The Rainbow Fleet, Nantucket. Signed lower right "Jerome Howes". Oil on masonite, 10.5" x 42.5". Framed. Excellent condition. Largely self-taught, Jerome Howes (American, b. 1955) devoted himself to painting in 1994 and quickly gained a wide-spread following on his native Cape Cod, and Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard. He specializes in marine subjects, having acquired a deep appreciation of the marine art tradition from his father, a paintings and antiques dealer in Brewster, Massachusetts, who had an extensive private collection of 19th century ship portraits.

Warren Sheppard seascape oil on canvas. The view is of a solitary sailor navigating a windy sea. The canvas measures 20 x 30 inches and the earlier gold leaf frame measures 42.5 x 33 inches. Warren Sheppard was an American marine painter, born in Greenwich, New Jersey, on April 10, 1858. He lived most of his life in the New York and New Jersey area, spending summers in New Hampshire, painting seascapes off Isles of Shoals. He learned the art of marine painting under the Dutch Maritime artist Mauritz Frederick Hendrick de Haas, who had moved to America, settling in New York in 1858, the same year that Sheppard was born. Although he worked closely with the master, Sheppard was able to develop an original style, and maintain his own views on the portrayal of nature. Bio obtained from Rehs Galleries INC. In the 1890's Sheppard painted a group of Venetian scenes. Recording the architecture along the Grand Canal, Sheppard painted many private villas, betraying the oriental influences on the architecture of the original plans of this unusual city. From 1880 to 1899, he exhibited at the National Academy of Design were he showed many paintings, among them Moonrise on the Ocean, which commanded $1,500 in 1896. Sheppard was not only a talented marine painter, but he was also known for his expertise as a racing yachts designer and navigator. He died on February 23, 1937. Selected Museums: Mystic Seaport Museum, Mystic, CT Peabody Museum, Salem, MA India House, New York, NY Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, MA

Antique pair of Japanese reed buoys circa 1920 with metal brackets. Excellent original condition. No breaks or repairs. Overall length 24 inches.

Pair of bronzed ship's bookends circa 1920. Each bookend measures 4 in. wide, by 5.5 inches tall and 5 inches deep. Excellent condition. Easily holds heavy books

18th to early 19th century pounce pot, or sander, in ebony and bone, excellent original condition. No cracks or repairs. Measures 3 inches high by 2.75 inches wide. Pounce pots are small containers with perforations at the top that were used to store pounce, a fine powder made from crushed bones, pumice, gum sandarac resin, sandstone, or talc. Pounce was sprinkled on parchment or ink to help it dry and to prepare paper for writing. Pounce pots are also known as sanders. The pounce was gently sprinkled all over the writing on the paper. When using a quill or a steel nib, and with inks that are made up to match those typically in use during the 18th and 19th centuries, and provided the pen has been used with the fine strokes typical of handwriting of that period, the handwriting will be sufficiently dry within 10 seconds to allow the paper to be folded without blotting. Gently vibrating the paper while the pounce or sand is on it ensures that little or no pounce or sand sticks to the handwriting and excess sand or pounce is shaken off before folding the paper.