Goodbye Sweet Jasper

We are very sad that we had to let go of Jasper last Sunday, our sweet little man, our first rescued dog from Battersea Dog Home in London, who was with us for exactly 10 years and died aged around 17 years of age.

Among many other things, we remember him for spontaneously herding a group of baby ducklings and their mother for one mile to safety, while fending off air attacks from crows, for being a fantastic swimmer and even diving under water to fish out something very unpleasant, for playing frisbee at lunchtime with our incredibly handsome South African employees and then walking over to pee on the leg of a smitten young girl, who distracted them from their game.  He was loyal, extremely gentle and beautiful and knew straight away that Tillie was best used as a cushion. We will always miss him.

Image showing Jasper with Tillie last year.

Posted via email from carltonhobbs's posterous

Time and Truth at Carlton Hobbs

Amongst Jean-Luc Baroni's beautiful works on show at the Carlton Hobbs antiques gallery is this pen and ink drawing by G. B. Tiepolo.

Three further studies of of the figures of Time and Truth are in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a fourth at the Pierpoint Morgan Library. The menacing angle of the scythe held by Time may be an expression of the transience of beauty.

 

Time and Truth
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
Venice 1696 - 1770 Madrid
Pen and brown ink and wash over black chalk.
222 by 211 mm (8 3/4 by 8 1/3 in.)

Posted via email from carltonhobbs's posterous

Jean-Luc Baroni's Il Guercino at Carlton Hobbs Antiques

We are thrilled Jean-Luc Baroni brought over to Carlton Hobbs gallery this

 most intriguing ink drawing by Giovanni-Francesco Barbieri, called  Il Guercino  (Cento 1591 – Bologna 1666) A Group of Spectators, probably at a Bullfight, peeping through a fence. This unique drawing with its surprising subject could well represent spectators catching a glimpse at a bullfight. It is stylistically datable to the 1630s, when bullfighting was still widely spread in Italy. In fact, this cruel spectacle has a roman origin, and it is thought that the Romans actually introduced it into Spain. In 1567, Pope Pius V issued a Papal bull which forbade the fight of bulls, and which eventually brought about prohibitions against bullfighting throughout Italy. It was not until the 19th century, however, that bullfighting disappeared altogether in Italy.

Spectators Hiding behind a Barricade

Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, called Il Guercino

Cento 1591 - 1666 Bologna

Pen and brown ink and wash, within brown ink framing lines. The verso inscribed with a long letter and a sum. Also bear inscription by another hand: Guerchino. 

171 by 247 mm (6 3/49 by 9 3/4 in.)

Posted via email from carltonhobbs's posterous

Jean-Luc Baroni's Il Guercino at Carlton Hobbs

We are thrilled Jean-Luc Baroni brought over to Carlton Hobbs gallery this most intriguing ink drawing by Giovanni-Francesco Barbieri, called  Il Guercino  (Cento 1591 – Bologna 1666) A Group of Spectators, probably at a Bullfight, peeping through a fence. This unique drawing with its surprising subject could well represent spectators catching a glimpse at a bullfight. It is stylistically datable to the 1630s, when bullfighting was still widely spread in Italy. In fact, this cruel spectacle has a roman origin, and it is thought that the Romans actually introduced it into Spain. In 1567, Pope Pius V issued a Papal bull which forbade the fight of bulls, and which eventually brought about prohibitions against bullfighting throughout Italy. It was not until the 19th century, however, that bullfighting disappeared altogether in Italy.

Spectators Hiding behind a Barricade

Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, called Il Guercino

Cento 1591 - 1666 Bologna

Pen and brown ink and wash, within brown ink framing lines. The verso inscribed with a long letter and a sum. Also bear inscription by another hand: Guerchino. 

171 by 247 mm (6 3/49 by 9 3/4 in.)

Posted via email from carltonhobbs's posterous

January is 'Adopt a Rescued Bird' Month!

In 2002 the ASPCA declared that January should be a month devoted to finding homes for rescued birds.

As some of you know, our menagerie includes four albino ringneck doves rescued in Queens, NY and another dove we took on for a deceased neighbor. These lucky birds are headed to a new home in bucolic Vermont at the end of the week.

For a time, our gallery was also the happy home to a chicken which we found in Pelham Bay Park and adopted. Unfortunately, before it moved from our backyard to a new home, the chicken met its end at the beak of a descendant of New York City's infamous hawk, Pale Male.

If you are interested in adopting a domestic, rescued bird there are plenty of bird sanctuaries and rescue centers across the country where you can find a feathered friend not only this month, but year-round. And if feathered pets aren't your favorite, remember that there are also hundreds of dogs and cats waiting for loving homes too!

Posted via email from carltonhobbs's posterous

Modern Day Flintstones?

At Carlton Hobbs we're always interested in people like us, who are intrigued and fascinated by the past. In this case, the fascination goes a little farther back than usual.

A recent article in the NY Times (The New Age Caveman and the City) discusses a trendy throwback diet. Faddy diets are always popular in New York, but the new Paleo diet is something different entirely.  Like a sort of super Atkins det, it consists of eating large quantities of red meat, sometimes raw, and lot very much else.

 Devotees of this regime refer to themselves as "cavemen", and frequently go long periods without eating to replicate the long gaps between meals our hunter-gather ancestors would have experienced.

 Dissappointingly, Paleo followers don't sharpen spears to hunt down wooly mammoths like proper cavemen but buy it from butchers instead, although actual hunter-gathering would actually be illegal within Central Park. (An assault on a mere squirrel results in a $1,000 fine!). Although given Manhattan real estate prices living in a cave might be an economically wise option.

 Life tens of thousands of years ago was probably nasty, brutish and short. The nearest modern Paleos get to being chased by a sabre toothed tiger is to frequently donate blood, this is in order to simulate the frequent injuries their prehistoric role models are believed to have sustained.  Although a tiny minority in New York, paleos should be popular with the City's butchers, if not the greengrocers.

(Photo courtesy of NY Times.com)

Posted via email from carltonhobbs's posterous

Modern Day Flintstones?

At Carlton Hobbs we're always interested in people like us, who are intrigued and fascinated by the past. In this case, the fascination goes a little farther back than usual.

Faddy diets are always popular in New York, but the new Paleo diet is something different entirely. Like a sort of super Atkins det, it consists of eating large quantities of red meat, sometimes raw, and not very much else.

Devotees of this regime refer to themselves as "cavemen", and frequently go long periods without eating to replicate the long gaps between meals our hunter-gather ancestors would have experienced.

Dissappointingly, Paleo followers don't sharpen spears to hunt down wooly mammoths like proper cavemen but buy it from butchers instead, although actual hunter-gathering wouldn't be very practical in New York (not to mention illegal), unless you are Pale Male the 5th Avenue hawk. Although, given Manhattan real estate prices, living in a cave might be an economically wise option.

Life tens of thousands of years ago was probably nasty, brutish and short. The nearest modern Paleos get to being chased by a sabre toothed tiger is to repeatly donate blood; blood which must be very protein rich indeed. Although a tiny minority in New York the Paleos should be popular with the City's butchers, if not the greengrocers.

Posted via email from carltonhobbs's posterous

Mahogany Turtle Stone

The striking tabletop of the present piece is constructed from a section of a septarian nodule, a type of concretion, created when pores in a mass of sedimentary rock are filled in with jelly-like mineral deposits before hardening in a spherical or ovoid form. The nuclei of these concretions are often fossils dating from the Cretaceous period (50-70 million years ago). Septeria is the name given to the angular internal cavities, deriving from the Latin septum, meaning "partition".

The concretions are often reddish or golden in color, and because of the radiating design made by the internal cracks, are colloquially referred to as "turtle stones". Septarian nodules have been found to be as large as 9 feet in diameter, as in the case of the Moeraki Boulders of New Zealand. Smaller examples were found in the Oxford and Kimmeridge Clays along the Wessex Coast of England. It is likely that the present tabletop was made using a septarian nodule from this area.

While the "turtle stone" top is certainly the focus of the table, reminding one of radical modern art, the base is splendid in its own right. Derived from designs for early Roman bronze candelabra, this masculine and powerful design is a particularly suitable vehicle to display the superb example of a Cretaceous period specimen.

A related table was sold by Christie's London 15 September 2005. It has a similar septarian nodule top and its classical base shares the same fluting found on the present table stem.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Posted via email from carltonhobbs's posterous

Mahogany Turtle Stone

The striking tabletop of the present piece is constructed from a section of a septarian nodule, a type of concretion, created when pores in a mass of sedimentary rock are filled in with jelly-like mineral deposits before hardening in a spherical or ovoid form. The nuclei of these concretions are often fossils dating from the Cretaceous period (50-70 million years ago). Septeria is the name given to the angular internal cavities, deriving from the Latin septum, meaning "partition".

The concretions are often reddish or golden in color, and because of the radiating design made by the internal cracks, are colloquially referred to as "turtle stones". Septarian nodules have been found to be as large as 9 feet in diameter, as in the case of the Moeraki Boulders of New Zealand. Smaller examples were found in the Oxford and Kimmeridge Clays along the Wessex Coast of England. It is likely that the present tabletop was made using a septarian nodule from this area.

While the "turtle stone" top is certainly the focus of the table, reminding one of radical modern art, the base is splendid in its own right. Derived from designs for early Roman bronze candelabra, this masculine and powerful design is a particularly suitable vehicle to display the superb example of a Cretaceous period specimen.

A related table was sold be Christie's London 15 September 2005. It has a similar septarian nodule top and its classical base shares the same fluting found on the present table stem.

Posted via email from carltonhobbs's posterous