Featured Trying to find info on an old wood panel painting.

My name is Jeanette and I’m here to see if someone can help solve the mystery of a painting that was my great grandfather’s. It’s oil on wood panel with a wax seal on the back. It hung in my ggd’s dining room in Brooklyn NY since I was a baby in the late 60’s, and my late mother had remembered it from her childhood as well. I was told he bought all his interesting furnishings from a man selling everything he owned. With that, the true history of the painting is lost. There is no signature but there is a wax seal on the back. I’m enclosing pics of both. Any info asto where I may be able to find out more or how I can research the seal would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!!
Ok, I meant to add this before I reposted this from the introduction page:
I took the painting to an Antiques Roadshow, but it was the end of the day by the time it was seen and we were rushed. We were told the wood panel was definitely from as early as the 16th century and that it was a common wood used among Flemish painters. It was not thought to be a reproduction, and there wasn’t enough time to investigate the seal. We were told to def do more research and to have it restored.
Dimensions are 21 x 16 1/2

Attached Files:

 

My guess is, the subject has something to do with Bacchus, but we really need @Bronwen here for that.

It would be good to see a full picture of the back, even if you think there is nothing important there.

And it might be good to give it another go with the picture of the seal. Try taking the pic outside in natural light, or near a window and make sure the lens is a minimum of 4-6 inches from the seal when you snap the pic.

 

Ok thanks, I’ll try that.

 

Oh, and some will want to know dimensions.

 

I’ll post those too. ;^)

 

Welcome, Jeanette!

Not at all sure if this will help, but when I saw the mark picture I immediately thought of the mark used for Colonial Williamburg Reproductions. Take a look at this link - it's for silver spoons, but keep in mind that the mark was used on all sorts of items reproduced and sold in the "gift shop."

https://www.smpub.com/ubb/Forum17/HTML/000251.html

 

Bakers, I don't think it is the same.

I see a 4 I
then L R? or M?
then XX

 

@clutteredcloset49 I totally see your point (I'm really stuck on the M/W), but I reserve judgment until we get a better picture.

It's soooo close, imo, the crazier situation would be "not a match."

 

I'm only guessing here, but the 4 at the top of a long line with 2 X's at the bottom, sure does resemble the Williamburg mark to me. You're right that the 2 "letters" on either side do not look a great deal like C and W, but I wonder if it could be related in some way.

 

I was just thinking about this.
An artist isn't going to sign their work with a wax seal.

I'm more inclined to think the seal belonged to one of the owners of the painting.
Possibly the man Jeanette's great grandfather bought it from.

 

When did Williamsburg start making reproductions?

OP says she was born in the 60s.
Her mother remembers it as a child, so guessing her mother was born in the 30s-40s.
So just surmising mother's grandfather purchased it in the early 1900s.

 

Oh! very good! ! !
@Jivvy

 

I'm now wondering about the origin of the Colonial Williamsburg Reproductions mark.

Because as surely as these two things don't appear to be a match, they are related.

 

I agree there, Pat! I wasn't thinking of it as an artist sig, but more like a place at which it was purchased originally?

Can anyone find the original of this image?

 

Thank you, Jivvy!!!

 

Gotta go out for a while - picking up my new glasses.

 

The “Sign of Four” was a popular symbol for merchant marks. https://www.google.com/search?q=pri...6BAgBEBs&biw=414&bih=622#imgrc=zg8lewy3UTK38M

 

In the new pics, I see "L" and "IX" instead of "C" and "W"

 

Sorting the merchant's mark (I agree, that's what it is) could give us a date range.

Still waiting on @Bronwen to sort the subject of the painting.