Folding Floor Screen Aluminum Leaf France or Italy, 1980s

Salvador Corona painted four-panel wooden floor screen created in his studio in Mexico circa 1938. This rare hand crafted multi medium room divider was the property of the daughter of one of Mexico's wealthiest families of the period, who married the head of an international railroad supply company in their Warren McArthur furnished apartment on Park Avenue. The custom designed Warren McArthur furniture was a gift of the Pullman Company. In the early 1950s she opened a shop in Boothbay, Maine and later on upper Lexington Avenue specializing in the crafts of Mexico. This may have been a wedding present to her from the artist, her family or a close friend. The screen shows a the harbor of 19th Century Acapulco with the major buildings with gold leaf tiled roofs, Spanish galleons in the bay, a whale spouting in the distance, birds, and silver leafed palm trees . The harbor scene is bordered in gilt painted cord. Within which are appliquéd cutout medallions of various local fish and air bubbles covered in tinfoil ,a new material in the 30s. The tinfoil is finely etched in a variety of intricate patterns. Some of the appliqués are glazed in gold. The reverse side of the screen is an ivory white back ground with vignettes from the Maximilian era of Mexico. The screen is in good condition with wear consistent with its age. Salvador Corona was born on his family's ranch Hacienda Mideras in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. Corona’s family moved to Mexico City in 1903 when he was 8. He attended the New English College in Mexico and then crossed into a career in bull fighting entering the ring for the first time in 1913. In 1919 in Guadalajara he was gored and turned to painting. He was given his first painting lessons by fellow bullfighter Jose Jimenez. Corona’s painting career spanned many decades and diverse formats including murals, furniture and decorative household items. In 1939, the Mexican government invited him to exhibit a set of painted furniture at it's booth at the World’s Fair in New York City. There, it was presented to President Franklin D. Roosevelt as a gift. Corona’s work attracted many famous patrons, including the Duchess of Windsor, Gary Cooper and writer Clare Booth Luce. Salvador Corona’s work featured many Spanish Colonial vignettes, and he became an authority on Spanish and French costumes of the 1800s, which are frequently depicted in his paintings. His favorite subjects often included Mexican Colonial criollos and Purepecha (Tarascan) Indians. Birds and other animals feature prominently in his work. His traditional self-developed folk art style images depicted pastoral colorful scenes of Maximilian era Mexico painted on white backgrounds. His work can be divided into three categories: a vice-regal era with European and Creole noblemen mixed with Indians; stylized landscapes of Patscuaro, Acapulco or the Canal of Santa Anita; and his iconographic Mexican Virgins...

A Charles Cobb chest hand made at his Californian studio in the early 1980s This extraordinary studio-crafted “Cherub Chest” by Charles Cobb, created in the 1980s, exemplifies the poetic fusion of art and function that defined the American Studio Craft movement. Cobb, who established his studio in Northern California in the mid-1970s, gained recognition for one-of-a-kind sculptural furniture pieces that conveyed personal symbolism through expressive carving and masterful materiality. Hand-carved in figured Acacia wood, the chest features lyrical, chiseled details across its surfaces—abstract cherubic forms that subtly emerge from the grain, inviting touch and contemplation. The drawer fronts are edged in cerulean blue, providing a vivid contrast to the organic warmth of the wood. Inside, drawer boxes in curly maple and walnut speak to Cobb’s devotion to craftsmanship, even in hidden elements. Two sculptural rosewood pulls anchor cabinet doors on a medium white-painted body, balancing the composition with quiet elegance. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Cobb was commissioned for significant private and public projects, with work collected by discerning clients across California, New York, and Japan. His pieces are held in both residential and institutional collections, appreciated for their narrative depth and finely wrought form. The Cherub Chest is a rare,example of Cobb’s vision—where furniture becomes symbolic, sculptural, and enduring. A museum-worthy piece for collectors of American studio furniture, sculptural design, and 20th-century West Coast craftsmanship. The profile of this beautifully hand crafted piece reminds me of a bouquet of flowers gracefully drooping over the edge of a large container. The chest is from his series of one off cabinets titled Cherub Chests...