Woodblock on page of text from ‘Iohn Huighen van Linschoten his discours of Voyages into ye Easte & West Indies’, (London 1598).
A map based on Portuguese charts, from the first English edition of van Linschoten’s ‘Itinerario: Voyages ofte schipvaert van Jan Huyghen van Linschoten naer Ooost ofte Portugaels Indien’, 1579-1592 (1596).
Van Linschoten was a Dutchman who had spent a lengthy period in Portuguese service in Goa. In gathering and publishing higherto unknown information and maps relating to the Spice Islands, he enabled the Dutch and English to challenge the Portuguese monopoly in the East Indies. The placenames on the maps in van Linschoten’s work are in Portuguese, and the last section is a brief history of Portugal, suggesting the possiblity that van Linschoten had perhaps obtained a manuscript copy of the Portuguese geographer Barros’ fabled, incomplete and unpublished work, ‘Treatise on Geography’.
Nineteen exquisite ornithological subjects, painted by a visitor to the sub-continent in the 1820’s. The representations are anatomically correct and accurate in scale, yet all of these finely executed watercolours – by an unknown but clearly gifted artist – manage to display strong individual character, painstakingly cut as silhouettes and laid down on eleven contemporary folio album pages (510 x 290 mm each) in the style of decoupage, all but three of the specimens with an accompanying contemporary manuscript label cut and pasted onto the page beside it, all the illustrations in an excellent state of preservation, the colours still vibrant, the paper stable, some residual tape marks to corners and margins of the sheets which do not detract, one of the captions identifying a location (Bellary, in Karnataka, southwest India) and a date (January 1828).
The manuscript labels read as follows:
Black-headed Oriole Mango bird. Lark. Alanda sp. The birds appear in October in immense flocks and depart in March – often mistaken for Ortolans.Plover. Water Wagtail. Eagle. Shot at Bellany Jan 1828. Breadth from Wing to Wing 6 feet. Half size. Falco Sp. Chysactos. Spur Foul: Tetrao sp. Partridge. Short tail Tern. Water Wagtail. Bansputtah or Bamboo Frequenter. Common Florican. Stone Chat. Malacilla Rubicola. Three-toed Quail (male and female). Golden Oriole. Female. Golden Oriole. Male. Grey Shrike. Female. Lanius Sinerius.
Ins Kleine gebrachte Karte von den Sud-Landern zur Historie der Reisen Bellin, Jacques Nicholas [Leipzig], 1753.
Copperplate engraving, 205 x 275 mm, original folds, mild browning to left margin, otherwise fine.
The scarce German version of Bellin’s map of Australia, Carte reduite des terres Australes. The projected eastern coastline joins the charted territories on Van Dieman’s Land and Carpentaria.
First published in Prevost’s L’Histoire Generale des Voyages in the same year, editions in German, Danish and Dutch editions soon followed. Not in Tooley (although cf. Tooley 156/157/157a for French, Dutch and Danish editions); Clancy 6.28.
First half 19th Century French fruitwood dough bin/coffee table.
The well patinated cleated hinged top above four canted sides and a thick planked floor. The carcass having a richer patina due to less light and natural wear.
Once a dough bin, removed from stand and hinged the sliding top, clean and wax and great coffee table.
Note: can always be placed back to the base and back to original.
Late 18th Century, George III oak standing corner cupboard, having a shaped cornice above two slight gothic style glass moulded doors, retaining most of the original glass
Note: The horizontal mouldings disguise both shelves, flanked by canted sides.
The base same, except panelled doors concealing a shelved interior, resting on shaped bracket feet.
This piece is yet to be re-glued, cleaned and waxed. The end result will be fantastic.
The shaped cornice above a slight floral inlaid top rail, with two book-matched chestnut cleated doors retaining the original escutcheons, lock and key. Having a shaped skirt, resting on plain cabriole shaped legs with triple panelled sides.
Note the matched inlay continues from the skirt through to the top rail.
Good overall colour and patination.
The interior houses two brass rails and can be readjusted to having one hanging rail and a center shelf below if preferred.
1780 – 1800
H: 7’ 4” – 223 cm W: 4’ 10” – 147 cm D: 1’ 9” – 54 cm
A rare pair of late 18th Century English chestnut country Hepplewhite side chairs.
The well pronounced arched stay rail and waisted back uprights supporting the exceptional vase shaped fret carved centre splate having slight leaf, floral and scroll carvings above the serpentine shaped upholstered seat, resting on square tapered front legs joined by an ‘H’ stretcher.
1790 – 1820
Note: Over my 33 years in the trade I have never seen a chestnut Hepplewhite period chair.
There are no obstacles in Carmel Jenkin’s work. Her nudes are for: ‘getting emotion out there’ . To achieve this, she brings the nude right up to the picture plane, to directly involve the viewer with the subject. While there is an element of abstraction in her work, the female ambience, as if the artist’s eye got so close she could see the nude as emotion in a series of curved shapes. These works are raw and immediate and usually have a distorted and linear form. They may portray a sense of naked angst but, at the same time, show possession of a deeply spiritual soul. At the risk of exclusionism one wonders if these works, drawn by a woman, are a language to be read and pondered by other women. Either way, Carmel Jenkin is engaged in a passionate journey of artistic and life discovery through the female body.
