Newly Discovered Pair of 1920s Cubist Frescoes by Eyre de Lanux

Madcap, whimsical, spritely, over-the-top -- these are just a few of the adjectives that spring to mind in describing this stylish pair of 1920s French sconces. Their steel frames a...

Baguès main claim to decorative-arts fame is their collaboration, which began in 1919, with the designer Armand Rateau. Today he’s identified with the Art Deco style, and celebrated ...

This abstract 1920s Swedish sculpture of painted-and-gilded plaster, on a painted-wood base, is pleasing from all angles. At the time and place where it...

This 1927 Royal Copenhagen porcelain sculpture is exceptionally large in scale, and appears to represent an Amazon with her hound. It is remarkable for the...

Great grandson of the famous writer Victor Hugo, the painter Jean Hugo (1894-1984) was in the thick of the Paris art scene between the wars. A member of the avant garde, he was a friend of Picasso, Cocteau and Colette and was associated with the Neo Romantics. His small gouaches on paper were avidly collected by Dr. Albert Barnes, and can be seen today in the Barnes Collection in Philadelphia. Hugo's most desirable work -- landscapes, interior scenes, set designs -- date from the mid 1920s to the late 1930s. This whimsical painting, signed and dated 1927, is set in a curtained, classical interior furnished with Victorian lighting fixtures...

This Mughal miniature was painted at one of the princely courts of India. It depicts a raven-haired princess in a gold-trimmed saffron-colored silk sari. Under a glowering evening sky she dawdles on a white marble terrace, with a pet fawn on a leash, before a landscape dotted with buildings nestled amongst trees beyond a river. Her hair, falling loosely about her shoulders, rather than carefully dressed on her head, indicates that she is a maiden. The overall mood is one of expectancy. Perhaps walking a pet and catching an evening breeze is a pretext to escape palace scrutiny for a lovers’ assignation. In Mughal India tender sentiments were a bridge to the erotic – and if this seems contradictory, so too is the balance of realism and caricature, and naturalism with the schematic. Both are hallmarks of miniatures painted in this place and time. The earliest Mughal Indian miniatures date to the 16th century. They were inspired by those painted at the refined Moslem courts of the neighboring Persian empire. They incorporated figures in spite of the Moslem faith’s proscription against depicting the human form. Such was the nature of sophisticated courtly life everywhere that beauty and pleasure trumped systems of morality. This was no less the case at the provincial Indian courts, where our miniature, marked by a charming pictorial naiveté, was most likely painted. Yet the artist was undeniably accomplished. His command of perspective, introduced by Jesuit missionaries in the 17th century, is seen in the landscape, which rolls back to a distant horizon, contrary to the flat two-dimensional ones following Indian-painting traditions. And if Mughal artists were influenced by Western art, the compliment was returned by Rembrandt and Sir Joshua Reynolds, among others, who collected Indian miniatures (as did, perhaps, Giovanni Bellini who painted in Mughal style the famous miniature of a Persian man...

A brilliant example of Cubist-influenced Art Deco painting, this view of a young flamenco dancer, with a wide-brimmed hat and roses on her hair, was painted by Jules Schyl, one of Sw...

Elegant pair of wall hanging made of handcrafted twisted iron pieces from the Mizner Era of palm beach Florida, put together to become very attractive wall decoration. Could use hor...

These two porcelain plaques have been expertly painted to show portraits of a young girl and a young boy, and are set within circular brass frames. The girl wears a light blue coat...

Famed for his product designs in the 1940s and 1950s, and his Jazz Bowl commissioned by Eleanor Roosevelt, Victor Schreckengost was also a painter...

Pair of vintage signs, from a local in the Langhe in Piedmont (Italy), a hilly wine-producing area, this structure had both hotel and tavern, very beautiful and with a historic flavo...

Two paintings, sold as a pair, from Italy circa 1880. Curved tops. Measurements: 39.75'' W x 71'' H x 3'' D.