Forumites: HELP. Art and Culture Question

C. STORR

C. STORR

Joined
Feb 6, 2006
Messages
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I am putting this in Gadgets and Gear as it technically is about an 'object' that is not a knife. I wonder if it's better suited for the Community Forum, but we'll see.

I have a dilemma. Two large oil on canvas paintings have come into my care. It is my job to sell them. (NOTE: this is not a solicitation to sell these paintings, I'm just trying to gather info. )

My problem is that I do not even know how to describe them. I know they are oil on canvas and are mounted to a simple wood frame. Beyond that, I am looking for information on:

1. What country or region they may be from, or represent. I have narrowed it down to 'somewhere in the middle or far east' judging by the subject matter, but am looking for more specific information.

2. Does the painting depict a significant event or is it simply 'generic' ?

3. Does anyone with knowledge of these things believe there is even marginal value to these paintings??

There is no indication anywhere on the paintings of who the artist might be, as far as a signature or symbol that I can find. It may be under the wood frame somewhere.

A little bit of history on these paintings. An 'associate' of mine was owed money by a very well-known professional around these parts. This person skipped town under cover of darkness, leaving a lot of people high and dry. He is now somewhere in the Mediterranean last we heard. This person's office when I got to it was full of carved wood pedestals, crystal chandeliers, all kinds of artwork, vases, sculptures, antique leatherbound books, and thousands upon thousands of $$ in leather and handcarved wood furniture. We basically grabbed everything but the drywall and carpeting, and the majority of the items sold for pretty good money in days. The oil paintings I stashed away until now. It is time to sell them. I have pictures of only one of them right now. If anyone has info or ideas about this, please let me know. The last picture with the measuring tape is just to put the size of the painting in perspective (almost 8' long). Thanks in advance.

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Thanks craigz. That's a good idea. Thanks. Looks like they have a 4-6 week wait which may be too long but I may have no choice in the matter. Thanks again.
 
The treatment itself looks like a modern rendition.
It doesn't strike me as an historic scene.
Is the other in the same style?
 
I would say just offhand that these are modern items meant to provide decor in say, a Thai restauraunt or somesuch. Most of the authentic Asian artworks tend to be very highly detailed.
Not exactly expert in the field, however....
 
Andrew mentioned in a post that the clothing and decorations on the elephant depicted could be old Siamese. That's quite possible but it might be worth keeping in mind the other option that it is Indian. Thailand was heavily influenced by India religiously (Hinduism and Buddhism) in the past so there are very strong cultural similarities. The drum is a looks very much like a 'myrdungam' and the style of clothing a type of tied clothe known as a 'dhoti' in India.

Artistically, I'd probably say that it was a modern piece rather than anything with historic value. I should qualify this by saying that I'm speaking as an amateur here.

Good luck -- hope this gives some leads
 
Thanks for the ideas so far guys. My initial impression of them is that they are indeed modern, and I suspected that they may not be of much value at all, this was mentioned by another member in a PM. I am going to go to an Indian and then to a Thai restaurant with the pics. Anything else let me know!
 
alephlex said:
Andrew mentioned in a post that the clothing and decorations on the elephant depicted could be old Siamese. That's quite possible but it might be worth keeping in mind the other option that it is Indian. Thailand was heavily influenced by India religiously (Hinduism and Buddhism) in the past so there are very strong cultural similarities. The drum is a looks very much like a 'myrdungam' and the style of clothing a type of tied clothe known as a 'dhoti' in India.
Click to expand...

I did consider India, but the men are wearing sarongs (skirt-wrap) and the blue slippers have turned up ends.
 
The heck with the paintings I'm wondering where I can get some of those cool slippers.
 
Don't know if this 's too late.
First of all, the painting looks comtemporary to me. As a rule, the $$$ value for an art object could be somewhere between $0.01 to 10000000 $.

According to people 's hair styles. I will vote its theme as Indian.
The painting shows meeting of nobles/merchants. One might be local (one with umbrella) and another one has traveled to meet him.

One noble/merchant 's wearing shoes and another one 's wearing chest jewelly. The guys holding umbrella and rectangular object (cloth/fabric?) could be their pages.

The elephants were paint as indian people did. The little house one an elephant 's back 's a seat. Another elephant 's carrying a roof-less seat.

The guy holding Ankus (elephant hook) 's definitely the driver. I don't see what another driver carries. All other guys carry musical instrument/flag in order to advertise comming of this noble.

I dont have any idea about the spider thing at the middle. But the circle one definitely the sun.

My 2c ;)
 
Call a local art museum or college, see if there is a art historian or the like present.

Contact them usually they are very happy to work with you. We had some clay work that thought to be valuable, the local college used them as a working project in art history to ID, value, and authenticate the pieces. We Bought the class Pizza and pop for the effort which more or less told us our stuff was worth about the cost of pizza and pop. But it settled an arguement. And it was pretty authoriative, with listings of comps on everything from Ebay to sothesbies.



PS judging by the lack of crazing or finish cracks, I would say the paintings are less than ten years old, and are acrylic paints.
 
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