I bought some antiquties, what can the SF collective tell me about them?

[ms244]

Went to a local university surplus auction today, amongst the piles of old scientificy **** (of which I have more then enough) there were some things from the special collections at the library. There were these three stools (planters?), I'll post a picture of the last one tomorrow since I don't have a digital camera handy (and the phone one sucks). These are all carved and appear to be very old.

The last one, not pictured, is carved like something you would see in a really old synagogue, with an intricate scroll and stars of David. It strikes me as rather magical. There is also a painting by one M. Rooke from 1904. Is there some way to get some info on this painter, google turns up a myriad of crap

EDIT - ITS T. M. Rooke, I took the back off and there is his adress and signature and a light sketch of whatever he was painting. I took a pic with my cell phone. He was a painter from London from the late 1800s. He lived to be 100 years old.

Here is the Yiddish Piece, crappy cell phone pics. The white inlays appear to be mother of pearl. It has the aura of something that was used to keep relics from the Old Testament.

 

[Lucky Strike]

The stool on the right is almost certainly Chinese, while the other one looks North African/Middle Eastern. They don't look very old, I'm afraid. The octagonal one looks vaguely Indian, but I'm not sure. The painter, possibly: Thomas Matthews Rooke, (1842 - 1942), English. Rooke became Edward Burne-Jones's studio assistant around 1869 and continued devotedly in this role until his master's death in 1898. He was also active in the Arts and Crafts movement and a skilled topographical draughtsman. From http://www.leicestergalleries.com:

Thomas Mathews Rooke is best known as Burne-Jones’s studio assistant who worked for ‘the master’ for almost thirty years, and made an invaluable record of Burne-Jones’s conversations in the last years of his life.(1) He was also an interesting painter in his own right, producing imaginative and religious subjects in oils together with watercolours of old buildings. He received his artistic education at the South Kensington and Royal Academy Schools and in 1869 applied to work for Morris and Company. He was deputed to Burne-Jones’s studio where he remained until the end of Burne-Jones’s life. His own religious subjects had some success, for instance ‘The Story of Ruth’ was bought for the Chantrey Bequest in 1877, and is today in the Tate Gallery. In 1878 Burne-Jones recommended him to Ruskin who was looking for artists to record old buildings threatened with demolition or restoration. Until 1893, Rooke spent half his time working for Ruskin. His watercolours are now in the Ruskin Museum, Sheffield. He produced a further series for the Society for the Preservation of Pictorial Records of Ancient Works of Art. These are in the Birmingham City Museum and Art Gallery. Rooke was elected Associate of the Royal Society of Painters in Watercolours in 1891 and Member in 1893. He was also involved in the Arts and Crafts Movement, and was a founder member of the Art Worker’s Guild in 1884. He had a gentle unassuming personality; Burne-Jones wrote of him to Ruskin: ‘Also there is a very high place in Heaven waiting for him and He Doesn’t Know It’. He died in his hundredth year in his home in the ‘aesthetic’ suburb of Bedford Park. Works by Rooke were included in the Last Romantics exhibition at the Barbican Art Gallery, London (1989).

Is it a bit late-Pre-Raphaelite? Like John Everett Millais/Dante Gabriel Rossetti/Ed. Burne-Jones? Or if there's no figures, an idyllic landscape? Is it an oil? They range from ~ $200 to $180.000 (the latter is one single instance, the runner-up is at $61.000, and then the next is at $1300). Most (almost all) of the auction results lie around $500. Any pic? Signature? I found pics of his two known signatures, so I'll be able to compare.

 

[Lucky Strike]

The last post was before I could see the painting - church interiors also seem to be a staple of his. (Lincoln cathedral, Westminster Abbey, St. Bartholomew's, various French churches, etc.) The smaller churchy stuff is mostly in the $200-600 range. The very high outlier results are for other motifs. (Pretty girls, mythic/medieval stuff.)

Any other markings or labels?

Be sure to check it's not a reproduction/giclee-type oil print.

 

[ms244]

His name and address are on the back, written by hand. I'm pretty sure its not modern. I don't currently have the photo capability to show that part of it.

About those stools? Is there another name for them?

How old do you think they are?

 

[Lucky Strike]

Originally Posted by ms244

His name and address are on the back, written by hand. I'm pretty sure its not modern. I don't currently have the photo capability to show that part of it.
OK - you say you took the back off - it's unusual for an oil painting to have any backing - can you tell what media it is? (Watercolour, oil on canvas, oil on board, ink drawing?)

Originally Posted by ms244

His name and address are on the back, written by hand. I'm pretty sure its not modern. I don't currently have the photo capability to show that part of it. What about those stools? Is there another name for them?
The Chinese one is probably intended as a pedestal, the other two are just..stools, I suppose. I don't think either of them are very old, 100 yrs max, I'd venture to guess. It's difficult to say from photos.

 

[ms244]

Does the Yiddish looking one have any special significance? It doesn't seem like a regular piece of furniture one would find in a house.

Any estimates on the value of these things?

 

[Lucky Strike]

Originally Posted by ms244

Does the Yiddish looking one have any special significance? It doesn't seem like a regular piece of furniture one would find in a house. Any estimates on the value of these things?
No, no special significance that I know of, I've seen them in Moroccan/North African restaurants in full sets of furniture, say four stools and a matching table. People tend to buy them on holiday there. Wild and under-informed guess: About $100 for the three stools, and $200 for the painting. (Insert legal disclaimer here.)

 

[LabelKing]

How does one find out about university surplus auctions?

 

[ms244]

Damn, I overpaid for the stools. But painting was about $80.

LK, find out who the local auctioneers are. There should be piles of them in SF, they will have listings of all the stuff they sell.

Or you can search, 'insert university name" surplus and see what you can come up with.
They are a great source of cheap sturdy furniture (think steelcase desks), old but viable computers, and neat science type junk.

They had a 1970s vintage polygraph there today, but I didn't stick around long enough to bid on it. A lot of stuff like that goes for scrap value.

 

[Lucky Strike]

7 Queen Anne's Gardens, Bedford Park, Chiswick Address match?

 

[ms244]

Address matches, appears to be a watercolor.

I was really hoping those stools would be worth a lot more.

 

[feynmix]

Damn LS, that is impressive.

 

[GQgeek]

Damn LS is fast.

 

[globetrotter]

Originally Posted by Lucky Strike

No, no special significance that I know of, I've seen them in Moroccan/North African restaurants in full sets of furniture, say four stools and a matching table. People tend to buy them on holiday there.

Wild and under-informed guess: About $100 for the three stools, and $200 for the painting. (Insert legal disclaimer here.)

I got an fully inlaid similar pedistal from damascus, but completly covered in inlay, for about $100.

 

[Toiletduck]

LS is our forum specialist in antiquities