Early 1800s Folk Art

Antique Painted Wardrobe Measurements: H. 185 cm – W. 148 (167 to the frames) cm – D. 55 (63 to the frames) cm Period: circa 1810 Origin: Tyrol Wood: Fir Description: Tyrolean pain...

A beautiful cabinet from the rural south of Germany dating from 1809. The cabinet was once given as a wedding gift to a lady called Anna Barbara. This cabinet is made of solid pine a...

A large Spanish oil on canvas of Our Lady of The Rosary after Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, early 19th century in date. It features the Virgin Mary holding baby Jesus in her arms, she...

Swiss alp painted trunk dated 1808

Colonial Wrought Iron Cross.

A pine scalloped hanging plate rack in original blue paint.

19th Century Dutch Folk art Painting of a Bear Trainer A naïve example of a mid-19th Century Dutch painting on paper. Depicting a bear being trained by a man to entertain passersby. The handwritten inscription suggests the bear trainer stands...

In the midst of the 18th century, in the enchanting land of Burma during the Shan period, a magnificent masterpiece of spiritual artistry was born—an extraordinary Seated Burmese wo...

Period American pine mortise and pestle hand-carved from single log. All original, Early 19th century. Pestle is 28" long and 3.75" diameter.

Early 19th Century Oil Painting of Jesus on Copper Panel. Presented is an early 19th-century artwork, meticulously rendered with oil on a copp...

Beautiful pair of Sphinx made of bronze skillfully worked, sealed to a green alabaster base. The sphinxes have an excellent workmanship and are depicted winged. Finely chiseled. In e...

Set of four English Regency paper mâché painted and gilt nest of tables with shell, coral and mother-of-pearl inlaid checker board top. Tables are rectangle in shape with turned bu...

Hill tribe healing figure carved of solid wood. 19th-early 20th century Golden Triangle area, Southeast Asia Indochina. This is a healing figure used to aid in healing. Arms folded ...

Beautiful solid brass yacht binnacle from John Bliss of New York with gimbaled compass mounted to a varnished wood base. The compass bezel is engraved J...

Pair of Italian gilt carved wood demilune wall brackets with scrolled foliage acanthus motif. All original. Early 19th Century.

A large Nelson commemorative armorial pier glass. This George III giltwood mirror has a rectangular glass plate below a shaped cornice with a central coat of arms for Admiral Lord Nelson (1758-1805) flanked by foliate tendrils on a painted black ground. The sides consist of paired tied-reed columns with palm frond capitals enclosing similar black painted panels of fruiting vine tendrils rising from classical vases. English, circa 1805. See Wick Antiques, Britain on the High Seas: From Nelson to Churchill, pp.76-77, for a very similar giltwood mirror from a group at Merton Place, the house in Surrey which the Admiral shared with his mistress Emma, Lady Hamilton (1765-1815). They all featured his coat of arms surmounted by a baron’s coronet...

A wonderful American folk art pen and watercolor self portrait of John Taylor, Albany, NY, circa 1805-6. Taylor has drawn himself as a fashionable, industrious young man seated at hi...

Obverse: VIRTUTIS SOCIIS FRATERNO MORE LIGATIS PROSPERA CONTINGIT CLAUDERE LUSTRA DECIM DIE 19 OCT. 5807, all-seeing eye in a halo, woman in draped robe and with sun on her chest, kn...

Antique watercolor view of a sailor with pet bird, circa 1800, a lovely detailed painting of a sailor seated in rough chair, tenderly spoon feeding a finch pe...

3 Dimensional Terracotta Statue Khmer or Cambodian Priest This superb piece has a very dark patina he has one hand open to hold a staff, we do not have the staff and the other hand ...

Royal House Antiques Royal House Antiques is delighted to offer for sale this wonderfully primitive fruitwood hemp cutting machine circa 1800 Please note the delivery fee listed is...

EXTRAORDINARILY EARLY (1806) PRINTED LINEN KERCHIEF GLORIFYING GEORGE WASHINGTON, PRINT WORKS, GERMANTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA Printed in blue ink on coarse, white linen, this patriotic kerchief shows a standing portrait of George Washington, above which is a swag valance and the words “The Effect of Principle, Behold the Man”. The portrait is based on a mezzotint after Gilbert Stuart’s very famous painting of Washington in his later years, most often referred to as the Landsdowne portrait. Stuart painted three versions of it in oil on canvas, one of which was completed in 1796 for a wealthy merchant by the name of William Constable, who commissioned the work for Alexander Hamilton. The kerchief is interesting because it is both American-made and documented. This is exceptionally unusual for any printed textile of the 19th century or prior and the earlier the time period the more unlikely an object is to be identified. This kerchief and a companion piece entitled “The Love of Truth Mark the Boy” (also glorifying Washington, through the fabled story of the cherry tree), were made circa 1806 by Germantown Print Works in Germantown, Pennsylvania. To the left of Washington's image is a portion of his infamous farewell address to his troops at the end of the Revolutionary War. To the right is a short excerpt from his eulogy. Below these are three images. In the center is a square-rigged tall ship with “Commercial Union” above it, flanked by the American eagle on the left and the British lion on the right. It is reasonable to assume that the textile may have been produced in demonstration of the maker's desire, and/or that of others, to advance trade with England. Commercial printers were very influential in early America, as they possessed the means by which to disseminate information. This kerchief and its companion piece are documented in Threads of History, Americana Recorded on Cloth, 1775 - the Present, by Herbert Ridgeway Collins (1979, Smithsonian Press), p. 63, items 38 & 39.* The two pieces pictured are in the collection of Cornell University, but the Collins text also cites an uncut pair to be present in the collection of the Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, OH. The name "Germantown Print Works" is printed on the Western Reserve examples. Another example of the textile in question is documented in "Running for President, The Candidates and Their Images, 1789-1896" by Schlesinger, Israel, and Frendt, (1994, Simon & Schuster), p. 15. I have seen three different color variations of this textile, including sepia, mulberry red, and blue. This particular example has a hand-sewn binding along the top, lower, and left edges. Mounting: The textile was mounted and framed within our own conservation department, which is led by expert staff. We take great care in the mounting and preservation of flags and have framed thousands of examples. The gilded molding has a rippled profile and dates to the period between 1825 and 1850.The background is 100% cotton twill, black in color. The glazing is U.V. protective plexiglass. Feel free to contact us for more details. Condition: There is an all-over golden oxidation of the white fabric and there is very minor staining. There are tiny tack holes in each corner and there are minor nicks around the perimeter. * Collins relates that Germantown Printworks was operated by the Hewsons. In doing so he cites one of Worthington Chauncey Ford's books on George Washington, but it isn't clear which one (there are many) and no page numbers are given. John Hewson was an Englishman who came to America and opened his printing business on the advice of Benjamin Franklin. He was one of the first “calico printers” and is the earliest documented to have advertised printed kerchiefs. His ads for bandanas appear as early as June 20th, 1774. He is suspected of having produced the very first American kerchief that pictured an American president, which is documented in Collins as item 1 on page 48. Linda Eaton, curator at Winterthur, in 2012, is currently doing in depth research on the three printers of fabrics that were operating in Germantown in early America. She discovered that the owner and/or operator of Germantown Print Works, while not currently known, was not John Hewson. This information is not yet published. She also noted that Winterthur possessed examples of the two George Washington textiles...