Montecristo Custom Humidor by Jose Seijas Tabacalera D Garcia LTD. Limited Ed

SALE ONE WEEK ONLY “Leda and the Swan” is by Reuben Nakian (1897 - 1986). He was an American sculptor and teacher of Armenian extraction. His works’ recurring themes are from Greek and Roman mythology. Nakian’s small bronzes achieve majesty and power which are not dependent on size and amplitude. With characteristic freshness, he has reinterpreted the classical subject of Leda and the Swan refining it in the Classical-Renaissance-Baroque tradition in a contemporary way. Dr. Robert P. Metzger gives us his aesthetic interpretation of this work which retells the myth in classical hedonism and freedom of expression showing Leda and the Swann prior to her being ravaged and during their first meeting. “The young virgin is fascinated with her new found friend and accepts him in a spirit of playfulness, contentment and wonder. She is dreamily available and shyly seductive as the deceptively tame swan snuggles up to her with its phallic-like neck.” Leda appears composed, placid yet open and available as compared to her more intense and passionate states in other of Nakian’s depictions on the same theme. This was cast at the "Renaissance Art Foundry" in 1978 and is so marked on the base being #5 of 7. It is believed that “no other sculptor of the twentieth century matched Rueben’s heroic renditions with the grand themes of Western Art. His erotic mythological figures exude a joyous energy of gesture and movement which place them among seminal sculptural achievements of the past one hundred years.” Nakian studied at the Independent School of Art in New York City previously known as the Robert Henri School … with Homer Boss...

Wassily Club Chair by Marcel Breuer designed in 1925 - 26 for Knoll also known as the Model B3 chair. Breuer designed this chair while he was the head of the cabinet-making workshop at the Bauhaus, in Dessau, Germany. These chairs are in excellent condition and as strong and beautiful as when they were first created. Inspired by the frame of a bicycle and influenced by the constructivist theories of the De Stjil movement, Marcel Breuer was still an apprentice at the Bauhaus when he reduced the classic club chair to its elemental lines and planes, forever changing the course of furniture design. His revolutionary Wassily chair marries durable leather with the industrial-age aesthetic of cantilevered tubular steel. Functional, simple and distinctly modern. Protégé of Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius, Marcel Breuer embodied many of the School's distinctive concepts and was and one of the School's most famous students. He returned to teach carpentry from 1925-1928, during which he designed the tubular-steel furniture collection. His attention drifted towards architecture, and after practicing...

The Crowned Crane by Hutschenreuther- Selb is a richly rendered glaze painted in blue grays, maroon, pale yellow, brown and delicately rendered green foliage. In incised marks of the...

Extremely rare combination pendant attached to custom-made chain by Harry Bertoia in sterling silver, containing one Lapis Lazuli and one Coral. This piece comes from a private collection. Provenance will accompany the piece. The work has been added to the Harry Bertoia Catalogue Raisonné and assigned the following catalogue raisonné number: D.JE.78. Although associated with Mid-Century Modern furniture, Harry Bertoia was originally a jewelry designer who used both sterling silver, precious stones and gem stones. The pendant measures: 1.25" long x 1" wide. The necklace measures: 11" length with a measurement of 22" overall length. The chain and closure are all handcrafted and in his unique design. Lapis Lazuli measures 20mm round supported by one 6 mm red coral. Total weight is 33 grams. The following is from Beverly H. Twitchell, PhD, author of Bertoia: The Metalworker, London: Phaidon, 2019. She provides a very informative critique of Bertoia and his jewelry. Wearable Art an Important Design for a Necklace “Before Harry Bertoia enrolled at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in 1937 he had already mastered traditional jewelers’ techniques, but his engagement with Modernism led him to invent and use more direct methods. Instead of precious metals and gems, Bertoia made jewelry that appealed through its design, craftsmanship and the nature of its materials. That approach would make Bertoia a direct predecessor of the American Studio Crafts movement. So complex and cumulative are human perception and memory that we often do not know from where our own ideas come and without firm evidence, it is impossible to think we can establish the origins of an artist’s ideas. While his jewelry is entirely modern, chokers with multiple small pendants had come from ancient Mediterranean cultures: Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece and Italy, even from Europe and America at the turn of the last century. Did Bertoia see works in books, journals or at the Detroit Institute of Arts that resonated with him or did he invent this on his own, as he would so many other forms? Bertoia found inspiration in nature from an early age on a small farm in Italy and later in Cranbrook’s woods, on the beaches of southern California and in the fields near his home in eastern Pennsylvania where he lived after 1950. The fluidity and motion of the his jewelry characterize much of his art. In that spirit, too, he made jewelry that suited human anatomy and was animated by its wearer’s movement. Bertoia had the instincts of an engineer, as the intricacy of the present lot’s clasp and overall construction of the jewelry demonstrates. Large jewelry by Bertoia is very rare. A delight to the eye, and like all of Bertoia’s work it is timeless.” Harry Bertoia (1915 – 1978) was an Italian-born American artist, jewelry creator and modern furniture designer. He was born in San Lorenzo d-Arzene, Pordenone, Italy. At age 15 he moved to Detroit, Michigan to live with his older brother, Oreste. He quickly learned English and the bus schedule and enrolled in Cass Tech High School in Detroit (1930-1936) where he studied art and design and learned the skill of handmade jewelry making. At that time, there were three jewelry and metals teachers Louise Green...