Reproduction prints from Andrew Wyeth and Pierre-Auguste Renoir

I am contacting you from Australia.  I'm sure you get asked all the time about the value of paintings/prints, well here is another one.

Renoir's Portrait of Two Young GIrls

Renoir's Portrait of Two Young GIrls

I have had this picture for years and just noticed on the back a sticker which reads RENOIR - PORTRAIT DE DEUX FILLETTES Collection J. Walter - P. Guillaume Paris. I have attached images. Can you tell me what the value is and how I would sell them?

sign on back.jpg

I'm not sure of the Australian art market but, unless you recently stole this artwork from the Musee de l'Orangerie in Paris, you have reproductions.  

Paul Guillame (1891-1934) was an influential and highly successful Parisian art dealer.   He embraced Impressionism and was one of the first in France to exhibit both African sculpture and Cubist painting.  During his short lifetime he amassed a group of several hundred works by living artists with the intention of forming a museum.  He died before he could realize his dream. 

His widow Domenica married architect Jean Walter.  Together they sold some pieces, bought others and refined the collection to represent French art from 1860 through 1930.  After Jean Walter’s death, Domenica gifted the collection with the understanding that it would be named for both of her late husbands.    The French State housed the collection in Musee de L’Orangerie.

J. Walter - P. Guillaume collection tag 

J. Walter - P. Guillaume collection tag 

I have an Andrew Wyeth Young America picture, framed, that I purchased at an antiques mall in Michigan approximately 10 years ago. I'd like to know if it's worth anything. 

Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009) is a beloved American artist.  President John F. Kennedy awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963; in 1990 Wyeth received the Congressional Medal of Honor.  In 2017, the United States Postal Service honored Wyeth by issuing a sheet of postage stamp bearing 12 of his paintings. 

Andrew Wyeth's Young America hangs in the Pennsylvania Academy of Art - But you can buy the image as a postage stamp!

Andrew Wyeth's Young America hangs in the Pennsylvania Academy of Art - But you can buy the image as a postage stamp!

Young America, a realistic yet dreamy portrait of a Young Man on a bicycle, was painted in 1950.  It currently hangs in the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.  Signed limited edition prints can sell in the low hundreds; mechanically produced posters bring much less. 

If you have a signed collotype print it will sell in the $1000-1500 range; an offset lithograph will sell for $100-150.00.  You’d have to remove it from the frame to be sure. 

Glove Flask - Not for Sneaking Booze into a Football Game

Can you identify what this is?  A whistle? A darning sock?  It’s 5 ½ inches tall and made of silver.  The top half comes off and it’s empty inside.

I don’t have any family history to it.  I just like odd things and – unless you tell me otherwise – fits the bill. 

I suppose your darning sock guess was the closest:  you have a glove flask. 

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Gloves have been integral as part of an outfit for centuries as a symbol of wealth and gentility.  They protected hands from dirt and the elements and signaled that those who wore them did not have to labor for a living.  Do you remember the scene in Gone with the Wind when Scarlett visits Rhett in the Yankee jail?  “What have you done with your hands?” Rhett demands.  “These don’t belong to a lady. You’ve worked with them like a field hand”

 Unfortunately, snug fitting gloves could be difficult to put on.  To remedy this, people – or their valets or ladies’ maids - would powder the inside of the glove.  To do this without billowing dust everywhere one would use a glove flask. 

In 1889 druggist Joseph Begy wrote The Practical Handbook of Toilet Preparations and Their Uses: Also Recipes for the Household as a way to battle what he saw as humbug, exorbitant prices and impure ingredients in the medical and toiletries industry.  His 13 chapters include “Preparations for the Finger Nails”  “Aromatic Smelling Salts” and “Corns and Bunions.”

In the chapter “Glove Powder” he writes, I believe I am justified in saying that ladies will appreciate this powder.  They all realize what an advantage it is to have something to dust their kid gloves, that will at once overcome the difficulty of getting their gloves on; a matter that is at times very embarrassing, besides causing any amount of ill temper.  It will save all annoyance; ladies need not dread the ordeal.

 To use a glove flask you would open it and fill the more bulbous bottom with talc, cornstarch or any absorbent powder.  You would then shake the neck of the flask into the glove, powdering each finger individually. 

A glove flask would be found as part of a lady’s dresser set along with a hair and clothes brushes; a shoe horn, button hook and powder box; a hair receiver, comb and looking glass; a hat pin holder and a glove stretcher.   These items could be in combinations of sterling, crystal, porcelain and even wood. 

Your flask is quite fancy with intricately chased ribbons and a triple monogram.  It could have been made any time during the last third of the 19th century and the first third of the 20th.  I’m sure it’s sterling but without being able to see the marks I can’t tell you who made it. 

These powder flasks are quite rare.  Many of the tops have been lost or they’ve been mistakenly moved to the dining room and used for pepper!   Yours is one of the prettiest I’ve seen:  depending on the maker it would sell in the $100-200 range.

 

 

 

 

20th Century Traditional Diorama Shows 19th Century Interior

I'm very curious about this piece. It's almost 18" by 10 1/2" and 2" deep made out of wood. It says on the table cross piece 1848 and on the back made in Austria. I can't read the writing on the note on the back and suspect it's not written in English. My grandparents gave it to my dad and I've always been fascinated with the intricate pieces and detail and enjoy just looking at it. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this!

Although the date on the table reads 1848 this diorama is a 20th century creation.

Although the date on the table reads 1848 this diorama is a 20th century creation.

What you have is generally called a 3D diorama or a shadow box interior scene.  This craft is most typically found in towns in Germany and Austria along the Erzgebirge range of mountains.  It is a nice example of a region re-inventing itself economically after the original industry bringing settlers to the town was depleted. 

Erzgebirge translates to Ore Mountain.  According to geologists, locals began excavating tin – a component of the bronze alloy - in the area as early as 3000 B.C.   The heavily forested landscape provided ample wood used for firing the tin smelters; local waterways provided hydropower and transportation.   Over the centuries, as tin mining spread westward across Europe, tin deposits in Erzgebirge depleted.   According to the website for the central Erzgebirge town of Seiffern, the mining office there closed in 1849, signaling the end of the industry. 

Fortunately for the region, the same landscape that provided wood to fuel smelters could also be also harnessed to turn steam and water powered lathes.  The woodturning and carving industry turned the Erzgebirge region into what is today one of theworld’s great today a great wooden toy producers.

If you have a nutcracker, a candle pyramid, a smoker figure or even wooden Christmas tree decorations it’s likely that they were made in the German or Austrian towns of the region.  Cozy shadowbox scenes like yours, composed of carved, turned and painted elements, are also typical for the area. 

These wooden pictures are still being produced and continue to delight with details of home live, professions and hobbies.  They are not terrifically valuable.  You can find them in specialty shops selling in the $100-300 range. 

Shirley Temple - An Advertising Icon at the Breakfast Table

I am interested in the value of blue Shirley temple cereal bowl, drinking glass and small milk pitcher. The etched face of Miss Shirley is truly visible on each piece.

The bowl, mug and milk pitcher were gifts with purchase and mail im premiums

The bowl, mug and milk pitcher were gifts with purchase and mail im premiums

Who has the most appearances on a box of Wheaties?  Well, it’s Michael Jordan with 18 but our gal Shirley Temple is second in line with 12. 

General Mills offered these 10 movie stills on Wheaties boxes in 1936

General Mills offered these 10 movie stills on Wheaties boxes in 1936

Shirley Temple was born in 1928 and by 1934 she had won a special Academy Award for “Outstanding Personality.”  Her trademark 56 curls, her dimpled cheeks and her dandy song and dance performances cheered the depression era population.

Shirley’s rise to stardom coincided with the rise of pre-packaged (and hygienic!), ready-to-eat breakfast cereals.  General Mills was a major player in this industry:  they introduced Wheaties in 1924 and followed with Bisquick baking mix in 1930. 

General Mills had a great marketing sense. They developed brand loyalty by introducing Betty Crocker Coupons in 1929.  They understood the value of radio:  the first commercial jingle ever performed was in 1926 when a barbershop quartet in Minneapolis sang, “Have Your Tried Wheaties?” 

They recognized brand ambassadors and created Jack Armstrong, All American Boy as product spokesman.  Jack’s success in capturing imaginations led to the General Mills creating a Jack Armstrong had a radio show:  this radio show offered tie-in premiums in exchange for box tops.

General Mills expanded the scope of Wheaties popularity in 1934 when they began featuring real life celebrities like Lou Gehrig and America’s Sweetheart, Shirley Temple. 

With the purchase of two boxes of Wheaties, consumers could receive a cereal bowl printed with an image of Shirley Temple.  A mug was given away the purchase of a large box of general Mills’ Bisquick and, to encourage children to drink more milk, a small milk pitcher giveaway rounded out the set. 

Shirley Temple's partnership with Bisquick urged kids to drink more milk

Shirley Temple's partnership with Bisquick urged kids to drink more milk

Hazel Atlas Glass- maker of ubiquitous household items like canning jars, medicine bottles and lamp bases – were commissioned to produce the Shirley Temple set.  Her image was transfer printed onto honeycombed blue glass and millions of sets were produced between 1934 and 1942.

I’ve seen three different images on this glassware and your set features one of each.  Your mug features the youngest version and your bowl a second but still early image.  Your milk pitcher sports 7 year old Shirley in her 1936 role in Captain January. 

These sets are sure to bring fond memories for any contemporary of Shirley Temple.  My mom and her twin were born the day before the stock market crashed in 1929.  Mom remembers these cobalt blue sets but swears she never had one.

Like so many things, your set has more nostalgic than monetary value.  Individually, the mug, bowl and pitcher sell in the $5-10 range.  A full set of the three pieces can command $30-50. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Downton Abbey Mixing Bowls - Just Like Mrs. Patmore's!

I bought two bowls from Laurel House Antiques.  The way they nest I think it was a set of three originally. Does this lessen the value? 

These Mason Cash bowls haven't changed  much since their introduction in 1901

These Mason Cash bowls haven't changed  much since their introduction in 1901

You have two classic Cane patterned mixing bowls by the English pottery company Mason Cash of Church Gresley, Derbyshire.   They made these bowls in a variety of sizes so they are not found in conventional “sets”.  I would estimate the values on these bowls individually. 

Like its neighbor, the better-known Staffordshire, Derbyshire was home to a number of potteries dating to the 18th century.  In his 1878 book The Ceramic Art of Great Britain from Prehistoric Times Down to the Present Day, author Llewllynn Frederick William Jewitt describes Derbyshire pottery as “buff or yellow” and declares, “The local clay from which these goods are produced is peculiar to this district, and is not found precisely the same anywhere else.”

Beginning about 1813, Mason pottery made household goods, as did fellow Derbyshire Watt and Cash.   In 1901, Thomas Cash, son of Watt and Cash founder William, purchased Mason and combined the two names. 

Daisy, Mrs. Patmore and Lady Sybil bake a cake - and use their Mason Cash mixing bowls!

Daisy, Mrs. Patmore and Lady Sybil bake a cake - and use their Mason Cash mixing bowls!

Mason and Cash have produced their “cane” patterned bowls almost without change since 1901.  The zig-zagged rim and the textured exterior of the bowl provide solid one-handed grip and the narrow foot provides stability.  If you look at kitchen scenes from any British drama you’ll see cooks – including Downton Abbey’s Mrs. Patmore – using these bowls.  As far as I can tell, they’ve never been out of production. 

Mason and Cash currently make these bowls in 10 sizes ranging in diameter from 12 to 35 centimeters so I suppose having two rather than three nesting bowls does not lessen the value.  In good condition, these vintage bowls sell in the $25 to $70 range.  You can buy these bowls new for about the same price. 

(Mason and Cash have expanded their line of wares.  They have a line specifically for pets!)

Harvey Girls and Navajo Trading Posts

My mother-in-law's mother Hazel was a Harvey Girl in Arizona. I'm not certain of the exact time period, but she started in Kansas City and then went to Ash Fork Arizona. My mother in law was born in 1915, and her mother was married in 1912. Harvey Girls couldn't work and be married so it had to be before 1912. I don't know how long she worked for the Harvey Houses but she came west to find cowboys! She did find her future husband!

A Harvey Girl in Civilian Clothes, circa 1905

A Harvey Girl in Civilian Clothes, circa 1905

This rug was hers and I’m assuming it came from Arizona but I have no idea how she got it or any history of it.  It measures 24" square.  Can you help? 

Was this Navajo Saddle Blanket a Wedding Gift in 1912?

Was this Navajo Saddle Blanket a Wedding Gift in 1912?

I confess I was ignorant of the cultural phenomenon of Harvey Girls and Harvey Houses until I came across their stories while driving across country 25 years ago. 

Between the 1880s and the 1940s over 100,000 women worked as “Harvey Girls” in restaurants all over the west.  Established by Fred Harvey, a peripatetic Englishman transported to the United States, these restaurants and hotels truly contributed to the western expansion of the United States. 

Fred Harvey worked as a postal clerk and freight manager for the Burlington Railroad; his base of operations was Topeka, Kansas.  Prior to his restaurants, train travelers had no dining options while traveling and were at the mercy of unregulated roadhouses or local women selling meals out of their homes.  These independent operators were subject to no standards of quality, nor were their schedules always aligned with train schedules:  if you weren’t finished with your meal when the engineer was ready to over on you either abandoned your meal or missed the train. 

Harvey proposed the idea of building cafes along the railroad but his employer turned the idea down.  He brought the idea to the Atchison Topeka Santa Fe Railroad and was given an open-ended budget to secure sites and build restaurants across the west.  These restaurants produced consistently fresh, high quality meals served in predictably clean dining rooms by strictly regulated waitresses.  The railroad itself delivered fresh produce and meat; the Santa Fe railroad even ran two of its own dairies.

Harvey advertised all over the east coast for neat articulate women of good moral character with at least an 8th grade education to staff the dining rooms.  These women received their tickets west, salary, room and board.  They had to agree to stay in the Harvey employ – including not getting married – for at least six months.

If Hazel lived in Ash Fork, she and fellow Harvey Girls likely worked and lived at the Escalante Hotel.  Harvey Girls abided by strict rules of dress and deportment both on and off duty.  Still, most of these women married and stayed to raise families and communities; they are the ones considered to be responsible for bringing civility, culture and stability to the west. 

Along with restaurants and hotels, the development of Trading Posts grew along the rail lines.  Trading Posts offered Navajos the economic opportunity a place to purchase items like flour, coffee and tobacco – to which they had become accustomed to during their years of forced internment – with wool, pottery, baskets and rugs.  The Navajo items gained popularity with traders and collectors across the United States, even having some influence on some of the design elements.

If Hazel married in 1912, the Navajo weaving might have been gifted to her as a wedding present by friends or co-workers.  The colors and texture of the wool together with the pattern suggest that this saddle blanket sized piece was woven in the first quarter of the 19th century. 

The blanket itself is in poor condition:  the looped ends are worn and the warp and weft seem to be unraveling.  It could be repaired but the restoration would diminish its charm without adding much to the minimal monetary value it currently has.  Make sure the frame’s backing is acid free and you can enjoy your Navajo saddle blankets for generations to come. 

Souvenir Spoon Celebrates a Woman - But Not Who You'd Think!

I found this Chicago World’s Fair spoon cleaning out a relative’s house.  I love the woman on the handle.  Is the spoon valuable? 

Souvenir Spoon of the Woman's Building, 1893 Columbian Exhibition, Chicago

Souvenir Spoon of the Woman's Building, 1893 Columbian Exhibition, Chicago

This depends on how you define value.  From a monetary point of view your sterling silver spoon generally sells in the $10-15 range.   From the vantage of architectural, women’s history or sociological attitudes, your spoon is a lot of fun.

The Woman's Building, like many of the World's Fair Buildings, favored neoclassical architecture

The Woman's Building, like many of the World's Fair Buildings, favored neoclassical architecture

The 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition celebrated the 400th anniversary of Columbus’ discovery of the new world; secondarily, it celebrated the rebirth of Chicago after the great fire of 1871 which left more than one third of the city’s 300,000 residents homeless. 

More than 200 largely temporary buildings were built on 600 acres of gardens, waterways and promenades.  The Woman’s Building was one of the most popular. Socialite and philanthropist Bertha Palmer, head of the Board of Lady Managers, led the logistics and financing of this endeavor. 

Palmer conceived a completion and invited only female architects to compete.  The winner was 21year old Sophia Hayden, the first female graduate of MIT’s four-year architecture program.  Hayden designed a building with a gloriously light filled interior behind a relatively austere neoclassical exterior. 

 

Hayden and Palmer had strong disagreements about the building design:  Hayden wanted purity in her design; Palmer thought the exterior should incorporate ornate architectural features donated by her wealthy friends.  After her design changes were not met, Palmer fired Hayden.  At 21, Hayden retired from architecture, married and spent the rest of her life a painter.

Bertha Palmer was immortalized on spoon but none of the women artists working on the building were acknowledged with souvenir spoons.   Sculptor Enid Yarnell made caryatids on each pillar; Ellen May Rope designed plaster relief panels of Faith, Hope, Love and Charity. Mary Cassatt painted an interior 12 x 58 foot mural “Modern Women” and May Fairchild MacMonnies painted the corresponding “Primitive Women.”   19-year-old Alice Rideout from California designed the pediment and sculpted the four allegorical statues rising from the corners of the building.  Interestingly, Alice Rideout, like architect Sophia Hayden, retired after the Fair and never worked again as a sculptor.  The building was torn down at the completion of the fair and none of the statuary, murals or plasterwork survived. 

The bowl of your spoon depicts architect Sophia Hayden’s Woman’s Building at the 1893 World Columbian Exhibition.  Looking up the handle, your spoon features Alice Rideout’s rooftop statuary robe draped woman with upraised arms cradling a globe; a pair of putti and a profile portrait of a Bertha Matilda Honore Palmer wearing a multi-stand pearl choker, pearl earrings and a garland of flowers.

The 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition showcased the fascinating friction coming to life as the world modernized and women demanded equality.  For more information about the 1893 Expo look for The Fair Women: The Story of the Women's Building at the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago 1893 by Jeanne Madeline Weimann or Women Building History:  Public Art at the 1893 Columbian Exhibition by Wanda Corn. For an overall view of the times and the trials of hosting a world event I can’t recommend Erik Larson’s 2004 book, The Devil in the White City: A Saga of Magic and Murder at the Fair that Changed America highly enough.

(Lastly, while the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair may be famous for the anecdotal introduction of the ice cream cone, the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair truly did introduce the chocolate brownie.  Bertha Palmer instructed the kitchen of her hotel to make a portable chocolate dessert for ladies’ boxed lunch.)

 

 

 

 

 

Symphonion Music box - An Early Disc Player

I hope you can help me with the value and market interest of my Symphonion.  It is 20 x 16 x 11 inches and works when a nickel is inserted in the coin slot.  I also have 22 13.5 inch steel disks.

Tabletop music boxes evolved from clock and watchmakers.  As early as the 16th century, a Flemish clockmaker developed a clock with a central cylinder. Pins covering this cylinder hit tiny tuned bells to produce recognizable music (rather than simple chimes).  The genius of his invention was the removable pins which could be placed anywhere on the pierced cylinder to produce custom music. 

The clockwork mechanism led to the development of the cylinder music box.  These music boxes contained large horizontal pinned cylinders.  As the cylinder revolved, pins would strike tuned metal combs.  Owned only by the wealthy, these boxes were expensive and limited to the tune programmed into the cylinders.  Some boxes featured multiple cylinders, but the mechanics of swapping out one for another was awkward.

Music boxes playing flat disks like Symphonion were more user friendly and less expensive to produce than the cylinder music box. In both cases, tuned metal combs have their teeth plucked by precisely placed pins. The genius of these music players was the shaft drive rotating a plate, which enabled each machine to use interchangeable disks. The relatively modest price and easy storage of the steel or zinc disks meant that consumers could enjoy a huge range of music with the same machine.

Your machine was made by the Symphonion Musikwerks, the German company, which patented the star flywheel vital to the workings of these music boxes.   They were started manufacturing and marketing these in 1880; yours is a little later, perhaps 1895 or so. 

At some point, Symphonion split into two companies: Symphonion and Polyphon.  In 1892, Polyphon employee Gustave Brachhausen left Germany for New to start the Regina Music Box Company.  To keep customers and prevent competition, each music box company produced their own disks:  differences in diameters meant that disks made for Symphonion, for example, would not play on a Regina. 

Most boxes seen on the market today are by Regina and the term has become an almost generic term for flat disk music boxes.   In evaluating these machines, one has to look at the condition of the combs:  if any teeth are missing that note is missed; the complexity of the music and whether it is a single comb or double comb machine. Additionally, the winding mechanism needs to work smoothly and the cabinet should be in good condition.

Your machine is a coin-operated model, meaning it was used in a public place, a tavern or a pool hall.  These automatons saw much harder use than home models and are, consequently much scarcer. 

On the market today, a Symphonion Music box with 22 disks would sell in the $800-1500 range.  Your machine, though, because it’s a coin-operated model, would sell for more.  I’d estimate it to sell in the $2000 to $4000 range.

"Old Iron for Japan" a WPA lithograph from 1936 and a 1938 protest

After this column was published in the newspaper, a neighbor of mine dropped over.  He remembered  scrap metal recycling for Japan in Berkeley in the 1930s. He was also stationed in Japan during the US occupation in 1945-1946.

This lithograph was done in 1936.  Artist Glenn Wessels was employed by the Federal Arts Program of the WPA

This lithograph was done in 1936.  Artist Glenn Wessels was employed by the Federal Arts Program of the WPA

Q.   Enclosed is a picture of a black and white scene of a cargo boat at a dock. The title “Old Iron for Japan 36” and a signature are written in pencil.  On the front is a plaque reading “Federal Arts Project” I cannot read the signature so anything you can find out about the print or the artist would be appreciated.

A.  Your lithograph print captures a sliver of time when between the Great Depression and the beginning of the Second World War when previously cordial economic allegiances between the US and Japan began to erode. In 1936, the artist himself, Glenn Anthony Wessels might have felt rumblings.

According to Edan Hughes’  “Artists in California 1786-1940”, Glenn Anthony Wessels was born in Cape Town South Africa in 1895 but he was really a product of Northern California.  He received his BFA from Oakland’s California College of Arts and Crafts and his MA from Cal; he later taught at both colleges.  In the 1930s he worked as an artist and technical supervisor for part of the Federal Arts Project.

The Federal Arts Project was part of Franklin Roosevelt’s Works Projects Administration (WPA). Designed to combat high unemployment of the depression times, the Federal Arts Project paid artists about $23.00 per week to produce a specified number of works and public murals. Wessels himself worked on murals at the Alameda County Courthouse, Oakland Civic Auditorium and Laguna Honda Hospital; as a Federally appointed supervisor for the Oakland area, it is possible but undocumented that he influenced other muralists.

At the same time the US was in its great Depression, Japan was growing as an economic powerhouse.  Their burgeoning economy was, however, held in check somewhat by the lack of raw materials in Japan. Japan was dependent on western resources – particularly metal and oil from the US. 

Attitudes towards Japan began to change in after Japan invaded Manchuria in 1931.  Feelings ran high in Europe and Australia where it was felt that the US was supporting Japan by supplying raw materials – especially scrap iron - used for armaments.  Atrocities by Japan against Chinese civilians in 1937, Japans alliance to German and Italy, and Hitler’s support of Japanese expansion into Asia triggered protests in the US.   By 1940, Roosevelt had put economic sanctions in place and stopped the export of scrap metal to Japan.

Protest march on San Francisco waterfront, 1938

Protest march on San Francisco waterfront, 1938

In 1941 the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. In 1943, due to the surging wartime economy in the US, the Federal Arts Project and the Works Projects Administration ended.

Glenn Anthony Wessel, like so many artists of his generation, stove to capture the realism of everyday life in the first half of the 20th century with an almost documentary efficiency.  In addition to his local murals, Wessels work can be found at the Seattle Art Museum and the Oakland Museum of California; the Achenbach Collection at the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco has a print of this very lithograph.

The markets for 20th century realism and the markets for works by former WPA artists are strong.  Your lithograph, “Old Iron for Japan” would likely sell in the $200-400 range.