For art lover Jeff Greenberg, it was an eye opener.

Jeff studied Agronomy in his one semester of college before dropping out and apprenticing as an optician in the 1970s, helping clients see clearly. But it was his good friend Bill Cervera who opened Jeff’s eyes to the joys of Art Deco.

“We both lived in Westchester, a suburb of New York City, and I was dating a close friend of his, so when we visited him I soaked up the inspiration from his wonderful things,”” Jeff explains. “I’ve been dealing in ‘modern’ ever since.”

About that same time, Jeff also discovered the joys of browsing flea markets and estate sales (a very popular weekend summer pastime in metro NYC), exposing him to a wide range of art and home furnishings, and training his eye.

“I never had any formal art training. But my parents were always taking me and my sister to the city to see exhibits at the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney, the Met, and the magical Guggenheim – those trips were the singular, initial reason for my passion for modern art and design. Those were highly advanced studies for a kid, looking, back at it now.”

Jeff credits Mark Isaacson — one of three co-founders of the legendary ‘80s Manhattan gallery Fifty/50 along with Mark Mcdonald and and Ralph Cutler. — with introducing him to Montici mosaics. Isaacson was a prominent collector of many facets of 20th century design, including midcentury furniture, Italian art glass, 20th century photography, and African art.

“His apartment was full of the most beautiful and important items. On one wall were two, really interesting little surreal paintings. But as I got closer, to my surprise, I saw they were actually pictures made out of finely cut-out pieces of colored stones. I asked what they were. ‘Oh, those things,’ he replied. ‘They’re pietra dura; they’re from Italy, from the 1950s..’ And that was that. There was so much to look at that my eyes yanked me away to a Carlo Molino chair.”

It wasn’t until years later, in the late ‘80s or early ‘90s, that he actually bought his first Richard Blow Montici mosaic.

“It was a cat next to an old-fashioned Italian water pump. I found it at a little thrift shop, and bought it for $12. It had the little ‘M’ logo on it. I thought it was the Herman Miller logo. I showed it to Mark McDonald, “Mr. Mid-Century Modern” who was another co-founder of Fifty/50. I told him I have a cat plaque by Herman Miller. He laughed and told me the ‘M’ stood for ‘Montici,’ and told me all about it. He mentioned that ‘Mark I’, as his friends called his partner, had a few Montici pieces. It was quite a first piece to find. Issacson had recently died, and I felt something very special about that plaque – a connection.” (Editor’s note: the $12 cat sold for $3,000 in October 2019 as part of the Wright/Edelsberg auction).

“As I began to research Montici art, I found very little information, but my eyes were now officially opened to them,” says Jeff. “The Montici works had far finer workmanship than other 20th century Florentine pietra dura works, plus I loved the surrealist and modernist style of their designs and themes. After that, I started scouring the internet, shows, and dealers, and eventually Italy itself.

“Oddly, when traveling through Italy, none of the dealers I visited had heard of Montici or Richard Blow. Fortunately, when I got to Florence, I visited a few shops that were selling pietra dura plaques with traditional themes, and at the Menegatti shop I found someone willing to share some information, but very guarded at first. Richard Blow was very special to them, both as a person and an artist. I speak very little Italian – basic at best – and the Menegatti shopkeeper’s English was not a lot better. But I could understand from the shopkeeper’s face and tone of voice that Richard Blow was a real force in his heyday, and they had done work for Richard. As we talked, and he reminisced about Richard, he could sense I had a similar admiration for Richard and his Montici art. I asked him if they had any Montici pieces, and they pulled out a plaque with a double image — a fish, and a balance scale.

“There was no M logo or signature, but he said it was a genuine Richard Blow Montici. They also said they had a number of Blow’s paintings – which were used as designs for Montici mosaics -- but I would need to come back another time. When I returned, they brought out some 20 paintings, all beautiful, and I chose two.

**MSID: “Greenberg Balance Serpent Arches Painting”**

***MSID: “Greenberg Lion Oil Painting”***

“Over the years, I eventually amassed a collection of probably 25 Montici pieces – 15 of which ended up in the historic 2019 Wright auction of the Adam Edelsberg collection. At that point, I had sold off most of my Montici collection.

“Prices have certainly soared over the years since I put together my collection. Up until the Wright auction, the highest price I achieved for one of my Montici pieces was $6,500, back in 2008 for the “Centaurs” mosaic.

“One of my favorite Blow Montici works, a pair of swirling geometrics, was acquired by David Lackey, the Houston, Texas antiques dealer famous as an appraiser for the popular PBS TV program “Antiques Road Show.”

Jeff is happy to see Richard Blow’s artwork again being recognized and snapped up by a completely new generation of Montici lovers.

But it’s also bittersweet.

The art he discovered, and still loves, is climbing beyond his price range.

“I acquired my collection at a time when Montici mosaics were much more affordable. I’m spoiled a bit by buying them at those modest prices. I would love to continue to collect them, but it’s pretty tough for me to still be a collector at the prices they’re selling for now.”

Michael Schmicker