1940s Wall Decorations

Original US lobby card for the 1942 comedy directed by Preston Sturges and starring Claudette Colbert, Joel McCrea.

Original US lobby card for the 1947 film noir directed by Edward Dmytryk and starring Robert Young, Robert Mitchum. This lobby card is also signed by Robert...

Original Belgian movie poster for Bluebeard 1944 staring John Carradine, Jean Parker, Nils Asther and directed by Edgar G. Ulmer. The film did not...

Original American set of eight lobby cards for Robert Siodmak's 1948 film Noir staring Victor Mature, Richard Conte.

Original black and white studio photographic still used to advertise Warner Brother's leading lady, Barbara Stanwyck in the 1940s.  

Western Theme Pastel Drawing Signed WJ Madcher '42

Original Italian film poster for the 1948 war, romance staring Ingrid Bergman, Charles Boyer, Charles Laughton. The movie did not get release in Italy un...

This is a rare original Russian propaganda poster called The Road of Life by Muratov, N. 1944 print.

This is an original rare Russian propaganda poster called 40 Years. 1945 print

The painting "Cliff". Dimensions: Frame: height 53 cm / width 68 cm Image: height 40 cm / width 55 cm

Friedrich Karl GOTSCH (1900-1984), very well-known and renowned german painter of the golden era of expressionism, impressionism and „Neue Sachlichkeit“. Friend of many world-famous artists of the time. His extraordinary works can be found in many exhibitions and collections around the world. - Oil / Gouache on cardboard from 1945. New professional framed. Monogrammed „F...

With a nicely carved pine frame. The canvas featuring a view of Chateau de Savinac in Bordeaux, France.

Mid-Century Modern painting animal motif fishes by Robert Libeski 1946 Vienna. An amazing painting with a motif looks like the painter was situated in the middle of a sea surrounded ...

Outstanding French Noble portrait with carved frame, graphite drawing, ff. XIX, pp. XX Technical data Drawing on paper Title of the work: Untitled Author: anonymous Portrait paintin...

Pair of hanging brass plates produced in Italy in the 1940s. The Classic Art Deco subjects are represented and are in their original patina of the time. Small signs of wear due to age.

Pablo Picasso/ MadouraTaureau dans l'arène 1948 (Ramié 80). Plat rectangulaire en terre de faïence blanche. Tampons "Madoura plein feu" "CR" et "Edition Picasso" Edition à 450 exempl...

'Regards Sur L'Afrique' Original Vintage Poster by Jacques Bonneaud, 1944 This poster is an original poster from 1944, there are slight signs of age such a fold marks which is consi...

Rare blueprint by Howard Chapelle showing details of the United States Navy Sloop of War Wasp of 1807. Howard Irving Chapelle was an american naval architect and curator of maritime ...

Original Watercolor Ski Poster "Pontresina" by Herbert Leupin (Swiss: 1916 - 1999), a watercolor and gouache painting original for one of Leupin's celeb...

Original vintage post-World War Two map poster for Kent Battle of Britain 1940-1941 featuring a colourful design by Ernest Costain Clegg (1876-1954) of the county in south east Engla...

Original vintage post-World War Two map poster for Oxfordshire featuring a colourful design by Ernest Costain Clegg (1876-1954) of the county with illustrations of notable landmarks ...

Original blueprint of a one hundred foot yacht by John Wells Incorporated of New York. The plan is a top view showing the top deck and cabin level. The top deck shows dining saloon, pilot house...

A signed framed original photograph from the noted photographer Nat Fein whose most famous photo is of Babe Ruth Retiring. It is a world famous photograp...

This pair of brackets done in the baroque style are Italian made circa 1940 the pair is crafted from wood and molded gesso with thick old mirror backs that have spotting and crazing ...

Gouache on paper fashion sketch by Ginette Roger, in new custom gilt frame. France, 1940's

Gouache on paper fashion sketch by Ginette Roger, in new custom gilt frame. France, 1940's

Stunning and exceptionally rare poster for the 1940 Summer Olympic Games in Helsinki, Finland, or the Games of the XII Olympiad. Originally rescheduled, the games were eventually can...

Art Deco mixed media painting by Robert Libeski with a female figural motif, 1946 in a neutral and timeless color palette. A decorative and figural painting in golden color tones sho...

This flag represents the sign for "BOOT SIGNAL - STEER TOWARDS" - according to the international flags and pennants chart. The flag is a vivid yellow and blue. Hardware is galvanized steel. This is a large ship standard sized flag. THIS ITEM IS LOCATED AND WILL SHIP FROM OUR MIAMI, FLORIDA SHOWROOM. Professionally framed in natural maple low profile shadow box and sewn on to the matting, this vintage German-made nautical Signal flag from WW II era, was never used and acquired as a group. The purpose of International Signal Code Flags...

Original fashion drawing by American artist Carl "Eric" Erickson (1891-1958). Eric spect the 1940s attending and documenting fashion shows under the supervision of Diana Vreeland. Er...

This beautiful watercolor on paper Shows a viewpoint of buildings through an archway. Signed, dated, and titled in the lower corner. Professionally framed and matted. Vintage Conditi...

Art Deco wool tapestry, circa 1930-1950 This tapestry is composed of pieces of woolen woven and assembled. Very good condition, only some fringes are missing.

Henry Rox original vintage silver print of his imaginative creation of food of an art professor and his dachshund attached to a non-representational non-easel abstract Expressionist ...

1940s oil painting of Amsterdam's red light district.

Charming and chic medallion for a Powder room or your favorite Pisces

This flag represents the number one signal (Penant One) - according to the international flags and pennants chart. The flag is the largest scale pennant in vibrant RED and white with hand stitching. Hardware is galvanized steel. This is a large ship standard sized flag which is 68 inches long. Professionally framed in natural maple low profile shadow box and sewn on to the matting, this vintage German-made nautical signal flag from WW II era, was never used and acquired as a group (see some of our other listings). Can be hung vertically or horizontally. THIS ITEM IS LOCATED AND WILL SHIP FROM OUR MIAMI, FLORIDA SHOWROOM. The purpose of International Signal Code Flags...

1867-1957 Having spent a considerable time in Egypt, Serailian arrived in Boston in 1892 and then accepted a position to teach in Indiana at Taylor University. He settled in San Francisco in 1900. He was a good friend of Luther Burbank and did many botanical illustrations for him. He died in San Francisco on Sept. 7, 1957. His work includes landscapes, florals, and portraits. View Of Mt Shasta...

Interesting vintage proposal drawing in 1/2 scale of an aircraft co-pilot seat. Dated 1/12/46 from the Warren McArthur Corporation. Drawing measures 26 x 4...

The oil painting on canvas by Ejner Johansen from 1948 sounds like a delightful piece of art. Ejner Johansen was a Danish artist known for his paintings, often featuring still life c...

Vintage Nantucket Watercolor of "Old North Slip" on Nantucket, by Doris and Richard Beer, circa 1940, a watercolor on paper view of mooring slips along the end of Old North Wharf, signed in pencil lower right, titled on the reverse. Doris and Richard Beer (1898-1967 and 1893-1959 respectively) produced a well-known series of watercolor miniatures featuring popular Nantucket scenes. Working at their Wharf Head Studio on Old North Wharf for 18 years, the couple worked together on these copyrighted creations, photo-duplicating Doris's line sketch and Doris and Richard completing the watercolor. A native New Yorker, Doris studied at the Art Students League, Cooper Union, and with Arthur Dow at Columbia University. She developed a successful career designing theatrical scenery and costumes in New York, Newport, and later for the Straight Wharf Theater on Nantucket. Richard spent the summers of his childhood in ’Sconset. A graduate of Hamilton College, he served for ten years as American consul in posts in Budapest, England, Havana, and Canada. A self taught painter, he also was a talented writer who contributed to the Saturday Evening Post, Yankee Magazine, and Art News...

Art Deco painting swimming pool Vue de ma table. France ca. 1940. Acrylic paint, watercolor on board. Framed. Monogrammed.

Vintage Nantucket Watercolor of Old North Wharf, by Doris and Richard Beer, circa 1940, a watercolor on paper view of shell lane down center of ol...

Dorothy Dehner (1901-1994) was one of the most important women artists in the United States in the mid-century American abstraction movement (the MoMa in New York has more than a doz...

Mid-20th century handmade Israeli street name sign. Made of enamel and iron, this street sign was created shortly after the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948. The sign is ...

Industrial glove cutters right out of a New York State glove factory that closed down years ago. They range in measurements. Measures: 5.5 in to 7 in high, 3 in to 4-3/8 in wide, 5/8...

A very interesting and unusual Lancaster Bridge Original Oil Painting by artist J. Earle Pfoutz. The painting is produced on artist board and comes complete with what appears to be an original artist decorated/painted frame. The painting is signed on the front by the artist. Overall frame Size approximately 42″ wide x 2″ deep x 30″ high J. Earle Pfoutz had a long and distinguished career as a self trained artist. More can be learned about him from reading this article produced by Gary Hawbaker at askART Earle Pfoutz Born: 1891 – Lancaster, Pennsylvania Died: 1957 Known for: Landscape, figure, still life painting An image of J Earle Pfoutz Biography from the Archives of askART J. Earle Pfoutz (John Earle Pfoutz) – (Oct 23, 1891-Nov 9, 1957) “A seventh generation descendant of a Swiss family which arrived in America early in the 17th Century, J. Earle Pfoutz was born in Lancaster, PA, son of John Bachman and Susan Allison Pfoutz. He painted houses for a living and pictures for a life. A self-taught artist, described as a primitive, he was distinctive for his vivid imagination and bold color application. He painted hundreds of Lancaster County scenes. Pfoutz traveled through the hills near his home and along the Susquehanna River in search of scenes. He began painting with a brush when he was fourteen, but added a palette knife after suffering an eye injury. He completed eighth grade in the Lancaster Public Schools and there his formal education ended. However, the Department of Public Instruction of the State of Pennsylvania thought so highly of his work as an artist that officials certified him as an art instructor and he taught for a year in the York (PA) public schools. He also was an art instructor under the program for disabled veterans, sponsored by the Veterans Administration, when he gave private instruction to veterans in their homes. In 1947, J. Earle Pfoutz finally earned national recognition as an artist. His painting, Opalescent October, was chosen by the Museum of Art of Dayton Ohio, to travel all over the country for a year with its Group Exhibition. Described as a “very colorful, calm scene, iridescent in color, sweeping in design,” the painting started on its journey around the country early in 1948. In an interview with the Sunday News (Lancaster, PA – Nov 2, 1947), Pfoutz stated that he didn’t know whether he was a “primitive” or an “impressionist.” No master taught him, no school channeled his style. “Sometimes I didn’t eat, but I always managed to paint,” he recalled. Many of his hundreds of canvases -most of them not sold, but given away to friends – found their way to other parts of the country. “I never remember the day when I did not love color,” Pfoutz said. “I was about 12 years old when I saw my first palette – a string of different colored paint paddles that graced the stores of that day. As a boy I had two great desires. One was to be able to eat all the strawberry jam I could, and the other to possess a string of those beautiful paint paddles. Well, I’ve got my fill of jelly, but I’ve never yet got my fill of beautiful colors.” In 1950, Pfoutz’s one man show of paintings made front page headlines in the Lancaster Intelligencer Journal: “Most of the twenty oil paintings on exhibition are landscapes, although there are several interesting figure studies. Colors again, as in all Pfoutziana are rich and full-bodied, but for the most part not as startlingly as in some of the earlier work. Most of the paintings were done during the past year, and also reveal the painter’s characteristic heavy impasto technique, in which the rich swirls of paint carry their own message. Among the figures, The Banjo Picker, and The Magician, are the most provocative. Both are character studies; the first being of a tramp musician whose drab clothing is set-off by a luminous aqua blue background. Modern in feeling and treatment is The Magician, a clown-faced wizard whose spinning ball in the air suggests the fourth dimension – space. The use of the primary colors in this picture serves to emphasize the theme effectively. A large colorful landscape, Opalescent October, depicting rolling hills against a late afternoon sky is new to Lancastrians, as it has just returned from Dayton, Ohio, where it hung in the Dayton Art Institute. Another landscape with soft dreamy colors is Fantasie D’Autumne, and one of the loveliest pictures in the show. Pennsylvania Dutch Country is another with eye appeal, and was one of the works which was hung in the Old Customs House in Philadelphia during Pennsylvania Week, and before that in a collection of Pfoutz work in the same place. In deep contrast to the sunny skies and brilliant foliage of many of the pictures, is the somewhat morbid Worry, in which the center of interest is a tremendous rat. This, the painter explains, was symbolic of 1948 in China, which was ‘The Year of The Rat’ in the Chinese calendar. Background material for the picture was furnished to Pfoutz by author Pearl Buck. Other pictures include Autumn Prelude, Miners Village, painted at Cornwall, PA; Humid Day, Saint Peters Kierch, at Middletown, PA; Lady Pfoutz, inspired by the painter’s wife; Sun Flowers, Sentimental Journey, Gyne, Luzon Woman, Old Bridge, The Cow Path. Lemures, based on Roman mythology, and Ethiopian, painted from an ebony wood carving from Kenya Province, S. Africa.” In 1953, Pfoutz was installed as President of the Lancaster County Art Association. A. Z. Kruse, New York City artist, writer and member of the faculty of the Brooklyn College and the Cartoonists and Illustrators School, Manhattan, was the guest speaker. In January of 1953, thirty-five Pfoutz oils were exhibited at the Old Custom House in Philadelphia, PA under the sponsorship of the Carl Schurz Memorial Foundation. Several Lancaster County landscapes and covered bridges were included as well as Katy, a Pennsylvania Dutch scene. Symbolic paintings included End of the Second Day, the artist’s visualization of the second coming of Christ, and Twilight, typifying the grief of mothers of all lands for sons lost in battle. In June of 1953, a Pfoutz oil made history in Lancaster. From the Lancaster New Era: “For the first in local art history, a painting has been withdrawn from an exhibition because of objections from viewers and hostesses serving at the show. The painting, Jeune Fille, a standing nude done by Pfoutz, was one of the paintings in the annual spring exhibition of the Art Association and had become the center of the controversy. Pfoutz said he took the painting down… ‘graciously but reluctantly.’ ‘From an artistic standpoint, there is nothing offensive about the painting,’ Pfoutz said. ‘This community just wants its nudes with clothes on.’ “It is most brilliant in color, and because it is so brilliant I thought it would make a nice lively spot for the show. This is the first time I’ve had to take a picture off the walls. I substituted a seascape for it.’ Pfoutz said he felt the painting brought a lot of viewers to the show because it was so controversial. It had never been exhibited before. ‘If this had been shown in a metropolitan city,’ he commented, ‘people wouldn’t have given it a second glance. But the viewpoint here is more conservative, even though I don’t think moderns would have minded.’ He said he felt the painting was neither ‘objectionable nor pornographic,’ but had complied with the wishes of fellow members of the Art Association who telephoned him to relay the protests they had received. The art controversy was the first to arise here publicly since the showing of Amish Grandmother, an oil by William Gropper which was part of the Gimbel Pennsylvania exhibit at the Griest Building several years ago. — Numerous viewers of Amish Grandmother, [a painting showing an Amish woman holding a white goose], expressed themselves quite vocally, calling it an affront to the Plain Folk. But it stayed on exhibit throughout the length of the Gimbel show. Pfoutz expressed no rancor, implying that if Gropper could take it so could he.” After his death, there were several shows of Pfoutz’ work organized by his son J. Earle, Jr. J. Earle, Jr. also saw to it that President Eisenhower would receive an oil called The Cow’s Path. The president first saw the painting in 1950 when, as president of Columbia University, he visited Lancaster to address a student assembly at Franklin and Marshall College. After his address was over, the then Gen. Eisenhower stopped at the Fackenthal Library on the campus to view an exhibition of Pfoutz’s paintings. The Cow’s Path intrigued him. For some time, as his aides fumed to get him back on his time schedule, Eisenhower and Pfoutz talked, as artist to artist. Prior to his death, Pfoutz requested that The Cow’s Path be given to the President if he wanted it. The painting was presented to Ike at the White House in November of 1959. Mrs. Eisenhower owned a Pfoutz painting titled, In the Manor. Though house painting was his livelihood, he worked for Millersville State Teachers College (now a university) for a time during World War II, and called himself “the Chimney Sweep of MSTC.” During that period he knocked out a dizzying canvas in the surrealist style (he thought it was terrible) and got into the campus newspaper when one of the students spotted it. Earle Pfoutz was not the humble, downtrodden artist, not the Douanier Rousseau type at all. As he developed his skill and style through the years, he also fashioned a resilient confidence in himself as an artist. Whether he was building his own home (he built two) or painting one for somebody else, he never lost faith in his ultimate recognition—though he was never sure he would live to see it. Whether he was working as a rigger for a hoisting company, in the Stehli Silk Mill of Lancaster, carving Cloister-style chairs, decorating old chests, cementing bricks from the old Safe...

This haunting image by Eugene Berman was painted on a sheet of paper cut in the shape of a heart, mounted to a paint-speckled ground, encircled with metal shavings, and placed in a frame of the artist’s own devising. Berman wrote the title, Radiograph of a Heart, on the back. It refers to the medical X-rays that doctors had recently come to rely on. Yet Berman’s point seems to be that while a heart can be monitored scientifically, the emotions associated with it lie beyond the power of medical science. Russian by birth, Berman fled St. Petersburg during the Revolution and settled in Paris. Later, as a Jew, he fled the Nazi advance and took refuge in New York and Hollywood. His peace of mind, however, was shattered by the suicide of his wife, actress Una Munson (who played Belle Watling in Gone With the Wind). That distressing event — “Don’t follow me” she admonished in her suicide note...

Paul Wightman Williams, American (20th century). This diminutive mixed-media watercolor, pastel, and ink on paper depicts a haunting abstracted face. It is float-mounted in a faux-g...

Vintage Douglas W. Gorsline engraving on paper of a young woman, "Brooklyn Local", circa 1945, edition of 250, signed in pencil and numbered, very good condition. Dimensions: image 6...

Gouache on paper costume design for Annabella, for the John Ford play: "Tis a Pity She's a Whore" by Eugene Berman signed with the cypher (E.B.), dated 1942 and annotated. Pencil ske...

19th Century portrait of a woman painted in oil on canvas with the frame dated in 1940 Measurements with frame: 69 x 69 x 3 cm.

This 1940s, colored block print on linen from Slovakia, shows a couple in love in a picturesque land scape. The pictures is made for wall decoration and is now framed. "I love you so much...

A set of dried, pressed and framed botanical specimens, plants and flowers with botanical descriptions Calligraphed in Latin and French. These old pieces are elegantly floated in off...

Louis Stettner, Subway New York, 1946, printed circa 1990. This image is illustrated the book " Traveling Light". It was published to celebrate a major...

Montague J Dawson (1895-1973), ‘Valetta Harbour’, oil on board, painted in a grisaille palette with a British Hunt Class Type II destroyer in Valetta Harbour, Malta, signed ‘Montague Dawson’, English, 1940. Footnote: Montague Dawson RMSA, FRSA (1890–1973) was born in West London, in Chiswick in 1895, Montague Dawson was the grandson of Victorian landscape painter Henry Dawson. He studied under the seascape artist Charles Napier Hemy...

Wiedemann's Fine beer - The Leader Trade sign with three Canada geese on oval walnut plaque. German immigrant George Wiedemann began brewing at the original Wiedemann brewery in Ne...

Year: 1943 Dimensions: Frame: Height 70 cm, width 59 cm Picture: Height 52 cm, width 42 cm.

Cool 1940s porcelain EXIT sign. Measuring: 18 in long x 5 in.

C.P. Initials,Portait of African Male,Charcoal on Paper,Signed Banzyville 1944,Framed,Signed and Dated

Set of 7 Mounted and Framed Norman Rockwell Prints A charming set of 7, reflecting American every day culture from the The Saturday Evening Post Magazine The prints re framed 9” x ...