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Eleanor Manville Ford (artist)
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Artine (artist)
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Original illustration art and photograph of the Q.E.D., a sleek speed yacht designed in the Art Deco style by Anthony Fokker (1890-1939), famous Dutch designer and manufacturer of early airplanes. Q.E.D. stands for "Quod Erat Demonstrandum" (Latin for "which has been demonstrated"). Fokker built the yacht for himself, its test run in 1938 was considered newsworthy enough to be featured in Life magazine (August 22, 1938).
In the watercolor sketch, the spacious, light-filled interior of the yacht, with its sofas and geometric-patterned rug, echoes the Art Deco style of the exterior and boasts the comforts of a land-based living room, including coffee and end tables, vases of flowers and a telephone. A custom-designed lamp has a picture of the yacht on the lampshade. Fokker ran aircraft factories in both the Netherlands and the U.S., and the flags of both nations sit upon the sideboard in the adjoining dining room.
The oil painting shows the Q.E.D. on the open seas, its modernist Art Deco design contrasted with a nearby tall-mast ship.
The photograph of the Q.E.D. was taken by Edwin Levick, a famous maritime photographer studio, and is stamped by Levick on the mat. The yacht sports a Dutch flag at the back.
Reference:
Bakker, Leo. "Fokker, the man and the company." Famous Fokker Flights. http://home-1.tiscali.nl/~lbb/fokker.htm (12 December 2006).