Sublime Feline
In Paris in 1910, William Zorach was a student of traditional art schools. He met and fell in love with a fellow student, the brilliant Marguerite Thompson. The two decided to break with past methods of painting, to see the…
Blogs
Cloudscape
Cloudscape is a word coined by American artist and author Eric Sloane (1905-1985). His largest cloud painting is a 58 foot by 75 foot mural covering an entire wall of the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. In the 1920’s Sloane…
Crest of the Wave
An allegory of the element of water, Crest of the Wave is all about motion and lightness and gravity. Harriet Frishmuth (American, 1880-1980) was a Beaux Arts sculptor of the early 20th century. She studied briefly with Rodin, and then…
The Moods of Time
Paul Howard Manship (American, 1885 – 1966) created four bronze fountains The Moods of Time: Morning, Day, Evening, and Night for the 1939 New York World’s Fair. The sculptures were hour markers on a large sundial, allegorical figures representing the…
Tobias Hirte Redux
Tobias Hirte’s life may have spanned 1748-1833, but he was a man far ahead of his time. In our Photography, Prints, and Ephemera auction on August 18th, Pook & Pook will offer an important and exceedingly rare document demonstrating the…
Pay Attention to the Man Behind the Curtain
Not every minor artist toils in obscurity. Relegated down the ranks of 19th century American painters by history, William Russell Smith was an eminent artist in his day. He is important because his paintings preserve images of a young nation,…
Trailblazers
Art lots to keep your eye on in our May 21, 2021 sale include several paintings by members of The Philadelphia Ten artist group. The Philadelphia Ten was the brainchild of ten women painters who had all trained in Philadelphia…
The Verdure Tapestry of Daniel Garber
The Verdure Tapestry of Daniel Garber: The Mary Maxwell House Daniel Garber’s painting is an idyllic moment of country life, a milk wagon on a rustic lane. The view across the road from his house, in fact. Peaceful, but this…
A Sense of Proportion
Lot 87 in our January 28th sale is by Samuel Colman (1832-1920), a painter of the second generation Hudson River School. A student of Asher Brown Durand and member of the National Academy of Design, Colman sought to paint the…
You’ve come a long way baby
You’ve come a long way baby………….well maybe not. What was your first doll – perhaps a Raggedy Andy, Rainbow Brite, Cabbage Patch or Baby Alive? The marketing of dolls has come full gamut in my memory starting with the fragile,…
A Portrait Comes Full Circle
Did your mother read you stories when you were young? Mine did, every single night on our big soft squishy couch. My brother and I would curl up on each side of her with rapt attention because no matter what…
Facebook Antique Identification Parody
Facebook Antique Identification Parody by: Jamie Shearer How many of you spend more time on Facebook than you would ever care to admit? I sheepishly raise my hand from the back of the room as I try to avoid the…
A Beginners Guide: Collecting Antique Toys with Specialist Noel Barrett
A Beginners Guide: Collecting Antique Toys with Specialist Noel Barrett Aug 07,2018 | 09:39 EDT By Jessica Helen Weinberg with Noel Barrett Click here to read more!
Melchoir Fordney: The story of a Pennsylvania master gunsmith and one of America’s first insanity pleas.
If you met Pook & Pook, Inc.’s Vice President Jamie Shearer at a gun show or exposition recently, he has probably shown you a long rifle coming up for auction and offered to tell you the story of its maker,…
What do these things have in common: A house our first president wouldn’t live in, the oldest piece of land continuously owned by African Americans, and a war ship run aground by pirates?
On October 8th, 2016, we are excited to feature a copy of Birch’s Views of Philadelphia, formally titled The City of Philadelphia, in the State of Pennsylvania North America; as it appeared in the Year 1800. This historically important piece…
How to Identify Works on Paper
You have a piece of art on paper. Before you can research it, determine the artist, or figure out what it is worth, you need to know what it is. Such a simple question can be surprisingly difficult. Works on…