Otis Pierce Cook, Jr. (1900-1980) was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts. He is famous for oil paintings of coastal and landscape scenes. He was a student of Emile Gruppe of Gloucester. He lived in Rockport, Massachusetts and Cape Ann was the topic for many paintings.
This classic ~1940 25″ x 30″ (size without frame) Oil on Canvas depicts Rockport homes. It sold for $9800 in June 2009.
Maynard Dixon (1875-1946) is a 20th century American artist, who focused on the West. Dixon was born in Fresno, California. His family had been aristocratic Virginia Confederates who fled to California after the civil war. His grandfather was a Navy officer from San Francisco. His mother’s passion was reading the classics. She encouraged Dixon to write and develop his art. He became a student of tonalist painter Arthur Mathews at the California School of Design. It was at this time that he became a member of the famous Bohemian Club.
In 1900 Dixon visited Arizona and New Mexico as he roamed the wild west. The next year he and artist Edward Borein went on a horseback trip through several Western states. He also lived in New York with his wife and daughter Constance. But he was drawn back to the west, and his marriage ended.
Influenced in part by the Panama Pacific International Exposition on 1915, Dixon moved away from impressionism and into a simpler, more modern style. He met his second wife Dorothea Lange, a portrait photographer from the East. Maynard’s style changed dramatically around 1925 to more powerful modernist compositions. The power of low horizons and marching cloud formations, simplified and distilled, became his trademark
During the Great Depression, Dixon painted a series of social realism canvasses depicting the prevailing politics of maritime strikes, displaced workers, and those affected so deeply by the depression.
Dixon and Lange divorced in 1935. Two years later he married San Francisco muralist Edith Hamlin. The couple moved to Southern Utah, the source of some of Dixon’s greatest art. He had returned to inspiration of the land. In 1939, he built a summer home in Mount Carmel. Dixon spent winter months in Tucson, where the couple also had a home and studio.
This Western Sunset Landscape measuring 16″ x 12″ (size without frame) oil on canvas sold for $2200 in June 2009.
James Gale Tyler (1855 - 1931) was born in Oswego, New York. In New York City he studied with a marine painter named Archibald Cary Smith. This was the only formal training Tyler ever received.
Tyler is among the most notable marine painters and illustrators of his time. Tyler lived most of his life in Greenwich, Connecticut and had studios in New York City and Providence. From1900-1930 Tyler made an annual trip to Newport, Rhode Island where he painted the America’s Cup Race. He was also a regular writer and illustrator for publications including Harper’s, Century, and Literary Digest.
This 30.25″ x 14″ (size without frame) oil on canvas is titled “Boat Moored” and sold for $1400 in June 2009.
Frank L. Fenton and his brother John founded the Fenton Art Glass Company in Williamstown, West Virginia. The company has been operating from 1906 to present. They produced Carnival Glass from 1907-1925.
The Soldiers and Sailors Home plates are one of the patterns that Fenton did really, really well. Their sales are off the charts … even tho they appear frequently on the market.
The 7-8″ plates come in blue and marigold. The blue Soldiers and Sailors Home plates sell between $1400 and $2500. The marigold sell between $1000 - $2600 depending on their color.
Frank L. Fenton and his brother John founded the Fenton Art Glass Company in Williamstown, West Virginia. The company has been operating from 1906 to present. They produced Carnival Glass from 1907-1925.
Fenton is the only company to produce patterns with animals. The Lion pattern is one of my favorites.
The Lion Pattern comes in 6-7 inch bowls that are wither ruffled, round or ice cream shape. These come in blue and marigold. The Blue can range in price from $200 to $500. The marigold can range in price from $50-$150 depending on color.
The Lion Pattern also comes in a 7-8 inch plate. If you see one of these with great color, buy it! I’ve only seen these in marigold, and they range in price from $500 to $1100 depending on the color.
If the number of searches is any indication of the hot collectibles, then checking out Kovel’s top 20 searches in May 2009 is a good place to start:
1. Occupied Japan
2. Jewelry
3. Silver Plate
4. Capo-Di-Monte
5. Furniture
6. Stove
7. Josef Originals
8. Coca-Cola
9. Lladro
10. Bossons - new to list
11. Royal Bayreuth
12. McCoy
13. Milk Glass
14. Royal Copley
15. Copeland Spode
16. Lighter
17. Bavaria
18. World War II
19. Cookie Jar
20. Bicycle
I wonder if Occupied Japan is getting hot, or if people are cleaning out their attics and their parent’s attics. The top 10 searches on this blog are:
1. Lalique
2. Van Briggle marks
3. Teco pottery
4. Weller pottery marks
5. Muncie pottery
6. Martin Brothers pottery
7. Newcomb College pottery
8. Zsolnay marks
9. Rookwood pottery mark
10. Hull pottery
Frederick Maxfield Parrish was born into a Philadelphia Quaker family. His father, Stephen Parrish, was a successful landscape painter and etcher.Initially interested in architecture, Maxfield Parrish studied in France, England; at Haverford College; at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts; and at Drexel Institute.
Parrish contracted tuberculosis in 1900 and began to focus more on oil painting than illustration. The method he used was to apply many layers of thin oil, alternating with varnish, over stretched paper. Maxfield’s patrons included Vanderbilt, Whitney, Astor, Du Pont and Hearst. Parrish spent time in Arizona to convalesce from Tuberculosis and you can see the Arizona landscape influence on his later work.
In 1905, Parrish met Susan Lewin, a 16-year old girl who he hired to help with their children. Lydia and Maxfield had waited to begin their family until the artist was cured. She was in her early thirties when her first child Dillwyn was born, and was close to forty when Jean, their final child, was born. Susan Lewin’s image appears often in paintings from 1905 through the 1920s. Over time, she became Parrish’s assistant, model for his paintings, and eventually allegedly his lover.
“The Musician” (oil on canvas board 12 x 9) sold for $2,000 in June 2009 on ebay with 13 bids.
Emile Albert Gruppe (1896 - 1978) was born in Rochester New York to Helen and Charles P. Gruppe. He lived in the Netherlands as a child, while his father Charles Paulo Gruppe, painted with the Hague school of art and acted as a dealer for Dutch painters in the US. The family returned permanently to the states around 1913 just before WWI. In the early 1930’s Emile moved to the fishing town of Gloucester, Massachusetts and to the area known as Rocky Neck, one of the oldest artist communities in the US.
This 24 x 20 inch painting of a harbor sold for $1009 on ebay with 13 bids in June 2009.
Charles Paul Gruppe (Canadian-born American Tonalist Painter, 1860-1940). Charles Paul Gruppe was born in Picton, Canada in 1860 and moved to Rochester, New York while still a child.
Gruppe traveled to Europe and settled in Holland at Katwick Ann Zee where he lived for about 20 years and attained a reputation as an artist. Gruppe moved back to the United States in 1909. After living in New York City he moved to the Cape Ann area of Massachusetts. Charles Gruppe and his son, Emile, maintained a studio on Cape Ann where they sold numerous scenes of the sea and harbors at Gloucester and Rockport.
The Wood Cutter sold in June 2009 on ebay for $3550.
Hull made the art pottery Bow-Knot pattern in 1949. There were 29 shapes, over time, I will try to add them all. Each piece was hand tinted.
Hull Bull-Knot Vase: B-3-6 1/2″ – value - $200-$300
Hull Bull-Knot Pitcher Wall Pocket, B-26-6″ — value - $275-$350
Hull Bull-Knot Vase, B-9-8 1/2″ — value - $290-$350
Hull Bull-Knot Basket, B-25-6 1/2″ — value - $325-$400
Hull Bull-Knot Flower Pot with Attached Saucer, B-6-6 1/2″ — value - $225-$300
Hull Bull-Knot Vase, B-8-8 1/2″ — value - $260-$350
This 12″ Bowknot basket sold for $1225 with 28 bids on ebay in June 2009
