1426

Gold & Ruby Pendant -

Currency:USD Category:Jewelry Start Price:750.00 USD Estimated At:1,500.00 - 3,000.00 USD
Gold & Ruby Pendant -
Preview
Holabird-Kagin Americana Office
3555 Airway Drive Suite#309
Reno, NV 89511
Thursday Feb 20th, 10am-6pm
* Preview also available by appointment

Live Auction
Friday & Saturday
Feb 20 & 21, 2014
9am PDT starting time, both days

Location
Atlantis Casino & Resort
Paradise A Room
3800 S. Virginia Street
Reno, NV 89502

Lot Pick Up
Holabird-Kagin Americana Office
3555 Airway Drive Suite #309
Reno, NV 89511
Sunday February 23rd, 10am-1pm

1950 This is a large pendant measuring about 1.5” in length by approximately 1” in width. It is a ruby stone encased in a cornucopia shaped gold surround. Attached at the top are rings for suspension on a chain. The pendant was made by artist Henry Alvin Sharpe (1910-1982) for E.V. Catoe. There is lengthy information to be found on Sharpe, painter, author, and jeweler. He is most remembered for his contribution to Carnival history as the inventor of the first doubloon. Born in Corbin, Ky., Sharpe moved in 1931 to New Orleans where he worked on the docks and later became a deck hand. His formal education ceased after 7th grade; he nonetheless educated himself to college level in pursuit of his creative talents. Despite his lack of formal training, he successfully completed a commission to paint several ceiling murals at the New Orleans Board of Trade Building (also known as the Cotton Exchange).At the onset of World War II, Sharpe became a Merchant Marine and quickly rose to first mate on the U.S.S. Algiers. He is credited with having helped smuggle Jews out of Nazi Germany and, before leaving the Merchant Marine, he was made a ship's captain. Post WWII Sharpe traveled to Paris but after only a short time as a student, returned to New Orleans. Although painting was his livelihood, Sharpe experimented with the art of intaglio (inscribing metal) and fashioned the first Mardi Gras doubloon for the Rex organization in 1959. As the now-famous story goes, he presented the prototype by throwing the aluminum coins at the Rex captain to prove that they were safe, and the rest, as they say, is history [Ref: www.nola.com/homegarden/...ssf/.../father_of_the_carnival_doubloo.ht..] There is less information to be found on E.V. Catoe—or rather a surfeit of E.V. Catoe’s to choose from. One possible person of that name was recently noted as living in Florida, age 70. - HKA#65664