20th Century Decorative Art

One of a kind artwork picture or mirror frame. This unique work of wall-art never seizes to draw your attention. Everytime you look at it, you will discover something new, because there is so much going on. The beauty and originality in this modern work of art is that the entire frame is mostly filled with old and antique bits...

This abstract tableau has been hand carved out different kinds of woods. The abstract shapes are amorph and make an interestring composition.

A fun abstract painting on a merlot background in its original walnut & gilt frame with antique glass. We have not been able to find any information on the artist, but it is signed a...

This is a vintage framed bird scene. A Japanese, silk cotton embroidery display, dating to the Art Deco period, circa 1940. Attractive Oriental ...

Wonderful image by Edmund Dulac Tipped in plate onto paper Lithograph. Published C.1930 The measurement given is the paper size not the actual coloured printed image. Repair to...

Scandinavian Modern earthenware wall plaque, Heinz Erret for Gustavsberg, 1970's. Silver inlays, dark blue glaze with decoration from Småland's landscape flower. Signed with makers m...

I have owned this Patrick Nagel original silkscreen “Seated Man” since it was released in 1981. I was in fashion college then and Patrick and hi...

A Fine Italian 19th Century Oil Painting on Canvas "La Madonna della Seggiola" after Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino 1483-1520). The circular painted canvas depicting a seated Madonna holding an infant Jesus Christ next to a child Saint John the Baptist, all within a massive carved two-tone gilt wood, gilt-patinated and gesso frame, which is identical to the frame on Raphael's original artwork. This painting is a 19th Century copy of Raphael's Madonna della Seggiola painted in 1514 and currently exhibited and part of the permanent collection at the Palazzo Pitti, Galleria Palatina, Florence, Italy. The bodies of the Virgin, Christ, and the boy Baptist fill the whole picture. The tender, natural looking embrace of the Mother and Child, and the harmonious grouping of the figures in the round, have made this one of Raphael's most popular Madonnas. The isolated chair leg is reminiscent of papal furniture, which has led to the assumption that Leo X himself commissioned the painting. Circa: 1890-1900. Subject: Religious painting Painting diameter: 28 inches (71.1 cm) Frame height: 55 1/8 inches (140 cm) Frame width: 46 inches (116.8 cm) Frame depth: 5 1/8 inches (13 cm) Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (Italian, March 28 or April 6, 1483 - April 6, 1520), known as Raphael, was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of composition, and visual achievement of the Neoplatonic ideal of human grandeur. Together with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, he forms the traditional trinity of great masters of that period. Raphael was enormously productive, running an unusually large workshop and, despite his death at 37, leaving a large body of work. Many of his works are found in the Vatican Palace, where the frescoed Raphael Rooms were the central, and the largest, work of his career. The best known work is The School of Athens in the Vatican Stanza della Segnatura. After his early years in Rome much of his work was executed by his workshop from his drawings, with considerable loss of quality. He was extremely influential in his lifetime, though outside Rome his work was mostly known from his collaborative printmaking. After his death, the influence of his great rival Michelangelo was more widespread until the 18th and 19th centuries, when Raphael's more serene and harmonious qualities were again regarded as the highest models. His career falls naturally into three phases and three styles, first described by Giorgio Vasari: his early years in Umbria, then a period of about four years (1504–1508) absorbing the artistic traditions of Florence, followed by his last hectic and triumphant twelve years in Rome, working for two Popes and their close associates. Raphael was born in the small but artistically significant central Italian city of Urbino in the Marche region, where his father Giovanni Santi was court painter to the Duke. The reputation of the court had been established by Federico III da Montefeltro, a highly successful condottiere who had been created Duke of Urbino by the Pope - Urbino formed part of the Papal States - and who died the year before Raphael was born. The emphasis of Federico's court was rather more literary than artistic, but Giovanni Santi was a poet of sorts as well as a painter, and had written a rhymed chronicle of the life of Federico, and both wrote the texts and produced the decor for masque-like court entertainments. His poem to Federico shows him as keen to show awareness of the most advanced North Italian painters, and Early Netherlandish artists as well. In the very small court of Urbino he was probably more integrated into the central circle of the ruling family than most court painters. Federico was succeeded by his son Guidobaldo da Montefeltro, who married Elisabetta Gonzaga, daughter of the ruler of Mantua, the most brilliant of the smaller Italian courts for both music and the visual arts. Under them, the court continued as a centre for literary culture. Growing up in the circle of this small court gave Raphael the excellent manners and social skills stressed by Vasari. Court life in Urbino at just after this period was to become set as the model of the virtues of the Italian humanist court through Baldassare Castiglione's depiction of it in his classic work The Book of the Courtier, published in 1528. Castiglione moved to Urbino in 1504, when Raphael was no longer based there but frequently visited, and they became good friends. He became close to other regular visitors to the court: Pietro Bibbiena and Pietro Bembo, both later cardinals, were already becoming well known as writers, and would be in Rome during Raphael's period there. Raphael mixed easily in the highest circles throughout his life, one of the factors that tended to give a misleading impression of effortlessness to his career. He did not receive a full humanistic education however; it is unclear how easily he read Latin. Early Life and Works His mother Màgia died in 1491 when Raphael was eight, followed on August 1, 1494 by his father, who had already remarried. Raphael was thus orphaned at eleven; his formal guardian became his only paternal uncle Bartolomeo, a priest, who subsequently engaged in litigation with his stepmother. He probably continued to live with his stepmother when not staying as an apprentice with a master. He had already shown talent, according to Vasari, who says that Raphael had been "a great help to his father". A self-portrait drawing from his teenage years shows his precocity. His father's workshop continued and, probably together with his stepmother, Raphael evidently played a part in managing it from a very early age. In Urbino, he came into contact with the works of Paolo Uccello, previously the court painter (d. 1475), and Luca Signorelli, who until 1498 was based in nearby Città di Castello. According to Vasari, his father placed him in the workshop of the Umbrian master Pietro Perugino as an apprentice "despite the tears of his mother". The evidence of an apprenticeship comes only from Vasari and another source, and has been disputed—eight was very early for an apprenticeship to begin. An alternative theory is that he received at least some training from Timoteo Viti, who acted as court painter in Urbino from 1495.Most modern historians agree that Raphael at least worked as an assistant to Perugino from around 1500; the influence of Perugino on Raphael's early work is very clear: "probably no other pupil of genius has ever absorbed so much of his master's teaching as Raphael did", according to Wölfflin. Vasari wrote that it was impossible to distinguish between their hands at this period, but many modern art historians claim to do better and detect his hand in specific areas of works by Perugino or his workshop. Apart from stylistic closeness, their techniques are very similar as well, for example having paint applied thickly, using an oil varnish medium, in shadows and darker garments, but very thinly on flesh areas. An excess of resin in the varnish often causes cracking of areas of paint in the works of both masters. The Perugino workshop was active in both Perugia and Florence, perhaps maintaining two permanent branches. Raphael is described as a "master", that is to say fully trained, in December 1500. His first documented work was the Baronci altarpiece for the church of Saint Nicholas of Tolentino in Città di Castello, a town halfway between Perugia and Urbino. Evangelista da Pian di Meleto, who had worked for his father, was also named in the commission. It was commissioned in 1500 and finished in 1501; now only some cut sections and a preparatory drawing remain. In the following years he painted works for other churches there, including the Mond Crucifixion (about 1503) and the Brera Wedding of the Virgin (1504), and for Perugia, such as the Oddi Altarpiece. He very probably also visited Florence in this period. These are large works, some in fresco, where Raphael confidently marshals his compositions in the somewhat static style of Perugino. He also painted many small and exquisite cabinet paintings in these years, probably mostly for the connoisseurs in the Urbino court, like the Three Graces and St. Michael, and he began to paint Madonnas and portraits. In 1502 he went to Siena at the invitation of another pupil of Perugino, Pinturicchio, "being a friend of Raphael and knowing him to be a draughtsman of the highest quality" to help with the cartoons, and very likely the designs, for a fresco series in the Piccolomini Library in Siena Cathedral. He was evidently already much in demand even at this early stage in his career. Influence of Florence Raphael led a "nomadic" life, working in various centres in Northern Italy, but spent a good deal of time in Florence, perhaps from about 1504. Although there is traditional reference to a "Florentine period...

A magnificent hand painted Bjørn Wiinblad Rosenthal platter made for the studio line ceramics. Signed Bjorn Wiinblad. Decorated in 24-karat gold with an iridescent pattern. A fantastic collector’s item. Please note: This plates are heavy, weighing about pounds. It will be very well packed to ensure safe arrival. Including a rectangular platter...

Set of 6 Dutch framed herbariums dating from the 1940's. They are framed in an A3 frame with A4 mount. These are a sample of what we have to offer. W...

American advertising display sign of an over-sized ash wood baseball bat with an engraved wood burned inscription and a leather wrapped handle.  

The poster with plenty of bite. The original country-of-origin US 1 sheet film poster for Steven Spielberg’s seminal 70s Shark chiller Jaws, featuring the classic Roger Kastel artwo...

This is a set of four handsome 18th century English hunt and hound dog oil paintings by Cheslsea House. They date to the 80s. Only two have the Chelsea House labels. They are very de...

This is a Japanese Haori jacket for men made in 1950s (Showa era) and made with silk. It is reversible. Inside of this haori, the design is small fans. ...

This splendid round wall plate whit decorations fish was made by the Sardinian master ceramist Claudio Pulli. Made in Italy in the 1970s. Claudio Pulli's works have a particular ce...

A polychrome glazed pottery wall plaque decorated with several fish, created by Helmut Schaffenacker of Ulm in the 1950s. Helmut Schaffenacker was a renowned German ceramist known fo...

This framed crane barkcloth fabric sample, produced by the Spectrum company around 1949, served as a showcase of mid-century design aesthetics. Displayed in rattan showrooms across t...

This vintage sign for collectors is truly special. Made of wood with relief decorations and hand painted. The advertising sign was dedicated to the golf attire and equipment.

Musicians, relief. Molded alabaster. 20th century, after Renaissance models. Relief with frame made of alabaster molded with polychrome inspired by Renaissance works of the Spanish s...

Judith Daner designed this pair of superb Mid-Century modernist enamel on copper artworks. Each panel is one tile plaque mounted on the original walnut wood frame. The abstract and s...

Light and airy abstract painting on canvas. Signed and dated Carole Moss Wilson 75.

Vintage pair of Neoclassical wall panels featuring opposing birds in their cages surrounded by foliage. They are on wood panels with gilded frame.

Ceramic tile with bird decor by Roger Capron, 1950s Signed Capron, Vallauris France. Roger Capron (1922-2006) was a student of Applied Arts in Paris from 1938 to 1943, In 1946 he mov...

Fontana Arte Madonna and Child Glass and Brass Frame, Italy 1950s One can also change the glass with a mirror.

Morbelli Zodiac plate “Virgin” porcelain gold, 1950, Italy.

Gorgeous and show-stopping art by Tom Hayward. 5 faces in a neutral palette with texture. Dimensions: 49"W × 2"D × 59"H Styles: Abstract, Figurative P...

A late vintage Art Deco French asymmetrical wall mirror made of hand crafted polished brass with its original mirrored glass, in good condition. The Parisian wall décor mirror...

Wedgwood Fairyland lustre plaque decorated in the 'Elves in a Pine Tree' design - a woodland scene with center elf smoking a pipe, another elf at the bottom right corner at base of t...

French Majolica Frog Wall Pocket Jerome Massier Fils Vallauris, circa 1900. The Massier are known for the quality of their unique enamels and paintings. The Massier family produced d...

Cocteau Jean (1889-1963) Limoges Porcelain plate, signed and numbered 144/250. the background color is slightly pinkish.

A ceramic wall panel by Pierre Digan, to La Borne, circa 1970-1975. The base is in wood. Very good original conditions.  

Barbarella is one of those films that spawned some fantastic movie poster designs and this Argentinian 1 sheet is by far one of the best, and certainly one of the rarest. Amazingly c...

Add a touch of rustic charm to your space with this Vintage Boho Flemish Art Company Wooden Horse Medallion. Crafted with Americana flair by the renowned Flemish Art Company, this wo...

Rare 1940s German pressed botanical specimens from a collection in Stuttgart. The specimen is hand-picked and pressed, and each is labelled with the plant's family name, German name,...

Bedside depicting the Madonna, bas-relief on a 925 thousandth silver plate (the most valuable), made with artisanal procedures. Italy, 1990. Wooden frame.

Midcentury round dish with handle by Robert Picault Vallauris. Robert Picault (1919 - 2000) was born in Vincennes, Paris and studied at the S...

Antique map of Illinois ( Northern part ) Published By A & C Black. 1903 Original colour Good condition Unframed. Free shipping

Lovely image by Beatrix Potter Rescued from an early edition of " The Tale of Two Bad Mice " Possibly a 1st edition from 1904 The measurement given is the paper size not the actua...

Vintage Villeroy and Boch 1900 Art Deco design, woman with parrot. Villeroy & Boch Design 1900 Porcelain collectible plate. The subjects coll...

1970s Jaime Parlade designer hand painting "Tiger" oil on canvas.

This unique 20th-century French collection features an exquisite arrangement of plaster intaglios and cameos, carefully mounted on a decorative marbled background and set within an e...

Tapestry Design Renot Brazilian artist 1980 The tapestry is restored. Sign: Renot 1980 Bahia Brazil original Atelier Studio Renot Salvador- ...

A fine lithograph by Mihail Chemiakin, signed and numbered in pencil Professionally framed. Artist: Mihail Chemiakin, Russian (1943 - ) Title unknown Year: Circa 1980 Framed size:...

Fantastic set of five decorative porcelain plates produced by Arte Morbelli, of fine Italian manufacture. Each plate can be hung as a decorative object, or you can use them as real plates. The plates are made entirely of ceramic, with designs and edges in 24 karat gold, very precious and elegant. The plates contain designs of animals symbolic of every historical era and every area of the world. They are represented: a quadruped with a back decorated with red and gold squiggles, representing Southern Russia; a donkey also decorated in gold and purple and represents the period of greatest flowering of the Persian period (500-400 BC); the Egyptian jewel...

Vietnamese carved Mother-of Pearl and lacquer wall plaque. Featuring a Pagoda at center with flora, water and women in boat. Circa. 1970's. 19.5 inches high. 31.5 inches wide. .5 in...

Marilyn, the documentary narrated by Rock Hudson and created as a cinematic eulogy to Monroe who died the year before, traces Monroe’s early studio beginnings from inA Ticket to Toma...

Peter Robert Keil was born to an artist blacksmith father whom he lost very early in his childhood during the Second World War. During the end phase of the war, Keil's mother, also a...

Raiders of the Lost Ark the 1981 American adventure movie directed by Steven Spielberg. Great artwork by Richard Amsel featuring Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones, This vintage movie p...

Probably circa 1910, decorative painting with craquelure throughout. Old dark varnish. The sky near frame edge has thicker paint suggesting some later in painting. Stretcher marks sh...

Sotheby's Art at Auction 1992-93: The Art Market Review. Published by Sotheby Parke Bernet Publications. 1st Ed hardcover with dust jacket. Highlights: ...

Italian modern large and very colorful abstract painting, 1980s. Decorative wall work, in fabric, with abstract subject and square-shaped frame in light wood. Background with a predo...

French Faience Plate Model "Callot" Longchamp Circa 1920. Inspired by Jacques Callot Jacques Callot (French c.?1592 – 1635) etchings. He made more than 1,400 etchings that chronicl...

Incredible postmodern three piece wall art. Each piece is comprised of wood in the shape of a triangle. Displays and green paint over paper.

Suitably comedic and wacky artwork features on the Polish poster for classic 70s war romp Kelly's Heroes. The end of the Second World War marked the daw...

French Majolica oyster plate Orchies, circa 1910.

Antique map of Michigan ( Northern part ) Published By A & C Black. 1903 Original colour Good condition Unframed. Free shipping

The very rare first-year-of-release country-of-origin US 6 Sheet Film Poster for 60s classic Cool Hand Luke. Featuring a wonderful close-up of Paul Newman, this poster certainly does...

Stunning first-year-of-release French film poster for Steve McQueen's racing classic Le Mans featuring a great design by Rene Ferracci. This original vintage move poster has been pr...