A Robert Salmon Seascape.

Although concentrating on furniture we have a have a few paintings here at Carlton Hobbs, amongst which is this attractive seascape by Robert Salmon (1775-1848).  

The painting shows 3 views - bow, beam and stern, of the 'Alfred', a merchant ship possibly built in South Shields, England in 1801.  It maybe supposed to represent the ship tacking towards a harbour on the coast behind.  Painted in 1804, it is an unusually large and impressive work from this early stage of Salmon's career and a reminder of the great days of sail that would be in eclipse by the 2nd half of the nineteenth century as steam power gradually took over.

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PETA Fundraiser, December 2nd.

Click here to download:

Tilly. (125 KB)

As keen animal lovers we at Carlton Hobbs are very excited to be hosting a fund-raising event for PETA in our galleries on the second of December.

The dogs and doves (our chicken was sadly killed last week by 'Pale Male', the well-known New York hawk) who share our office would no doubt agree that PETA is a charity well worth supporting.  Here is a picture of Tilly who, being easily excitable, will no doubt take a keen interest in the preparations for this event.

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Carlton Hobbs Side Tables at The Palm Beach Fine Art Fair.

Amongst the pieces on the Carlton Hobbs LLC booth at the Palm beach Fine Art and Antiques Fair in February will be a pair of giltwood neoclassical side tables attributed to J.C. Lillie with specimen marble tops, possibly by Giuseppe Canart.  Both the tables and the tops date from the last quarter of the Eighteenth century.

Lillie (1760-1827), the most prominent furniture designer in Denmark during the late 18th and early 19th century, was appointed to the newly-created post of Architect and Designer to the Danish Court in November 1790.  The tops of the pair seem likely to be the work of Giuseppe Canart (d. 1791), a Roman craftsman whose commissions were predominantly in Naples.

The tops incorporate sections of specimen marble, primarily of volcanic stones, inside a complex interlaced framework of interlocking rings.

Many of Lillie's pieces were executed for the Danish Royal court.  Given the precious nature of the tops and his impressive record of patrons it sees likely that these tables formed part of a Royal or aristocratic commission.

The English style is very pronounced in Lillie's work, alluding to the furniture designs of Hepplewhite and Sheraton although, like most of his contemporaries, Lillie was mainly indebted to the greatest talent in England at the time, Robert Adam.

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Jean-Luc Baroni - In The Grand Manner.

The beginning of 2010 is set to be a very busy period for all of us at Carlton Hobbs, with a number of projects in the first part of the year.

The most exciting of these is "In The Grand Manner", an exhibition of old master paintings and drawings from the renowned London dealer Jean-Luc Barroni that will be shown in the Carlton Hobbs galleries alongside selected pieces from our collection.  The show will include works by artists such as Parmigianino, Delacroix and Boldini.

The highlight of the exhibition will be Giovanni Battista Tiepolo's "Portrait of A Lady as Flora".  This superb work by the leading Italian artist of his generation was recently discovered in the attic of a French chateau where it had lain forgotten for over 200 years.  It is believed to belong to a series of half-length female figures commissioned by Empress Elizabeth of Russia.

Choosing pieces from our inventory to compliment such works is obviously a difficult task.  Amongst those pieces on show will be an extraordinary early neoclassical giltwood armchair attributed to Ince & Mayhew, presumably from a group at Bramshill Park; a highly important overmantel mirror with the frame attributed to Thomas and René Pelletier; and a pair of giltwood console tables almost certainly commissioned for Schloss Seehof.

The combination of works of art from differing disciplines will surely make it a fascinating exhibition.  It runs from January 22nd to February 2nd 2010.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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Jean-Luc Baroni - In The Grand Manner.

The beginning of 2010 is set to be a very busy period for all of us at Carlton Hobbs, with a number of projects in the first part of the year.

The most exciting of these is "In The Grand Manner", an exhibition of old master paintings and drawings from the renowned London dealer Jean-Luc Barroni that will be shown in the Carlton Hobbs galleries alongside selected pieces from our collection.  The show will include works by artists such as Parmigianino, Delacroix and Boldini.

The highlight of the exhibition will be Giovanni Battista Tiepolo's "Portrait of A Lady as Flora".  This superb work by the leading Italian artist of his generation was recently discovered in the attic of a French chateau where it had lain forgotten for over 200 years.  It is believed to belong to a series of half-length female figures commissioned by Empress Elizabeth of Russia.

Choosing pieces from our inventory to compliment such works is obviously a difficult task.  Amongst those pieces on show will be an extraordinary early neoclassical giltwood armchair attributed to Ince & Mayhew, presumably from a group at Bramshill Park; a highly important overmantel mirror with the frame attributed to Thomas and René Pelletier; and a pair of giltwood console tables almost certainly commissioned for Schloss Seehof.

The combination of works of art from differing disciplines will surely make it a fascinating exhibition.  It runs from January 22nd to February 2nd 2010.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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Another Blog...

Everyone in the office also enjoys www.peopleofwalmart.com, an interesting guide to practical, everyday style.

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Our Favourite Blogs.

We are keen bloggers and blog readers here at Carlton Hobbs.  The web is a treasure-trove of witty, informative, opinionated, well-illustrated blogs about furniture, interiors and the decorative arts (www.carltonhobbs.net included!).

One such blog is the Aesthete's lament (www.aestheteslament.blogspot.com) , an erudite series of posts covering decoration, architecture and design history amongst other related topics.

Another favourite is www.oldlongisland.com which celebrates the great houses and estates of Long Island with remarkable archive photographs, and tries to track down what remains after so many have been sadly demolished.

www.whatisjameswearing.com gives the low-down on antiques and decorative arts in and around New York, as well as offering handy fashion tips, it's always a very entertaining read.

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Chinese Painted Wallpapers, Formerly Hung In Colonial Williamsburg.

One of the most impressive pieces on the Carlton Hobbs booth at the Palm Beach Antiques Fair will be a rare set of Chinese painted wallpapers that formerly hung in Colonial Williamsburg.

Measuring just over 56 feet (17m) long in total the set is a very fine and unusual example of the hand-painted papers made in China exclusively for export to England and America from the late 17th to the 19th Century.

Meticulously painted by hand, each design was unique and therefore an expensive item decorating the houses of the very wealthy.  They were rarely pasted directly onto walls, instead they were mounted on silk, canvas or thicker paper.  In this way they could easily be moved from room to room.

This particular set was donated to Colonial Williamsburg in 1955 by the estate of Mary Ames Frothingham.  They adorned the walls of the Allen-Bryd , or William Byrd III, House (presently the Lightfoot House).  Design motifs from this set are still reproduced on china plates for sale at Williamsburg.

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9672 Wallpaper in situ.doc (1433 KB)

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Chinese Painted Wallpapers, Formerly Hung In Colonial Williamsburg.

One of the most impressive pieces on the Carlton Hobbs booth at the Palm Beach Antiques Fair will be a rare set of Chinese painted wallpapers that formerly hung in Colonial Williamsburg.

Measuring just over 56 feet (17m) long in total the set is a very fine and unusual example of the hand-painted papers made in China exclusively for export to England and America from the late 17th to the 19th Century.

Meticulously painted by hand, each design was unique and therefore an expensive item decorating the houses of the very wealthy.  They were rarely pasted directly onto walls, instead they were mounted on silk, canvas or thicker paper.  In this way they could easily be moved from room to room.

This particular set was donated to Colonial Williamsburg in 1955 by the estate of Mary Ames Frothingham.  They adorned the walls of the Allen-Bryd , or William Byrd III, House (presently the Lightfoot House).  Design motifs from this set are still reproduced on china plates for sale at Williamsburg.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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1st UK National Antiques Week.

Monday 23rd November marks the start of the 1st British National Antiques Week, which has grown out of the success of 2008's National Antiques Day.  The theme of the week is 'Antiques are Green', describing the antiques trade as the largest recycling market in the world.

The aim of the week is to encourage new buyers (particularly younger people) into the antiques market for the first time.  Dealers are encouraged to hold events, stay open late and generate as much publicity as possible.

The week is co-ordinated by the 'Antiques News'  http://www.antiquesnews.co.uk/page_5.php 

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The Klismos Chairs.

At the Palm Beach Fine Arts and Antiques Fair in February Carlton Hobbs will be showing a fine set of four neoclassical giltwood 'Klismos' chairs.  Interestingly their design is almost identical to a set in the Villa Borghese which are known to have been carved by Lucia Landucci and represent a rare example of a work by a female artisan from the Eighteenth Century.  She was the daughter, or possibly the widow, of Antonio Landucci who was the principle intagliatore (carver) responsible for the refurbishment of the villa.

Their unusual spayed-leg shape is derived from an ancient Greek design based on a throne.  Such shapes became popular during the Neoclassical revival in Italy towards the end of the Eighteenth century when furniture design moved towards simpler, less ornamented lines.

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The Linton Park Side Table at Palm Beach.

One of the highlights on the Carlton Hobbs booth at the Palm Beach International Art and Antiques Fair in February will be an imposing English giltwood and pale green painted side table, from the last quarter of the Eighteenth century.

Although tables of a similar design with six or eight tapered legs are a signature element of Adamesque design what makes this piece so interesting is it's exceptionally large scale and the rarity of the bluish-green coloured base.

The frieze below the top depicts the marriage procession of Cupid and Psyche acted out by Putti and is based on a Sardonyx cameo from the Marlborough collection of gems now in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

The Cupid theme is repeated in the shape of the table itself, which mirrors the shape of Cupid's bow.  The table can be seen on our website by clicking on the link below.

http://www.carltonhobbs.com/viewDetail.asp?strReference=9386

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International Fine Art Fair.

The International Fine Art Fair in Palm Beach which runs from the 3rd to the 8th February 2010 is the 'crown jewel' of American art fairs; as usual the list of exhibitors from around the world is stellar, covering paintings, sculpture, Antiques, jewellery and the decorative arts.  

One of our highlights that we will be bring to the show at the Carlton Hobbs booth will be a Travertine circular table designed by Henry Moore.  The only piece of furniture he ever designed, it was made under his direction at the Henraux Marble works at Querceta, Italy in around 1963 for his house in Forte di Marmi and thence by descent through his family.

See it on the Carlton Hobbs website here...http://bit.ly/49TFIY 

We will be posting more of the pieces that we are taking to Palm Beach over the next few days.

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Lignum Vitae: The Wood of Life

Latin for “wood of life,” lignum vitae is a heartwood obtained chiefly from small, slow-growing trees of the genus Guaiacum found in tropical and sub-tropical regions of the Americas. Its name derives from its perceived medicinal uses in the treatment of colds, syphillus, arthritis and gout. In an engraving by Johannes Stradanus circa 1580 entitled “Preparation and Use of Guayaco for Treating Syphilis,” a man can be seen on the bottom right cutting a section of the tree (figure 1). Lignum vitae can also be referred to as palo santo (holy wood) and greenheart, and is considered an ironwood, prized for its strength and density. The wood of the tree is also rich with fats and resin, making it nearly waterproof and ideal for use in the applied arts as it is self-lubricating. Interestingly, magical qualities are attributed to the wood and the wizard Merlin’s staff is said to have been of lignum vitae.

 

More... Lignum Vitae: The Wood of Life

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