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This nostalgic oil and graphite on illustration board, offers a peek into the early days of automotive touring. Bill Medcalf created this as a final presentation painting for one of Brown & Bigelow’s historically themed 12 month Americana calendars. In their finest Sunday clothes, a family taking a jaunt in their 1908-era Ford Model T find themselves lost on a country road. Bringing many of the classic archetypes of early motoring together, the male driver of the car refuses to look at the map his wife is consulting, while a farmer (who has likely never seen a car before) directs them in exactly the opposite direction than they were headed.

Country Drive

Artist: William Medcalf
Price: S O L D

A recently discovered radiant C.1934 pastel portrait by Rolf Armstrong of the beautiful and glamorous and tragically short lived Hollywood film legend Carole Lombard. This work was never published, it was likely proposed as a cover for Modern Screen magazine. A luminous and large pastel on illustration board, handsomely matted and framed behind glass, a fresh never before on the market rare and important offering.

Carole Lombard in Mink Stole

Artist: Rolf Armstrong
Price: S O L D

An original pastel sketch of an aquatically themed pin-up girl in a sailors cap by the prolific American pin-up artist Earl Steffa Moran. This is not a finished calendar pastel it was either a preliminary sketch for his 1941 Brown & Bigelow Calendar “I’ll be Seeing You” or was a presentation drawing given as a gift to a fan, friend or family member. This is 100% guaranteed to be an original pastel by Earl Moran; it is signed in the lower left corner and there is a verso note in the artist’s hand as seen on the back of the frame. Beautifully matted and framed behind glass and ready to enjoy.

Earl Moran Sailor Girl Sketch

Artist: Earl Moran
Price: S O L D

An original graphite preliminary pin-up sketch by Rolf Armstrong of his favorite pin-up model Jewel Flowers. Nicely framed and matted with an original color snapshot of Jewel as posed by Armstrong in a wide brimmed straw sun hat from this specific setting, (likely taken by Rolf Armstrong himself). From the Jewel Flowers estate, gifted to Mike Wooldridge the co-author of Pin-up Dreams.

Jewel Flowers in a Sun Hat

Artist: Rolf Armstrong
Price: S O L D

A framed presentation grouping including a thumbnail pastel preliminary sketch by Rolf Armstrong and large format promotional gelatin silver photograph of Jewel Flowers as posed by Rolf Armstrong. These were created for a Brown & Bigelow Cowgirl themed Pin-up calendar titled “Try This” which first appeared in either 1949 or 1950. From the estate of Mike Wooldridge, the noted Armstrong scholar and collector. Mike befriended Jewel Flowers in the course of his research into Rolf Armstrong, and he acquired this directly from Jewel. This is charmingly framed in a rope adorned Western Americana wood frame behind glass and comes with the published B & B calendar of the finished pastel illustration. A unique and effective presentation of the work process of modeling, staging and creating a calendar commissioned pin-up pastel.

Jewel Flowers as a Cowgirl

Artist: Rolf Armstrong
Price: S O L D

A dramatic and artfully posed gelatin silver original photograph by Edward Bower Hesser taken along the secluded shores of the California Coast. A pretty pair of lounging nude models mindful of the nude imagery of Edward Weston another noted nude Pictorialist who worked in Southern California during the 1920s – 30s art deco jazz-age. From an Allied Artist’s Photographers Guild east coast estate. An original graflex photograph taken by Hesser for use in his “Art’s Monthly Pictorial” photography magazine for artists and art students.