We will be selling two drawings by Richard Cosway in our Sept. 22nd Antiques and Fine Arts Auction. Richard Cosway (1742-1821) was a prominent 18th-century British artist especially noted for his portrait miniatures. He is best known to historians as the husband of Maria Cosway, a celebrated artist in her own right who Thomas Jefferson fell in love with in 1786. Jefferson's adored wife Martha had died four years earlier. Richard Cosway's two portraits of young women are done in charcoal and pastel on laid paper. They are lots 1739 and 1740 in the auction and each have a $1,000 to 2,000 estimate. The drawing of the woman standing is dated 1787, just one year after Jefferson fell in love while serving as the United States minister in Paris.

Richard Cosway attended Shipley's Drawing School, the Richmond House Academy, and the Royal Academy Schools. He was elected as a member of the Royal Academy in 1771. In 1781 he married Maria Hadfield (1760-1838), an Italian-born artist and musician who had been educated in a convent in Florence. Their marriage has been described as troubled although Cosway has been given credit for encouraging his wife's artistic talents. The couple was introduced to Thomas Jefferson by their mutual friend John Trumbull in August of 1786, and for the next month they toured through France together. It was during this time period that Jefferson broke his wrist (allegedly jumping over a fence in an attempt to impress her) and hurt his ability to play the violin. In October Richard and Maria Cosway left France for England, and Jefferson's distress prompted him to write his now-famous "The Head and the Heart Letter" to Maria Cosway, an eloquent debate in dialog form between his reason and emotions (the full text of the letter can be read at the University of Virginia's Electronic Text Center website linked in the "Related Articles" section following this post).

In our July 21st Antiques and Fine Arts Auction we will be selling a rare painted whalebone, inscribed "Schooner 'Cameo' Record Voyage Three & One Half Years 4000 Barrels of Oil. The Mascot Dominique [a rooster]." The painting depicts the sailing vessel and is signed Hope Gorham Clark and dated 1916. Hope Gorham Clark is listed as an artist in the 1916 City Directory for New Bedford, Massachusetts. It is approximately 25 inches in length and has a $500-800 estimate.

We have two fine silver salvers in our May 19^th Antiques and Fine Arts auction. One is a South Carolina coin silver salver by Gregg Hayden & Co., Charleston, South Carolina, 1846-1852. The charger has chased designs and a faux crest to the center with an applied rococo border and curled rococo feet. It is monogrammed and measures 1" high by 8 3/4" diameter. It weighs 14.08 standard or 12.84 troy oz. The South Carolina salver is Lot 1236 in the auction and has a $500-1,000 estimate.

Our second salver is a George III sterling salver. It has a London date mark for 1778, a maker’s mark of J or TH along with a smaller Continental hallmark, either for import or export. The salver has a Chippendale-style border with an armorial crest of a crowned spread wing eagle and a gadrooned rim, and is monogrammed E.W.D. to the back. It is 9 ½” diameter and weighs 18.90 standard or 17.23 troy oz. It is Lot 1426 in the sale and has an estimate of $350-450.

In our May 19^th Antiques and Fine Arts Auction we are offering an extraordinary 18th century Flemish woven pictorial tapestry. It is seven feet high and nearly 10 feet wide with some repairs and fading. It has been backed with modern fabric for support and is equipped for wall display. Tapestries were prized for their decorative value, portability, and for providing insulation from cold stone walls.  It is Lot 1289 in the auction and has a $5,000‐8,000 estimate.

In our April 14th Modern Auction we will be offering a light fixture by the well-known glass artist Narcissus Quagliata.  The fixture was created as a private commission for a Virginia estate in the late 1970s/early 1980s.  Narcissus Quagliata was born in 1942 in Rome and studied with Giorgio de Chirico before attending the San Francisco Art Institute, where he studied with Richard Diebenkorn.  After receiving his MFA, Quagliata built a studio in a wilderness area of California and spent the next four years working there.  By the end of that experience he had reached the decision to work primarily in glass, believing that art works in glass can manipulate light in a way that improves the quality of life of those around them.  Quagliata's glass sculptures are extremely well known and his work is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Smithsonian Institution, and many other prominent museums.

We will be selling a large group of Wedgwood from the estate of Dr. John Biller of Charlottesvillle, Virginia in our March 24th Antiques and Fine Arts Auction.  Josiah Wedgwood grew up among eleven siblings in the pottery manufacturing center of Burslem, Staffordshire.  After serving out an apprenticeship to his brother at the family's pottery works, Wedgewood entered partnerships with two other local potters before founding his namesake company in 1759.  

Wedgwood's relentless experimentation with different clay formulas produced new ceramic products for the market unrivaled in durability and lightness.  The aesthetic forms of Wedgwood products were equally innovative and soon became popular among customers seeking stylish tablewares for their homes.  In a feat of brilliant marketing, Wedgwood's cream-colored earthenware was renamed "Queen's Ware" after Queen Charlotte ordered a set for her personal use.  Wedgwood's innovation also extended to the manufacturing process.  He revolutionized his factories for greater efficiency in ways similar to Henry Ford's assembly line model.

Many of the items for sale on the 24th are Wedgwood's Jasperware design of relief friezes against a solid background, which he developed to be remniscient of ancient Greek and Roman vases.  Wedgwood is still in existence, although recently it has fallen on hard times.  The company was placed in administration and purchased in 2009 by the American private equity firm KPS Capital Partners.  Following this sale, the bulk of production shifted from England to Asia.  The Wedgwood Museum collection is also threatened as in September 2011 a British high court judge ruled that the museum's holdings must be sold to meet an 135 million pound pension deficit.  The museum's collection, which has been recognized by UNESCO for its cultural significance, is a priceless archive of Wedgwood company history, ranging from Josiah Wedgwood's early experiments and manuscripts to 20th century patterns.  Curators and historians worldwide are protesting this ruling.

For further information:

http://www.savewedgwood.org/

http://www.wedgwoodmuseum.org.uk/collections

http://www.museumsassociation.org/museums-journal/news/19032012-attorney-general-upholds-wedgwood-ruling

In December 2011 Hampden-Sydney College was the beneficiary of an estate gift of personal property given by Drs. Oscar and Sarie Laserna.  The estate was given for the purpose of endowing a scholarship in honor of their son, Ace Laserna, who is a 1997 alumnus of the college.  The Laserna family holds Hampden-Sydney in high regard and is deeply grateful for the education their son received as a student.  The Laserna family views their gift to the college as a way to help a future young man receive the same wonderful opportunity, and Harlowe-Powell Auction is pleased to have been selected to offer many of the items in this auction.  Each lot from the collection is identified with reference to Hampden-Sydney.
 
Hampden-Sydney College was established in 1775 in a primarily Scotch-Irish area of Virginia approximately 70 miles southwest of Richmond.  A state-wide lottery provided partial funding.  The Reverend Samuel Stanhope Smith was instrumental in the development of the college and served as rector and first president.  Smith's vision for the school was influenced by his own experiences as a student at Princeton (then known as the College of New Jersey).  Princeton president John Witherspoon suggested naming the college after John Hampden (1594-1643) and Algernon Sydney (1622-1683), two English historical figures who were revered by supporters of American independence during the Revolutionary War as martyrs for representative government and civil and religious freedom.
 
After Reverend Smith purchased a library and scientific equipment for the institution in Philadelphia, the first classes were held on November 10, 1775.  The college has remained in continuous operation for over 200 years.  The all-male student body currently consists of approximately 1,100 young men.

We will be selling a piece of Paul Revere silver in our Jan. 28th Antiques and Fine Arts Auction.  The late 18th century Paul Revere coin silver sauce ladle is marked in two places on the back of the handle and monogrammed R.  It is 6 1/4" long and 1.0 standard or 0.91 troy oz.  It has an auction estimate of $2,500 to 4,500.
 
Paul Revere learned silversmithing from his father Apollos Rivoire, a French Huguenot immigrant who came to the American colonies in 1715.  After buying his freedom from an apprenticeship Rivoire established himself as a Boston goldsmith.  He also Anglicized the spelling of his surname to Revere, "merely on account that the bumpkins pronounce it easier," his son later said.  Paul Revere apprenticed with his father and took over the family business at the age of nineteen when Apollos Rivoire died in 1754.  The bulk of his work consisted of silversmithing but Revere also diversified the business, making frames for portrait miniatures, designing copper plate engravings (like his now-famous, highly propagandistic depiction of the Boston Massacre), and even offering dental services in the form of false teeth.  As a result of this endeavor, Revere performed one of the first forensic investigations in America after the Battle of Lexington and Concord when he was able to identify the body of his friend and fellow revolutionary Dr. Joseph Warren by the artificial teeth he had made for him.
 
Revere's artistic skills became an increasingly important tool in the Boston revolutionary movement.  In 1770 a young boy was killed when a British customs officer shot into an angry crowd outside his house.  Revere turned the event into a visually arresting piece of propaganda by staging a public demonstration at his house on the anniversary of the boy's death.  Each illuminated window was decorated with inflammatory scenes including the boy's ghost, the Boston Massacre, and a female figure with a liberty cap representing America standing on top of a British soldier.  Coverage in the Boston Gazette stated, "In the evening, there is a very striking exhibition at the dwelling house of Mr. Paul Revere, fronting old North Square... the spectators, which amounted to many thousands, were struck with solemn silence and their faces covered with melancholy gloom."  The Boston Museum of Fine Arts contains a Sons of Liberty silver bowl by Revere decorated with the Magna Carta, the English Bill of Rights, and liberty poles and caps (http://www.mfa.org/collections/object/sons-of-liberty-bowl-39072).  Revere's widely circulated political engravings helped shape popular understanding of current events, and his artisan training allowed him to repair artillery guns for the Continental Army.  Revere returned to his silversmithing business after the war, eventually passing the shop on to a son when he taught himself to cast bell-metal and opened a bell foundry.   

 
Source Consulted:
 
Fischer, David Hackett.  Paul Revere's Ride.  New York:  Oxford University Press, 1994.

 In our Jan. 28th Antiques and Fine Arts Auction we will be offering a painting by Gonzalo Carrasco (1860-1936).  Carrasco was a Jesuit priest as well as an artist.  Born in Otumba, Mexico, he studied at National Academy of Mexico, the Prado Museum in Madrid, and St. Simon's Jesuit Seminary.  He later became rector of Puebla College.  Carrasco's artistic talents came to his aid during the Mexican Revolution when he was arrested by General Venustiano Carranza's troops in 1914.  A 1916 article in the New York Times recounts how after six days of imprisonment, Carrasco was told that Carranza would be lenient and appoint him head of the School of Fine Arts provided he gave up his religion.  Carrasco refused to renounce his faith but instead of shooting him, Carranza had him paint his portrait and then exiled Carrasco from Mexico.

We will be selling a number of Wedgwood Fairyland Lustre pieces in our November 19th auction.  Wedgwood's Fairyland Lustre line was the creation of a spirited artist named Daisy Makeig-Jones (1881-1945).  In 1909 she approached the company and talked her way into a job.  She was 28 years old and had trained at the Torquay School of Art.  Makeig-Jones' rise in the company coincided with the adoption of experimental new "lustre" glazes in iridescent, brilliant hues.  When Makeig-Jones was given a studio next to the glazing room she was able to observe the trials firsthand and was inspired by the possibilities of the new colorways.  Her close access allowed her to provide the glazers with her original fairy drawings to use in their trials and by 1915 Makeig-Jones had gained responsibility for the creation of a new product line.  She designed Fairyland Lustre, full of richly colored, decadent scenes depicting a dreamworld of mystical creatures frolicking in a forest.  The lighthearted, escapist theme was a welcome relief for a customer base worn down by the horrors of the First World War, and the Fairyland Lustre line was extremely popular.  Makeig-Jones continued as a prominent designer at Wedgwood until changing consumer tastes led Fairyland Lustre to be discontinued in 1929 and Wedgwood hired a new art director.  With the onset of the Great Depression the American market for Wedgwood products disappeared.  Makeig-Jones was asked to retire in 1931 and she left angrily after 22 years with the company.  Ironically, her Fairyland Lustre designs are now among the most collectible of Wedgwood pieces.