January 10, 2018 – Vice Admiral Morton Deyo: WWII Service by William A. Gage, Department Head – James D. Julia, Inc. is proud to have been selected by the Maria Decatur Mayo Deyo (Lila) Garnett estate to sell at auction the personal effects of Vice Admiral Morton Lyndholm Deyo (July 1 1887 – November 10, 1973).

Deyo had a storied 38 year naval career starting with his graduation from the United States Naval Academy in 1911, and proceeding through to the Second World War and beyond. [Read More]

November 30, 2017 – Ogden Pleissner: The Sportsman’s Artist by William A. Gage, Department Head – Ogden Minton Pleissner (American, 1905-1983) was a twentieth century American artist who is best known for his fishing and hunting paintings, though most of his works were landscapes in both oils and watercolors. Early in life he painted in oils and executed landscapes including paintings of the American west. He was stationed in the Aleutian Islands during WWII and found that painting in oils was difficult as the damp climate was not conducive to drying oils. This forced him to switch to watercolors which sped up the drying process. He was a prolific artist and painted many works depicting life for the troops on the islands as well as the islands themselves. This wartime collection of works is housed at the Pentagon. [Read More]

November 14, 2017 – Paul Manship and His Celestial Sphere by William A. Gage, Department Head – In the early 1930s Paul Manship, one of the foremost, highly respected, and influential American artists of the Art Deco period, set in motion an idea that had been percolating in his mind for many years. Manship was always fascinated by the ancient mythical stories associated with the signs of the Zodiac and the heavenly constellations, and after three years of intense study and work he produced his first “Celestial Sphere.” [Read More]

September 28, 2017 – History In a Box: The Stephen Decatur Gold Freedom Box by William A. Gage, Department Head – At dawn on Sunday morning, October 25th, 1812, the Frigate USS United States encountered an English Ship of War under full sail just off the island of Madeira, 500 miles west of the Canary Islands. Stephen Decatur, captain of the USS United States, resolved to overtake and engage the British vessel. Upon gaining ground on her adversary and in a constant barrage of fire from her long guns, USS United States was pummeling the foe, but was also receiving fire from the opposing ship. So outgunned was the British ship they decided to come to close quarters where their cannon could be more effective in the hopes that the tactic would save them. [Read More]

June 2, 2017 – Harold G. Stoner: San Francisco Architect and Artist by William A. Gage, Department Head – Harold G. Stoner (1890-1971) was an American architect and artist who lived in San Francisco and worked in the early and mid-20th century and helped define some of the architectural style of the San Francisco area. Born in Brighton, England he moved to Canada in 1908 and completed
schooling in design drafting at the University of Saskatchewan. After graduating he worked for the Provincial government and went into private business. He next moved to the San Francisco area in 1915 and worked with the architect George Dixon in Oakland. He fought in France in WWI and shortly after became a US citizen. After working for several architectural firms he settled into the firm of Lang Realty Company as their chief architect in 1921. [Read More]

December 12, 2016 – Paul Manship, American Sculptor by William A. Gage, Department Head – Paul Howard Manship (December 24, 1885-January 28, 1966) was born and raised in St. Paul, Minnesota. He was an American sculptor who for 30 years beginning after World War I was considered one of America’s premier sculptors. It was during this period in 1934 he was commissioned to design what was to be the most famous and recognizable sculpture of his career. It was the monumental gilded bronze Prometheus fountain at Rockefeller Plaza in New York City. [Read More]

December 12, 2016 – White Mountain Art and Artists Including Edward Hill By Bill Gage – James D Julia, Inc. – White Mountain art is considered not a school but a body of work by over 400 artists who painted in and around the White Mountains of New Hampshire.
Thomas Cole, Alvan Fisher and Thomas Doughty were some of the earliest artists drawn to this area. They saw and liked the untamed wilderness that the region portrayed. Later in the 19th century came a cadre of Boston artists such as Benjamin Champney, Alfred Ordway, Samuel Griggs and Samuel Gerry who carried the region’s scenic wonders to an eager Boston clientele. It wasn’t until the railroad came to the area that tourism flourished and people wanted visions of their adventures on their walls. [Read More]

June 14, 2016 – Montague J. Dawson: Marine Artist Extraordinaire By Bill Gage – James D Julia, Inc. – Montague Dawson was born in Cheswick, England in 1890, and at the age of 5 completed his first painting, a watercolor sunset scene which would be the start of a long career of painting that would catapult him to being one of the finest nautical artists of his time. His first painting sold was at the age of eight years old. In 1890 he used a commercial art studio and learned the art of illustration… [Read More]

May 6, 2016 – Fitz Henry Lane By Bill Gage – James D Julia, Inc.
Fitz Henry Lane was born in 1804 in Gloucester, Massachusetts and died in 1865 in the same town. As a child he lost the use of both of his legs and used crutches for the remainder of his life. In the early 20th Century historians began identifying him as Fitz Hugh Lane and in 2004 it was discovered that his actual name was Fitz Henry Lane, which he has been referred to ever since… [Read More]

March 30, 2016 – Emile Albert Gruppé By Rebekah Kaufman – James D Julia, Inc. “When a man paints, he expresses his whole life, what he’s done and experienced. If you are bold and outgoing, your work will show it.” – Emile Albert Gruppé. James D. Julia has established itself as the premier auction house specializing in paintings from the Cape Ann (Massachusetts) School of artists. From the mid-19th century onward, this seaside destination established itself as the ideal East Coast artist colony, given its extraordinary ocean views, picturesque landscapes and gardens and… [Read More]

January 13, 2016 – Martin Johnson Heade: Political Correctness in the 19th Century By Bill Gage, Department Head- James D Julia Inc. – As part of the February auction this year we are pleased to offer an important painting by Martin Johnson Heade. Heade is most widely known for his iconic marsh sunset scenes as well as detailed renderings of Hummingbirds and wildflowers.
He was born in Lumberville Pennsylvania in 1819 and started his career as a portrait painter, in 1848 he visited Europe several times and visited Italy on his second trip. On this trip he broadened his subject matter to include genre painting and one of his first examples was “Roman Newsboys”… [Read More]

December 30, 2015 – Edvard Munch: AN ARTIST REVEALED THROUGH A RECENT DISCOVERY – Edvard Munch was born 1863, in Löten, Norway. He established a free-flowing, psychological themed style of painting all his own. His painting “The Scream” (“The Cry”; 1893), is one of the most recognizable works in the history of art. One of the three versions he painted sold for more than $119,000,000 in 2012, setting at the time a new world record. [Read More]

December 2, 2015 – Like Finding A Needle In A Haystack Or The Golden Ticket – One of the rarest and most famous United States stamps issued by the U. S. Postal Service was the 1918 issue of the 24 cent stamp showing the Curtiss JN-4H biplane or Jenny on it. This stamp was rushed into production to celebrate the first airmail flight. In May of that year a single page of 100 stamps is sold to William T. Robey a cashier from Washington, D.C. He had just purchased the only misprints of this stamp to fall into private hands. The misprint shows the “Jenny” upside down! A block of four inverted Jennys from this original block of 100 was sold at a Robert A. Siegel auction in October 2005 for $2.7 million. (This would make the original block of 100 worth $67,500,000!) [Read More]

October 10, 2015 – Siro R. Toffolon: Designer of Silver Flatware By Bill Gage, Department Head – Siro R. Toffolon was born in Meriden, CT. April 5, 1932. Following his graduation from Wilcox Technical School in 1951, he went to work for the International Silver Company in Meriden, Connecticut, where he worked as a designer of silver flatware. He is accredited with many designs over his 30 year career at the Company as an employee until 1967 and then as a consultant… [Read More]

August 18, 2015 – Antique Royalty; Thomas Chippendale and the Chippendale Style By Tony Greist, Department Head Born in 1718 at Otley in West Yorkshire, Thomas Chippendale was the son and apprentice of John Chippendale. Although very little is known of his early years, Thomas Chippendale was said to have been a strong businessman with elevated social aspirations. In 1754 Chippendale published “Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker’s Director” consisting of a collection of furniture design templates which adapted existing design styles with the fashion of the mid-18th century including English, Gothic and Chinese motifs. The Director appealed to both makers and sellers of furniture and Chippendale quickly became a household name… [Read More]

July 6, 2015 – Amelia Earhart- Flight in the Friendship By John Sexton, Consultant & Agent- James D Julia Inc. After Charles Lindbergh’s solo flight in 1927, a wealthy American woman named Amy Phipps Guest (1873 – 1959) decided she wanted to be the first woman to fly across the Atlantic. After her family objected, Guest asked aviator Richard Byrd and publisher George Putnam (who later would become Earhart’s manager and husband) to find the “right sort of girl for the trip”. There are many reasons Guest selected Amelia…[Read More]

April 16, 2015 – Edgar Degas; a Focus on Sculpture
Degas’ sculpture stands outside the mainstream of nineteenth-century French sculpture. He was never interested in creating public monuments, and, with one exception, neither did he display his sculpture publicly. The exception was The Little Fourteen- Year-Old Dancer. It was shown in the sixth Impressionist exhibition held in Paris in 1881, but the work has little to do with Impressionism. Modeled in wax and wearing a real bodice, stockings, shoes, tulle skirt, and horsehair wig with a satin ribbon, the figure astonished Degas’ contemporaries, not only for its unorthodox use of materials, but also and above all for its realism, judged brutish by some. The Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer was not seen again publicly until April 1920. [Read More]

February 20, 2015 – AThe Yangtze River Collection This magnificent collection was assembled by Dr. Helga Wall-Apelt. In February through August of 1993, the collection was on display at the Museum of Fine Arts, 255 Beach Drive NE, St. Petersburg, Florida. A special full color book was prepared for the collection and its exhibition and many of the objects in this book are being offered today at auction. Later it was featured in Dr. Wall-Apelt’s Museum of Asian Art in Sarasota, Florida. (A copy of this special publication will accompany the following 60 lots from this collection).[Read More]

January 23, 2015 – An Appreciation of Nineteenth-Century Folk Portraits by David Krashes – TMany so-called “primitive” portraits of the first half of the nineteenth century are extraordinarily captivating in their abstract, imaginative, and seemingly humble execution. Their beauty and charm lie in the manner in which the artists used colors and perspective. While the most prized primitive portraits show degrees of ingenuity and a divorce from reality that appeal to today’s aesthetics, there was an appreciation for the images many years prior. Early-twentieth-century artists Robert Laurent, William Zorach, Elie Nadelman, and Charles Sheeler recognized the abstract qualities of American “primitives” and not only collected them, but drew inspiration from them. [Read More]

December 10, 2014 – The Making of a Woodblock Print
The Japanese Woodblock Print is an art form, which highlights flowing, curved outlines, simplistic forms as well as the detailing of flat areas containing color. This form of art has not only existed for a long time in Asian history, but it has also deeply impacted artists in both Europe and North America throughout the 19th century. [Read More]

November 13, 2014 – Quilt-Making: An American Tradition
Stroll around any local craft show and you will see homemade quilts to awe and inspire. Bright colors, intricate patterns and pristine craftsmanship will abound, but where did the tradition begin? The picture that pops to mind is a pioneer woman sitting by the fire as she lovingly stitches a beautiful quilt to keep her family warm through the long cold winter. In reality, quilting as we know it today did not take off for the average woman until the mid- 1700’s, until then the average housewife was far too busy spinning, weaving and sewing clothing to spare time for artistic endeavors. [Read More]

May 8, 2014 – Just a Maine Boy Done Good
Waldo Peirce was born the son of a wealthy lumberman in Bangor, Maine in 1884. He is well known for his paintings of his children. In 1910 he decided he wanted to go to Europe; however, after boarding the ship in Boston he changed his mind, jumped into the water and swam back to shore. Soon after that he did leave for Europe where he lived a very adventurous & fun-filled lifestyle. [Read More]

April 2, 2014 – Harold Haliday Costain-Illustrative Photographer
Mr Costain, born in 1897, lived and worked most of his life in Scarsdale N.Y. He entered the photography business at the same time as lifestyle magazines proliferated the market along with the expansion of the advertising industry. This was the same time as halftone processing became common in print media using photographs besides text. In the early 1920s 15% of all illustrated ads used photographs. [Read More]

March 3, 2014 – Fight for the Winning Side
In the annals of 20th century gun collecting, the most iconic name was that of Norm Flayderman. Norm was a gentleman of the highest regard, a consummate professional, a distinguished scholar and author, and a business man extraordinaire. His reference books, sales catalogs, and highly renowned price guide were legendary, but of equal importance was his extraordinary intellect and “eye.” Norm had excellent taste and a panoramic expanse of interests. He had the uncanny ability to distinguish the good from the bad and the extraordinary from the very good. He knew the importance of not selling things “before their time” and over the years made it a point to amass and quietly and confidentially hold certain items and collections until the ideal time. One of these collections which Norm had was of Civil War Recruitment posters. [Read More]

January 20, 2014 – The Truly Remarkable Archive of Civil War Materials from Luis Fenollosa Emilio, a Captain of the 54th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. This treasure trove of letters and memorabilia details the day-to-day experiences and observations of a heroic leader of one of the first official African American units in the United States during the Civil War-the same Regiment portrayed in the 1989 Academy Award winning film “Glory.”

Julia’s is excited to present this historically important collection in association with the company’s upcoming Fine Art, Asian and Antiques Auction to be held February 4th-7th, 2014. These materials-so extensive that they will be sold in two lots-are from Emilio family descendants and are certain to be of profound interest to collectors, military historians, and museums around the world. [Read More]

November 5, 2013 – Seven Factors for Evaluating Paintings
Artist The most important factor. Whether signed or not, all other factors are secondary to this knowledge. Obviously, if unsigned, obtaining a letter from an authority increases its desirability and value, as does an authentic, vivid signature. [Read More]

Septemper 30, 2013 – Folk Art
Throughout the last several years, fine Folk Art, especially American examples, have held the interest of collectors throughout the world, which has gone hand in hand with the stability of value for these unique items in an otherwise unstable environment. [Read More]

August 15, 2013 – The Importance and Origins of Church Silver Collections in New England. In New England during the 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries, the church was the center of the local community. Not only was it the location for religious ceremonies, it was also the center of social life for the community, and served as a “de facto” town hall. Many people heard the reading of the Declaration of Independence for the first time from the pulpit of their local church. So important was the church to the community and culture that a town was not “recognized” by the state until a proper church had been organized and built. [Read More]