Stories for June '15
(Fragment)Barbara Boardman Johnson and Kelly Kinzle Added to New Hampshire Dealers Show
The New Hampshire Antiques Dealers Association’s 58th annual New Hampshire Antiques Show will be August 6-8 at the Radisson Hotel in Manchester, New Hampshire. It will feature 67 exhibitors, including two new ones: Barbara Boardman Johnson of Pewter & Wood Antiques, Enfield, New Hampshire, and Cave Creek, Arizona, and Kelly ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Heritage Auctions Expands Again in New York City
Heritage Auctions is expanding its New York City offices at 445 Park Avenue (at 57th Street). The addition of more office space on the building’s 15th floor will free up street-level floor space to expand public displays from Heritage’s different auction categories, including sports memorabilia, rare coins, comic books, entertainment ... (Read More)
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(Book Review)Books Received
These are brief reviews of books recently sent to us. We have included ordering information for publishers that accept mail, phone, or on-line orders. For other publishers, your local bookstore or a mail-order house is the place to look.
Highlights of the Cary Graphic Arts Collection at Rochester Institute of Technology ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Antique Scrimshaw Collectors Association Comes Out against Scrimshaw Legislation
The Antique Scrimshaw Collectors Association, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the promotion and protection of the trade, collection, and study of antique scrimshaw, issued a press release on April 30 “calling upon legislators to withdraw or amend pending legislation that prohibits and criminalizes the free exchange of 19th-century whalemen’s folk ... (Read More)
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(Book Review)American Furniture 2014
A Book Review
American Furniture 2014 Edited by Luke Beckerdite The Chipstone Foundation, distributed by University Press of New England, 2014, 298 pages, hardbound, $65 plus S/H from University Press of New England, (800) 421-1561 or (www.upne.com).
American Furniture 2014, edited by Luke Beckerdite and published by the Chipstone Foundation, uses several ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Historic Deerfield Awarded $3000 for Needlework Conservation
“The Death of Absalom” (left) by Lois Breck (1738-1789), circa 1755, Boston, polychrome silk embroidery, gouache paint, black satin weave silk ground, metallic-wrapped silk thread. John W. and Christiana G.P. Batdorf Fund. “The Apiary” (right) by Betsy Knox (b. 1791), circa 1804, Deerfield, Massachusetts, polychrome silk embroidery, watercolor, white plain ... (Read More)
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(Young Collectors)More Questions Than Answers
The Young Collector
Recently on Facebook, home of nuanced discussions, there has been a great deal of discussion about the sale of the Allen H. Eaton (1878-1962) collection at Rago Auctions in Lambertville, New Jersey. For those of you who avoid Facebook and prefer to use your Internet for looking at ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Fred Oster Joins Freeman's to Launch Auctions of Musical Instruments
Frederick Oster owns Vintage Instruments in Philadelphia, America’s largest and most eclectic shop specializing in old and antique acoustic (not electric) musical instruments. He has appraised musical instruments on the Antiques Roadshow for the last 15 years.
“For years, Alasdair Nichol, Freeman’s vice president in charge of paintings, another regular on ... (Read More)
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(Book Review)Ceramics in America 2014
A Book Review
Ceramics in America 2014 Edited by Robert Hunter The Chipstone Foundation, distributed by University Press of New England, 2014, 266 pages, hardbound, $65 plus S/H from University Press of New England, (800) 421-1561 or (www.upne.com).
Ceramics in America 2014 reads like a tenth anniversary celebration, but this journal, a ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Skinner, Inc. Opens Office in New York City
Boston-based Skinner, Inc. is opening a regional office in New York City that will provide “convenient access to the full range of Skinner consignment and appraisal services, as well as the auction house’s esteemed staff of experts,” a press release states.
Karen Keane, CEO of Skinner, Inc., said, “Establishing a base of operations ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)A Blind Spot
Editorial
We were a more than a little surprised at the anger generated by Rago Arts’ proposed sale of art, crafts, and photographs collected from Japanese internment camps after World War II. The Lambertville, New Jersey, auction house faced a firestorm of national criticism for offering the lots and was ultimately ... (Read More)
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(Auction Law and Ethics)Prepare to Bargain
Auction Law & Ethics
The first day in contracts class our professor introduced the course like this: “The subject is contracts. Contracts are important. A contract is an agreement between two or more parties that creates, changes, or ends a legal relationship.
“We’re going to study contracts and issues related to them. ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Committee Approves Changing California Secondhand Dealers Laws
On April 28 California Assembly Bill 1182, a proposed change to regulations for secondhand dealers, was approved by the Assembly Business & Professions Committee in a 14-0 vote. It removes unnecessary regulatory burdens on secondhand dealers that were created by an existing law. The measure was sponsored by the California ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Atlantic City Antiques Show Announces New Permanent Home
The Atlantic City Antiques Show is permanently moving to the new Waterfront Conference Center at Harrah’s Resort in Atlantic City, New Jersey, Allison Kohler, president of JMK Shows, announced on April 7.
“This has been a long and challenging journey to arrive here,” said Kohler in a statement. “The past couple ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)Harvard Art Museums
An aerial view of the Harvard Art Museums demonstrates the relationship between the new museums and its neighbor the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts. The ramp from the Carpenter Center has been extended to meet the Prescott Street entrance of the Harvard Art Museums. Photo by Peter Vanderwarker.
The Harvard ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Case Antiques Inc. Auctions & Appraisals Expands into the Nashville Area
Knoxville, Tennessee-based Case Antiques Inc. Auctions & Appraisals has opened an office at 116 Wilson Pike Circle, Suite #102, in Brentwood, Tennessee, a suburb of Nashville. The office will handle consignments from Middle and West Tennessee, southern Kentucky, and northern Alabama, along with appraisals, and will serve as a display ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)New York Introduces Jewelry Repair Legislation
Jewelers in New York would be required to return to the customer who brings in an item for repair any portion of jewelry removed from an item during its repair, according to legislation sponsored by Assemblywoman Earlene Hooper (D-Nassau). According to the legislation introduced in early March, the jeweler must ... (Read More)
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(Computer Article)Online Research
A modern painting of a 19th-century ship raised questions of historical accuracy.
Computer Column #318
John P. Reid, [email protected]
Research is one of the most valuable uses of the Internet. Some people are born researchers, but most of us learn the methods and tools by experience. A small research project of mine will ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Better Business Bureau Issues Warning
The Better Business Bureau (BBB) of South Carolina is warning consumers to be on the lookout for a company called Memento Antique and Estate Liquidators, also known as Red Wagon Estate Sales.
According to the BBB, “Consumers are alleging they hired Jeffrey R. Moore to host estate sales to help liquidate ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)Letter from London, June 2015
Letter from London
Ian McKay, <[email protected]>
Antiquities take centre stage in this month’s report, with no fewer than 15 items from two April sales held by Christie’s and Bonhams in London providing a fascinating mix of Egyptian, Greek, and Roman treasures, along with a couple of items with other cultural backgrounds.
A “frogstrich” ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)Exhibitions, June 2015
Judy Friday, hooked rug pillow, 17" x 17".
—Through June 6 —Old Lyme, Connecticut
The Cooley Gallery announces Many Facets, an exhibition of new paintings, weavings, and textiles by Judy Friday. Friday is also a sculptor and a photographer, and a gallery press release notes that she “confounds her audience by being ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Festival of Antiques Announces New Starting Time
The ninth annual June Festival of Antiques in Mullica Hill, New Jersey, will have a later start this year; gates will open at 10 a.m. on June 13. The one-hour later start will allow travel time for dealers and show patrons coming from long distances, said promoters Tracy Dodge and ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)Spencer Gordon and Mark McHugh, Spencer Marks, Ltd., Southampton, Massachusetts
Mark McHugh (left) and Spencer Gordon.
A portion of the Spencer Marks research library and office. There’s even a section of books devoted exclusively to heraldry for deciphering the coats of arms that often appear on silver. Mark McHugh said, “When we built this, we used library specs so the floors ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)California Resale Royalty Act Loses in Court Again
The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit handed Christie’s, Sotheby’s, and eBay a victory when it ruled on May 5 that California’s Resale Royalty Act was unconstitutional, as applied to out-of-state sales conducted by out-of-state agents.
California law requires that “whenever a work of fine art is sold ... (Read More)
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(Show)The Wilton Spring Antiques Show
Dealer Eve Stone of East Haven, Connecticut, writes a bill of sale to the man standing behind her.
A woman from Wilton holds a ship diorama she had just bought at from Joseph Collins of Middletown, Connecticut. It was heavy so she was resting for a minute in Nancy Fishelson’s ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Furor Causes Rago to Withdraw Japanese Internment Camp Objects
Two of the lots pulled from the sale. The oil on canvas by Estelle Peck Ishigo (1899-1990) depicts “disloyal” Japanese Americans leaving Heart Mountain for Tule Lake, California, at Heart Mountain, Wyoming, September 21, 1943. Signed, it measures 20" x 24". The chair was handcrafted of scrap lumber and kobu ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)David McCullough Receives ADA Award of Merit 2015
David McCullough and Arthur Liverant.
America’s best-known historian, David McCullough, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and winner of two National Book Awards, received the Antiques Dealers’ Association of America (ADA) Award of Merit on Saturday evening, April 11, at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. It was the first time the ADA ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Church Painting Brings $353,000
The star lot of the sale, Frederic Edwin Church’s View of Baalbek, circa 1868, sold on the phone to the Detroit Institute of Arts for $353,000. The 9½" x 20" oil and pencil on heavy card had an estimate of $80,000/120,000. The painting had descended in the family of the ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Ambrotype of Runaway Slave and Other Photos Highlight African Americana Sale
The collector-agent in the U.K. who bought one of the major photography lots also bought this Louisiana slave sale broadside for $37,500 (est. $6000/9000). The 23½" x 18" announcement was printed on pink paper in 1848. It includes a detailed list of “family slaves,” i.e., house servants. There is, for ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Mid-Season American Art Auction
The top lot of the sale was Cheyenne Medicine Tepee by Joseph Henry Sharp (1859-1953), painted circa 1905. It sold to a private buyer on the phone for $173,000 (est. $120,000/180,000). The 20" x 24" oil painting was the “property of a gentleman” who had acquired it at a 1983 ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Brazelton Lots Spice Up Northeast Auctions Sale
This oval “lover’s eye” miniature watercolor on ivory, set within a seed pearl and enamel border and mounted on a ring, went to a persistent phone bidder for $7680 (est. $500/800). Northeast Auctions photo.
This 19th-century eight-panel screen, in two parts, is covered in French scenic wallpaper depicting “The Passage ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Record Price for a Bear Trap
Martin J. Donnelly holds the No. 6 Blake, Lamb & Company bear trap during the auction on March 21 in Indianapolis. At 44" long, it was the largest trap the company offered.
The holy grail of traps is the Blake, Lamb & Company No. 6 bear trap, of which only one ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Loving Lichtenstein
Roy Lichtenstein, The Valve, 1954, signed lower left, oil on canvas, 20" x 16", $188,800 (est. $20,000/40,000). “This painting is going to a private collection in Manhattan,” Davis stated.
Roy Lichtenstein, Indian with Pipe, 1953, signed upper right, oil on canvas, 14" x 12", $70,800 (est. $20,000/30,000). “All of the Lichtenstein ... (Read More)
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(Auction)New Orleans Auction Galleries: March Estate Sale First in Spacious New Home
New Orleans Auction Galleries’ new quarters are in a historic foundry building at 333 St. Joseph Street. The first floor with large windows is used for the main exhibition and auction space as well as staff offices. The refurbished second floor has ample room for storage, and the recently added ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Brilliant Colors and Crisp Molds Drive Heckler & Company's Event
Having both an eagle and a sunburst, this historical flask (GII-7) in a medium bluish aquamarine and boasting a well-defined mold impression sold for $14,040 (est. $4000/8000).
The selling point for this “G.W. Stone’s / Liquid / Cathartic & / Family Physic / Lowell Mass” medicine bottle was the fact that ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Record Price for Holly Amber Toothpick Holder
Made by Indiana Tumbler and Goblet Company, Greentown, Indiana, this Holly Amber pedestal toothpick holder sold for a record price of $14,850. Photo courtesy Mike Clum Auctions.
A Holly Amber pedestal toothpick holder made by Indiana Tumbler and Goblet Company, Greentown, Indiana, sold for a record price of $14,850 (includes buyer’s ... (Read More)
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(Auction)A 1200-Gun Salute
This 12-pound Civil War Napoleon cannon, probably by Leeds & Co. of New Orleans, finished at $350,750. Julia photo.
This was Jim Corbett’s double rifle with which he hunted down at least 33 man-eating Indian tigers that were responsible for the deaths of over 800 people. (Some sources say he killed ... (Read More)
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(Show)The 58th Annual Fox Valley Antiques Show
Sign of the Whale, Glen Ellyn, Illinois, brought the 1920s wall sconces, tagged $425. The 6' long wooden sign in black and gold paint, signed by a Montpelier (no state) artist, was $495. The $895 country Sheraton chest from the 1830s has original paint, and a two-tier iron stand from ... (Read More)
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(Auction)A Great, Blistering Day
An estate in Sheffield, Massachusetts, produced the top lot of the sale: a pair of Chinese turquoise-ground porcelain vases. The vases had been brought into the gallery as lamps, and the underglaze Qianlong mark was discovered hidden under a lamp fixture. The vases had a modest estimate of $1000/1500, but ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Native American Arts
Plains Indian lots, particularly beaded objects, attracted the most competition, if not the highest prices. The highlight was a Lakota hide coat beaded with pictographs of horses and riders, warriors, weapons, and birds. It had been part of Mabel Brady Garvan’s Kamp Kill Kare collection in the Adirondacks. It sold ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Presentation Harvest Face Jug Sells for $86,250
This rare stoneware face vessel or harvest face jug with arched handle and a double-sided applied and hand-molded face of a man was very likely made in Philadelphia by either Henry Harrison Remmey or his son Richard Clinton Remmey around 1860. The name “R.G. Simkin” was incised between the applied ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)Jewelry Auctions Here and There: North Carolina, New Jersey, and Donnington Priory, England
Antique Jewelry & Gemology
All prices include buyer’s premium
For this month’s market report, we go to spring sales at Leland Little in Hillsborough, North Carolina; Dreweatts & Bloomsbury in Donnington Priory, England; and Rago Arts in Lambertville, New Jersey, for an overview of what’s selling at auction. These tidbits emerge from ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Country Americana
The top lot of the auction was this tall-case clock signed by Michael Hugus (1775-1825) of Somerset County, Pennsylvania. The curly walnut case has string and vine inlay and an inlaid pinwheel. It has a brass movement and original painted dial with sun/moon dial in the arch. It is 88½" ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Indiana, American, and European Art Auction
Her Garden by Otto Stark (1859-1926), oil on canvas, signed, 19" x 38", $10,350.
A Summer’s Day by Lucie Hartrath (1868-1962), oil on canvas, 12" x 9", signed, $4600.
Floral still life with roses by V.J. Cariani (1891-1969), oil on canvas, signed, 28" x 22", $1150.
Barn scene with figure and animals by ... (Read More)
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(Auction)The Monsen-Baer Collection of Roseville Pottery
Carved and reticulated experimental vase with Mackintosh rose decoration, the flowers in shades of pink and yellow, unmarked, 11 3/8" high, two horizontal hairline cracks running across one flower and one stem, light crazing, $5750.
Futura Tank vase, shape 412-9, unmarked, 9" high, excellent condition with a tiny chip at the ... (Read More)
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(Auction)March 20th-Century Design Auction
Estimated at $5000/7000, the 8" high polychrome Walrath Pottery vase with incised logo brought $8750. Treadway/Toomey photo.
Bidders thought they caught a sleeper when this Italian vase in red glass with gold foil inclusions was cataloged as an unsigned Sommerso vase and attributed to Venini (est. $500/1000). The auction house later ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Great Auspiciousness Confirmed for Chinese Tribute Clock
Estimated at $80,000/120,000 and bringing $161,000, the star of the show was the Chinese tribute clock, produced in the late 18th century as a royal gift. The English time-only movement featured a center seconds hand, chain-driven fusee, and a cylinder-escapement balance. Clearly more important was the rarity and quality of ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Skinner's Americana Sale
The Phillips family needlework, created around 1670 in the English style by 13-year-old Sarah Phillips (1656-1707) of Rowley, Massachusetts, sold for $903,000 to dealer David A. Schorsch, bidding in the gallery for a client. The price is the third-highest achieved at auction for an American needlework.
“The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in ... (Read More)
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(Auction)The Merrill C. Berman Collection of Political Americana
Considered the headliner at the auction, this set of ferrotype buckles picturing the four tickets of the presidential and vice-presidential candidates of the 1860 election, each approximately 1" wide, sold for $58,750.
Dated 1789, this George Washington “Memorable Era” brass inaugural shank button brought $15,000. Featuring a Federal-style eagle and slogan, ... (Read More)
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(Show)The 14th Annual Madison Antiques Show and Sale
Each Madison show includes two presentations. The first was provided by Florida dealer Woody Straub on “Exploring Authenticity: An Examination of American Furniture.” He spoke about the need to fully understand the methods, tools, and techniques involved in the creation of an object. “Understanding the historical context, whether art or ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Peale Miniatures Sold in Florida
This miniature watercolor and gouache on ivory portrait of Robert Livingston sold for $24,900. Photo courtesy Louis Dianni.
Nine portrait miniatures by Charles Willson Peale sold for a total of $96,495.50 (with buyers’ premiums), and three portrait miniatures, not by Peale but cataloged as after Peale or in the manner of ... (Read More)
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(Show)The Tailgate-Music Valley Antiques Show
Among the surprises from Abe’s Old Hat Antiques, Springfield, Illinois, was this musical group fashioned by David Campbell, an Illinois folk artist working in the 1980s who had been a metalsmith by trade. When Campbell retired, he fashioned things from junk metal. The complete quartet was $18,000.
Country Treasures, Preston, Maryland, ... (Read More)
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(Show)Doug Supinger Carries on the Fiddler's Tradition
Show manager Doug Supinger of Troy, Ohio, brought some things of his own to sell, including this desirable lighthouse hooked rug for $875.
Cynthia Brooks of MC Antiques specializes in early flags; the example at upper right with 38 stars in a medallion pattern had sold. The 38-star flag at left ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Skiing Down the Slopes Carrying Auction Records
This superior ski poster is by Alex Diggelmann (Swiss, 1902-1987). In 1936 Diggelmann won a gold medal for a poster entitled “Arosa I Placard,” and 12 years later he won a bronze medal and a silver medal for, respectively, a cycling poster and an ice hockey poster in the last ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Indiana Art and Something from Singapore
This landscape by Theodore Clement Steele shows his home, House of the Singing Winds, in the background. The oil on canvas brought $44,800.
Singapore Malay Culture by Cheong Soo Pieng, a mixed-media on board composition, sold online for $83,375.
Photos courtesy Wickliff & Associates Auctioneers
An oil painting by Theodore Clement Steele (1847-1926), ... (Read More)
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