India :: Botanicals, Natural History, Maps and Views

A View at Lucknow
Henry Salt (1780-1827)
Twenty-four views in St. Helena, the Cape, India, Ceylon, the Red Sea, Abyssinia, and Egypt
London: William Miller, 1809
Hand-colored aquatint engraving by Robert and Daniel Havell

Arader Galleries is pleased to present a special catalog of antique engravings, lithographs and original watercolors focusing on our fine selection of works relating to India. It is impossible not to be astonished by India. Its rich culture and history, especially its role in early trade routes, and its present-day status as one of the world’s largest economies has no doubt inspired the modern collector. Europeans fervently documented this vast region, and the works in the following pages offer a glimpse into the great influence of the Indian culture over Western societies, from the early sixteenth century to well into the nineteenth century.

From 16th century maps, to 19th century sporting scenes, Arader Galleries has a wide range of material highlighting India, including its exotic flora and fauna, and majestic views and architecture. Please contact Arader Galleries at 415-788-5115 if you have an interest in receiving our India catalog.

Arader Galleries at the San Francisco Fall Antiques Show

Arader Galleries booths at

SF Fall Antiques Show

Arader Galleries was excited to participate in the San Francisco Fall Antiques Show benefiting Enterprise for High School Students held October 28 - 31 at the Fort Mason Festival Pavilion.

The theme for the 2010 show was Chinoiserie, an influential artistic and decorative style which reflects Chinese influences. The numerous lecturers spoke on an array of fascinating topics including an informative lecture on China and porcelain from Senior Vice President, Department Director, Chinese Works of Art and Head of European Ceramics and Chinese Export Porcelain at Sotheby’s, New York, Christina Prescott Walker. Using her own China cabinet as an example, she touched on the history of porcelain in China and the secrets of making it that Europeans tried to emulate. She also spoke of the different painting styles artists used to decorate the China, which were exported and coveted by Europeans for their delicacy and beauty.

Hey Royal Highness Princess Michael of Kent also gave a lively lecture on Chinoiserie influences in porcelain, art and design seen throughout the courts of Europe. Illustrated with pictures and examples from her own travels throughout Europe, Her Royal Highness gave a deep inside look into the collections of royalty and the histories behind the fascination with collecting these rare and beautiful pieces.

The 2010 San Francisco Fall Antiques Show was filled with lavish beauty, decoration and works from the finest galleries throughout the world and included an interesting and informative lecture series devoted to Chinoiserie.

San Francisco Fall Antiques Show

Jacques Charton
Hippopotame d'Afrique
From Collection de plantes etrangeres en
fleurs, fruits, corail et coquillages
Paris: 1784
Hand-colored copperplate engravings

Arader Galleries in San Francisco is proud to be exhibiting at the upcoming 2010 San Francisco Fall Antiques Show, the oldest continually operating fine antiques show on the West coast, with exceptional dealers from across the world. Each year a special theme is selected highlighting a particular design influence. The 2010 San Francisco Fall Antiques show theme is “Chinoiserie”, a French term meaning “Chinese-esque”, and focuses on Western art that features or imitates the elements, techniques and designs that have been used in Eastern art for centuries.

With the influx of trade between Europe and China beginning in the 17th century, a new style of art, design and decoration was realized. Interests in whimsical Asian imagery and ornamentation, furniture, porcelain and design were abundant in European homes and in the art produced throughout the 17th to mid-18th century, when it further translated into the French Rococo style.

The San Francisco Fall Antiques Shows runs from October 28th to the 31st, 2010 at the Festival Pavilion in Fort Mason. Numerous guest speakers will be presenting throughout the show on a multitude of topics relating to Chinoiserie history, design and fashion. Please feel free to contact Arader Galleries in San Francisco for more details. Tickets to the San Francisco Fall Antiques show may be purchased at http://www.sffas.org.

Filoli Estate and Gardens

Images:

View of Filoli house

View of Sunken Garden

Mural of Muckross House and Abbey

in Filoli ballroom

“Fight for a just cause; Love your fellow man; Live a good life”

Filoli is a magnificent estate located on the Peninsula in Woodside. The estate, still remaining on all of its 654 acres, was built by Mr. and Mrs. William Bowers Bourn II who lived on the estate from 1919 to 1936. The Bourn family owned the Empire Gold Mine, the Spring Valley Water Company and the Crystal Springs Reservoir and like many families during the early 20^th century, prospered during America’s “Gilded Age”.

San Francisco architect Willis Polk designed this amazing estate using elements from different architectural eras and styles. The house, styled mainly in a modified-Georgian tradition has French and Spanish influenced architecture, with outstanding works of art from throughout the world. In the ballroom, Ernest Peixottoe, a San Francisco artist, was hired by the Bourn family to paint wall sized murals of their family estate, Muckross House and Abbey, with the surrounding Irish countryside, gifted to their daughter Maude on her wedding day.

The formal gardens at Filoli were designed by San Francisco artist and designer Bruce Porter and built between 1917 and 1921. The sixteen-acre garden is a true complement to the refinement of the estate and to the natural California countryside surrounding the home. The expansive gardens are divided into two parallel north-south walks, yet within each, walkways wrapping through gardens, doors and terraces give each division of the garden a feeling of total immersion and intimacy.

In 1937, Filoli was sold to Mr. and Mrs. William P. Roth, owners of the Matson Navigation Company. Mrs. Roth, a horticultural enthusiast, brought worldwide recognition to the Filoli gardens and to Isabella Worn, whom assisted with plant selection and design. Worn’s detail in selection and plating design brought remarkable color and life to the gardens.

Mrs. Roth donated the estate to the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 1975 in order to ensure the estate would be available for all to enjoy years later. Filoli is open Tuesday through Sunday, mid-February to late October and is a true pleasure for architectural, design and garden enthusiasts alike.

Dynamic Botanical Photographs

Photo courtesy of the SF Botanical Gardens

Now being exhibited at the San Francisco Botanical Garden's Library are brilliant photographic images of plants and flowers bursting with color, texture and geometry. The title of the show, by photographer Julie Jaycox, "Nature's Geometry: Surprises of Botanical Design," perfectly describes these beautiful and detailed images and the symmetry they present.

Many of the pieces are composed of two pictures to show the similarity and differences between the plants and the elements that make them unique. Julie's images showcase the beauty, elegance and often unseen details of plants that surround us daily, as many of these photographs were taken while she walked through parks and found the plants in different stages of growth and flowering.

"Nature's Geometry: Surprises of Botanical Design" will be on display at the Helen Crocker Russell Library of Horticulture in the San Francisco Botanical Garden until December 30, 2010 and are a must see for any botanical or photograph enthusiast.

The Exquisite Manuscript Florilegia of Jacques le Moyne

One of the rare Jewels to be found in the collections of both the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London are sixteenth manuscript florilegium of wildflowers and fruits painted by Jacques le Moyne de Morgues. Only five compendiums to date have been identified as original works by le Moyne, the finest of which can be found at Arader Galleries.

Le Moyne, a French Huguenot, best known for his vivid account of the ill fated 1564 transatlantic voyage to Florida which he accompanied as official artist and cartographer to the French King Charles IX, ended his career in Elizabethan London as a highly regarded botanical artist whose patrons included Sir Walter Raleigh and Lady Mary Sidney. Le Moyne was among a rare and exclusive group of 16th century botanical artists who specialized in the creation of florilegia, most of which were printed, however a small number of such works commissioned by wealthy aristocrats, were painted by hand. Le Moyne was among the first artists to revive the practice of drawing from nature and working from real plants instead of following the tradition of copying from earlier botanical illustrations. A shining example is Le Moyne’s watercolor of the wild strawberry, exhibiting delicately upturned and curling leaves, subtle gradations in stem color and exquisitely imperfect strawberries shown in varying stages of ripeness, all of which strongly suggest that he was in fact working from a live plant specimen. Versions of Le Moyne’s magnificent Wild Strawberry are included in the compendiums held at the Victoria and Albert Museum,

the British Museum, and the collection at Arader Galleries.

Image from the Victoria and Albert Museum

The Wild Strawberry watercolor at the Victoria and Albert Museum is most likely the earliest of the albums, probably painted in Paris after he returned from his expedition to Florida in 1566 and before he fled to London in 1572. This album is thought to have been intended to serve as a design reference for jewelry, embroidery and other crafts. Le Moyne has included a magnificent female emperor moth which he edited from the composition in later works. This is the largest format of the three albums, and generally the watercolors are of entire plants, and sometimes contain incomplete sketches. It seems Le Moyne was less concerned with overall composition and more focused on realistically portraying the natural details of the various specimens.

Image from the British Museum

The Le Moyne Album at the British Museum, completed in London in 1585, is probably the latest of the three works. The Wild Strawberry watercolor in this album considerably more stylized than the version at the Victoria and Albert museum and has been lined with a red ink border, consistent with the accompanying watercolors in this compendium. Le Moyne has altered and tightened the composition by editing the least visually interesting components of the plant to fit within the border.

The Le Moyne Album at Arader Galleries is by far the most lavish and deluxe version when compared to the collections at the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum. The paper has been prepared as vellum to give a subtle sheen and the exquisitely illustrated flowering and fruiting plants are composed with in a distinctively sumptuous gold leaf border. Le Moyne retains the fine and delicate detail found in the collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum while employing his elegant understanding of composition to frame the illustrations within the border to create a more compact and arresting overall image.

If you would like more information, or the chance to view this magnificent 16^th century manuscript by one of the most exceptional botanical artists of the 16^th century, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Rare Books and Magnificent Maps

Arader Galleries has, for the fourth year in a row, participated in the London Rare Books School (http://ies.sas.ac.uk/cmps/events/courses/LRBS/index.htm) , a series of intensive courses on a variety of book-related subjects taught by internationally renowned scholars, with privileged access to the treasured collections of London’s finest libraries and museums, including the British Library, the British Museum, the National Archives, and the Royal Geographic Society, to name a few.

Catherine DeLano-Smith, the editor of Imago Mundi, and Sarah Tyack, former chief Executive of the National Archives (UK), lead The History of Maps and Map Making and Mapping Land and Sea before 1900 seminars respectively. Highlights included a private tour and lecture of the British Library’s current exhibition Magnificent Maps: Power, Propaganda and Art with curator and director Peter Barber. (http://www.bl.uk/magnificentmaps/)

Featuring over 80 of the most impressive wall maps ever created, this exhibit tells the cumulative story of how maps, and the underlying agendas of their creators and commissioners, have been used to wield power and control throughout history, from 200AD to the present day.

The exhibition beautifully exemplifies one of the main themes of modern cartographic study; that maps are subjective images that convey much more than geographic information. This rich world of nuanced yet complex purposes comes to light as one begins to see each map through the eyes of its originally intended audience.

The magnificent Maps exhibition at the British Library will be on display until September 19, 2010.