Catalog: Vintage Arts: Decorative Art (4)

I visited the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington DC a little more than a year ago and saw some really creative ceramics with leather incorporated into the composition among related, sculptural works. It did make a spontaneous and lasting impression that led me to recognize and purchase a wonderful and unusual work by the same hand found in an antiques and collectibles market.

Featured here is a monumental mixed media salt glazed pottery charger. My first impression was a landscape with sun (concentric iron colored circles on clay body) on the horizon (leather upon iron colored band) over blue colored area (suggesting water?) Where the horizon meets is reminiscent of Rothko. But the hanger suggests it may have been intended with the concentric rings below, as if a valley. The blue area, in that case, might represent the sky (if indeed it is intended as a landscape.) The horizon would not sit level if the hanger shows intent. One might also remove the hanger and place as a centerpiece. The charger is signed "TURKER GWU CORCORON [sic] 1971".

The artist is Turker Ozdogan, Fellow of Corcoran College of Art and Design. He also received an MFA at George Washington University. As faculty, he established the ceramics program at GWU and continues as the Director. Ozdogan previously received recognition from the Applied Fine Arts School, Istanbul, the Eczacibasi Ceramics Factory also in Turkey, and Furst Adolf Werkstatte Fur Keramik, Buckeburg, Germany. He has achieved recognition, awards or exhibitions with Corcoran Gallery of Art, the International Monetary Fund, the World bank, Meridian House, and the United Nations Plaza, Turkevi Gallery. His work has been featured in the press and in publications and is in many private and public collections including The George Washington University Permanent Collection, and Kale Ceramics Museum, Turkey. Condition is good. Diameter, 22 inches.

Have not found other works available on the market and no archival basis to establish comparative value. The artist is apparently aesthetically rather than commercially motivated. This will be weighty and careful packing so at the buyer's expense.

A carved wood Mallard Duck decoy with light, hollowed body (in top and bottom section) and nicely defined tail and wing feathers. Painted details and glass eyes. Good, serviceable condition with natural wear from use. This useable decoy would make a great decoration. "H.W. Jones" impressed on the bottom. We were told when acquiring that it was from the Chesapeake Bay area vicinity Delaware. But we found online information from a reputable specialty auction house (with presale estimate for an H.W. Jones hollow black duck decoy) suggesting the Hudson River area of New York. Length from tip of bill to tip of tail: 17 3/8 inches

A fascinating manipulation of fired on patination to the copper or bronze, shouldered vase. A rich, earthy copper red fired on patina is on the interior and on the exterior serving as background to irregular streams, inlets and pools of dappled verdigris among, and picked out by, (seemingly) flames of speckled gold fading into the background color. We included one picture with filtered sunlight to better pick out the colors. Reasonably good condition - allowing for presentable display from a cabinet. There are two small impacts to the side accompanying some patination loss. One of these impacts is small enough that a little repatination or color touch up should suffice. The other could be similarly conserved before or after tapping out the impact. Other minor color touch up - particularly to an area along the shoulder of the vase - might be needed (unless you like to leave things as they are.) Impressed or incised WMF Ikora mark, with tower in circle, to the foot. Height 5 1/8" (13cm)

A Black Forest carved wood sculptural study of a wild boar with a 'don't mess with me' aura. The boldly carved and detailed boar, stained, on carved wood plinth, unstained, portraying coarse terrain. Signed bottom of the plinth, "Evert E Klund". In different hand, "'Gunthers (with an umlaut over the 'u'), Germany' Nov. 1946". Ink stamped mark (three times) of an anchor flanked by two stylized 'E's. The next owner may wish to outline over one of the anchor marks before they all completely fade away. I was in Oberammergau during my 2013 Summer vacation and visited some of the wood carving shops where I spotted a new example of similar work. That is not to say that Gunther's or Evert E Klund was from that area but may be more likely than not this is southern Bavarian work. Good condition. Boar length, about 8 inches (20.32 cm) from snout to back left hoof. Plinth length, about 10 inches (25.4 cm).