Antique
Candle Holder in form of a Dragon
Wrought Iron
Italy, XIX Century
ABOUT
This unique and really whimsical wrought iron candle holder in the form of a stylized dragon immediately evokes in the spectator a direct associations with the Middle Ages and a castle with towers, inhabited by ghosts. Its most unusual design and the highest-imaginable quality artistic rendering in forged iron definitely make this XIX Century piece simply magnificent – beyond the limits of time and the ever-changing fashion for household and interior items.
DIMENSIONS
Height: 13.25 inches Width: 7.5 inches Depth: 17.75 inches
$2,400
Grand Tour
Pair of Bronze Candelabras
Late 19th Century
ABOUT
We present to your attention a pair of stunning table candlesticks in the neo-classical Grand Tour style. They are distinguished by a strict, almost architectural design with the presence of many compositional elements characteristic primarily of classicism - columns, busts, vases, lion paws, which serve as elegant but stable bases for furniture, bronze items, etc.
DIMENSIONS
Height: 10.33 inches Width: 4.75 inches Depth: 4.75 inches
GRAND TOUR
Beginning in the late sixteenth century, it became fashionable for young aristocrats to visit Paris, Venice, Florence, and above all Rome, as the culmination of their classical education. Thus was born the idea of the Grand Tour, a practice that introduced Englishmen, Germans, Scandinavians, and also Americans to the art and culture of France and Italy for the next 300 years. Travel was arduous and costly throughout the period, possible only for a privileged class—the same that produced gentleman scientists, authors, antiquaries, and patrons of the arts.
The Objectives of the Grand Tour
The Grand Tourist was typically a young man with a thorough grounding in Greek and Latin literature as well as some leisure time, some means, and some interest in art. The German traveler Johann Joachim Winckelmann pioneered the field of art history with his comprehensive study of Greek and Roman sculpture; he was portrayed by his friend Anton Raphael Mengs at the beginning of his long residence in Rome. Most Grand Tourists, however, stayed for briefer periods and set out with less scholarly intentions, accompanied by a teacher or guardian, and expected to return home with souvenirs of their travels as well as an understanding of art and architecture formed by exposure to great masterpieces.
London was a frequent starting point for Grand Tourists, and Paris a compulsory destination; many traveled to the Netherlands, some to Switzerland and Germany, and a very few adventurers to Spain, Greece, or Turkey. The essential place to visit, however, was Italy. The British traveler Charles Thompson spoke for many Grand Tourists when in 1744 he described himself as “being impatiently desirous of viewing a country so famous in history, which once gave laws to the world; which is at present the greatest school of music and painting, contains the noblest productions of statuary and architecture, and abounds with cabinets of rarities, and collections of all kinds of antiquities.” Within Italy, the great focus was Rome, whose ancient ruins and more recent achievements were shown to every Grand Tourist. Panini’s Ancient Rome and Modern Rome represent the sights most prized, including celebrated Greco-Roman statues and views of famous ruins, fountains, and churches. Since there were few museums anywhere in Europe before the close of the eighteenth century, Grand Tourists often saw paintings and sculptures by gaining admission to private collections, and many were eager to acquire examples of Greco-Roman and Italian art for their own collections. In England, where architecture was increasingly seen as an aristocratic pursuit, noblemen often applied what they learned from the villas of Palladio in the Veneto and the evocative ruins of Rome to their own country houses and gardens.
The Grand Tour and the Arts
Many artists benefited from the patronage of Grand Tourists eager to procure mementos of their travels. Pompeo Batoni painted portraits of aristocrats in Rome surrounded by classical staffage, and many travelers bought Giovanni Battista Piranesi’s prints of Roman views, including ancient structures like the Colosseum and more recent monuments like the Piazza del Popolo, the dazzling Baroque entryway to Rome. Some Grand Tourists invited artists from home to accompany them throughout their travels, making views specific to their own itineraries; the British artist Richard Wilson, for example, made drawings of Italian places while traveling with the earl of Dartmouth in the mid-eighteenth century.
Classical taste and an interest in exotic customs shaped travelers’ itineraries as well as their reactions. Gothic buildings, not much esteemed before the late eighteenth century, were seldom cause for long excursions, while monuments of Greco-Roman antiquity, the Italian Renaissance, and the classical Baroque tradition received praise and admiration. Jacques Rigaud’s views of Paris were well suited to the interests of Grand Tourists, displaying, for example, the architectural grandeur of the Louvre, still a royal palace, and the bustle of life along the Seine. Canaletto’s views of Venice were much prized, and other works appealed to Northern travelers’ interest in exceptional fêtes and customs: Giovanni Domenico‘s Burial of Punchinell, for instance, is peopled with characters from the Venetian carnival, and a print by Francesco Piranesi and Louis Jean Desprez depicts the Girandola, a spectacular fireworks display held at the Castel Sant’Angelo.
The Grand Tour and Neoclassical Taste
The Grand Tour gave concrete form to northern Europeans’ ideas about the Greco-Roman world and helped foster Neoclassical ideals. The most ambitious tourists visited excavations at such sites as Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Tivoli, and purchased antiquities to decorate their homes. The third duke of Beaufort brought from Rome the third-century work named the Badminton Sarcophagus after the house where he proudly installed it in Gloucestershire. The dining rooms of Robert Adam’s interiors typically incorporated classical statuary; the nine lifesized figures set in niches in the Lansdowne dining room were among the many antiquities acquired by the second earl of Shelburne, whose collecting activities accelerated after 1771, when he visited Italy and met Gavin Hamilton, a noted antiquary and one of the first dealers to take an interest in Attic ceramics, then known as “Etruscan vases.” Early entrepreneurs recognized opportunities created by the culture of the Grand Tour: when the second duchess of Portland obtained a Roman cameo glass vase in a much-publicized sale, Josiah Wedgwood profited from the manufacture of jasper reproductions.
$1,800
American Aesthetic Movement
Pair of Bronze Candlesticks
in Manner of Tiffany
ca. 1880s
DIMENSIONS
Height: 18.25 inches Width: 3.25 inches Depth: 3.25 inches
ABOUT
This elegant pair of tall, graceful, perfectly shaped bronze candle holders are executed in the Tiffany style and are a very representative example of the applied art decorative object of the Aesthetic Movement era; and could be dated back to 1880s. From 1860 to 1900, the Aesthetic Movement initiated sweeping artistic and design changes and its modern concepts of middle-class lifestyle and domestic environment reverberate even into our own time. There were certain qualities and several characteristics of the Aesthetic Movement, shared among many of its adherents, such as:
- Art for art's sake.
- Emphasis on aesthetic beauty.
- Natural motifs.
- Rejection of Victorian stuffiness.
More than a movement, Aestheticism was a lifestyle получивший саоме широкое распостранение как среди буржуазии, так и среди аристократии. Oscar Wilde is considered the father of aesthetics, which is the literary study of beauty in its natural form and its human perception. Oscar Wilde was one of the first writers of the nineteenth century who started to question the literary structures of classic and religious literature. The aesthetic movement stood in stark and sometimes shocking contrast to the crass materialism of Britain in the 19th century. "Art for art's sake" was its battle cry, the main slogan that originated with the French poet Théophile Gautier. During the Aesthetic Movement, aesthetic design was influenced by eclectic styles which fascinated the public. The attraction of unusual architecture and artistic qualities in everyday items such as a fan drove the direction of manufacturing and commercial ventures. Artful homes were popularized. The Aesthetic movement denounced the sober morality and middle-class values that characterized the Victorian Age and embraced beauty as the chief pursuit of both art and life. The movement is often considered to have ended with Oscar Wilde's trials, which began in 1895.
SOLD
French Art Nouveau
Grand IRIS Candelabra
Brown-Patinated Bronze
ca. 1900
DIMENSIONS Height: 30.5 inches Width: 16.5 inches Depth: 9.25 inches
ABOUT IRIS MOTIF
Iris motifs were popular during the Arts & Crafts movement. The genus of this easy-to-stylize flower has nearly 300 varieties that bloom in many colors—thus its name came from Iris, the Greek goddess of the rainbow, who linked heaven and earth. In many cultures, the iris has symbolized luck, and also friendship and the promise of love. It’s often said that the flower’s three upright petals stand for faith, valor, and wisdom. In Christian symbolism, the blade-like leaves suggest the sorrows that pierced Mother Mary’s heart. In Chinese, the word for iris means “purple butterfly,” and the flower is associated with the softness of early summer. Despite its name, the fleur-de-lys (“flower of the lily”) is clearly derived from an iris flower, and has been associated with the French monarchy and France since the Middle Ages. Related to aquatic motifs such as the dragonfly and carp (koi), the iris was often used as a decorative design in the Aesthetic, Art Nouveau, and Arts & Crafts movements; the fascination with water motifs came from the influence of Japanese design on European decorative arts after the reopening of trade in 1854.
$3,600
American Art Deco
Roockwood Art Pottery
A Pair of Candle Holders w/ Caryatides Carrying Amphora
Blue Glazed Ceramic
ca. 1920
DIMENSIONS Height: 11.25 inches Width: 3.75 inches Depth: 4.75 inches
MARKINGS Each candle holder is fully marked on the bottom, including dating (ca. 1920) and model number (2304).
ROOCKWOOD POTTERY
Roockwood is the synonym of the American Art Pottery. Founded on Thanksgiving Day in 1880 by Maria Longworth Storer, Rookwood made history – the first large manufacturing enterprise founded and owned by a woman in the United States and launching the art pottery movement in America. Within a decade, Rookwood pottery gained international acclaim, rivaling European and Asian firms that had been in existence for hundreds or thousands of years.
Maria Longworth Nicholas, was the daughter of a wealthy art collector, she was inspired by Japanese pottery. When she discussed her desire to create fine pottery with her father, he provided the means and environment that allowed her to pursue her creative passions. And although it may have started as a hobby, the talented Maria quickly managed to establish Rookwood pottery as a quality producer of fine ceramic art potter.
She setup the Rookwood company, hired artists like Japanese artist Kataro Shirayamadani who came to work for the company in 1887, and talented art students and encouraged them to use their creativity to experiment and create unique pottery pieces. Almost every piece designed by these artists sold for hundreds of dollars, and today they are regarded as highly collectible. A Rookwood piece by Japanese artist Kataro Shirayamadani sold for $198,000 in 1991. He was a Rookwood artist from 1887 until 1948.
The Rookwood airbrush, called the mouth atomizer, was developed by Rookwood to apply glazes in an innovative way. The technique helped the company develop its own individual look. The atomizer helped add the beautiful layers of color Rookwood is known for, and the technique is still used at the Rookwood pottery today.
More well-known pottery manufacturers and recognized artists doubted this female led company would have what it takes to succeed, but much to their surprise Rookwood turned out to be one of the best. By combining extraordinary attention to detail and innovative design Maria Longworth Nicholas made Rookwood the standard for ceramic pottery manufacturers to aim for.
Today antique and vintage Rookwood Pottery can easily command high prices and individual piece can rank alongside the best pottery Europe can produce. Rookwood has tradition, design innovation and a long history of 130 years behind it. This relatively long history, in American terms, and being an original American art work can add substantial value to antique Rookwood pottery pieces. But the company hasn't always had a smooth ride.
In the 1920s the company prospered and sales peaked as Rookwood joined Tiffany as one of the most sought after products to grace well-heeled households. By 1941, demand had slumped and the Rookwood company filed for bankruptcy, only just managing to stay in business when it was bought out. In 1982, Arthur Townley an avid Rookwood collector bought the company to save it and its assets being shipped overseas. Rookwood was mothballed as Townley waited for a buyer who could re-build the brand. In 2004, Arthur Townley was persuaded to sell to a group of investors who shared his passion for Rookwood Pottery. They quickly pulled together a team of artists and designers to establish the Rookwood brand as one of the best in the World. In 2011, Martin and Marilyn Wade took control of Rookwood Pottery. Reinvigorating the brand and returning it to its tradition of excellence and top quality innovative design.
$2,800
JUGENSTIL | ART NOUVEAU
WMF
A PAIR OF CANDLESTICKS
GERMANY, CA. 1910
DIMENSIONS Height: 9.25 inches Width: 5.13 inches Depth: 5.13 inches
DETAILS Marked on bottom.
WMF GmbH
In 1853, mill owner Daniel Straub, together with the Schweizer brothers, Louis and Friedrich, established the Straub & Schweizer metal works in Geislingen an der Steige, Germany. Only a few years later in 1862, their silver-plated tableware and serving dishes were awarded a medal of distinction at the world exhibition in London. The company, originally called Metallwarenfabrik Straub & Schweizer, merged in 1880 with Ritter & Co - a producer of high end luxury items who were ahead of their time in silver plating technique.
Instead of using the method of heat and mechanical pressure to plate their wares, Ritter dipped the item into a bath of silver which together with an electric current produced pieces that were finely and evenly covered in a layer of silver. This method of plating was called ‘Galvanisation’ and allowed more intricate and complex pieces to be plated.
After several years both companies still faced financial problems and in 1880 they joined with the Wurttemberg Union Bank and the company was renamed “WMF” (Württembergische Metallwarenfabrik). From its founding as one company, WMF's growth was tremendous - acquiring more factories along the way, notably including "Orivit AG" and "Orion KM". By the end of the 1900's, they were the world's largest producer and exporter of household metalware.
WMF started making glass in 1883 when a glass house was built at Geisslingen near Stuttgart to produce their own glass inserts. The original 1883 glass house was destroyed during the First World War and a new, more modern facility opened in 1922. The young glass designer Karl Wiedmann perfected the technique of iridized surfaces and the resulting "MYRA"- Kristall entered production in 1926. The same year also saw the beginning of the first "IKORA" glass - reputedly discovered by accident whilst correcting a Myra glass piece. Both Myra and Ikora glass continued to be produced until around 1936, when production of art-glass ceased. Because of the technique used, combining colours and treatments, each Ikora piece is unique.
WMF's rapid expansion was inpart due to astute acquisitions, often with competitors, that gave the company entry and expansion into the Russian and Austrian markets as well as growing inside Germany. But it was WMF's focus on technology and design that enabled them to produce innovative pieces that were desired by the newly moneyed middle classes. WMF collaborated with leading artists of the time - translating the emerging Jugendstil style into attainable household items. WMF pieces are now very popular among collectors - considered as the best samples of the Art Nouveau style (Jugendstil in Germany and Secessionist in Austria).
SOLD
American Rococo Revival
A Pair of Patinated Bronze Candelabras
Ca. 1825
Object: A pair of candelabras
Origin: American, unmarked
Style: American Rococo Revival
Period: Ca. 1825
Material: Bronze, dark-brown patina
Dimensions: Height: 23” Width: 14”
The notion of an “American Rococo” seems a contradiction in terms. The very word rococo is as French as Camembert. It connotes a style that reigned along with Louis XV in the aristocratic decadence of the 18th Century. It was garlanded, nonchalant, associated with erotic marshmallow nudes by Francois Boucher and foppish courtiers costumed as shepherds pretending they understood Jean-Jacques Rousseau when all they really wanted was romantic dalliance in the formal gardens of Versailles. In the history of painting it produced but one great artist, Antoine Watteau. By contrast, Americans of the period are remembered as the flinty inheritors of New England Puritans, full of rectitude and having not a moment for furbelow or frippery. Such few painters as were around included hard-nosed realists like John Singleton Copley and Charles Willson Peale.
Well, as it turns out, life once again acts according to the principle of paradox. There was an American rococo. It came to us indirectly via England disguised under the name Chippendale. Now for the first time the style receives comprehensive survey in the exhibition “American Rococo, 1750-1775: Elegance in Ornament.” Jointly organized by New York’s Metropolitan Museum and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, it opens here Sundaywith a spread of some 170 works of decorative art and a conscientious catalogue with essays by Met and LACMA curators Morrison H. Heckscher and Leslie Greene Bowman. There are at least two ways of looking at the decorative arts. Connoisseurs appreciate their design and craftsmanship. Those of sociological bent examine objects of material culture for their revelations of history and the temper of the times. Actually neither view is complete without the other.
Stylistically the rococo reveals a longing for intimacy in its small scale and an urge to organic nature in its love of stylized vines, tendrils, tiny flowers and seashells. If it were a new manner being promoted by Madison Avenue today it would probably be called “Baroque Lite.” There is an ease about the style that makes it airy, but it has an underlying formality that bespeaks lives of gentrified cultivation rather than beer-bellied sloth. It’s fascinating to examine the flintlock firearms on view and find these weapons of death shaped and decorated with the most exquisite care by wood carvers and metal engravers. All of this is completely consistent with the main currents of 18th-Century European thought. In France, Rousseau sang the virtues of nature and the noble savage like a present-day ecologist. In England, John Locke spoke empirically of the social contract and the notion that government rests on popular consent. Locke was so revered here that his portrait was a standard subject for carved wood finials.
The rococo was, in a way, a sentimentalized blend of these two notions. When they were purified in the Enlightenment they led to the American Revolution and Jeffersonian Neoclassicism. Same thing happened in France. Their revolution trashed the picturesque and replaced it with Napoleonic revivalist Roman grandeur. All that suggests linkage between one’s taste in interior decor and one’s politics. Turns out it doesn’t quite wash. In the American Colonies, everyone who could afford it was crazy about rococo and bought all they could, loyalists and rebels alike. The less economically fortunate had inexpensive bookplates and trade cards printed up to give them a touch of class--as witnessed by elaborate examples on view.
Paul Revere, who would gallop to warn the British were coming, was a renowned silversmith. He is represented in the exhibition by some lovely objects from a wedding service. They are the quintessence of restrained rococo lyricism. Benjamin Franklin spent much time in London before the Revolution, representing colonial interests and his own fasciation with the Chippendale. He supervised the building of a new family house in Philadelphia at long distance, badgering his wife with letters instructing her how to get the rococo details just right.
Philadelphia was the hot pre-revolutionary town. It became the most venturesome and inventive in its use of the rococo. The gallery devoted to Philadelphia furniture bursts with barely restrained self-confidence. Case furniture features showy hardware, chests with elaborately carved architectural tops and imaginative sculptural wood finials. Upholstered pieces are covered with dramatic fabrics in daring shades of blue, green and buoyant yellow. Without stock markets or banks, affluent colonials used real estate and household possessions as capital investments. Thus the economic vitality of a town could be more accurately gauged by the demeanor of its dwellings and furniture than is possible today. Boston’s glory days were on the fade so its taste became cautious and conservative. New York was full of loyalists who fled with their rococo treasures or watched them destroyed when revolutionary occupation burned large sections of the city. All the same, there is one surviving serpentine New York card table on view that purely evokes the costumes and attitudes of the period.
“American Rococo” turns around a lot of notions about the revelatory values of decorative arts exhibitions. They are not just shows to be mined for ideas about how to redecorate the study. They are studies about how to rearrange ideas of history. Even the fine arts get nuanced reinterpretation from being exhibited with emphasis on the picture frames.
$19, 500
Mid-Century Modernism
Pair of Floor Candle Holders
Anodized Iron
USA, 1960s
Dimensions:
Height: 42” Width: 7” Depth: 9” Candle plate diameter: 7”
This pair of elegant floor candle holders of anodized iron, exquisite for its minimalist design and magnificent execution, fully combines the ancient Japanese Zen traditions and the worldwide modernist trends of the 1960s.
SOLD
Mid-Century Modernist
A Pair of Lotus Candlesticks
Anodized Brass
USA, 1950s
A duo of anodized brass candlesticks, each featuring a round base, stem and a lotus flower that contains a regular size candle. Manufactured in the USA during the 1960s. The candlesticks are unpolished, bear the original vintage patina, and remain in excellent original vintage condition consistent with age and use.
Dimensions:
Total height: 8-3/4” Lotus flower height; 1-3/4” Lotus flower diameter: 3-1/4 Base radius: 5-3/16”
$575
Pair of Japanese Candelabras
Patinated Bronze
18th Century
Dimensions: Height: 18” Width: 15.5” Depth: 14”
This most unusual pair of original 18th Century Japanese patinated bronze candelabras, uniquely designed as branches of mountain flowers entangled by a dragon. Contemporary marble bases. Good condition consistent with age and use. We make our best effort to provide a fair and descriptive condition report. Please examine the photos attentively.
$9,000
RUSSIAN IMPERIAL
A Pair of Candlesticks
19th Century
Dimensions: Height: 12 1/2 inches Base width: 4 1/2 inches
Weight: 14.43 oz / 461 g (each candlestick)
A unique and desirable pair of a handmade mid -19th century Russian 84° Silver Repoussé Candlesticks in the Baroque style. The beautiful scroll and floral decorations, covering the base, stem and candle cup are finely crafted in the Repoussé and Chasing techniques. The candle holders are in excellent original antique condition, with clear and crisp detail, with no dents or monograms. The soft, warm, original finish is present, with no buffing or machine polishing. Both candlesticks are fully hallmarked:
- 84° Russian Silver Standard hallmark (before 1917) for 875/1000 silver purity.
- Silversmith's hallmark in Cyrillic "ИБ"("IB" in English) is for Ivan Bednyakov.
- A town hallmark is of the city of Voronezh in form of the city coat of arms with a double-headed eagle and a capsized vessel with water, flowing out of it.
- Assay master's hallmark in Cyrillic "BO" ("VO" in English) is for Vasiliy Osipov.
Repoussé and Chasing
There are few techniques that offer such diversity of expression, such as a metalworking technique of Repoussé or repoussage (French) in which a malleable metal is ornamented or shaped by hammering from the reverse side to create a design in low relief. Chasing is the opposite technique to repoussé. While repoussé is used to work on the reverse of the metal to form a raised design on the front, chasing is used to refine the design on the front of the work by sinking the metal. Both techniques are used in conjunction to create a finished piece. It is also known as embossing. The process is relatively slow, but a maximum of form is achieved, with one continuous surface of sheet metal of essentially the same thickness.
sold
Austrian Jugenstil
Vienna Cold-Painted and Gild Bronze
A Pair of Candle Holders with Dragonflies
Ca. 1900
Dimensions: Height: 8 inches Width (max.): 2 1/2 inches
The Vienna Bronze foundries have been in existence since 1850, and since then the Viennese cold-painted bronzes are famous and distinguished by their naturalistic and detailed representation of human figures, and all species of animals and insects. Cold-painting on bronze was a technique most popular in Austria during the Art Nouveau and Art Deco periods. Bronze figures, most of them made in Vienna, were actually covered with enamel paint. Each piece has approximately 5 to 10 coats of paint, normally of the naturalistic colors, and then skillfully patinated, or gilded.
sold
La Cruche Casee (The Broken Jug)
Sculptural Bronze Candle Holder
France, 19th Century
Dimensions: Height: 8 1/8 inches Width: 6inches Depth: 4 inches
Made of multi-colored patinated & ormolu bronze in the second half of the 19th century France, this absolutely fabulous stationary figural candle holder was probably intended to embellisha gentleman's desk, judging by the plot of the depicted scene where a beautiful, half-naked girl who came to the fountain to get water, in a day-dreaming state did not even notice as one of her pitchers fell to the ground and smashed; of which the inscription engraved on the gilded medallion in the center of the plinth is informing the viewer; and which serves as the name of this remarkable sculpture - "La Cruche Casee" ("The Broken Jug").
$850
French ~ Napoleon III period
A Pair of sculptural Candle Holders
19th Century
Dimensions: Height: 11 1/4 inches Base diameter: 3 7/8inches
These 19th Century candle holders are a fine example of the style that was domineering in the applied arts during Napoleon III reign in France i.e. Second French Empire - the period between the Second and the Third Republic. The Bonapartist regime of Napoleon III that lasted from 1852 to 1870 and had developed a certain style in arts, easily recognizable in the decorations of these wonderful candle holders - they feature Greek mythological heads, a very popular Empire-style decorations. Made of black-patinated bronze, only a few details are gilded to accent their truly elegant shape.