Stone Fruit

 I've been dealing in antique stone fruit for many years, and often customers new to collecting stone fruit have questions, such as "how old is it", "what is it made of", "how can you tell the difference between the good old stuff, the newer stuff, and the fakes", and so on. So I will attempt to give a few answers.

First off, its not exactly stone fruit, its really painted Italian marble fruit, but collectors and dealers refer to it as stone fruit. Stone fruit was first made in the Victorian days, and became very popular after WWII, and is still made today.

 
 Look at the beautiful fruit above. It is the most popularly collected stone fruit, call it the "good stuff", if you will. The good stuff was made in Italy, between 60 and 100 years ago, from white Carrara marble. The Italians made fruits, miniature fruits, oversize fruits, nuts and vegetables. They are hand carved, and you can sometimes see the chisel marks. It is hand painted, and the paint is quite dry, you can sometimes see the black marble veins through the paint, and the colors have softened with time. The grapes were wired onto pieces of real grape vine, the stems in all the fruit are short pieces of grape vine, and the cherries are wired together. The peanuts and almonds are carved out of travertine stone, and its many small pits give the look of the real nuts. They feel cold against your cheek, like real stone would do.

Can you tell the difference here? On the left is a newer stone peach, where the blush is sponged or sprayed on, and on the right is a good old one.  Look at the rich deep yellows and reds. Remember, they took the lead out of paint in the '70s, and you never saw the good deep reds again. And look at the wear and patina. Wear and tear and accidental teeth marks of small boys are part of the history of an old piece. More than one customer has smilingly told me of how he tried to bite his grandmother's stone fruit.

Here are two nice stone fruit "halves".

Here's a nice group of stone veggies I had last year from the "second period."  You can see the hand painting is pretty nice, and they are definitely hand carved, see the carrot!

Here is a pic from a recent visit to the famous York Antique show. Another type of stone fruit to collect is "oversized" stone fruit. They made most forms in a larger than life format. The grapes you commonly see, the others are quite rare. The apple here was about 5" in diameter and maybe 6" tall, see the comparison of the business card. The prices ranged from $700 to $2,300. I thought they were overpriced, but the guy said he used a recent sale at Skinners that brought even higher prices as a comparison.

The "second period" of stone fruit from Italy started in the '70s, when they started using spray paint to paint the marble fruit. They were very good, and the earlier pieces from this time look quite nice, blending the colors well, and adding some hand painted details. Also, I've had some pieces from this time with paper stickers that say "hand carved by  Professor (fill in the blank)". Later the paints got very bright and careless in blending, and the surface got shiny. They did less hand carving, and you can see the mechanical lathe turning marks on the round pieces. The other major flaw with this time period was the use of plastic stems on the fruit, and even the grapes. Very ugly!

Modern fruit from Italy has come back to the earlier look, with wire and grape vine details, and at least some hand painting. Italians made the first stone fruit, and still do so today. Today it is also made in China. The marble or whatever stone they use is a little different from the Italian marble, and the paint is quite bright, but very realistic. You also see carved alabaster fruit from Mexico, also still made today. It is stained, not painted, and polished to be shiny.

Here is a representative group of the Mexican polished alabaster fruit.

Here is a pic of some modern Italian fruit.

 Not a great picture, but look at the nice group of miniatures in the small bowl. Also notice how the dark grapes in the larger bowl brings out the yellows and reds of the other fruit, so don't forget to add a few dark pieces to your bowl.

So how to start collecting? Well, start with your goal, say put something nice in an old bowl you have. Start with the more common pieces, as they are less expensive, the apples, peaches pears, then add some dark pieces, and a few smaller scale pieces, such as strawberries or cherries or nuts, so you have the large and small of it, and there you are, done!

But if you want to do something else, consider a bowl of a single fruit, as you would have if you came home from the market. Some pretty peaches or oranges say. Look at the ones below.

I enjoy seeing the differences in individual carvers work. Here are three old oranges. Look at the peel, think how hard that would be to carve! Look at the differences in the styles of the three oranges, and the slightly different shades of orange. Also, the front one is kind of tapered, maybe it was made from a leftover bit of marble from a statue that wasn't quite right.

You could put three interesting miniatures in a little pewter dish. Or you could take one oversize piece and use it as a piece of art on a shelf or mantel. You could have a group of all one color, you could have a group of "mistakes", pieces made with mistakes. You could collect pieces with painted and carved in bruises, like real overripe fruit. I had a customer who filled a carrier with stone vegetables for the kitchen counter. You could collect just nuts, or just oversize, or just halves. Wow, just think of what you could do.

How available is the stone fruit, how do you buy it? Since it became popular again in the late 80s, its been pretty available at the larger antiques shows, in malls and at some auctions. Be careful at online auctions where you can't see and touch the pieces. Much of what you may see comes from China, and the nuts are plastic resin, not stone. Like all antiques, deal with dealers who will guarantee their pieces, and accept returns. But that said, if you've ever wanted to start a collection, don't wait long. I am seeing a big slow down in nice pieces coming to market. They are much harder to find the last year or so. I suppose like all things, popularity and good prices drove the pieces to market, and now that's slowing down, the attics of America are cleaned out. They are found more often in the south (they don't attract fruit flies!), and were brought home by many GIs, so look for them in estates collected during the 50s and 60s. Prices have been stable for the last few years, so I don't see any changes there for a while. And of course, check out my website, www.bluedogantiques.com for a great selection of early pieces at good prices.

Herding Class with Freckles

Here is a pic of me and Freckles in our herding class. We are learning to herd sheep. This seems so easy, but its so hard, they tell me it takes at least 5 years to learn. Sigh! Anyhow, here is how you start, with you dog on a long lead, and you walk around the outside of the sheep in the small pen, so the dog gets the idea we want to her to go around and gather up the sheep. Some dogs do this instinctively, but Aussies are driving dogs, that is their instinct is to drive the sheep or whatever, not necessarily gather them up first. So we are walking around the sheep, and practicing our terms, go bye, (as in time goes bye)that is to my left, or clockwise, and away to me, or to my right.

And this is what we do next, when she seems interested, we let the lead go, and let her herd up the sheep. I am standing next to my teacher, Shelley Wurst, in the red cap, at her farm in West Stafford, CT, and we are holding rakes, which are used as an extension of our arm, to steer the dog. You can see she is going to my right, and I am holding the rake to the left, to block her from going that way, and steer her to my right, or away to me.

And here she is "wearing" the sheep, or driving them to me, as I back up. Walking backwards, holding the rake the correct way, keeping in back of the sheep and watching your dog is HARD! Those sheep may not bite, but they are very very solid.

Here you can just see the butt of the escaping sheep, but Freckles is on the job!

Ah, sheep are all together again.

Here we are trying to do "get away", when you want the dog to stop, or back off. The sheep are in a group in the corner, so we want her to stop driving and back off and wait for a further command. So we block her left and right, and ask her to get away. Hard to do for an eager pup!

So that's all there is to it, easy huh? Freckles is shaping up well, just great. Me, not so much, as the kids say. Anyhow, its fun, and that counts for a lot these days.

Williamsburg visit Monday afternoon

Here are the pics from our afternoon at Colonial Williamsburg. Sadly, it gets dark early these days, so not too many pics turned out. Above, the market gardener is taking a break from planting fava beans.

 

You know, I think the gardens are my favorite part of Williamsburg.

 

Here are some of the Christmas decorations that were up already, but what I liked best was the "chicken ladder" up on the roof.

 

Here is the back of the Governor's Palace with its exquisite topiary.

Here is a view of the maze from the mount at the rear of the gardens.

Here is the view from the gardens out to the canal which runs along side.

Here is the working kitchen in the Governor's Palace. Look at the clock jack, and you should have seen the table full of food produced on their hearth.

Here is a part of the hallway with some of the hundreds of sabers and muskets the Governor had on display. The rebels certainly put them to good use after he ran out.

Here is the gilded pressed leather which is on the walls in one of the formal rooms.

Here is a small room downstairs where a gentleman can freshen up his wig's powder during the ball.

 

Here is one of the formal downstairs rooms at the palace, with a great delft garniture and fresh flowers, but as you can see its just too darn dark to see anymore.

We finished off the day listening to a wonderful fiddler playing for St. Andrew's day, some shopping (of course!) at the Williamsburg shops, a live Celtic group at the Barnes and Noble, and the best food around, at Paul's Deli, great Greek food, good beer, and friendly service. What a day!

Williamsburg trip Monday, De Witt Wallace Museum

So, after we finished our antique show, we went back to Colonial Williamsburg on Monday, and started out at the DeWitt Wallace Museum, which is quite a place. They have a tremendous exhibition space, with some of the best antiques I for one have ever seen. This delft posset pot, above, is the piece I think I'd save if the place were burning down and I happened to be standing nearby. It is over a foot tall, and just amazing. Look at the coat of arms, and the date and initials. It is thought to have been made to celebrate the owner's joining the carpenter's guild in England in 1676. Must have been quite a party that night!

 

Here is the japanned highboy from Boston and a tap table in walnut from VA I think I remember. I guess Boston was the center of japanning in the new world.

 

Here is a tall clock by the famous Tompion of London, and look at the dressing table, and the sconce. The quality of the antiques is amazing, everything is the best possible example of its kind.

 

On to the next exhibit, all about 18th C quilting. This is the earliest pieced quilt I've ever seen, all silks and velvets.

 

Another early beauty, a piece of a quilt border, again all silks.

 

Look at the crewel embroidery and quilting on this early stomacher, a piece a lady would wear on the front of a formal dress. I wish I could show you the white on white crewel embroidered quilt with just amazing tiny stitches, but a pocket phone can only do so much!

 

And now on to another exhibit, about redware, and earthen ware and other ceramics available in the Colonial days. Here is some of the most beautiful redware I have ever seen.

 

Look at the signed chargers, and the enormous harvest jug down below. Wow! is all I can say.

 

You all know by now how much I like delft. Here are three barber bowls, the one in the front is English, the one behind is Dutch, and the last is French.

 

Here is a bell dated 1676.

 

Here is a little bit of lighting for all you collectors out there. Look at the wonderful lanterns, and can you see the tin sconce up above with punched and fluted decoration?

  

I liked this inlaid spice cabinet from Loudon Cty., VA, late 18th C

 

Look at the great apothecary cabinet on legs, and the tea table from CT of course!

 

I'll finish the morning tour with a corner of the Tasha Tudor dollhouse kitchen. Look at the tiny dishdrainer!

Please know that this is just a tiny fraction of the hundreds of objects on display at any one time. But time flies, and its on to the Chowning Tavern for lunch, I'm starved!

Williamsburg trip Thursday

Boy, did we have fun this weekend. We went down to Williamsburg, VA, and did the Holiday Antiques show, but what was really fun was our trip to Colonial Williamsburg. I guess I has forgotten how wonderful it is. Yes, if I were doing it today, I'd choose to do some things differently, but hey, its the largest living history museum in the world, and that's got to be pretty impressive! Anyhow, I'm going to show you some pics of some of my favorite bits. There is just so darn much, its hard to know where to start.

 

Well, here is where we started, with a fabulous Thanksgiving dinner at the historic Williamsburg Inn. All the trimmings, and then some. Note to self, don't wait til dark to take pictures!

 

Here is one of my favorite rooms, all real antiques, and look at that set of chairs, and the crystal chandelier, and the wonderful rug on the table. Here's a hint, if you go to Williamsburg, and you should, late in the year, go early in the day, as they don't have artificial light, and well, its too dark to see much in the afternoon.

 

Here is Mary the wigmaker, who actually makes wigs, just a fun visit. Did you know the wigmaker would shave your head so your wig would sit properly? Ladies, you too!

 

Here are thelates styles in ladies wigs for the 1740s. Also, see the nice barber bowls, and wig curlers.

 

I liked this humble building, as the overhang looks like a good idea for keeping my firewood dry. Maybe we could add one onto the little barn this year? Hint, hint!

 

OK, now this is not so grand, but what a great look! If we could just add some good hinges, and a cool lock, my basement doors would look a whole lot better.

  

I can't rave enough about all the beautiful gardens at Williamsburg. Here is the market gardener at work, they are planting fava beans for harvest in April.

 

My friend Karen pointed out how cleverly they used black willow for fencing here.

This finishes up Thursday afternoon. The evening I can't show you, but we went to an absolutely sublime organ concert in the 18th C Bruton church, with just the best performance of JS Bach absolutely ringing the rafters. What a great end to a great day!