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| June 11, 2011 |
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| MONHEGAN HEADLANDS Charles Ebert (American, 1873-1959) |
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| AMONG THE SIERRA-NEVADA MOUNTAINS |
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| WINTER OF 1864 |
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| GENERAL GRANT CROSSES THE CUMBERLAND MOUNTAINS (JANUARY 7, 1864) |
| General Ulysses S. Grant, traveling through the Gap on his 1864 journey to Washington noted: "With two brigades of the Army of the Cumberland I could hold that pass against the army which Napoleon led to Moscow." |
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| INTERIOR OF A WOOD |
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| BROADWATER COUNTY, MONTANA |
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| GREAT PINE |
 ONE HUNDRED FAMOUS VIEWS OF EDO (TOKYO) NUMBER SIXTY-ONE |
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| PINE OF SUCCESS AND OUMAYAGASHI, ASAKUSA RIVER |
| It is a clear starlit evening on the Sumida River. The place is about half a mile upstream from the previous print. Hanging out over the river from the upper left is the most famous of the several pine trees named in the titles of this series.
Enclosed in its own private space to the lower left is a roofed pleasure boat set off by the pine above, the bamboo palisade beyond, and the encircling deep blue bokashi. |
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| 05.16.11
A pair of paintings that spent decades out of sight and shared a basement wall with paint-by-numbers canvases, sold at auction Sunday for a combined $840,000. The pieces, by Hudson River School painter Jasper Cropsey, were discovered in March, when a man from Cortlandt brought them to the Clarke Auction House, in Larchmont, for an appraisal. An auctioneer at Clarke said the man, whose identity the auction house is protecting, paid $20 for the appraisal. The paintings had been in his family for three generations and had hung in the basement of his parents’ house in West Hartford, Connecticut. | One of the paintings, depicting Niagara Falls, sold for $552,000. The other, an autumn scene set in New Hampshire, sold for $288,000. (SEE BELOW.)
According to the Newington-Cropsey Foundation, in Hastings-on-Hudson, Cropsey was born on his family farm on Staten Island in 1823. He made thousands of paintings, achieved significant fame and met Queen Victoria. He died in 1900 in Hastings-on-Hudson. The two paintings sold for such high prices in part because of the story behind them. “It’s one of those rare finds: untouched and undiscovered for so many years,” the auctioneer said. Cropsey experts had been aware of one of the paintings, they just didn’t know where it was. The other was a complete surprise. |
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| NIAGARA FALLS WITH VIEW OF CLIFTON HOUSE |
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| WINTER SCENE RAMAPO VALLEY |
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| The North American T-6 Texan was known as "the pilot maker" because of its important role in preparing pilots for combat.
North American's rapid production of the T-6 Texan coincided with the wartime expansion of the United States air war commitment. As of 1940, the required flights hours for combat pilots earning their wings had been cut to just 200 during a shortened training period of seven months. Of those hours, 75 were logged in the AT-6. | |
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| The "Screamin Rebels" AT-6 "Texan" aerobatic team and five Canadian Harvard CHAA (AT-6) flyby in a nine-ship formation. | |
| British interest in the Texan design was piqued as early as 1938 when it ordered 200 under the designation Harvard Mk I or "Harvard As Is" for service in Southern Rhodesia training under the Commonwealth Air Training Program.
During 1946, the Canadian Car and Foundry company developed the Harvard Mk IV trainer to the specifications of the T-6G and produced 285 T-6Js under the same design for the USAF Mutual Aid Program. Designated the T-6G, the Texan saw major improvements in increased fuel capacity, an improved cockpit layout, as well as a steerable tailwheel. U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy forces in the Korean War modified the Texan under the LT-6G designation and employed it in battlefield surveillance. | |
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| GOOD YEAR FOR LILACS |
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| SALSIFY (Oyster plant) |
| This plant flowers in June and July, but the seeding heads may be seen throughout August. It is found on medium-dry to moist soil along roadsides, fence rows, and waste places from lowest elevations to about 7,000 feet. Salsify was imported, escaped from cultivation, and is now found in most parts of temperate zones. There are about 50 species, all native to Eurasia and Africa; 3 of these have been introduced into the Rockies.
The large fleshy taproots of these plants are used for food, since they are nutritious, and when cooked taste like parsnips, though some say somewhat like oysters. |
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| SALSIFY SEEDHEAD AND FLOWER |
| The round white seedheads make striking flower decorations for the home and will last a considerable time if carefully handled and sprayed. |
| DISCLAIMER: Material used in Bitts and Bytes is gathered from various sources--mainly the World Wide Web.
Authorship cannot always be credited nor the source defined. Authenticity of material is assumed to be correct, but is not guaranteed. |  |