Mid-20th Century Decorative Art

New England Summer Home Painting. Classic Americana of a cape house in the summer. Oil on canvas house in a very thick, solid wooden frame.

Mid-20th century tribal baknough (woman's head covering), Chott Oulad Amar, Tunisia. This is an unusual baknough from a very small area on the Tunisian ...

beautiful and decorative tiles in red, black and white glazed ceramic with fish subject and still life. Very good condition.

This striking sculptural relief captures the majestic presence of a regal figure, meticulously crafted on a three-dimensional fiberglass format. The piece features an intricately det...

Abstract Modernist oil painting by Zoute dated 1941. Oil on board. Unframed. Zoute (Born-Leon Salter, 1903-1976) was self-taught and well exhibited during his lifetime. He painted from 1940-1954 (he stopped painting at this later date due to his wife's illness and death and never painted again) A self-taught artist, he was part of the great modern wave. He exhibited with many of the most notable artists of the day such as Picasso, Braque, Klee and others at the invitation only State University of Iowa International Show 1946-1947. He had numerous one man shows at NYC galleries, Mortimer Levitt / Joseph Heller...

Paul Holsby, Bergets röda, 1963 Color lithograph The work is signed by the artist, date, title and individual number (pencil) Work dimensions 26/30 The wor...

Large Enamel advertising sign for Player’s tobacco, 1950 Vintage decorative 'Player's' Tobacco enamel advertising sign. Dating from around early 1950s, this is a great example, a rar...

Framed handapinted antique publicity from 'Cafes Tupinamba' Monkey with antique wood frame. Manufactured in Spain, circa 1930. In original condition with minor wear consistent ...

A powerful statement piece from the 1960s, this large-scale brutalist fiberglass artwork captures the raw energy and organic rhythm of mid-century modernism. Made out of sculpted fib...

Original early backglass for a vintage pinball machine. These were the art pieces found in the back of the pinball ball machines that would l...

Beautiful 1950s abstract tile wall decoration by Jan Nolf (1931-1999) Belgium. This has been a table top.

Paolo de Poli - smalto su rame dipinto a mano dal artista che insieme a Gio Ponti hanno collaborato nel arredamento del 900 italiano.

An incredible and rare mid-20th century Dida hand-plated Shibori tie-dyed raffia ceremonial kerchief mounted on a linen stretched board that floats off the wall in the shape of the k...

Unusual handcrafted rattan banjo shaped wall mirror, France, 1950s. This spectacular mirror has a design combining the Midcentury style and the natural taste from the French Riviera....

A wonderful musical themed lithograph and piece of decorative art titled "In Concert" by Edna Glaubman. Artist signature hand signed on the bottom right and signed in the plate. Limited Edition numbered 67/100. Edna Glaubman (1919-1986) influential American female artist who lived and worked in Miami from 1961 to 1986, and was part of the original Coconut Grove...

- Mid-Century set of 2 Woman Wall Decoration, 1950s - made of metal, - shows signs of wear and age (scratches, etc.), - in good original condition,

Mid-Century Modern Painting of a Menorah. Signed illegibly lower right corner. Nice earth tones to warm up your home. Inscription on rear side of artwork. Unfortunately missing half ...

Thormod Larsen, Composition, 1964 Etching Work dated and signed by the artist (pencil) Sheet dimensions 66/55 Framed work Thormod Larsen (1921 - 1977). He was a Swedish painter and ...

A school chart in a frame shows how seeds and fruits are spread (by plants, wind, water, animals). There are real fruits and seeds stuck inside. Czechoslovakia, 1960s.   

Clyde Burt ceramic charger in glazed stoneware. Signature to underside: [CB]. American, circa 1965.

Set of 3 Mid-century era Chinese Silk Embroidery Tapestry Art of Tropical Landscape in Rattan Frames. Each piece depicts a different tropical ...

Vintage Orientalist oil on canvas portrait of a young girl, painting depicting an orientalist girl dressed in traditional garments. Meticulous atte...

Mid-Century Modern "Face" wall art sculpture pair by the Westwood Chadwick studio. Each sculpture features a hand-sculpted abstract face with brass inlay fixed to a curved sheet of s...

Great Vintage School Teaching Display of Household pests A vintage school teaching showcase with household pests specimen behind glass. Used as teaching material in German schools c...

1950's French Zinc letters - Letter Black I. We have 19 of these well worn and very beautiful zinc letters which look beautiful as decorative pieces in their own right or are frequ...

A Navajo sand painting mosaic art wall panel of the Navajo mythological Father Sky or Thunderbird created in the 1960s in a non traditional format...

Riva Helfond (American, 20th century.) Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral in Abstract Watercolor circa 1954 Fabulous Mid-Century Modern watercolor of the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris....

Roger Capron (1922-2006) Roger Capron studied at Art appliqués of Paris from 1938 to 1943 before teaching drawing in the same establishment from 1945. In 1946, he settled in Vallauri...

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...

Introducing an extraordinary, custom-framed embossed leather art by the incomparable furniture designer and artisan Angel Pazmino. Cut from a set of sling chairs by Pazmino this tru...

Beautiful sand and ground glass wall sculpture. Lively biomorphic imagery. similar to the work of Edris Eckhardt.   

Collage assembled from boxes, stained linen, stones, patinated metal and wire. Showing the influence of Alberto Burri. Unknown artist, English School, c. 1960's. Measures: 55cm H x ...

Boleslaw Danikowski (1928-1979) large ceramic panel in a wooden frame. Rear attachment system. Boleslaw Danikowski was the first ceramist to work regularly with Robert Guillerme and Jacques Chambron...

Great Vintage School Teaching Display of the Insects of the Heath A vintage school teaching showcase with specimen illustrating the insects of the heath. Us...

Vintage oak hotel black board or menu board.

Kananga masks form geometric patterns. These masks represent the first human beings and are normally made by carvers of the Awa society. The masks are worn during the Dama dancing ce...

Wall ceramic, Belgium circa 1950/1960.

Kulo Green, Composition Color lithography Number 7/140 The work signed by the artist's signature and an individual number(pencil) Sheet dimensions 51/61 Framed work Gustav Holger Fr...

1950's Stitched leather barometer by Jacques Adnet Rare modèle We don't know if it works perfectly

Abstract Modernist Wood Inlay / Marquetry Figure wall plaque. Hand executed..Art Deco , African influenced.Several mixed species of exotic woods.

Painting in great condition. Antique frame in need of slight repairs. Biography of Jean Colagero from the Archives of askART: Calogero was born August 20, 1922 in Catania, Sicily. ...

Fresque en céramique aux couleurs éclatantes, se compose de 12 carreaux 15cmx15cm numérotés en superbe état. Rarissime de pouvoir trouver des œuvres de Arthur Girod ,artiste poète qu...

We offer this Fantastic Set of 8 original and rare Mexican Wrestling Movie Posters from 1950-1960, with the most iconic Mexican wrestling icon Santo, Blue Demon...

IDA COLUCCI (1894-1982) Abstract, cubist collage by Ida Colucci, signed by hand Freestanding on black cardboard, handmade frame with white gold overlay, anti-reflective glass. Ida...

A wall plaque in slate depicting a bullfighter and bull. Produced sometime during the 1970's. In good condition with some wear. Most likely Italian production.

American abstract Bauhaus style high rise building. Oil on canvas, signed "E.M." dated 1958. provenance large rare

Wall hung "Sun" sconce handmade in the 1960s at "Kingo" ceramics workshop in Denmark in brutalist style. The piece is glazed in the most beautiful green/brown earth colors and the pe...

A terracotta crucifix with an indecipherable signature and crafted in the style of Jean Derval or French ceramics from the 1950s Great patina.

Bouquet of roses by Hermine David, oil on cardboard linen, signed. Framed. Hermine Lionette Cartan David (19 April 1886 in Paris – 1 December 1970 in ...

Beautiful and atmospheric collage artwork by the Belgian artist Paul Dufrane. The painting is entitled 'The mirror', it is composed of various antique pri...

An Italian ceramic Art Deco hanging wall mask bust of a woman. Similar to the works of Goldsheider. This mask is marked Italy on backside along wit...

This great Italian style work of art signed by Mario Logli is a limited edition serigraph #63/200 in three colors. It has a very Fornasetii look and style to it. This is the original...

A Southern Plaza Express railroad sign, 1950s. 23 ¾ inches wide

Beautiful silver plated bird sculpture with 0nyx eyes.

A true time capsule of 1961, the 3-dimensional plaster negative relief plaques depicting a golfer, bowler and tennis player all engaged in their sport and all from the perspective of...

Great Vintage School Teaching Display of the Insects of the Grassland A vintage school teaching showcase with specimen illustrating the insects of the grassland. Used as teaching ma...

A classical vintage school teaching showcase with specimen illustrating usefull insects (insects as producers, insects pollinating flowers, insect sanitary police and insects annihil...

- made in Czechoslovakia - made of veneer - picture is made of plywood and veneer - good, original condition.

Offered is a pair of original "Apple" fruit crate labels, circa 1940's, unused and professionally mounted in oak frames with white colored beveled matte. The labels would have been...

Pair of elegant coin inlaid sconces, by The Couroc Company, circa 1950s. They have been rewired and are ready to mount.