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Selling Antiques & Fine Art Online | Antique Appraisals | Skinner Auctioneers | Skinner Auctioneers

Sell with Skinner. We offer a wide range of services including auction evaluations and estimates, antique appraisals, consignment for single items or entire collections of antiques, jewelry, fine art, and more. Our knowledgeable specialists are here to assist you.

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What is a Lithograph? Understanding the Process of Different Types of Prints

Have you ever wondered what the true difference between a lithograph and print is? Understanding the key characteristics of these different methods can be especially important if y...

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A Large oil on canvas painting by George Dunlap Leslie titled "The Wayward Daughter" depicts a father and daughter scene, signed G.D Leslie and dated "1886". https://www.bidsquare.com/category/paintings-16

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Folk Art | Skinner Auctioneers

Folk art is the work of country farmers, homemakers, school girls, merchants, blacksmiths, immigrant laborers, and even slaves who, with untrained hands, turned utilitarian objects into things of beauty. They did everything from weathervanes and gameboards to trade signs and carved sculptures.

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Sell American Furniture, Folk and Decorative Arts | Expert Appraisals | Skinner Auctioneers

Sell American furniture, folk and decorative arts at Skinner. Skinner appraisers sell fine examples of American formal and country furniture, folk and decorative arts and regularly uncovers and bring to market objects with rich and enduring history.

Whether you consign a single item or a large collection of antiques, the Skinner American Furniture & Decorative Arts department delivers personalized service and careful marketing to collectors, dealers, and historical societies, ensuring competitive prices realized at auction.  Antique Furniture Appraisal

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Antique Roadshow Appraisers Online | Skinner Auctioneers

Since the Antiques Roadshow’s inception, Being Antique Roadshow Appraisers our experts have appraised all manner of art, antiques, and collectibles. For more information on Skinner’s Antiques Roadshow appraisal experts, read our Appraiser Biographies.

Click to know the upcoming antique roadshow schedule

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The Most Expensive Paintings That Continue to Intrigue the Art World

“I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way–things I had no words for.” – Georgia O’Keeffe Since time immemorial, people have found unique ...

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Created by Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani around 1917, Nu couché also ranks among the world’s most expensive paintings. Depicting a nude portrait of a woman reclining against a red backdrop, the painting first appeared in the sensational exhibition of 1917. Considered one of Modigliani’s most striking works, it surpassed its $100 million estimate and sold for $170.4 million in 2015. A Chinese couple, Wang Wei and Liu Yiqian, bought the painting.

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The Silhouette - American Folk Art

A silhouette was a photograph of a person that simply showed the outline of the person, usually in profile and filled with solid shadow. It was named after "Etienne de Silhouette," a French finance controller general who lived from 1709 to 1767. He was a known cheapskate, and his name became synonymous with anything done or created on the cheap, such as silhouettes. He even decorated a new house totally (to save money) by cutting out miniature silhouettes from black paper.

The silhouette's popularity stemmed in part from the fact that it was inexpensive (far less than having a portrait painted, for example) and could be made quickly, but it was also a lovely kind of art in its own right.

There are many different forms of silhouettes, but the most frequent were made with scissors from black paper. They're also known as "paper cuttings," "shadows," or "shades" in the United Kingdom. After the black shape was completed, the paper was attached to a white (or at least lighter) backing card, and your finished likeness was revealed. The silhouette was also popular in America, where you could get one created on the street for a dime and in minutes in places like Philadelphia. They were similar in size to a miniature image, and once the daguerreotype was produced, the silhouette swiftly fell out of favour.

However, silhouettes were still popular in the late eighteenth century (Georgian England) and early nineteenth century (the Regency). They even supplanted miniature portraits in the courts of France and Germany. The miniatures were popular among nobles as diplomatic instruments and among anyone who could afford them as personal symbols, as I explain in another piece.

By comparison, the silhouette made portable likenesses of loved ones affordable to practically everyone, and it could even be utilised as wall art. All you needed was someone who could do it (a "profile portraitist") and a few pounds. With time, their appeal swung back to the wealthy, who, "commissioned silhouettes in jewellery and snuff boxes to be painted and encrusted with precious stones Royalty commissioned silhouetted porcelain dinner services. Albums by common folk featured silhouettes of relatives and friends."

Furthermore, creating silhouettes was a popular parlour game in which everyone could participate. The finished sculptures may not have been works of beauty, but the process of creating them was undoubtedly enjoyable. (In contrast, "Shadows" was a game in which participants created shadow-images on the walls primarily with their hands; nothing was drawn or taken away from the exercise except a few laughs.) According to the Concise Britannica, silhouettes were created "by drawing the outline projected by candlelight or lamplight," which is almost certainly how the typical person achieved it. "However, as photography rendered silhouettes practically obsolete, itinerant artists turned to them as a form of antique folk art."

Full-length silhouettes were cut by Auguste Edouart, a Frenchman. Master Hubard, an American boy silhouettist who cut profiles in 20 seconds, was another itinerant. Cassandra Austen, Jane's loving sister, is a great example of a silhouette. (To get my April ezine, which contains illustrations with this essay, click the link at the bottom.) Have you noticed the subtler detailing? This was accomplished due to the fact that one's "shade" may be lowered ("using a reduction equipment known as a pantograph") before being painted on plaster or glass with "soot, or lamp black." Hair, caps, ribbons, frills, and other vital accoutrements of the day would have been 'dragged' out with progressively more and more diluted pigment after the face had been painted black."

Jane Austen's self-portrait is another silhouette style (with yellow background, see sample in download). It is a great example of the art, albeit more simply produced than the first. According to one antiques website, the silhouette of the past would have been created in one of the four formats listed below:

-        Paper, card, vellum, ivory, silk, or porcelain;

-        On glass, painted backwards;

-        Hollows are cut with a machine or, in rare cases, by hand. The figure is sliced away from the paper in this procedure, producing a negative picture. After that, a contrasting hue of paper or fabric is used to back the paper outline.

-        Freehand cut with scissors or a sharp edge, then pasted to a contrasting (typically light-colored) background.

John Miers was a notable silhouette artist in England during the late 18th to the early 19th centuries (the artistic Regency, in other words) (1756-1821). John Field had gone before him. A machine was employed by JC Lavater, a German who dabbled in science, to create "scientific" silhouettes. (I assume "scientific" implies "correct" in this situation.)

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