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White Bunny Drawing by Oleg Cassini for Playboy October 1979, Signed. Illustration of a woman wearing a white body suit, choker, and hat. Signed by Oleg Cassini. Notice the body suit is in the shape of the head of a bunny with clever use of the 'whiskers'. Approximate Measurements: Length: 11" Width: 14" Property from the Collection of Steven Rosengard, Chicago, Illinois This original drawing was commissioned by Playboy and included in the October 1979 issue of Playboy Magazine (pages 225-227) in a feature that included works from designers such as Bill Blass, Oleg Cassini, Edith Head, Fernando Sanchez, and Monika Tilley, among others, who create their versions of the Playboy bunny costume. Candace Collins can be seen modeling some of the designs in the feature. Oleg Cassini is an icon of twentieth-century fashion. Though born to Russian aristocracy and raised in Italy, he built a fashion empire that was unmistakably American. Cassini is perhaps best known for the hundreds of designs he created for First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy (see images 4-8), but his achievements as a collector, connoisseur, and quintessential twentieth-century man go far beyond Camelot. In 1913, Oleg Cassini was born in Paris to the Russian diplomat Count Alexander Loiewski and Countess Marguerite Cassini, a Russian aristocrat of Italian ancestry who also had an interesting link to America. The daughter of Count Arthur Cassini, Russian Ambassador to the United States during the McKinley and Roosevelt administrations, Marguerite dazzled turn-of-the-century Washington as her father’s official hostess and left her mark on the capital city. Stationed in Denmark when the Russian Revolution toppled the czar, Ambassador Cassini and family were exiled to Switzerland before settling in Florence, Italy, where young Oleg was raised. A true Renaissance man, he spoke Russian, French, and Danish before adding Italian and English; he studied medieval and modern European military history and costume and learned to draw; he learned horseback riding, fencing, and the art of chivalry; and, most importantly, he came to understand the struggles of the Russian titled class and other European aristocrats in the wake of the Russian Revolution and World War I. Countess Cassini started a successful fashion business in Florence, and soon the talented young Oleg was sent to Paris to sketch the latest collections for recreation in Italy. In Rome in his early 20s, Cassini created fashions for high society women and designed for a few films, which planted the seed for his move to Hollywood. The drive to reinvent himself brought Cassini to America in the 1930s; in his autobiography he describes arriving nearly penniless in mid-Depression New York City where his title as an exiled Russian Count meant even less than in war-devastated Europe. Down and out, Cassini struggled for employment, having sketching skills but no knowledge of the wholesale trade required for survival in Manhattan’s Seventh Avenue fashion district. However, he excelled at making connections, and Cassini slowly entered New York society. He was soon joined by younger brother Igor (who had studied in America and travelled with the young Emilio Pucci) and his parents, the once-dazzling Countess and his father, the displaced diplomat still loyal to Russia. The family settled in Washington, D.C., and Igor worked his way up the Hearst newspaper chain to become the famous society columnist Cholly Knickerbocker. In New York, Oleg Cassini married the troubled socialite Merry Fahrney (who would go on to marry eight times), but the marriage ended in scandal for Oleg, and he decided to follow his original intention and head for Hollywood. Despite initial difficulties, Cassini gained access to Hollywood’s elite (partially through his skills on the tennis court), and was soon hired as a designer at Paramount Pictures alongside the redoubtable Edith Head. In her 1941 film debut I Wanted Wings, Veronica Lake wore a memorable Cassini design. That same year, Cassini met and married the newest young Hollywood star on the scene, the beautiful 20th Century Fox–talent Gene Tierney. With the outbreak of World War II, Cassini enlisted in the Coast Guard but was transferred to the U.S. Army Cavalry which allowed officers of foreign birth. He attended basic training at Fort Riley, Kansas, and the horsemanship he learned as a boy served him greatly. He attended Officer Candidate School and reached the rank of First Lieutenant (he also became an American citizen at this time, losing his title of Count). Cassini spent several years posted at Fort Riley, where Tierney joined him before he landed a convenient military post in Hollywood. As Tierney’s career thrived (she played the title role in Otto Preminger’s Laura in 1944), she was able to assert her influence over 20th Century Fox’s head Daryl Zanuck, who hired Cassini as designer for Tierney on her 1946 film The Razor’s Edge, which proved to be a brilliant showcase for his talents. The pair separated the same year and, again seeking reinvention, Cassini re-established himself in New York City as a fashion designer. By 1950, the Oleg Cassini label was born. Combining his knowledge of Old World and modern Europe, Hollywood, the tennis courts of Palm Beach and Newport, and of course, New York City, Oleg Cassini invented a new brand of fashion that was distinctly American and of its moment. For his first collection, Cassini took to the stage, narrating the looks and imbuing the scene with his personality, unusual in an industry where the designers typically remained backstage and the models were called by number over a PA. The first collection was a smash — the president of Lord & Taylor devoted all of their storefront windows to his designs — and by 1955 sales had reached $5,000,000. Oleg Cassini’s career had turned a very positive corner. Cassini spent the early 1950s traversing the country, personally selling his collections to department stores in the interior, something his predecessors had never done, and moving between the Hollywood and New York scenes. Cassini’s brother Igor coined the term “the Jet Set” for this generation that constantly flew from New York to Los Angeles (then a ten-hour flight), Las Vegas, Paris, Rome, and the Riviera. In 1954, Cassini set out to woo Grace Kelly and sent her roses every day. The two were briefly engaged before her marriage to Prince Rainier of Monaco. In December 1960, Cassini’s career-defining opportunity came when he was chosen by Jacqueline Kennedy to design her fashions for the White House. Cassini had long known Joe Kennedy and his war-hero son John, and had first met Jacqueline Bouvier before her marriage in the early 1950s. Invited by President-Elect Kennedy to meet Jacqueline at Georgetown Hospital (she had just given birth to son John Jr.) to present to her drawings of potential dresses and First Lady looks, Cassini worked furiously to prepare a new line for the First Lady. Mrs. Kennedy had always had her clothes made by the top French couturiers of the day, but for the White House she wanted an American designer. Cassini wrote in his autobiography that he told the First Lady: “‘You have an opportunity here,’ I said, ‘for an American Versailles.’ She understood completely what I was trying to communicate; she began to talk excitedly about the need to create an entirely new atmosphere at the White House. She wanted it to become the social and intellectual capital of the nation” (Oleg Cassini, In My Own Fashion, 1987, p. 327). Mrs. Kennedy loved Cassini’s design for a gown to wear to the Inaugural Gala (she had already ordered a dress from Bergdorf’s for the Inaugural Ball), and Cassini was selected as the First Lady’s designer and was soon dubbed the “Secretary of Style.” From 1960 to 1963, Oleg Cassini would design over 300 items for Mrs. Kennedy, creating the “Jackie Look” that contributed not only to a fashion revolution but also the dawn of a new age. Cassini wrote that “Jackie played a very active role in the selection of her clothes. She loved brilliant colors — pistachio, hot pink, yellow, and white among others. Her sense of style was very precise; she would make editorial comments on the sketches I sent her. She always knew exactly what she wanted; her taste was excellent” (Oleg Cassini, In My Own Fashion, 1987, p. 334). After the Camelot years, Cassini’s business flourished and grew into a major industry; his name appeared on everything from couture to tennis-, sport-, and swimwear, car interiors, housewares, and perfume. He collected beautiful and rare artwork, arms and armor, and antique furniture, and lived the lifestyle projected by his image. From this period onward, Cassini also came to live in important homes. Of his Gothic Gramercy Park townhouse on Manhattan’s 19th Street he would write imaginatively, “I walked into the foyer and immediately fell in love. It was a place unlike any other in New York, a sixteenth-century Dutch house transported brick by brick from Europe by the Wells Fargo family in the early twentieth century. There was a vaulted, twenty-foot ceiling in the living room, leaded windows, elegantly carved wood paneling...

A beautiful drawing of The Grand Canal Fabulous quality. On wove quality paper/card Signed on verso. Unframed *Robert Hindmarsh Grundy. 1816-1865. Examples of his wor...

After Émile Munier (1810-circa 1895) 'Fischend Amor' A Berlin (K.P.M.) Porcelain plaque, circa 1880 painted with cupid and another putto using his bow to fish his quiver of arrows...

Leonard Howard Reedy (1899-1956) Following Pony Tracks Drawing-Watercolor Watercolour/paper Signed Leonard H. Reedy (lower left) Measures: Fr...

Jean-Louis Forain (1852-1931) 'At the Theater' graphite and colored chalk on paper signed Forain (lower left) Size with frame: Height 22.87 in. (58...

Edouard Detaille (1848-1912) "Soldiers with flag" Print-multiple, set of four, hand colored lithograph Measures: Framed height 20.5 in. (52.07 cm.), width 16.37 in. (41.57 cm.) W...

Ernest Haskell (1876-1925) Portrait of a Woman, 3/4 view. Pencil on paper Measures: 8 3/4 x 6 3/4 inches Provenance: THE ESTATE OF WILLIAM M. V. KINGSLAND Richard York Gallery...

Leonard Howard Reedy (1899-1956) In The Arroyo Drawing-watercolor Watercolor/paper Signed Leonard H. Reedy (lower left) Measures: Framed heig...

Continental school, 19th-20th century "Cherubs" Gouache and Watercolor on paper Size with frame: 19 x 11 in. (48.26 x 27.94 cm.)  

Set of four French equestrian engravings 18th-19th century depicting aristocrats and prize stallions in a procession or being shown at a festiva...

Jack Youngerman (1926-2020) "Geranium" 1963 Pastel on board Signed with initials, dedicated and dated 'For Norman + Posrty VI 30 '63 J.Y.' (along the left edge) Measures: 12" x 8...

Frederick Goodall (English. 1901-1980) "Arab Market". Monogrammed F G l/l. Watercolor. Measuring: 8 3/4" by 6 1/2".

Ernest Haskell (1876-1925) Gentleman with A Moustache. Pencil on paper Measures: 7 x 4 3/4 inches (sight size) size with frame 10 3/4 x 14 1/4 inches Provenance: Richard York...

This strong and confident drawing of a standing male nude was made by Allyn Cox, probably for one of an array of murals he painted in the 1920s, 30s and 40s, starting with an series of paintings for the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library at UCLA in 1925. Son of Kenyon Cox...

A very interesting early 19th century needlework sampler depecting 'Solomons Temple' housed in its original rosewood frame.  

Antonio Pietro Martino, (1902-1988) "Back Yards" watercolor on paper, signed lower right "A P Martino" Size with frame: Height 19 in. (48.26 cm.) Widt...

Ketty Gilsoul-Hoppe (1868-1939) "Garden Scene" ink and watercolor drawing, signed lower right "K Gilsoul-Hoppe" Size with frame: Height 19 in. (48.26 cm.) Width 22.87 in. (58.1 c...

This 1929 vintage ink and inkwash drawing of a bare-chested boxer is turned away from the viewer, his gloved hands raised high as if the fight has just been won. The artist, William ...

This mural preparatory drawing by Fely-Mouttet, best known for his abstract paintings from the 1940s and 1950s, is a fine example of Art Deco figural design. Stylized and abstracted,...

"Purification" is a rare artist's working print, which served as the basis for a mural or bas-relief sculpture for a building in the 1930s, probably a water treatment building in the...

Henry Moore, English, 1898-1986. "Eight Sculptural Ideas, Girl Writing". Signed in pencil, dated 73 and inscribed Artist's proof. Lithograph. Measures...

Leonard Howard Reedy (1899-1956) Attack on the pony express Drawing-watercolor Watercolor or paper Signed lower right Leonard H. Reedy. Measures...

This dramatic scene depicts two figures: a half-nude woman with staff and wide-brimmed hat -- a modern, adult version of a shepherdess -- along with a reclining male figure. Both fig...

A Fine and important depiction of an African American worker, one of the artist's favorite subjects, this drawing by Francis De Erdelyi gives a hint of his important influence on a g...

A classic example of 1930s drawing showing the influence of Cubism and Art Deco design, this depiction of a nude couple standing in a landscape with fractured hills and clouds was created by Glidden Parker, most famous for his influence on modern ceramics and home design. Parker's stripped-down, geometric forms for tableware and decorative ware became widely popular in the 1940s and 1950s, and his earliest pieces sometimes have Art Deco decorative motifs. This drawing precedes the establishment of Glidden Pottery...

Pair of 1930s drawings if sleeping babies by P. Cazot.

1870s Charcoal drawing of an English girl. Signed.

Niobe Greek mythology theme signed, 1938 framed (1 chip off on frame finish).

1970s abstract pencil drawing by Canfield.

Four original lithographs of Versailles signed and numbered by the French artist André Hambourg. All of them are framed and the edition is written at the back, all four are from a 30...

An original Jansen pencil drawing depicting an architectural detail "Rosace de Plafond" page 137. Stamped: Jansen, 9 Rue Royale Paris 8e.

Lovely etching on paper in back ink by Giovanni Antonio Canal (Canaletto). Measurements: 22" x 15" Hand-numbered in pencil at the bottom right with the number 6. Part of a co...

A 20th Century pastel painting on paper of a chocolate Labrador. Excellent condition of this handsome dog. Signed on lower corner, dated '85.. 17 hi...

Although this drawing depicts a male nude, the artist here is clearly focusing on the power of his arms, hands and legs in particular. John Grabach, best known for his cityscapes and...

For your consideration is a lovely mezzotint etching, titled "Four Flowers," signed by artist Don Jensen. The dimensions are 37.75" H x 21.25" W framed. In excellent condition.        

For your consideration is a framed, sott ground etching and aquatint, titled "Shower," signed and numbered by Eric Fischl, 62/100. The dimensions are 28" H x 32" W framed. In excelle...

Portrait chalk sketch of a nude woman sitting and reclining on a floor. In the manner of Salvador Dali. This piece is composed of bright oranges, yellows and emerald greens with smal...

Colorful chalk drawing of a nude woman in repose unframed. This beautiful piece features bold bright complementary colors on blue paper. This still Life nude painting is a wonderful ...

Drawing in watercolour made by Jules Pascin (1885 - 1930 Paris) in early 20th century. "Female nude in an armchair". Study of a lightly covered young woman, painted with a fleeting ...

Tall portrait painting on paper of a French man. The young man is wearing a long sleeve red and a white stripe shirt. His sleeves are pulled up to his elbows, and a red belt cinches ...

Original Gordon Henderson fashion sketches, watercolor and pencil on paper. Signed and framed (listed measurements includes frame). Each sketch measur...

Arthur William Brown illustration drawn in 1915. Inscription by Booth Tarkington in 1944. From a Southampton, NY estate.

Original Gordon Henderson fashion sketches, watercolor and pencil on paper. Signed and framed (listed measurements includes frame). Each sketch measur...

A veritable Renaissance Man in his day, Charles L'Eplattenier was a leading proponent of a form of Art Nouveau in Switzerland that became known as "style sapin" or "pine style." He w...

One of Germany's great inter-war Expressionists, strongly influenced by Cubism, Josef Eberz painted a number of brilliantly-hued, high-energy paintings as well as a series of prints ...

In 1925 -- only a year before he opened an industrial design studio that would soon become famous for product designs commissioned by Kodak, Texaco and Steinway among many other industrial companies -- Teague drew this evocative image of a French cavalier on horseback for his personal Christmas card. Although Teague is best known today for the Brownie camera...

This lovely drawing of four nude male figures looking into the distance contrasts realistic human figuration with a highly abstract setting in bold blues, greens and burnt sienna. Th...

Finely and beautifully captured, this depiction of a shirtless young man, handsome and pensive, sitting on the beach with his legs grasped in his ...

Sir Jacob Epstein figurative pencil drawing circa early 1930s, with provenance available. There is a drawing on the front and back of the same piece of paper and thus the buyer is ge...

"Floating Man," study for ceiling mural with male nude by Allyn Cox, 1920s This dramatic drawing, which demonstrates the artist's mastery of the human fi...

John Grabach, best known for his cityscapes and genre scenes, much coveted by collectors in America, was also a master of the nude, which this drawing amply demonstrates. This exampl...

Superbly conceived and executed by Gaston Goor in the late 1940s, when he was at the height of his powers, this drawing brings together three male figures -- all beautifully depicted...

This original, signed drawing by John Held, Jr. -- whose artistry helped to define the Jazz Age and enliven the pages of America's most sophisticated magazines -- depicts a tuxedoed ...

This portrait of a handsome young man with cleft chin, wavy hair and a steady gaze was drawn by Porter Woodruff in pastel and sanguine on pale yellow paper in the 1930s. The artist is best known for his paintings and illustrations for Vogue magazine -- one of five American fashion illustrators who worked for the magazine -- as well as House & Garden. Woodruff was born in Tennessee, but spent much of his creative life in Paris and Tunisia, where he lived with Georges Sébastian, an important Hungarian-born, French orchestra...

Maurice Denis (1870-1943) Drawing Black & white chalk/paper "Figures Praying" Inscribed lower left, "A Boris Metschersky sonn.... affecteaux de notre f...

An early and important example of graphic design by a woman artist, this striking drawing for "Plastics" in ink and watercolor was executed by Elsie Pivcevich in Cleveland. The stylized Christmas ornaments depicted here suggest that the advertisement was for a manufacturer of holiday decorations...

Highly atmospheric and drenched in lovely color, this drawing showing farmers piling pumpkins and men walking off to the hunt, set off by the purple hills behind, was made by Aiden L...

Amazing drawing of three horses galloping. This painting is signed "Chub 59' ". This drawing has a custom-made black painted frame.