Golden Hours

The golden hours on angel wings

Fly o'er me and my dearie

Highland Mary, Robert Burns

The golden hours will surely fly over you on angel wings when you tell time on this beautiful glittering gilt brass and glass clock.

It is by the famed Swiss timepiece manufacturer, Jaeger-LeCoultre, which has been creating beautifully crafted, innovative, and highly sought after clocks and watches since 1833. Its current line of luxury watches retail for thousands of dollars. This marvelous mechanical mantel clock can be yours at Next-to-New for far less!

It is called a skeleton clock because its elegantly engineered inner mechanism is on display, rather than concealed by the case.

All posted items are for sale at Next-to-New but things can sell quickly!

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Cool Couroc

No elegant mid-century cocktail party was complete without glossy black Couroc trays and barware, all inlaid with colorful designs that varied from whimsy to realism. The company's motto was, "Any tray can serve a drink. Only Couroc can start a conversation." This terrific set of four trays from Couroc feature a stylized Hopi Hummingbird Kachina, inlaid with vivid colors and outlined in golden metal. 

Couroc was founded in 1948 in Monterey, California by husband and wife Guthrie Courvoisier and Moira Wallace, During WWII, Courvoisier produced plastic parts for military aircraft. This experience helped him develop a glossy black resin that could be molded into trays, bowls, and dishes and was resistant to water, alcohol, and burning cigarettes. Wallace, a talented artist, became company's chief designer, developing the technique to inlay the trays with everything from natural materials like wood, shells, and plants to metals, glitter, and coins. The inlays were done by hand by a team of skilled artisans. Because of variations in the materials used and the fact that each tray was assembled by hand, no two Couroc trays are exactly alike.

Both beautiful and durable, Couroc's barware was sold at high-end department and gift shops. Companies such as Coca-Cola commissioned Couroc to create promotional items. However, after celebrating its 50th anniversary, Couroc closed in 1998. 

All posted items are for sale at Next-to-New but things can sell quickly!

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On a Mission

This colorful and unique piece of outsider art is by African-American artist Mary L. Proctor (the term "outsider art" refers to self-taught artists who are outside of the mainstream art world or institutions). Born in 1960 in Florida, Proctor worked in nursing, as a daycare operator, and was the owner of a shop selling odds and ends she had collected. She did not begin painting until 1995, after her grandmother, an aunt, and an uncle died in a house fire. Proctor claims that she had a vision telling her to paint and her first works were portraits of the three relatives who had died in the fire. The portraits were painted on doors and displayed in her front yard. The bright and evocative paintings caught the eye of a galley owner, starting Proctor's career as an artist.

Proctor often signs her piece as "Missionary Mary L Proctor," stating that she has a mission to help and glorify women who are broken and suffering and to inspire men to search their hearts and learn to respect women. She often incorporates religious and inspirational messages in her art. 

Proctor has had numerous one-woman shows and exhibitions throughout the United States and her works have been exhibited in the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the Zora Neale Hurston Museum of Fine Arts, the Museum of African American Art, the American Visionary Art Museum, the Smithsonian Institution Anacostia Museum and Center for African American History and Culture, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Proctor was featured in the cover story in Winter 1999-2000 edition of Raw Vision and in 2016 was awarded a Folk Art Society Award of Distinction by the Folk Art Society of America. Her works are part of the permanent collections of many museums, including the American Visionary Art Museum, the Smithsonian Institution the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the New Orleans Museum of Art, and the California African American Museum.

All posted items are for sale at Next-to-New, but things can sell quickly!

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You'll Go Bananas. . .

. . . over this beautiful painting of a mother and child in a Mexican marketplace. The woman, her serene face framed by flowing black hair, sits behind her stall offering bright yellow bananas and other brilliantly colored fruit, while her son peeks shyly from behind her. Behind this charming family scene, the cobblestone street stretches between high earth-tone walls. allowing a glimpse of the sapphire sky and a distant church steeple.

The painting is signed "Long." The artist is Robert T. Long. Although Long attended the Art Institute of Chicago and traveled to Europe on a fellowship when he graduated in 1938, he did not follow his passion to paint until 1967, when he turned 50 years old. He quit his job as a writer and producer of television commercials and moved to the Mexican city of San Miguel de Allende with his wife, Ann. In 1986, one of Long's paintings was among the 40 paintings selected, out of a total of some 11,000 entries, by the American Association of Retired Persons to appear in Modern Maturity magazine's "Seasoned Eye" exhibit. Long was further awarded the grand prize for his work. 

All posted items are for sale at Next-to-New, but things can sell quickly!

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