It was hard to miss the painting on the far wall, even from where I stood way across the room. Although smaller than most artwork on the wall, the deep red brushstrokes and bold black…
Category: Art
Original paintings of Cream of Wheat illustrations
Posted in Advertising, and Art
I’ve seen plenty of Cream of Wheat posters with the ever-smiling chef holding a bowl of the stuff. But when I saw that a local auction house was selling some of the original paintings, I…
As the tour bus rounded a corner to Saxman Village Totem Park in Alaska, the guide directed us to look at a pile of gray logs with splashes of color. Those are totem poles left…
I can’t remember the last time I went to an auction and didn’t see one of those small hand-colored landscapes of Wallace Nutting. The colors were usually muted and dull. Among the masses, Nutting was no-doubt…
I spied the bronze bust on a top shelf as I approached the stall in the antiques mall, but forgot it as soon as I entered and headed to see what was in the back…
Did you see the memory jug, my auction-buddy Rebecca asked as I was examining items in the back room of the auction house. To be honest, I had no idea what a memory jug was…
From $170,000 to $600,000 – record-breaking African American art sale
Posted in Art, and Uncategorized
The audience seemed to be ho-hum as artist Charles Ethan Porter’s beautiful yellow sunflowers went for $40,000. I didn’t observe much stirring when William H. Johnson’s jitterbug dancers sold for $90,000. But when Elizabeth Catlett’s…
The auction house had played the portrait prominently on its website. That was understandable since the artist who painted it and the subject were both famous African Americans. The auction house expected it to bring in…
Rattlesnake keychain, widemouth bass mailbox & more
Posted in Animals, Art, collectibles, Ephemera/Paper/Documents, furniture, Signs, and Unusual
The rattlesnake was showing its fang, but who could blame it. Someone had chopped off its head and made it into a keychain. The rattlesnake’s angry countenance was one of two on a shelf in…
I was walking to my car in the auction-house parking lot when I saw a mass of tall wooden posts jutting out of some containers. Perhaps they were trash waiting to be discarded, I thought. As I…