusual composition, flawless condition and rare for its time coloration.

This work, executed in free-hand watercolor and stencils, was made circa 1830 and found in New Hampshire. It survived unfaded and brightly colored and in a frame similar to its present period frame when it was exhibited at the National Gallery of Art in 1966 as part of the exhibiton, "101American Primitive Water Colors and Pastels from the Collection of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch". It is number 53 in the catalogue of the show.

The fruit and, thus, the color of the work, exists in a band across the piece above a simply painted fluted glass compote that occupies most of the bottom half of the picture. Distortion of scale makes the watermelon and pears be of similar size, and the tiny purple plums, a color seldom seen in this time period, form a decorative lower border to the fruit.

15 7/8 x 19 7/8 inches sight and 23 3/4 x 25 1 /4 inches framed.

A label on the back indicates it was included in a traveling exhibition organized by the American Federation for the Arts from 1967-1970. There is also a partial label from the Baltimore Museum of Art.

Finely painted details show brickwork and shingles. Roof lifts up as lid to house and box. Mid nineteenth century. PA.

A watercolor and ink on paper drawing of a young girl attributed to Jacob Maentel. Seen in profile, she is wearing a blue-flowered dress and holds flowers, and a bee is flying toward them. In a period gilded frame, and inscribed "Anna Hinterleider, geboren (born) den 19 Auguste 1804". 5 3/4" x 6 1/2" (image size).

Some portraits show likeness, some achieve character portrayal. There is setting to give information or one to set a stage for something more. English portraiture covers a spectrum from vacuous to intense, the society portrait to the inner soul revealed. Our gentleman is at the end of a scale tipped toward drama and insight, mood creation and thought provocation.
This is English folk portraiture rich in detail and stylish in execution: swagged drapery, fluted column, rich costume. But it is the man who commands our attention.
Circa 1810-1820.

A decorative drawing of a handsome gentleman in a black coat over a yellow striped vest. He holds in his right hand a riding crop and his hands show his coat sleeves, each embellished with a row of metallic buttons. Attributed to the "Puffy Sleeve" artist, who is generally identified as from NH, c.1832-36.

In the 1830's and 1840's there were a number of Ohio artists drawing portraits in graphite on paper. Stylistically their work is relatively similar as is its somewhat unusual scale. On average they are about 7 by 9 inches, they are drawn in profile, and the head or head and shoulder crop of the image fills most of the space of the paper. Some of the works contain pastel or paint, although most do not.

This pair of portraits is clearly done by one of the above described artists, I think Robert Seevers, based on details like ear inner contours, profile drawing characteristics, and internal shading of the skin tones.

The main reference on these artists was published in August 2007 in The Magazine Antiques and was written by Arthur and Sybil Kern and Peter and Leslie Warren. It was entitled "Four Ohio Nineteenth century Folk Artists" and a follow-up article by Eleanor Gustafson in February 2008 illustrated others.

Sight size in this pair is 7 1/2 x 9 1/2 inches, and they are, in what appears to be their original mahogany frames, 10 1/2 x 12 1/2 inches. Circa 1825 to 1830.

A portrait miniature on ivory by Mary Way, CT, c.1800 of a young girl in a white dress with a pink ribbon.

A small oval portrait miniature on ivory by Mary Way, CT, c.1800. Portrayed is a young girl in a white dress with blue ribbon holding a bird.

One side shows the wife of William Sizri, named Catherine.

Sizri was the British Ambassador to the Netherlands, during the French Occupation in the Napoleonic days. The lady is shown at the end of the 1700's. The reverse is a young child. This miniature was saved out of Sizri's gold/leather dispatch box,which was destroyed during the German bombing of Middleburg(?).

The mother wears a black short sleeve dress with lace inset around her face and a lace bonnet. The child is dressed in white with a coral necklace and with pink ribbons. She holds a wreath of flowers that she removes from a basket on a small table at her side.

Note and card of William Hamilton Martin, who was the father of Ann Martin Schonegeval nee Martin. with the miniature which is in a small tin case says, "Please hand to Mrs. Marion Schonegeval nee Martin". The opposite side reads. " I gave this to Barton Emmanuel to deliver to your hands to do with as yoou proposed, when opportunity offers, in your family". Love you, Boost (?).

Case 3" high without bail. Background rub on mother's side 1/3 inch.

 The image is a positive backed by paper and now archivally framed and preserved. Its rarity lies both in its size and in the use of the plate to make a single image, an expensive endeavor. Few people could have afforded to have this image made, (they could have had each person photographed separately and probably used less glass) I wonder if, perhaps, the photographer was a member of the group or if it was an expensive job he was asked to produce. By portraying them together he was able to give them a complex setting that would not have worked for individual portraits where one background image would have appeared, repeated, as boring and artificial.

The framing style and the period cultural subject matter suggest to me that this work was once part of the vast collection of Phillip Isacson of Maine.

Superb coloration makes this bowl by Edwin and Mary Scheier a fine example of the type. The blue, with areas of yellow within, varies from a color of medium intensity to one of high intensity beyond the level usually acheived. Dark blue forms a band at the rim and on the foot ring. These features make a small tea bowl with incurvate sides and inscribed decoration figuring the imagery of Jonah and the Whale, which is often seen drawn by Edwin, into a dramatic and unusual work.
New Hampshire. Circa 1950. 4 3/4 inches high x 5 1/2 inches wide at center. Excellent condition.

"Written by William Harrison Green in, Litchfield jail, State of Connecticut"

The Reverend Wm. Green, originally from Centerville, New York, abandoned his wife there and went to Cornwall, CT. He was an itinerant Methodist minister, and there he met and married a young widow with property. He also worked for P.T. Barnum when he ran for Congress and in a general store for his second wife's brother. His second wife died under suspicious circumstances, and after three trials Green was convicted of her murder and sentenced to the state prison for life and died there.

While there, Mr. Green went into an ornamental painting and illuminating business, and his work is beautifully decorative- highly colorful and quite charming. In addition to this piece, there is a similar example in the collection of the Litchfield Historical Society.
This work is drawn in red, blue and black ink (now brown) and shows two women placed between over-sized flowered branches. Their costumes are made up of banks of lines, dots and zig-zags, a totally abstract view of fabric pattern and cloth folds.
Sight size is 12 1/2 high and 7 3/4 inches wide. Conservation framed in a period frame measuring 16 by 11 inches.