Saturday Morning, January 26, 2019
Peafowl Plumage
The young sculptor walked around the marble slab. His eye traced each crack, the color lines in the crystalline, the grain, flaws, any clue to unlock the stone's potential. After a set number of circles, he reversed direction, and counting out identical paces, continued his courting. Superstition? Perhaps. For him, it was a ritual of love. Peafowl plumage. Necessary progression in the pubescent process. The first moment in sculpting was infatuation. The marble had to be right. Not any slab, the slab. This block arrived to him from Mtn. Altissimo, in Tuscany. The quality was exquisite. White marble. Not the Carrara he had been using, but this, a sublime stone beckoning emergence. From this Michelangelo sculpted his Pietà. Beethoven read the same musical notes as everyone else, but how he arranged them was, well, Beethoven. For centuries, humans stared into the sky, but it was Galileo and Copernicus who reshuffled the sun, moon, and planets. This is one of mankind's singular strengths. Individual thought. The ability to assimilate what surrounds one and create something bold, appealing, often threatening the status quo. As long as we breathe, we think. The spark of creativity.
Sterling & enameled peacock.
The necessary progression in the pubescent process. 7 1/4" T.
I Think I Shall Never See...
With a bit of coaxing, the overhead door groaned upward. Screaming and shrieking, it scraped along rusty tracks until, amid a cloud of dust, it reached apogee and sighed. Loose paint chips showered the floor. In a moment the air cleared. We stepped inside. Sunlight now penetrated the man-cave illuminating the remains of once relevant projects, now abandoned. Jammed shelves, overflowing tool racks, and a buried workbench were hints of a life well-lived. The aroma of grease and oil seconded the motion. What towered above the detritus was even more startling. Mt. Rainier on a clear Seattle morning. In the back was stacked piles of rough-cut walnut lumber. Inserted between the boards were wood blocks. The holy grail of woodmen. It was a religious moment. Properly cured wood is a luxury. In the second floor was an equally impressive heap, tucked neatly under the eaves. Here, these boards were thicker and wider, all meticulously segregated. Joyce Kilmer saw nature's beauty in a tree, expressed through his poem.
A cut above. Large amount of cured walnut slabs, from a New Hope estate.
But there is so much more. Lumber. Houses. Homes. Comfort. Shelter. Tradition. Interpretation is personal, application universal. A grain of walnut. A grain of marble. Both endlessly entwined. How we choose to enjoy them is individual. The beauty in living.
The Potter and his Wheel
From the artisan's skilled hands, we enjoy an amazing array of products. With wooden staves we built barrels, carriages, and the most remarkable of all transports, airplanes. Early aviation hung on a string of wooden spars and stretched canvas, powered by the extraordinary combustion engine. Each invention, each milestone achieved by people thinking outside the box. Creation of man from clay was a feat indeed, a story echoing across theology memoriam. A process rightly belonging to God. Today we are redefining the responsibility, rebuilding humans with computer chips and composites, artificial organs and drug compounds. The spark remains elusive, still secreted in the hands of the potter. Life tumbles forward. Each day our spectrum widens. An amazing time to live.
14k yellow gold & diamond earrings. When short on clay, gold and diamonds are a welcome replacement.
Into the Wild Blue Yonder
This week we touch two time periods, both illustrating the ingenuity of humans involved in aviation. The first is a framed fabric swatch and photograph. In 1924, the US Army Air Service encouraged the development of an aircraft capable of circumnavigating the globe. Inventors such as Donald Douglas and Jack Northrup shared the dream. With much experimentation, they produced an airplane worthy of the challenge. On April 8th, four planes departed Seattle, Washington. The destination? Seattle, Washington. Despite losing two aircraft in the journey, two original planes returned to the Puget Sound five months later having logged 371 flight hours covering 29,000 miles, averaging 70 miles per hour. Their feat was remarkable, almost unbelievable. But even this success would fall from the record books quickly. That singular quality in humans spurred aviation in a way rarely seen. The Wright brothers lifted off Kitty Hawk in 1903. Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins landed on the moon sixty-six years later.
The 1924 globe circling flight from Seattle, Washington in open cockpit aeroplanes. Five months and 29,000 miles later, the Chicago and New Orleans were the only original aeroplanes to complete the journey from the four who started. The Seattle crashed in Alaska and the Boston sank into the North Atlantic. No lives were lost.
Mustang Sally, Guess You Better Slow Your Mustang Down
In 1940, a most impressive airplane was developed for World War II. It could reach an altitude of 29,000 feet, fly a maximum speed of 440 mph, and was so agile, by 1944 it ruled the skies over Europe. The P-51 Mustang. Designed as a fighter airplane, the P-51 was used as an escort to the B17 bombers blasting Germany. No German airplanes could match its prowess. We glance back in time with the perspective of the present, sometimes diminishing prior achievements. Only sixteen years had passed since the circling of the globe. The progress in aviation throughout the twentieth century was possible for one primary reason. A theme well-seasoned in the preamble. By the 1950's, jets replaced props, altitude soared above 40,000 feet.
German family photo album, spanning from the 1936 Olympics to 1941. The German ME 262, the first operational jet fighter, began flying in 1941. Continual design problems stopped an expanded use of this lethal weapon.
Had the ME 262 been effective, the war could have turned against the Allies very quickly.
Today the space station orbits the world in ninety minutes. The dream continues.
In the Tradition of Fabergé
Jewelry is one category particular to self-expression and creativity. The legendary House of Fabergé, working in nineteenth and early twentieth century Russia, set standards so high, even today the name equates quality. The Fabergé's crowning creation was the Romanoff Easter eggs. Here was exceptional craftsmanship perfected in gold and gemstones. The eggs were layered, each chamber opening to another containing remarkable treasures. Of the fifty produced, forty-three remain. But more than the physical, it is the Fabergé trademark itself. In the last one hundred years, the name has been sold numerable times. Companies have risen and fallen on the strength of this one word. The personal touch does make a difference.
Modern automaton reinforcing a fine tradition of opulence and wealth. Where you find thriving economies, you will find art of the highest quality. Chinese porcelain under the dynasties. Old Master paintings under the Dutch corporations. Oriental carpets under the Persian shahs. Eighteenth century America.
The human fingerprint. In today's artificial intelligence environment, never underestimate the human input. It is, has been, always will be essential.
From walnut lumber to a sterling peacock. From war period photo albums to an aviary automaton, it sounds like another abnormal normal week at Brown Bros. Speaking of dreams and achievements.
Doors open at 8 AM. Auction starts at 9 AM. PA AU 1265L [bb]