SINGAPORE – Discovering and learning about remote Asian cultures has long been a passion of Jaina Mishra’s. An award-winning photographer and travelogue writer, Mishra has spent the past 10 years reverently documenting what she describes as “vanishing cultures.” While immersing herself in the decade-long odyssey that took her to faraway mountains and valleys that few tourists visit, Mishra also collected tribal textiles, jewelry and folk art objects she felt were special. And although she never previously attempted to make her living from the sale of Asian cultural art, Mishra, an MBA whose fascination with distant places and people dates back to her childhood in India, is now taking that logical next step. She will share her remarkable finds with the rest of the world in an April 6 online-only auction conducted through LiveAuctioneers.com.

Mishra chose the business name Wovensouls because her collection began with textiles and later expanded to include other artforms. “Textiles are the woven expression of the soul of a tribe, so the name appealed to me,” she explained.

Before formally launching her business, Mishra tested the commercial waters by selling a few pieces privately. Then, at the end of 2012, came an important breakthrough. Mishra sold a piece to one of the world’s most prestigious museums. That particular sale was a validation to Mishra that she had achieved the level of sophistication required to identify and deal in top-quality Asian cultural art.

“It made me think, ‘If a top-class museum is buying from me, then the only thing standing in the way of Wovensouls becoming a successful venture is my own lack of effort.’ Up until that time, I wasn’t really sure if my eye was good enough. I had always bought using my eye and instinct, and only once had I bought an item solely because of its provenance or because someone else said it was good,” Mishra said.

All of the pieces offered in the April 6 auction are from Mishra’s 10-year personal collection and nearly all were obtained firsthand during her travels. The carefully assembled auction selection includes jewelry, hand-painted art objects, manuscripts and, of course, textiles. The cultures represented are largely Tibetan and Ladakh (an Indian culture influenced by Tibet), with the addition of pieces from Borneo (Dayak), India and the Golden Triangle of northern Thailand, South Vietnam and Laos. The latter region is home to the Yao and Attapeu Hilltribe peoples.

The collection also includes art from the Indian Gujarat culture. “Gujarat art is very beautiful and, I believe, undervalued,” said Mishra. “Some of the Gujarat people are descended from Romany gypsies. Their art is unique and deserves further research.”

Among the most impressive items in the sale are three decorative antique peraks, or headdresses, from the Himalayas. Peraks – which can weigh as much as 29 lbs. each – are usually passed down from mother to daughter until there is a generation with no female child. In such cases, the perak is donated to a monastery after a ceremony and subsequently auctioned. Lot 102 is from the Zanskaar Valley and is embellished with old turquoise stones, coral, silver and lapis. Its two side panels are adorned with rows of pearls, which are rarely seen in peraks. Estimate: $6,000-$8,000. Another fine Zanskaar Valley perak has similar decorative elements, but with highly prized coral rather than pearls on its side panels. Its estimate is $8,000-$12,000. The third example is from the Changthang region and has pearl borders along the hood and small, suspended coral chains that serve as a veil. This particular perak could make $9,000-$12,000.

Lots 113 and 115 are 19th-century Tibetan noblewomen’s headdresses known as pat’h. “These pat’h are very rare. Once they are gone, I doubt I’ll ever be able to find any others,” Mishra noted.

Photos of Tibetan pat’h are seen in the Pitt Rivers Museum at the University of Oxford and in the Schuyler Jones book “Tibetan Nomads.” Status symbols in their culture, pat’h were used to support elaborate hairstyles and typically were enhanced with coral, turquoise and pearls. The two examples in Wovensouls’ auction are estimated at $12,000-$16,000 and $10,000-$15,000, respectively.

Presale interest has been shown in many lots containing woven Tibetan garments and accessories. They include bags and pouches, yak-wool pants, a bridal coat, kaabo cummerbund, and a costume set consisting of a coarse wool chooba and baku.

Pabuji-ki-phad are large, beautifully hand-drawn and hand-painted folk art textiles used as a backdrop mural for devotional performances by “bhopas.” Each narrates a story about the lok deva, or folk gods. Ancestral phads are passed from father to son and used over three or four generations. Lot 131, executed in stunning rose, green and blue shades, was acquired from one of the few surviving phad artists and is estimated at $5,000-$8,000. Lot 132 was created by the renowned phad master artist the late Shri Jadau Chand Shrilal, who work is displayed at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. Its estimate is $4,000-$8,000.

There are seven palm leaf etchings in the collection, all from Odisha, India. Several of these fascinating hand-inscribed works narrate legends or folk tales. Others relate the story of a journey to Java Sumatra, are etched with writings about medicine, or, in one case, display content from the Kama Sutra, therefore classifying the etching as erotica.

Wovensouls’ April 6 online-only auction featuring the personal collection of Jaina Mishra will commence at 10 a.m. Pacific Time (1 p.m. Eastern). For questions about any item in the sale, e-mail jaina@wovensouls.com or call Singapore 011 659 824 2864. Prompt international shipping.

Log on to www.LiveAuctioneers.com to view the fully illustrated catalog and sign up to bid absentee or live online during the April 6 auction. Visit Wovensouls online at www.wovensouls.com.

This is not the first time Renoir’s adopted daughter had her portrait painted.

It’s November in 1904 and the young Jeanne, Mrs. Paul Valery, now 27 years old, receives a note from Pierre-Auguste Renoir.   ”Would you care to come [to my studio] starting Tuesday morning, if there’s not too much fog?” A gentle request from one of the best loved Impressionists of all time. The result of that sitting and those to follow would yield the remarkable composition you see here.

The story of how Jeanne Gobillard became the ward of Renoir is quite the story; a story of love, friendship, and a commitment to both.

Berthe Morisot and her sister Edmé (the mother of Jeanne) were students of art.  Berthe even went on to study with Corot and was great friends with Édouard Manet, marrying his brother in 1874. She was the only female that exhibited in the first Impressionist exhibition in 1874.   However, unlike most of the Impressionists, Morisot’s works were favorably critiqued by the Salon. Her most famous, The Cradle, was a painting of her sister Edmé gazing at her new born daughter Jeanne.

A string of tragedies befall the family leaving Julie, the daughter of Berthe, and her cousins Jeanne and Paule orphaned.  Renoir volunteers to adopt all three of the girls and raise them as his own.  The four became very close and the tenderness Renoir felt for Jeanne is evident in this work of art.

Displaying Renoir’s spectacular skill for utilizing light and color, this composition is truly representative of his body of work.  Moreover, this portrait represents an intimate chapter in the artist’s life and gives a glimpse of who he was beyond the canvas and the brush. Any one of these factors would make this painting a tremendous addition to your collection.  The importance of their union in this masterpiece, as well as the fact that this is the first documented portrait Renoir completed of Jeanne, cannot be overstated.

These portraits can be found at the M.S. Rau Antiques  shop in New Orleans and the article and further information on the portraits can be found online: here http://www.rauantiques.com/blog/2013/01/25/a-loving-rendition/ and here http://www.rauantiques.com/29-9143.html

“Old Master” is a term for a European painter of skill who worked before about 1800, or a painting by such an artist. An “old master print” is an original print (for example an engraving or etching) made by an artist in the same period likewise for an “old master drawing.”  In theory   an Old Master should be an artist who was fully trained, was a Master of his local artists\’ guild, and worked independently, but in practice paintings considered to be produced by pupils or workshops will be included in the scope of the term. Therefore, beyond a certain level of competence, date rather than quality is the criterion for using the term.

Keep in mind, etching as referred in the Art Field developed from engraving on metal by goldsmiths and other metal-workers in order to decorate metal items such as guns, armour, cups and plates has been known in Europe since the Middle Ages at least, and may go back to antiquity. The elaborate decoration of armour, in Germany anyway, was an art probably imported from Italy around the end of the 15th century—little earlier than the birth of etching as a printmaking technique.

The earliest process as applied to printmaking is believed to have been invented by Daniel Hopfer (circa 1470–1536) of Augsburg, Germany. Hopfer was a craftsman who decorated armour in this way, and applied the method to printmaking, using iron plates (many of which still exist). Apart from his prints, there are two proven examples of his work on armour: a shield from 1536 now in the Real Armeria of Madrid and a sword in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum of Nuremberg. An Augsburg horse armour in the German Historical Museum, Berlin, dating to between 1512 and 1515, is decorated with motifs from Hopfer’s etchings and woodcuts, but this is no evidence that Hopfer himself worked on it, as his decorative prints were largely produced as patterns for other craftsmen in various media. The switch to copper plates was probably made in Italy, and thereafter etching soon came to challenge engraving as the most popular medium for artists in printmaking. Its great advantage was that, unlike engraving which requires special skill in metalworking, etching is relatively easy to learn for an artist trained in drawing.

Albrecht Dürer (21 May 1471 – 6 April 1528) was a German painter, print maker, engraver, mathematician, and theorist from Nuremberg. His prints established his reputation across Europe when he was still in his twenties, and he has been conventionally regarded as the greatest artist of the Northern Renaissance ever since. His vast body of work includes altarpieces and religious works, numerous portraits and self-portraits, and copper engravings. His woodcuts, such as the Apocalypse series (1498), retain a more Gothic flavor than the rest of his work. His well-known works include the Knight, Death, and the Devil (1513), Saint Jerome in his Study (1514) and Melencolia I (1514), which has been the subject of extensive analysis and interpretation. His watercolours mark him as one of the first European landscape artists, while his ambitious woodcuts revolutionized the potential of that medium.

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, (15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669) was a Dutch painter and etcher. He is generally considered one of the greatest painters and printmakers in European art history and the most important in Dutch history. His contributions to art came in a period of great wealth and cultural achievement that historians call the Dutch Golden Age when Dutch Golden Age painting, although in many ways antithetical to the Baroque style that dominated Europe, was extremely prolific and innovative.

Having achieved youthful success as a portrait painter, Rembrandt’s later years were marked by personal tragedy and financial hardships. Yet his etchings and paintings were popular throughout his lifetime, his reputation as an artist remained high, and for twenty years he taught many important Dutch painters. Rembrandt’s greatest creative triumphs are exemplified especially in his portraits of his contemporaries, self-portraits and illustrations of scenes from the Bible. His self-portraits form a unique and intimate biography, in which the artist surveyed himself without vanity and with the utmost sincerity.

It was the innovations of Jacques Callot (1592–1635) from Nancy in Lorraine. He developed the échoppe, a type of etching-needle with a slanting oval section at the end, which enabled etchers to create a swelling line, as engravers were able to do.

He also seems to have been responsible for an improved, harder, recipe for the etching ground: one using lute-makers’ varnish rather than a wax-based formula. This enabled lines to be more deeply bitten, prolonging the life of the plate in printing, and also greatly reducing the risk of “foul-biting”, where acid gets through the ground to the plate where it is not intended to, producing spots or blotches on the image. Previously the risk of foul-biting had always been at the back of an etcher’s mind, preventing him from investing too much time on a single plate that risked being ruined in the biting process. Now etchers could do the highly detailed work that was previously the monopoly of engravers, and Callot made full use of the new possibilities.

He also made more extensive and sophisticated use of multiple “stoppings-out” than previous etchers had done. This is the technique of letting the acid bite lightly over the whole plate, then stopping-out those parts of the work which the artist wishes to keep light in tone by covering them with ground before bathing the plate in acid again. He achieved unprecedented subtlety in effects of distance and light and shade by careful control of this process. Most of his prints were relatively small—up to about six inches or 15 cm on their longest dimension, but packed with detail.

One of his followers, the Parisian Abraham Bosse, spread Callot’s innovations all over Europe with the first published manual of etching, which was translated into Italian, Dutch, German and English.

The 17th century was the great age of etching, with Rembrandt, Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione and many other masters. In the 18th Piranesi, Tiepolo and Daniel Chodowiecki were the best of a smaller number of fine etchers. In the 19th and early-20th century the Etching revival produced a host of lesser artists, but no really major figures. Etching is still widely practiced today.

https://www.facebook.com/xlijstow

PHILADELPHIA – An important artwork by Prince Twins Seven-Seven (Nigerian, 1944-2011) not only co-headlines Material Culture’s 450-lot Oct. 14 auction, it also inspired the event’s title: “The Spirits of My Reincarnation Brothers and Sisters.”

Deeply mystical and immediately identifiable, the works of Prince Twins Seven-Seven have spurred a new level of interest in the marketplace since Material Culture offered several exciting multimedia paintings by the artist in their May 5 auction debut. The self-taught Prince Twins Seven-Seven expressed his boundless imagination in themes that blended esoteric imagery with a vibrant, traditional West African color palette. The 65 by 58-inch batik dye, watercolor, acrylic and oil-on-cloth painting featured in Material Culture’s Oct. 14 sale was purchased directly from the artist in 2007 and is one of seven of his works entered in the sale. It is expected to realize $5,000-$7,000.

Other self-taught artists represented in the October offering include Vojislav Jakic, Kwame Akoto a k a Almighty God, Purvis Young and Felipe Jesus Consalvos, a Cuban-American (1891-1960) who worked as a cigar roller but whose natural talent as an artist was not widely known until after his death. Consalvos created visually stunning modernist collages that incorporate cigar bands and cigar-box paper with photographs, postage stamps and magazine images. His mixed-media collage titled “Let Dreams Come True” was created around the second quarter of the 20th century. It measures 10 x 8 inches (15¾ x 13¾ inches framed) and comes with provenance from the Fleisher/Ollman Gallery. Estimate: $1,500-$2,000.

The auction will showcase a selection of items from the Bill Liske collection of early Chinese and Tibetan textiles, carpets and ethnographic artworks. Material Culture’s first offering of articles from the Liske collection – auctioned on May 26 – was enthusiastically received, said owner George Jevremovic, a cultural arts dealer of 30+ years.

“The Liske collection is special because it reflects the impeccable eye of a collector who lived and worked as a mountaineering guide in the Himalayan region for three decades. Textile dealers in the area taught him how to identify pieces that were genuinely exceptional,” said Jevremovic.

Liske’s expertly chosen collection has appeared at the History Museum in Denver, the Krimsa Gallery in San Francisco, the Shaver-Ramsey Gallery in Denver, and in Hali magazine.

A premier artwork in the Liske collection is a powerfully rendered early Thangka scroll painting depicting the deific reincarnation known as Vajra Varahi in Sanskrit and Dorje Pakmo in Tibetan. Dating to 14th-16th century Tibet, it is valued at $3,000-$4,000.

Another auction highlight is the Michaelian Meshed (31 feet by 47 feet), a circa-1900 Persian carpet originally custom-woven for the prestigious Union League Club in New York City. It remained in the club for decades until its purchase in the 1950s by Frank Michaelian of Michaelian and Kohlberg. Suitable for a discriminating owner with a palatial space, it will be offered for sale publicly for the first time in its history on Oct. 14, with an auction estimate of $60,000-$90,000.

An outstanding 19th-century Syrian silk and gold judge’s tunic from the collection of Samy and Sara Rabinovic, Philadelphia, was the blue-ribbon exhibition winner at the 1996 International Conference on Oriental Carpets, and is expected to fetch $3,000-$4,000. Also up for auction is a rare pre-Columbian funerary headband made with a knotted-pile technique, valued at $1,000-$1,500; and a 19th-century Tibtetan or Bhutanese bull-headed Buddhist dance mask of meditational deity Yamantaka. The mask’s vivid red hue was achieved by applying pigment to a papier-mâché of laurel or mulberry. Estimate: $3,000-$4,000.

Other categories of artifacts include an outstanding group of 17th-18th century Mughal columns and arches from northern India, 16th- to 19th-century Ottoman, Central Asian, Asian, African, Continental and pre-Columbian textiles, 17th-19th century Oriental Carpets, African, Himalayan and Oceanic Tribal Arts, antiquities from the Near East, Americas and Asia; 18th- to 20th-century folk art from Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas; and 100+ lots of vintage Navajo jewelry from a private Pennsylvania collection assembled in the 1970s.

“From the beginning it has been our goal to present pieces of diverse origin that would present collecting opportunities for every level of buyer, from beginners to advanced collectors and interior designers. In addition, we take the position that it is better to have around 400 items of very good to excellent quality – from consignors who have realistic expectations – than to create a more-specialized sale with a few stars and lots of filler,” said Jevremovic, explaining his company’s mission.

“This is an age in which corporate auction departments seek to maximize their bottom lines with million-plus-dollar items or high-profile sales that have more to do with celebrity and fashion than quality or connoisseurship. We believe some of the best collecting opportunities – particularly for younger buyers worldwide – exist in the areas we are presenting in our October 14th sale: self-taught, folk, ethnographic, decorative and traditional arts,” Jevremovic said.

Material Culture’s Sunday, Oct. 14, 2012 auction will commence at 11 a.m. Eastern Time. Preview: Oct. 10-12 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Oct. 13 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The gallery is located at 4700 Wissahickon Ave., Philadelphia, PA 19144. All forms of bidding will be available, including phone, absentee or Internet live bidding through LiveAuctioneers.com. For additional information on any lot in the sale, email expert@materialculture.com or call 215-438-4700. Visit the company online at www.materialculture.com.

Printing a Etching of “The Three Trees,” by  Rembrandt

For both the Veteran and Beginner Print Collector , The video is a wonderful way to see the process of the printing OR what is called , “Pulling a Proof ” from a original copper plate etched by Rembrandt .  This was filmed at the  Rijks Museum (Amsterdam), in which the largest collection of Rembrandt’s Copper Plates are deposited.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIfaU1Q1zs0

Enjoy the video, it is not every day you can see a great work of art created by a Master Artist of the Past who will remain as one of the greatest of all time. The work in the video is “THE THREE TREES,” among one of his finest examples of Landscape etchings.

James Stow & Anthony Yau

Candlewood-Yankee Fine Arts

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Rembrandt-Lieven-Willemsz-van-Coppenol-Etching-/180386117685?pt=Art_Prints&hash=item29ffd9b835

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Rembrandt’s Etchings True or False Originals?

Mae West once said, “Come up and see my etchings some time.” The variations of Original Rembrandt Etchings has been misunderstood and abused since the days of his own life time. In the field of fine prints there are; the etching conceived, etch and printed from the same plate … either printed by Rembrandt or various printers with possession of the Copper plates are in fact originals work and should be treated as such.

See the link;     fineartadvocacy.com  or  http://www.fineartregistry.com/

This is excellent Start to better understand the history and appreciation of Rembrandt’s Etched work.

These plates (depending on that particular image), have been printed from over the past three centuries, some lost and others were printed from as late as 1998 and the Millennium Impressions … which are only a ghost of the image of what the Artist intended .

Many works were in fact etched after Rembrandt by his students (studio workers and later devoted students influenced by his work) and later great bodies of works were etched in the same size with a slight larger plate mark size by Armand Durand. Durand’s works are explained in a excellent way at;      http://www.kickarseart.com/consigned_etchings/etching_armand_durand.htm

Many etchings are passed off as Originals in Internet Auctions, including many online so called Auctions or E -Bay sites. So many others are in fact NOT by Rembrandt but either Helli gravures (reproduction) original etchings etched by Durand or by a student copyist.

Now with such wonderful websites, collectors should take the step to research before purchasing ANY Etching of Rembrandt. Even if documented by a follower, student or Durand still has some value …However an etching conceived, etched and printed from the original copper plate has much more value.

Know exactly what you are looking at and appreciate each for what the work truly is…. Some of the works etched after the Master are indeed quite beautiful and many have historical importance. Keep in mind the value and quality are TWO DIFFERENT factors. If aN Original Rembrandt is NOT in your means, enjoy a good recreation by a student or by Durand. Often these are finer impressions than the horrid Impressions from the last Edition. How sad the last editions on the market are very poor quality and most often overpriced.

Best way to see what is offered at various prices, feel free to visit;

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Rembrandt-Christ-Between-Two-Thieves-Etching-/170459626592?pt=Art_Prints&hash=item27b02f7c60

James Stow & Anthony Yau

Candlewood Yankee Fine Arts

Childe Hassam American Impressionist Painter, Lithographer, water colorist and etcher (known to all as Childe, pronounced like child) left high school without graduating, and ended up working for a wood engraver. He attended drawing classes at the Lowell Institute, a division of MIT, and was a member of the Boston Art Club. He began his artistic career as an illustrator and water colorist and later worked in etching and Lithography .

By 1882, Hassam was exhibiting publicly and had his first solo exhibition, of watercolors, at the Williams and Everett Gallery in Boston. The following year, his friend Celia Thaxter convinced him to drop his first name and thereafter was known simply as “Childe Hassam”. Having had little formal art training previously, Hassam went to Paris in 1886 to study figure drawing and painting at the Académie Julian. He studied under Gustave Boulanger and Jules Joseph Lefebvre. However, he later considered the education he received there “superfluous.” What had a greater influence on Hassam’s work was the art he was exposed to in the city’s museums and galleries, especially the works of the Impressionists. Hassam returned to America and settled in New York City in 1889. He soon became close friends with fellow artists J. Alden Weir and John Henry Twachtman, whom he met through the American Watercolor Society. Hassam enthusiastically painted the genteel urban atmosphere He discovered in New York, which he greatly preferred to Paris. During his time in New York, Hassam made summer painting excursions to Thaxter’s home on Appledore Island, Maine, the largest of the Isles of Shoals; and to Gloucester, Massachusetts; Cos Cob, Connecticut; and Old Lyme, Connecticut.

Outstanding Pair of his works Lithography can be seen at;

http://www.antiques.com/classified/1135743/Antique-Childe-Hassam—-Venice—-Pair-Rare-Aquatints

James Stow & Anthony Yau

House of Stowe Galleries

NEW YORK, 9 May 2012 - Tonight at Sotheby’s, the Contemporary Art Evening Sale brought a strong total of $266,591,000, well within the $216/304 million pre-sale estimate and with 81% of lots sold.

Tobias Meyer, this evening’s auctioneer and Sotheby’s Worldwide Head of Contemporary Art, said: ‘‘We are thrilled with tonight’s total of $266 million, and especially with the results achieved for our top four lots, which set a record for Roy Lichtenstein, for a single panel by Francis Bacon, one of the strongest prices for Andy Warhol in some time, and a record for Cy Twombly. The top end of the market performed beautifully this evening due to a global demand for masterpieces that is almost unparalleled, and we saw a remarkable depth of bidding between $30-40 million.’’

19th/20th C. American & European Art, 10 a.m.
The Reingold Collection (following 19th/20th C. Art)
Post-War & Contemporary Art, 2:30 p.m.

The last day to consign for these auctions is May 9th

View sale results online at www.sothebys.com