On March 13th, 2020, just a week before the country went on full lock down for Covid-19, I went to an estate sale in Chesterfield, MO where I purchased a framed print of a sketch of the old St. Louis courthouse by Roscoe Misselhorn and a manila envelope of old letters and correspondence from the early 1920's-30's. While standing in line waiting to check out I found myself staring at a frame on the wall. It was matted, and without my glasses, it looked as if it were several sepia tinted photographs. It was a Sunday, so the $15 price tag was reduced to $7.50. Soon, I was called up to the register so I snatched the frame from the wall and would give it a closer look once I had the frame home.

That night I was admiring my haul from the day, sifting through the old letters and wiping down the frames. I was most excited about my Misselhorn print. I love his work and like to collect the prints that I find frequently at these sales for just a few dollars. As I tilted the frame to the side to wipe down the ends, the light caught the shimmer of silver pencil lead. Wait!...Stop! To my surprise, what I thought was a Roscoe Missellhorn print turned out to be an original sketch! What a find! I could barely contain my excitement!

This immediately made me curious about the other items. In sorting through the letters, Most of them appeared to be correspondence from folks across the country writing into local radio station KMOX regarding their thoughts on the music played by two young ladies during "The Steinway hour". STIFEL. Where do I know that name? Stifel Nicholas? Stifel Bank? The Stifel theater? I dug in and confirmed that the estate sale that I attended that day was the grandson of Otto Stifel, owner of Union brewery in St. Louis during the early 20th Century! One of the young ladies playing piano on KMOX was Alma Stifel, Otto's daughter-in-law.

Now it was time to give my mystery piece a closer look. After some inspection (glasses on this time!) I realized that these were not sepia tinted photos. I shook my head and laughed ("Dawn, you dummy"). Now, more intrigued, I attempted to figure out what it was I was looking at. The signature at the bottom right of the frame showed "Compliments of F L Stoddard". Who the heck is F L Stoddard? I wondered. A quick google search revealed that there was an artist that went by that name living in St. Louis at the turn of the 19th century. He was commissioned by the mayor of St. Louis, in 1905 to paint the murals inside City Hall, downtown. Fascinating! I'd never been in city hall before. My friend Jen lives in the city and always complained about going there to pay her property taxes. She had a love hate relationship with the place. Paying taxes = bad People watching = fun!

In the piece there are 3 separate vignettes. A distinguished, George Washington looking fellow is dominant figure in each one. He was clearly someone very important. "Who is he"?!!!!

The old gentleman is sitting at a desk listening intently to a woman across from him as a young girl balances on her tippy-toes to the side. Meanwhile there are a couple of frustrated looking characters in the background. Is George Washington ignoring them? I'm beginning to think this is a sketch of the DMV. This is definitely a watercolor painting, and doesn't appear to be a print. I've never seen a watercolor painting of people in such amazing detail before. I can almost see the pleats the girls dress swaying as she struggles to wait patiently. The curls of her hair bounce as she fidgets. Look how lovingly George rests his hand on the little girls hand! This one has some water damage, which which makes me sad.

Riverboat in the background, which makes me feel like this may be set in St. Louis. Some folks who appear to be hurt or wounded, and there's George...reaching out to hold the hand of a young man being carried through the riverfront on a stretcher. He's a truly caring man. Did the wounded folks come off that boat? Is this a rescue of some sort? Again, with the flowy pleated fabrics. There's a story being told, I just wish I knew the details behind it.

Old George is starting to feel like a celebrity of some sort. These children appear excited to meet him. Little girl in the center has a perfect Nelly Olsen curl down the back of her hair. The soft faded textures are almost contrasting with the amazing detail of the figures themselves.

I need to figure this out. I just bought this crazy detailed watercolor painting from the estate of Otto Stifel's grandson for $7.50. It's signed by an artist who painted murals in the mayor's office down town 120 years ago and they are still intact today. There must be scads of information out there on him!

I was shocked to find that there was not.

After weeks of scouring the internet looking for some history on F. L. Stoddard, I was able to glean a few bits of information hidden several archives online, I realized one thing that I had not done. I had researched Stoddard and Stifel individually but hadn't found much. Finally, I decided to search the two names together........GOLD!