George Smith Curtains and Valances

A fine example of a batik textile from Solo, Java, Indonesia. This textile features wonderful detailing & contrast. It features a wonderful array of flor...

Late 19th or early 20th century Shaker textile with colorful and graphic horizontal bands and scalloped border. Ohio/Pennsylvania origin. Professio...

Decorative cushion cover made of hand embroidery silk on linen background, flowers and vine motifs, linen backing with zipper, no insert. Delicate and specialised washing advised. M...

Decorative Suzani cushion cover featuring hand embroidered silk on silk background, flowers and vine motifs, linen backing with zipper, no insert. Delicate and specialised washing...

Decorative cushion cover made of hand embroidery silk on linen background, flowers and vine motifs, linen backing with zipper, no insert. Delicate and specialised washing advised. ...

Vintage South American hand woven and hand embroidered textile pane. The brilliantly colored textile panel has a silk hand embroidery in the center medallion featuring a pair of birds. The textile has an extremely fine weave and a very high quality handspun wool that was hand dyed with natural vegetable dyes. It would be an ideal piece as wall art. Dimensions: 27” x 44” Date of Manufacture: 3rd Quarter of the 1900s Place of Origin: South America Material: Very fine wool fiber with natural vegetable dyes Condition: Wear consistent with age and use The Persian Knot, SKU: 2249 Vintage South American Textiles, Peruvian Textiles, Indian Textiles, Mexican Handwoven Textiles, Vintage Mexican Textiles...

Bold contrasting tones on this minimalist ikat from Toraja Land. Ikat is an ancient technique which is used to add patterns to textiles. The designs are created in the yarns rather than on the finished cloth, which results with the pattern on both sides in bold contrasting colors.This beautiful, extra long textile...

A fine example of a batik textile from Solo, Java, Indonesia. This textile features wonderful detailing & contrast. It features a wonderful array of flor...

Nice decorative hand tinted map of Japan with the title (in French): Carte de L'Empire du Japon Bellin, 1752 This antique map is engraved with very attractive title cartouche. ...

Antique print titled 'Aftekening der Schilderye op 't Stadhuis te Dordrecht (..)'. Scene of the battle of Chattam during one of the many Anglo-Dutch wars. In this battle, the Dutch sailed up the river Thames and destroyed part of the English fleet at anchor in the harbor of Chattam. Pictured in the foreground is the Dutch commander, Cornelius de Wit, being presented with the spoils of war...

A wonderful Hand-Crafted Shantung Silk Textile from Malaysia with Stunning Detailing and shades. Shantung silk is a medium-weight, plain-weave silk fabric which is woven from irregul...

Super rare and impressive pair of large cotton ''gordijnstof' curtains, designed in 1963 by world renowned Dutch painter and sculptor Karel Appel (1921-2006) for the textile company Hermann Hartman & Co of Amsterdam. This extremely rare, original repeat print textile is documented in the Stedelijk museum's textile collection under object nubmer KNA 1998, please see image 2. Each curtain measures 56.7" X 83.85" (144cm X 213cm). 'Gordijnstof' translates as "curtain fabric" confirming that this textile was originally designed by Appel specifically for use as curtains however being of such an impressive dimension these examples could equally be used as wall hangings ,as photographed, or mounted on both sides of a screen or mounted and framed as an art work in its own right , a practice which is becoming increasingly commonplace as high end textile designs by important artists are becoming increasingly valued , appreciated and sought after in the marketplace. Appel's paintings and sculptures can be found in the collections of some of the world's most prominent museums including the Museum of Modern art in New York and Tate Modern ,London. Each curtain is of a very impressive scale with each measuring 56.7 " (144 cm) X 83.85" (213cm). The curtains are signed on the banding KUNSTENAAR DESSIN ONTWERP Karel Appel, HARTMAN PRINT, AMSTERDAM. Another of Appel's designs for Hermann Hartman,Amsterdam can be found in the collection of the national textile museum in Holland. Please see image 9. Even a small sample of this 1963 textile in good condition would be hard to find today but to find two large scale Appel curtains intact and in beautiful unfaded condition with no staining or fraying must be next to unique today. This is a very rare find and certainly a unique opportunity. Image 10 shows Karel Appel in his atelier in New York in 1966. Provenance: These curtains come from the private collection of a retired Professor from Oxford,UK. Biography: Karel Appel was an Expressionist Dutch painter. He was a member of the famous Cobra, the European group of the late 1940s to early 1950s, which promoted spontaneous expressionism and abstract features in painting. Appel's paintings incorporate applications of vibrant, violent colors often possessing a primal, childlike quality or a schizophrenic innocence. Later in life, Appel turned to creating figurative sculptures. Examples of his work can be seen in the Museum of Modern Art, New York City, Boymans-Van Beuningen Museum, Rotterdam, and other collections. Expressionist painter Karel Appel made a name for himself in the world of painting by creating a majestic collection of highly distinguishable work for which he became internationally renowned. From the start, art curators could not ignore Appel's work, which has been exhibited at major museums around the world, including New York's Museum of Modern Art, the Manhattan-based Guggenheim Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the Tate Gallery in London. Though Appel is widely recognized as one of the best-known Dutch Expressionist painters of all time, he was also a passionate printmaker, sculptor, and ceramicist. Karel Appel’s childhood and early life Christiaan Karel Appel was born on April 25, 1921, in his parents’ house at 7 Dapperstraat, Amsterdam. His father, Jan Appel, owned a barbershop. His mother, born Johanna Chevalier, was a descendant of French Huguenots. Karel Appel had three brothers. He studied art from 1940 to 1943 at the Rejksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, the Royal Academy of Fine Arts during the German occupation and befriended young painter Corneille and, some years later, Constant. His parents opposed his choice to become an artist, leading him to leave home. This was also necessary to hide himself from the German police so that he would not be picked up and sent to Germany to work in the weapon industry. Appel produced his first real painting on canvas, which was a still life of a fruit basket at the age of fourteen. On his fifteenth birthday, his wealthy uncle Karel Chevalier gave him a paint set and an easel and some lessons on painting. Career. In 1946, his first solo show was held in Groningen, Netherlands. He also participated in the Jonge Schilders exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum of Amsterdam nd created a buzz in the art world, as it generated a huge scandal and many objections in the press and public. About this time, Appel was influenced first by Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse, then by the French brute-art artist Jean Dubuffet. In 1947, he started sculpting with various used materials and painted them in bright colors such as white, red, yellow, blue and black. Karel Appel became the member of Nederlandse Experimentele Group in Holland along with the young Dutch painters Anton Rooskens...