Sturgeon

[gert]

Gerts sturgeon score :D :
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2589/4148282407_6fb789bea0.jpghttp://farm3.static.flickr.com/2429/4150464435_b94c375d77.jpg
there goes Christmas:o
He's over 40 years old and of the Fraser River variety.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2677/4151584410_f445bc82c6.jpg
The fish is Philippine Mahogany & the shelf is Swiss Pear ;)

[John B]

Nice!

Whats the wood? If I were to see that mix of colour/ grain and the slightly mottled refracted part of the grain here , I'd say it was NZ Kauri.

[Paul Pless]

Shoot, if you need some Christmas money I might like that shelf upon which your fish is displayed. ;)

[cathouse willy]

What beautiful pieces of wood. Are you the carver and Swiss pear???? Tell us more.
Bill

[switters]

very nice, can we have some more info, your post was bit cryptic.

[gert]

http://www.mindandmatterart.com/

30ish years ago Fine Woodworking magazine had a picture of a carved grouse on it's back cover that I had seen in "Gas Town" when I was a teenager. It was the type of work you don't forget; the article indicated the artist lived in White Rock BC ( a suburb of Vancouver) The following week end we were at Arnold Mikelson's gallery, and purchased a whale and put a Chelsea bird on layaway. A couple years later my wife's best friend came down from Princeton with the express purpose of buying a piece of this man's work. When they got to the gallery they were informed that Arnold Mikelson had passed away the night before - unexpectedly, he was only 62.

I never dreamed I would ever be able to acquire any more of this man's superb work.

Last Sunday we went to the Scandinavian Craft fair in Burnaby. I walked into the "Danish Room" and there was this carving. It shouted Mikelson. I looked at the price tag, put a deposit on it and picked it up at the dealers shop on Monday.

I could not believe my good fortune; there was no second thought of whether to purchase it or not; I could no more have walked away from it as I could deliberately stop breathing. Bringing it home was almost as un-nerving as when I drove my wife and babies home from the hospital when they were born.

I called The Mind & Matter Gallery to find some information about the Sturgeon, and Arnold's wife answered; she has to be in her 80s. She was very pleased to hear about the Sturgeon and told the story about how her and Arnold would go to Mission and he would fish for sturgeon but she wouldn't let him keep them. She would build a small pool in rocks and play with them for a short while and then let them go.

The antique gallerie's (vender) owner is William Shannon. He has several letters behind his name including a doctorate; so we spoke at length about how he got into the antique business. After lengthly litigation due to his son's accident he gave up on "academia".

This is his son:

http://law.dal.ca/News_and_Events/Dave_Shannon_-_North.php

:eek:

To suggest the man is proud of his son would be an understatement :D

He wasn't entirely aware of the Sturgeons potential value but was very glad it went to some one who appreciated it, because he did quite well on it. And I think it's freekin gorgeous :D

Merry Christmas

[John B]

I'm a bit puzzled now . I looked up phillipine mahogany and got references like this

http://www.woodfinder.com/woods/lauan.php

which talks about lauan and meranti. I've used plenty of meranti ply of course... but it doesn't look anything like your sturgeon ( which I'm enjoying looking at again incidentally) and thanks for the extra information and background too I might add.

[StevenBauer]

Since it was carved 40 years ago it could be Tanguile.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippine_mahogany


Steven