Into Antiques?

On ebay you'll find over 100 categories covering the Medieval and Renaissance periods, through Georgian, Regency and Victorian, to Edwardian, Art Nouveau and Art Deco.

Antique Dealers in California

Linda Stamberger

Linda Stamberger, author of "Antiquing In Florida", is a Florida expert and freelance writer of many genres. Visit this site to read her articles - some of which are available for purchase - as is her book.


Brooks Novelty Antiques and Records

Brooks Novelty is an all-vinyl record store. We specialize in: jukeboxes, vintage soda machines, antique slot machines, pin balls, arcade games, neon clocks and signs, rare concert posters, old advertising signs and much more!


The Antique Company

Established in the late 1900's, we occupy a huge corner building with a small garden area that leads to another 1000 sq foot store (called TAC) that contains our Mid Century collection.


Vintage Westclox

Westclox photo identification gallery and history and information of clocks, watches and other timepieces. This site primarily displays American clocks made by Westclox that were made from the early 1900's up to about the 1960's.


Antique Appraisals On-Line

We are one of the country's largest, oldest, most qualified and respected appraisal services. The majority of our appraisals are estate and personal property evaluations for valuation documentation purposes. However, we have evaluated goods and personal property for natural disaster losses (hurricanes), theft, fire, freight and shipping damage after the loss has occurred.


Connoisseur Antiques

Featuring fine antique furniture, Connoisseur Antiques is a Los Angeles Antique Furniture Showroom specializing in antique clocks and mirrors, European and French antiques, Antique Lighting, Chandeliers, Sconces, Armoires and much more.


Liz's Antique Hardware

Antique Hardware is the backbone of our business. We offer a complete selection of door, window and furniture hardware, lighting and accessories circa 1890 to 1970.


San Francisco Antique and Design Mall

San Francisco Antique and Design Mall is the largest antique mall in northern California. We opened our doors in October 1997 with 75 dealers and today we have over 200 of San Francisco's most professional antique specialists.


Ambiance Antiques

Importer of 18th and 19th Century French Antiques


C'est La Vie Antiques

European Antique and Accessories in San Diego, CA.


Lang Antiques

We carry a large selection of fine antique jewelry, antique rings & antique engagement rings. We also have vintage estate jewelry, vintage estate rings & vintage estate engagement rings from the Victorian, Art Nouveau, Edwardian & Art Deco style periods.


Once in a Blue Moon Online Thrift Store

We are an online thrift store featuring new, used, and unusual items.


Friday, June 8, 2012

Jane Austen: A portrait of the artist as a young girl? - The Guardian

Jane Austen: A portrait of the artist as a young girl? - The Guardian

New evidence may have revealed the true face of one of Britain's most beloved authors. Using digital photographic tools analysis has revealed writing on a long-disputed oil painting that its owners claim shows Jane Austen as a teenage girl. No other professional likeness of the writer exists.

The discovered words appear to include not only the novelist's name, but also that of the suspected artist.

In the top-right corner of a reproduction of a photograph of the portrait taken before the painting was restored, the name Jane Austen is visible. Next to it is revealed in two places the name Ozias Humphry – an established portrait painter of the period. He was a member of the Royal Academy, and a friend of other better-known artists of the day, such as Gainsborough and Romney.

The words have been digitally enhanced using photographic tools and methods that have been independently validated by photographic expert Stephen Cole of Acume Forensics in Leeds, who has spent more than 20 years analysing photographic evidence in criminal cases.

Art critic Angus Stewart, a former curator of an exhibition dedicated to Jane Austen, has seen the evidence and is impressed. "To have all these words revealed on the canvas is very, very strong. I think you'd be flying in the face of reason to deny this," he said.

The painting, owned by the Rice family, direct descendants of one of Jane's brothers, has been the subject of debate almost since it came to public light in the late 19th century. The Rices say it was composed during an Austen family visit to the house of Jane's great uncle Francis, in Kent in 1789, when Jane was 13. According to the recorded family history, having commissioned the portrait Francis kept it in Sevenoaks with the rest of his family collection. It was then given by his grandson, Colonel Thomas Austen, to a close friend as a wedding present, the year after the author died in 1817, because the bride was reported to be a keen admirer of Austen's books.

However, since the 1940s art experts, led by the National Portrait Gallery, have raised objections, principally that the style of the girl's dress and the general composition date the painting after 1800. By then, Jane Austen would have been in her 20s, too old to be the girl depicted. But the new evidence also provides important clues that could contradict the established view. The digital analysis has been conducted on a photograph of the canvas dating back to 1910 when the photographer Emery Walker was hired to reproduce the image for a collection of Jane Austen's letters. The original glass plates have since been stored in the National Portrait Gallery's own reference library, and have only now been digitally reproduced.

Since 1910 the painting has undergone successive restorations which may have erased crucial clues on the surface, so this black-and-white photograph may contain evidence lost on the original.

Francis Austen was a patron of Humphry's work, and had himself sat for a portrait by the artist. Crucially, Humphry also became blind in 1797 and stopped painting – so this attribution would date the picture before then. Intriguingly the enhancements also seem to reveal the date 1789, at which time Jane Austen was 13, the right age to be the girl in the painting.

It's not possible to know whether any of this writing was placed on the canvas by Humphry himself or a later owner. But as the painting was believed to be by a better known and more prestigious artist, Johann Zoffany, it seems to experts overwhelmingly likely that the words must have been put there during or shortly after Jane's lifetime. Professor Claudia Johnson of Princeton University believes the new evidence trumps the historical objections: "Whether Humphry's name was signed by himself in the 18th century and/or by some other hand later, the attribution must be contemporaneous with Austen's lifetime or by people who knew Austen when she was alive," she said.

A definitive attribution of the portrait as Austen may represent something of an embarrassment to the National Portrait Gallery, which granted the picture a licence for sale abroad on the basis that it could not be the writer. The gallery chose not to comment.

Thanks to the scholarly doubt, the picture failed to reach a £350,000 reserve price at auction in 2007. But now the Rice family can perhaps expect a much higher sale price.

Face of a writer

For most readers seeking to picture the author of Pride and Prejudice, the face of Jane Austen is a watercolour painted by her sister Cassandra in 1810, right, although the authenticity of the sketch has remained contested. The picture, which was adapted for the front cover of her 1870 biography by artist James Andrews, has been described by Austen scholar Paula Byrne as "very Victorian, sentimentalised and saccharine".

Last year, Byrne came forward with what she claimed is a previously unseen portrait of the writer, which depicts her seated at a table with a pen in hand and with a face rather longer than the round one familar to many owners of Austen novels.

Some Austen experts who agreed that the "new" image was authentic, presenting a professional woman writer at the height of her creative powers, said they believed it dated to around 1815, two years before her death. But there was scepticism from other quarters, where it was pointed out that the timing of the "discovery" came ahead of a new book by Byrne.

In terms of popular culture's portrayal of Austen, the best known recent depiction of her has been Becoming Jane, a speculative biopic of Jane Austen's love life in which she was played by the US actor Anne Hathaway. Reviewing the film in 2007, the Guardian's Peter Bradshaw concluded that Hathaway gave a decent account of herself "although she's far too pretty in the role".

Other depictions of Austen have included a comic inspired by the recent trend for "paranormal" mash-ups of her books. No longer able to rest in peace due to the proliferation of titles such as Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, the author rises from the dead intent on destroying the "abominations". Ben Quinn


Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Antique farm equipment draws people across America to Wellington - Dodge City Daily Globe

People from across North America have converged on Wellington, Kansas, USA this week, all to check out rare, antique tractors and farm equipment.

Massey Days is the name of the event, a reunion for the farm equipment collectors who are involved with the Massey Collectors Association (MCA).  Massey Days moves to different towns each year, this year it's being hosted by Floyd Moore, of Wellington; owner of Floyd's Plumbing, Heating, and Air Conditioning, and one of the charter members of the MCA.

"It's a strict Massey show, it's kind of a get-to-gether for us fools that never get enough of these things," Moore said. The event started on Thursday, and lasts through tomorrow evening at 1402 N. H Street. Moore is expecting 200 people for the Massey Days banquet, to be held at The Rock this weekend. Those people will become coming from all over the place.

"I got people from Maryland, Colorado, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, and of course Kansas," Moore said he is also expecting people from Manitoba, Canada.

Of the several pieces of farm equipment and tractors on display in Wellington this weekend, 30 are owned by Moore. His favorite one? A bright yellow, tractor that he has restored, an I-244 Navy.

"I've got one of two that we know of to exist," Moore said. "It was sold to the U.S. Navy, built for the U.S. Navy, and it's a 1955 model, the other one is a 1956, they only built them for two years, '55 and '56." Some of the antiques aren't just nice to look at, either.

"We have been cutting some wheat...we've been out there playing this morning," Moore said on Thursday. Next year Massey Days will be in El Paso, Illinois, Moore said getting ready for the event has been a lot of work. But Massey Days brings with it a positive impact for the community and surrounding area.

"There's no rooms in [Wellington] this weekend," Moore laughed. "We've got people staying in Winfield and Wichita,  because we've done got the motels filled up."  Moore added that if anyone is interested in learning how to become a part of the MCA, to contact him at 620-326-1433, or visit the group online. In the mean time, the public is invited to see what Massey Days are all about.

"If anyone wants to come out and look, there's no charge," Moore said. "Just come out and have a good time, and look at some Massy tractors."
 


Source: www.dodgeglobe.com

Painting of flotilla ruined by Diamond Jubilee downpours - Westmidlands.com

He was there to capture a unique moment in British history – but South Staffordshire artist Derek Baker’s big jubilee day was ruined when he got a right royal soaking.

Mr Baker was one of just 20 artists from around the country specially selected by the BBC to paint the Queen on her Diamond Jubilee flotilla.

The 51-year-old was given a prime spot on Millennium Bridge from where to capture the scene and all was going swimmingly. Until the heavens opened.
“It was one hell of a challenge,” Mr Baker said.

“You couldn’t even keep your brush level or keep the canvas still.

“I’ve never painted in conditions like it, but we cracked on and did the best we could.” Unfortunately the gusty winds and heavy rain were too much to cope with and Mr Baker, who was even forced to tie his easel to the bridge, couldn’t prevent the painting from being badly smeared and damaged.

And weather experts today said the gloomy conditions that marred the Pageant on the Thames will continue across the UK for the rest of the month.

With summer on standby, torrential rain and gale-force winds will engulf the country and temperatures are set to remain rooted at around 15C (59F).

Mr Baker is now planning to restore his painting to its full glory for a potential follow-up programme being made by the BBC – and he’s also hoping the Queen might get to look at the finished pieces.

Mr Baker, from Wombourne, added: “It was a real shame about the weather but I wasn’t too despondent. It was still a great occasion.

“I’ve got a few weeks to finish it now and the BBC will then put on an exhibition of the work.The beauty is I get time to repaint it and do a good job.”

He was using acrylic for the piece designed to capture the fun and energetic essence of the crowd, with the Queen and Prince Philip among them.

Visit www.derekbaker.co.uk to view a selection of Mr Baker’s work.


Source: www.expressandstar.com

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