Original Collectors Series: Montgomery, OH
“I guess you could say that my mother’s artistic career began with the fashion illustrations that she painted during high school. Later, she was part of a Cincinnati art group called the Brushettes. They were basically housewives who enjoyed painting and feeding each other’s souls—instead of a book club, they formed an art club. Cincinnati artist Elmer Ruff led them and guided their artistic style. He came to dinner several times, and he and my mom used to go antiquing together. There’s a Ruff in the sale that was a gift to her.
Around the time my sister graduated from college in 1972, my mom started her restoration work. She had empty nest syndrome, so she got a job with a local antique dealer, Sam Aronoff, who encouraged her abilities. She started by decorating people’s homes with Aronoff’s pieces, and then moved on to restoring frames, reapplying gesso and gold leaf. Soon she was working for the Cincinnati Art Museum and Randy and Michele Sandler, who still own art galleries in the city. What started as her dabbling turned into advanced restoration work in her basement studio, a very meticulous and tedious process. She knew the cutting-edge techniques for cleaning paintings, and would infill if something was missing.
Once she got into restoration, her own art really blossomed. She used to hang her paintings in local art shows, and my father made all her frames and easels. And then she was exposed through her work at the museum and with Aronoff and Sandler to a large variety of artists. She went from a loosely structured style to very specific and detailed painting. I have a painting in my home which is very impressionistic—it reminds me of Charles Meurer, whom she collected. But she also did pen and ink work that was very much like etchings and lithographs. The more she saw, the more she wanted to express her own artistic style.” – Nancy Jackson
Charles Meurer Late 19th Century Pastoral Oil Painting
E.T. Hurley Signed Original 1911 Oil Painting
Dorothy Jackson Impressionist Painting
Late 19th Early 20th Century Charles Meurer Oil Painting
19th Century Oil Painting on Linen Madonna and Child
Leopold Galli 19th Century Miniature of Beatrice Cenci
Antique "Our Mother of Perpetual Help" Tempera Icon
18th or 19th Century Oil Painting of Angels Appearing to Abraham
Unique Charles Meurer Late 19th Century Painting
Antique Empire Marble and Gilt Bronze Urn
Thomas Corwin Lindsay Large Pastoral Lanscape Oil Painting
F.J. Girardin Early 20th Century Oil Painting
June Ruff Original Pastel Painting
Herbert Barbee 19th Century Bust of a Woman
John Rettig Original 1912 High Relief Sculpture
Lionel-Noel Royer Original 19th Century Oil Painting
Robert Atkinson Fox Original Oil Painting
T. J. Willison Original Oil Landscape Painting
E.T. Hurley Original Etching "Annapolis Harbor"
Lewis Henry Meakin Signed Late 19th Century Oil Painting
19th Century Painting of Boats in a Harbor
Charles Meurer 19th Century Barnyard Scene Oil Painting
Original Unsigned 19th Century Oil Painting
Thomas Corwin Lindsay Late 19th Century Oil Painting
Antique 1868 Meriden Britannia Quadruple Plate Enamel Pitcher
V. Schaefer Signed Still Life Oil Painting
Japanese Woodblock Print by Ohara Koson from the Collection of Robert O. Muller
Dorothy Jackson Original Watercolor "Silver Reflections"
Charles Meurer 20th Century Oil Painting of Shepherdess and Sheep
Dorothy Jackson Small Oil Painting Pasture
Ben Foster 20th Century Oil on Canvas "Western Landscape"
Dorothy Jackson Original Oil "Back Woods Pond"
Dora Wheeler Keith Orignal Early 20th Century Oil Painting
Dorothy Jackson Original Impressionist Still Life Watercolor
Antique Newel Post Lamp of Mercury
Dorothy Jackson Original Still Life Watercolor
Caroline Lord Signed 1902 Oil Portrait of Eliza Wright Lord
Antique Western Electric Wood Case Wall Telephone with Crank
George Elbert Burr Etching "Road to Paradise Valley"
Longcase Clock with Movement by George Crow
Your mother was also a collector. Did that happen at the same time as the painting and restoration work?
It started before we were out of school. We moved to Cincinnati in 1955, which meant at least one annual trip back to Erie, PA, where we were all born. We’d be driving down these secondary roads—this is before interstates—and we’d come across a sign that said yard sale, and we’d have to pull over. Early on it might have been carved wood items, maybe some interesting glass pieces. She had a collection of unusual creamer pitchers. There were pottery pieces from southeast Ohio: Rosewood, Rookwood. She recognized the beautiful and special even though she was just getting her feet wet with collecting.
If you had to pick a couple of pieces from the sale to highlight, what would they be?
The one from my perspective that’s most impressive is a very large T.C. Lindsay painting of cows – my mother collected cow paintings. It’s under glass which is very atypical for that 1880s time period. It’s a spectacular piece. The other I think is really amazing is the egg tempera Madonna and Child with a large amount of gold leaf and Greek or Byzantine characters. It’s a very personal depiction—the child has slipped off one of his shows. The paperwork from the Vatican is still there too. Of my mother’s paintings, there’s one that is a still life in blue tones, and another of a woodland scene next to a meadow. Those are probably my two favorites.
