Ben Shute Clown Oil Painting at South Coast Antiques-SOLD

A few years ago we purchased three clown paintings. Two of them were what I thought to be fairly good images. They were happy smiling clown that were well painted and had good bright lively colors.  The third was a kind of creepy looking clown that was in rather muted colors and actually a bit scary looking. Well, the two nice ones were by an artist that we could not find out any information. When we looked up the one creepy one we found out that the artist Ben Shute (1905-1986) was a fairly well known artist and that this was a rather desirable work of art.


 Ben Shute 
was known for his landscapes, portraits, and circus themed paintings. also he was Co-Founder of the Atlanta College of Art. We have this painting in it;s original frame, available at South Coast Antiques & Gallery.

Ben Shute

Our Day Out at the 2011 Keesler Air Show, Biloxi, MS

We went on Sunday the 19th of March to the 2011 Keesler Air Show, at Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Mississippi. Had a great time.  The Army Golden Knights and the Navy Blue Angels.performed.

AGE Ranger Moses

Check out the album of images that I posted on Photobucket.

Carte de visite of Rev John Chester Backus. Edgar Allen Poe's pastor. Circa 1860's by the Bendann Brothers.

This is a great image that came into our possession a while back. This image is identified on the back as being The Rev Backus and that he was Edgar Allen Poe's pastor at the  First Presbyterian Church of Baltimore.

 This original Carte de visite image of Rev John Chester Backus, Circa 1860's, was taken by the Bendann Brothers, Photographers at 205 West Baltimore Street. Baltimore, Maryland.
 

 The Bendann Brothers, Daniel and David Bendann , were situated not to far from Rev. Backus' church, Westminster on 519 W. Fayette Street, to his home, and to Amity Street where Edgar Allen Poe lived. Besides being a beloved pastor, he also wrote a memoir about Poe and several interesting historical books about Baltimore city itself. The Rev John Chester Backus is buried at
Westminster Burial Ground not far from where Edgar Allen Poe is interred.

This is one of Rev Backus' scholarly writings that is available online.
First Presbyterian church, Baltimore, Md: Rise and progress by Baltimore. First Presbyterian church, John Chester Backus, Patrick Allison

Huge Ethiopian Coptic Processional Cross at South Coast Antiques & Gallery, Ocean Springs, MS

Today  we are featuring an absolutely gorgeous Ethiopian Coptic processional cross. The Copts were a very early Christian group that still survive to this very day.

It’s a huge processional cross, over 25 inches tall and designed to set atop a six-foot plus staff.  This is the biggest Coptic processional cross I or my business partner have ever seen outside of a museum.  It is presently sitting on a base rather than on a staff and is an impressive work of devotional art.

Huge Coptic Processional Cross

Detail of Huge Coptic Processional Cross

 The triple cross iconography recalls the Trinity, but the most interesting feature is the Holy Grail depiction, which is figured as a cauldron.  The Copts today, insist that they are the inheritors of the Holy Grail and that it is hidden in one of their temples.  The say that the Grail is in the shape of what we today would call a cauldron, as opposed to the more Western chalice shape that we are all familiar with from literature and movies.  When carried in procession, a white sort of scarf is looped through the grail and drapes down dramatically.   The cross is depicted as springing up from the Holy Grail.  This particular piece probably dates to around the 1920s and not much earlier.  It is superbly cast in white bronze, although some early processional crosses were fashioned in silver.  I’ve always liked the exuberant pierce work in both Coptic and Celtic items. 

 This stunning collectors work of art is currantly available at South Coast Antiques & Gallery, Ocean Springs, MS. 

Please contact us for further information.

Harrach Alabaster Glass vase @ South Coast Antiques & Gallery, Ocean Springs, MS

..........A few years back I purchased a small vase that I thought was 1880's British Bristol glass.
I had it out in the shop priced as such.

I was doing some online research on a totally unrelated item and was surprised to discover that it was more than likely a very scarce Harrach Alabaster Glass piece from Bohemia.

I put it under black light and it fluoresces nicely and it has a grouping of numbers on the bottom consistent with other Harrach  pieces that I have seen online. I have also noticed that a number of Harrach pieces were decorated in the same gilt and with similar designs.

This vase is a truly a great find for anyone that is collecting Victorian era Bohemian glass.

Sterling Spoon from Beauvoir Confederate Soldiers Home in Biloxi, Mississppi

This is a very early collector's spoon featuring the Confederate Soldiers Home in Biloxi, Mississippi.

According to the marks on the back of this sterling silver souvenir spoon it was manufactured by the MANCHESTER MFG CO of Providence, RI between 1904 to 1914.

This spoon features an rare and exquisite hand engraved bright work image of Beauvoir, The home of Jefferson Davis, in Biloxi, MS. Beauvoir was at the time that this spoon was crafted being used as a home for Confederate veterans.

 A close up of the handle(or Tang)

This is the earliest Beauvoir Confederate Soldiers Home spoon that ether my business partner William Murphy or I have ever seen.  The full bright cut work bowl makes this a true gem of a collector's spoon. This beautiful and historic sterling silver spoon is now available at South Coast Antiques & Gallery in down town Ocean Springs, MS

Watercolor by L.W.Wilson Milford Sound Mount Pembroke NZ 1901

After the terrible earthquake that occurred in New Zealand recently I got to thinking about my only tie with New Zrealand and that is a wonderful painting that I have had for a good part of my life. I purchased this antique watercolor around 1976 at an estate sale just a little south of Baltimore and it has been in my personal collection ever since.  The two elderly sisters that sold it to me said that their parents had purchased the watercolor at the St. Louis World’s Fair (1904).  I knew that it was an image of Milford Sound, New Zealand with Mount Pembroke Peak in the background and that it was painted by an L. W. Wilson in 1901 because it was written on the painting.

At the time, I didn’t know anything about the artist and the internet didn’t exist.  A while back, I just happened to look the artist up on the internet and was surprised to find out that the artist Lawrence William Wilson was a major artist in New Zealand.

I used to look at this image and just dream about being in such a fantastic place. The sheer thought of being somewhere, where there were tree ferns and mountains with snow in the same picture seemed so strange and outrageous to me at the time.  I've had it hanging in almost every place I have lived since them. 

 

Milford Sound with Mount Pembroke Peak in New Zealand ,

painted by L.W.Wilson in 1901

watercolor on Bristol board

Detail of Signature
Milford Sound with Mount Pembroke Peak in New Zealand ,
painted by L.W.Wilson in 1901,
watercolor on Bristol board

 

Detail of writing on back
Milford Sound with Mount Pembroke Peak in New Zealand ,
painted by L.W.Wilson in 1901,
watercolor on Bristol board

A Brief Bio of Lawrence William Wilson 1852-1912:

L. W. Wilson was a member of the wealthy Ellerman Wilson shipping family of Dover, England.  He studied art under Nathaniel Everett Green, one-time drawing master to Queen Victoria.  Wilson emigrated to Auckland, New Zealand in 1877.  He was recorded as being an artist in Oamaru, North Otago, on the South Island who purchased a farm in Canterbury Provence, NZ and settled in the city of Dunedin in 1884. 

While living in Dunedin, he took pupils, including the artist Alfred O'Keefe. Wilson became a painting companion of George O'Brien and shared a studio with Girolami Nerli. L. W. Wilson, together with other New Zealand artists Grace Joel, Alfred O'Keefe, Jane Wimperis, and Girolami Nerli formed the Easel Club in 1895, a breakaway group from the established Dunedin art circle.

Painting in both oils and watercolors, Wilson exhibited in New Zealand with the Canterbury Society of Arts in 1882 and the Otago Art Society between 1884 and 1904.  His work was included in the New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition at Dunedin 1889-90.  Wilson left Dunedin for Australia where he spent five months on a commission painting of the city of Melbourne before he and his wife set out for England in 1904. 

His works were also showcased at the St Louis World’s Fair in the United States in 1904 as a New Zealand painter.  L. W. Wilson’s works are represented in the collections of all the major public galleries in New Zealand.  There are a few images of his work on line and even a few for sale. Here is a  link that I have discovered on line.

http://www.fernergalleries.co.nz/default,2786.sm


The price for my watercolor will be $4,500 US.
Overseas sales will be considered.