AWSOME 1840s FOLK PAINTING ~BEE CAVE TEXAS

Pleased to offer today a wonderful primitive, circa 1840 oil on canvas; a sensitive folk painting of two children, probably brother & sister, standing in a creek with fishing pole amid lovely flora of bluebells, daisies and grasses & silhouetted in front of a pale blue sky. The canvas is on pine stretcher board and is 22 1/8 inches by 17 1/4 inches.
The painting came into our hands about 1985 from a friend/picker from Santa Fe, New Mexico.  He found an early locked six board chest in a farm auction near Bee Cave, Texas.  Inside were several period oil paintings and a superb life size carving of a Magpie robbing an egg from another bird's nest....this wonderfully painted carving was sold at Sotheby's in 1988....picture upon request...
There was some slight damage and lots of dirt and we eventually has a local restorer clean the painting and in-paint some of the flowers and grass that had paint loss.  We lost long ago the "before" pictures of the painting, but the bright and colorful painting the cleaning revealed was a wonderful treat. He also re-stretched the canvas and put back in place with staples & also stabilized the stretcher with staples.  We looked at the painting last night under the blacklight and can not really tell what was in-painted, but will remember there is an area right of center about 4"-6" tall and maybe 2" wide had some work...don't believe the children had any touch-up and there are no canvas repairs or tears; there is light crazing, mainly visible on the darker bottom portion of the canvas.
The style of the painting and the clothing look to be late Empire or circa 1840s.  Have no way to determine if the painting was accomplished in the "hill country" of Texas but research tells us that the Bee Cave area was settled as early as the late 1830s, near the Pedernales River and not far from Austin.
 The children are standing calf-deep in the clear stream water and the brother is holding a primitive stick fishing pole and you can barely see the fishing line.  The painting is signed in the lower right corner with what looks like the initials "W.E.H.C." and the letter "H" could be an "N".  Have looked far and wide for reference to these initials, but can find nothing.
The painting has been on our wall for the past 20 years and we never saw a need to frame it, but it is obviously worthy of a quality frame.  It's the most beautiful folk painting we've ever owned or seen...please look at all the pictures and buy with confidence....if not entirely satisfied winner will have right to return for a full refund.
 Will pack properly and ship promptly.
 UPS INSURED SHIPPING $15

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~Painting is 22 1/8" x 17 1/4"...creekbank shows red in these pictures, but is actually more brown than red~

~Looks like initials "W. E. H. C."

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