Page 73 - TheRussellCatalogue2016

88CHARLES M. RUSSELL (1864–1926) Self PortraitSet of 2painted plasterbronze, 17 of 250 numbered casts4 inches diameter each$12,000–15,000Describing a February 8, 1923, illustrated letter from Charles Russell to Richard “Dick” O. Jones (Stark Museum of Art, Orange, Texas), Brian Dippie writes, “Dick Jones worked at e Como Company, where Russell bought his artist supplies and had his pictures framed. Carter Rubottom, whose father owned the Como on Great Falls’ Central Avenue, remembered that when Charlie was in town ‘hardly a week passed...he did not drop in to swap stories with the boys in the Como back room,’ where the picture framing was done.” Dippie later states, “Dick Jones, who succeeded [George] Gilchrist at the Como, over the years became a Russell friend. Ignoring Charlie’s warning about California sunshine, he moved to Huntington Park, a Los Angeles suburb, in 1931. ere he and his wife Peggy made the Dick Jones Picture Company into the country’s leading purveyor of Russell prints.”A handwritten letter on Dick Jones Picture Co. letterhead dated June 18, 1973, describes the history of the painted plaster cast included in Lot 88, Self Portrait. Signed Mrs. Dick Jones, the letter reads: e small plaster plaque of C.M. Russell was cast in the back room of the old Como Co by C.M. Russell. ere were several of these placques made at the time & every one who worked there including my Brother Bill, who took one & eventually gave it to Buck O’Connell—A certi cate about the bronze cast included is dated December 1984. erein, C. L. “Buck” O’Connell certi es the bronze to be number seventeen of a limited edition of 250 casts. is certi cate and a copy of the Mrs. Jones’ letter will accompany this lot.LITERATURE• Brian Dippie. Charles M. Russell, Word Painter: Letters 1887-1926. Fort Worth, TX: Amon Carter, 1993. p.329