Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Real c. 1900 Aaron Mountz? You Decide...



Listed last week for $ 3,500.00 with no takers, now up for auction at $ 2,500.00. Described as genuine Aaron Mountz eagle carving. Noted as coming from the estate of dealer and collector Alice Braunfeld.


I'm no expert on Mountz, so I'm abstaining from any judgement on whether it's genuine or not...

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Perhaps they thought they'd cash in since the results from the carved dog that wasn't even mentioned as a possible Mountz climbed up to $4300+. Crazy.

Also - thank for the previos links for eBay seller with good selections of vernacular photography - I've picked up a couple of nice ones (I like farm scenes with animals) and they are inexpensive enough that they also make nice gifts once they are dressed up in an inexpensive frame. I found en early 50's shot of Niagra's Maid of the Mist tour boat for a friend who worked on it back in the 80's.

Joey said...

Happy to hear that you got some good photos! Great idea to put them in frames as gifts! Never thought of that before...As you can tell by some of my photography posts, I'm currently interested in a lot of these old shots of folk art in its original context, whether it's a trade sign or folk art sculpture. Also trying to put together a good collage of photobooth photos from the 1930s for my bathroom. Get this: we have this separate water closet in our master bathroom, so I thought it would be cool to have a large framed collage of other people in a "booth" staring back at me!

Anonymous said...

Not even close this looks like the work of a Chinese sweatshop.

Anonymous said...

This carved bird was one of two purchased from the Braunfeld estate, an noted long time Los Angeles dealer and collector. The other bird is identical to the one pictured in "Treasury of American Design and Antiques" page 686 number 2545 and also pictured on page 689 number2553. Both birds were carved by the same hand and have the exact same painted finish, similar to the one on page 689 with the light shading on top.

Joey said...

Very interesting. Thanks for the input. Like I said, I have no expertise when it comes to Mountz or Schimmel works. I did see an interesting listing in eBay the other day for a folk art dog that was "in the style of" Aaron Mountz and the seller said in the listing that it was found to be one of several that were made for the tourist trade in Germany.