Stories for May '13
(Fragment)Lauritzen Gardens Show Advisory Committee
The Lauritzen Gardens Antique & Garden Show has announced the inception of a national advisory committee comprising renowned design experts. Advisory committee members will help provide insight into current trends, recommendations for keynote speakers, direction on featured antiques dealers and ideas, and inspiration for the show. Members include Jeffrey Bilhuber, ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Metropolitan Museum of Art to Be Open Seven Days a Week Starting July 1
In late March, the Met announced that beginning on July 1 the museum will open to the public seven days a week, for the first time in 42 years. The new schedule will go into effect for both the museum’s main building on Fifth Avenue at 82nd Street in Manhattan ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)South Korea Hosts American Art
The Cadwalader furniture and Charles Willson Peale’s portrait of John Cadwalader, his wife, Betsy Lloyd and daughter, Anne, in its newly restored frame, are on view at the National Museum of Korea in Seoul, South Korea. Photo courtesy the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Charles Willson Peale’s portrait of John Cadwalader, his ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Glass Show Now Includes Ceramics
Over the past 36 years, the Westchester Glass Club’s annual Collectors Show and Sale has been devoted solely to high-quality glass, but this year the show will expand to include quality ceramics.
Glass of all periods, including early blown, mold-blown, and pressed as well as studio art glass, brilliant cut, Depression ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Sotheby’s to Sell Esmerian Folk Art--Maybe
Friday, March 22, was not a particularly auspicious day for the higher-ups at Christie’s. That was the day a U.S. Bankruptcy Court Southern District of New York judge gave a trustee the right to choose Sotheby’s to auction the bulk of a collection that had been promised to the American ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)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 mail-order house is the place to look.
Romantic Spirits: Nineteenth Century Paintings of the South from the Johnson Collection by ... (Read More)
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(Computer Article)Search Engine Stategies
Logos or trademarks of some of the search engines mentioned.
Computer Column #293
John P. Reid, [email protected]
There are many reasons an antiquer might need an Internet search. Often it is to find comparable prices for an object at hand. Authentication, identification, history, provenance, or conservation information are other reasons.
Often this column blithely ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)Exhibitions
Maine Antique Digest includes, as space permits, brief announcements of exhibitions planned by galleries, museums, or other venues. We need all press materials at least six weeks in advance of opening. We need to know the hours and dates of the exhibit, admission charges, and phone number and Web site ... (Read More)
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(Feature)Ruby Lane Launches Real or Repro Web Site
Ruby Lane, the on-line retail marketplace for antiques, collectibles, art, and jewelry (www.rubylane.com), has launched a new Web site, Real or Repro (www.realorrepro.com) to help buyers and sellers recognize how to spot fakes and reproductions.
Real or Repro offers an extensive, free library of articles, information, and photographs on thousands of ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Lutiger Joins Palm Beach Show Group
Laurette Lutiger has joined the Palm Beach Show Group as show director. Launching a Chicago office, Lutiger will establish dealer participation, assist with production of the Palm Beach Show Group shows throughout the U.S., and manage show acquisition and development.
“What attracted me to the Palm Beach Show Group was the ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)George Raymond Huey
George Huey is shown holding a carving of a whistler (goldeneye). The photo was taken outside his home on Bradford’s Point Road. Private collection.
This photo is included in the Coast Guard’s collection of town fishermen. Huey is shown holding the carving of “Bernarr Macfadden.” Photo by Carlton Simmons from a ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Brooklyn Flea and Smorgasburg Move One Block North
On April 6, the Brooklyn Flea in New York City celebrated the fifth anniversary of its inaugural market—when nearly 20,000 people showed up at a Fort Greene schoolyard on a chilly early spring day with a strong chance of rain. The weather held out, word spread, and five years later ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)The Clarion and Folk Art to Be Digitized
The American Folk Art Museum in New York City has been awarded funding necessary to digitize and make fully accessible 115 issues of The Clarion ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)New Dates and New Name for Greenwich Winter Antiques Show
The 2013 Greenwich Winter Antiques Show, Classic to Contemporary, produced by Barn Star Productions in collaboration with the Greenwich Historical Society, will be held December 6-8 at the Eastern Greenwich Civic Center in Old Greenwich, Connecticut.
In 2012 the show was called Antiques and Art Avant Garde Greenwich and took place ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)David Jackson Joins Garth’s
Firearms and English furniture and decorative arts specialist David Jackson has joined Garth’s Auctioneers & Appraisers, Delaware, Ohio.
A native of Lancashire, England, Jackson holds a bachelor’s degree with honors in fine arts valuation from Southampton Solent University in Southampton, England. He successfully attained his degree while continuing a 25-year career ... (Read More)
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(Feature)Steve and Lorraine German, Mad River Antiques, North Granby, Connecticut
Steve and Lorraine German.
Two baskets. The smaller one has very straight sides and a high kick-up in the bottom. Underneath there is a faint pencil inscription: “Percy Butterfield/ Dec. 25, 1886.” Lorraine said that there’s a record of a Percy Butterfield born near Lewiston, Maine, on Christmas day 1885. She ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Retired Antiques Dealer Publishes Mystery
Mary Kane of Cherry Hill, New Jersey, retired from Mary’s Memories, and her friend Evelyn Saunders have published an e-book, Colorblind in Philadelphia.
The plot revolves around the theft of a rare alexandrite ring from a booth in an antiques show held in a posh center city hotel. Alexandrite exhibits a ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Clars Auction Gallery Expands to the Pacific Northwest
Clars Auction Gallery, Oakland, California, has announced its expansion to the Pacific Northwest. Its new operation is centrally located in Vancouver, Washington, just north of Portland, Oregon. Clars brings to this market a world-class fine art and antiques auction house that will serve the needs of those looking to sell ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Canadian Men Facing Charges for Stolen Artifacts
In July 2012, an officer with the Halifax (Nova Scotia) Regional Municipality conducted a traffic stop on a vehicle in Fall River, Nova Scotia. During that stop, the officer seized a document that was later identified as an original letter written by Major General James Wolfe in 1758. The initial ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)Man Sues after Discovering Painting Has Hermann Goering Provenance
The question of provenance is at the center of a legal battle in California. Collector Steven Brooks of San Francisco paid £57,600 (approximately $106,796) for a painting by French painter Louis-Michel van Loo (1707-1771) at Sotheby’s old master paintings sale in London on July 8, 2004. Cataloged as Allegorical Portrait ... (Read More)
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(Auction Law and Ethics)A Cloudless Sky…Not
Auction Law & Ethics
In recent years, the public has clamored for increased accountability from our industries, institutions, and arms of government. Progress has been made, but much remains to be done. Last month, I wrote about the lack of transparency that plagues auctions. There’s nothing clear about the auction process—not ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Foot for Penn’s Desk Found
William Penn’s desk is in the Logan Room at the Library Company of Philadelphia. Photo courtesy The Library Company of Philadelphia.
British furniture historian Adam Bowett shows that the old foot fits into William Penn’s secretary desk. Photo courtesy The Library Company of Philadelphia.
The small replacement foot and the original, larger ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)Letter from London
Letter from London
by Ian McKay, [email protected]
One of the attractions that John Woodman Higgins promised visitors to his museum when it opened in 1931 was a wing dominated by “100 Steel Knights.” A dozen or so of those steel knights were in the London sale and three of them sold up ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Leslie Hindman Named a Legendary Landmark
From left: Honorees Leslie Hindman, John McCarter, and Joan Ahrens (representing Target Corporation). Diane Alexander White Photography photo.
After decades of selling venerable objects, the shoe is now on the other foot for Chicago auctioneer Leslie Hindman. This is the year that Hindman became—at least officially—venerable.
Named a 2013 Legendary Landmark by ... (Read More)
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(The Art of Marketing)Establishing a Marketing Budget
The Art of Marketing
Last month we further investigated who your real competition might be. This month we look at starting to set aside a core budget to cover your most essential marketing needs.
A good marketing strategy is always to add your personal touch and to establish good ongoing relationships with ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)The Yale University Art Gallery Is Ready for Visitors
From left: the Louis Kahn building; the Old Yale Art Gallery, designed by Egerton Swartwout in 1926; and Street Hall, designed by Peter Bonnett Wight in 1866 on the site of the first Yale Art Gallery, built in 1832. They are now all joined together in the expanded Yale University ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)Rules to Live by
The Young Collector
Andrew’s dad, Bob, has been working on his legacy—a list of his personal rules for life, success, general happiness, and whatnot. This started with Andrew’s grandfather Frank. Near the end of his life, he was riding in the car with Bob, and he said, “You know, I think ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)Deaccessioning and Due Diligence
Editorial
Antiques dealers can make good money recognizing valuable objects that have been overlooked. That’s why flea market tables and auction previews are scrutinized so thoroughly.
Officials in Muskegon, Michigan, failed to realize that furniture from the Hackley Public Library—a stately Richardsonian Romanesque-style building of Maine granite and Marquette sandstone erected in ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Judge Tosses Lawsuit over Detroit Institute of Arts Admissions Policy
On April 3, Judge John C. Foster of the Macomb County (Michigan) Circuit Court dismissed a lawsuit filed against the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) over its admissions policy.
On August 7, 2012, voters in the Michigan counties of Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb had approved a ten-year millage increase to support ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Casablanca Poster Sells for $107,550
$107,550. Heritage Auctions photo.
A six-sheet movie poster for Casablanca, one of just two copies known, sold for $107,550 (includes buyer’s premium) in Heritage Auctions’ March 23 and 24 movie poster auction in Dallas, Texas. The sale totaled approximately $1.72 million.
Grey Smith, director of movie posters at Heritage, said of the ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)Skinner’s Jewelry Auction Signals Continued Market Strength
When this circa 1900 Art Nouveau pate-de-verre and opal pendant, ... (Read More)
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(Auction)March Sale Features Powerful Silver and Furniture Lots
It’s not common to have an object sell at auction for $100,000 over its high estimate, but this circa 1740 silver salver by George Ridout of New York City did just that. One of five lots with a Livingston family provenance, the 14¼" wide, 63-ounce, pre-Revolution salver brought $159,300 from ... (Read More)
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(Issue Story)Four Centuries of Massachusetts Furniture
Ron Bourgeault of Northeast Auctions is shown with ten students who were fortunate to get Bourgeault Scholarships to the Winterthur Furniture Forum. Some were scholars and some were cabinetmakers.
Boston japanned furniture at Winterthur: the Pimm high chest, a clock, and a chair.
Boston seating furniture at Winterthur. The chair to the ... (Read More)
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(Fragment)Class-Action Lawsuit Filed over Admissions to the Met
An 1878 lease agreement requiring free admission to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MMA) in New York City on most days of the week is being violated, according to a class-action lawsuit. The suit, filed on March 5 by Filip Saska, Tomáš Nadrchal, and Stephen Michelman, claims that the Met ... (Read More)
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(Feature)The Andy Williams Folk Art Collection and Other Good Stuff
The pair of Ward brothers (Lemuel T. and Stephen) widgeon decoys had “Mackey Collection” stamps. William F. Mackey Jr. was the author of American Bird Decoys (Bonanza Books, 1965), where the drake of this pair is illustrated on page 147. Mackey’s superlative collection was sold in the 1970’s through the ... (Read More)
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(Show)Art of the Americas
John Molloy Gallery, New York City, was offering this 19th-century Northwest Coast drum for $1100. Molloy said, “Sales were spirited at a new, recent-level high.”
Heidi Becker of Eugene, Oregon, priced this 1920’s Plateau parfleche from her own collection at $950. “I used to use it to pack my clothes,” she ... (Read More)
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(Show)An All-American Success
A well-weathered biplane weathervane soared over Woody and Nancy Straub’s booth. Tagged $695, it flew back to Florida with the Straubs.
Mario Pollo of Bearsville, New York, offered three chests. From left: a cherry wood-grained panel chest on turned legs was $2350; a dovetailed sea chest with beckets and a painted ... (Read More)
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(Show)Cabin Fever Show a One-Day-Only Hit
There were lots of old friends among those who were first to enter the show.
Stone Block Antiques, Vergennes, Vermont, is the shop of Vermont ADA president Greg Hamilton. His 19½" x 23½" (sight size) oil on canvas landscape is signed by Walter Farndon (1876-1964) and tagged $9500.
Colt Barn Antiques, Townshend, ... (Read More)
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(Show)Heart of Country in Nashville: Stars Align on Valentine’s
After the preview party crowd poured in through the doors, Susan Kramer Hunkins took a moment to smile with relief by the big azalea heart at the entrance. The 32nd edition of Heart of Country Antiques Show was open for business.
Glen C. Rollins of Cat’s Cradle traveled to Nashville from ... (Read More)
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(Show)Tailgate-Music Valley Antiques Show: Traditional and Vintage Broaden the Appeal
Two Rivers Mansion is on the McGavock Pike, located between Nashville and Hendersonville. David McGavock began building the mansion for his bride in 1859. It was completed after the Civil War. It remained in the family until the last heir died in 1965, and it became a public property. For ... (Read More)
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(Show)Fiddler’s Antique Show: Filling Up Nicely, Thank You
Susan’s Antiques, New Cumberland, West Virginia, had paintings of bucolic landscapes and pleasantly pastoral pearlware. The peddling couple at left was $1800; the bocage group at center, $725; and a figure of Hope with her anchor, $500.
Rebecca and Greg Brown of Lagrange, Indiana, brought a lot of smalls and carefully ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Fine Furniture and Decorative Arts
The Mark Fritz collection included several articulated wooden artist’s mannequins. The tallest, a French figure, 31½" high, sold for $15,000. Department manager Corbin Horn credits the result to height and great patina. Hindman photo.
As a sale surprise, it’s hard to beat the result for an Italian marble figural group from ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Unclaimed Property Highlights Million-Dollar Sale
The James Spence-authenticated 1787 land deed signed by Benjamin Franklin from the Pennsylvania Treasury Department’s Bureau of Unclaimed Property consignment sold for $13,200 (est. $7000/10,000).
A Standard Model A talking machine sold for $540 (est. $300/400).
This “Hershey’s Velvet Sweet Chocolate” sample label is possibly one-of-a-kind and may have never gone into ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Art Nouveau Posters Bring High Bids and Four Auction Records
This 1896 condition A/A- matted and framed poster, 22" x 17", by Alphonse Mucha advertises Job cigarette rolling papers. Conceived and sold by Jean Bardo, a baker in Perpignan, France, the rolling papers were offered in small packets, and Bardo wrote his initials on the packets, with the “J” and ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Pearls and Paintings Pace the Pack
Bidders chased this circa 1890 primitive New England oil on tin sporting scene, 21" x 36", well past the $1000/1500 estimate to $5922.50.
String of 75 graduated natural pearls with a Tiffany 18k white gold clasp set with three European-cut diamonds, $143,750. Thomaston Place photo.
Oil on canvas by Sir John Lavery ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Bronze Dogs Find Good Home at Boston Museum
The sale’s pair of bronze Great Danes by Anna Vaughn Hyatt Huntington (1876-1973) lay at the feet of previewers in Skinner’s Boston gallery on the night of Robin Starr’s gallery walk. Each is approximately 27" x 53" and signed, inscribed, and dated by the artist “Anna V. Hyatt/ Auvers-sur-Oise 1907.” ... (Read More)
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(Show)Winter Edition: Arion York Show Delivers Quality
A Bird in Hand Antiques, Florham Park, New Jersey, asked $3500 for this Grenfell Mission rug of a sailing ship at sea. The tiger maple Sheraton chest of drawers was $5400, and the circa 1880 cow weathervane was $25,000.
Elizabeth Ayscough of Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, had this western Pennsylvania or Ohio ... (Read More)
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(Show)The Outsider Art Fair
Tanner-Hill Gallery, Chattanooga, Tennessee, offered the Obama Chair, a basswood carved chair, 2012-13, for $4800. Hidden under the seat, to be turned up or down, “depending when you need them,” is a set of carved testicles. The artist, Lonnie Usrey, a dairy farmer from northwest Arkansas (and Angela Usrey’s uncle) ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Screen Gem
Korean folding longevity screen, 18th or early 19th century, ink and mineral pigments on silk or linen, $603,750.
A pair of 18th-century carved cinnabar vases with red poppies on a yellow ground easily passed the $800/1200 estimate, starting at $5000 and finishing at $9200.
An eight-piece Aesthetic Movement walnut parlor suite by ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Important Maritime Paintings and Decorative Arts
There are three other paintings of Flying Cloud by James Buttersworth (1817-1894). Although he never dated his work, he did produce an N. Currier lithograph of Flying Cloud in 1852, in partnership with Eliphalet M. Brown, Jr. (1816-1886). Brown was a potential rival who did a clipper ship, Comet, for ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Sendak Sale: Where the Wild Things Were
A first edition of Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are sold for $18,000 (est. $10,000/15,000). It was signed and inscribed with a drawing of a wild thing. The book tells the tale of a boy named Max, who has a tantrum and gets sent to bed without his supper. Obedient, ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Changes in Seattle
These Aboriginal shields were offered in the on-line catalog, but a sale was negotiated prior to the auction. They ended up going to a museum in Sydney, Australia for $25,000.
These Japanese Kamakura wood masks were housed in stacking lacquer boxes with signed lids (not shown). The wooden masks are large ... (Read More)
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(Show)Lebanon Antique Show
Eastern Tennessee pie safe, circa 1850, having geometric-punched tins on the front and sides, $1950 from Klint Griffin of Props, Mount Pleasant, Tennessee.
Agata tumblers made by the New England Glass Company, $495 each for examples without handles and $995 for the handled, were from Ed and Bonnie Jordan of Victorian ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Horst Sale Highlights Both Franklin and Berks County Material
The Isaac Stahl redware pot, dated 1939, with an applied multi-petaled rose, foliage, and open vertical twist handles sold for $1500. In very good condition, it had a small spot of glaze loss on one petal.
This circa 1840 wallpaper-covered hatbox, 17½" wide x 14" x 13", with a Lancaster County ... (Read More)
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(Auction)George Washington Slept Here...Really!
Quarter-plate daguerreotype of the historic Jenks Tavern in Spencer, Massachusetts, $7150.
A half-plate ambrotype of the same Jenks Tavern in a period gutta-percha frame, $6875.
Competition was stiff for Maine eider decoys. Above, the eider decoy in the original well-worn paint sold for $3850. Below, one with some small damage to ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Season’s Opener at Hap Moore
One of the top lots of the sale was this 10'5" x 7'1" Sarouk carpet with a russet field and blue border. It sold for $6210.
This primitive 18th-century sawbuck table with a single wide board top and breadboard ends sold for $3565.
This Ethan Allen running horse weathervane with a molded ... (Read More)
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(Auction)36th Anniversary Antiques and Collectibles Auction
This 1967 Amphicar, along with another (not shown), came from an estate in Valparaiso, Indiana. The family had originally bought eight. In the process of being restored, this vehicle sold for $31,165. The other brought $18,250. Kraft photo.
Thirty-five issues of Playboy magazine from a private collection excited buyers. This January ... (Read More)
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(Show)The Thrill of the Chase: Antiques of the Sporting Life
Karen DiSaia (right), manager of the show, is shown with Claudia Pfeiffer, the George L. Ohrstrom Jr. Curator, National Sporting Library and Museum, Middleburg, Virginia. The display behind them features the early 20th-century English sterling silver centerpiece on a marble base that was used on the cover of the show ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Americana Auction in Indiana
Stepback cupboard, the upper portion having a pair of four-pane doors over a fall-front door concealing a storage area, in original crusty red paint, said to be from Oldenburg, Indiana, $1100.
Pair of portraits of a lady and a gentleman, pastel on paper, 1830-40, $1100.
New England Chippendale tiger maple tall chest ... (Read More)
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(Auction)American and European Art
Ballerina at Barre, a circa 1959 bronze and polished aluminum sculpture, 15" high, by Enzo Plazzotta (1921-1981) sold for $6000 (est. $2000/4000).
Nine works (one shown) by Edouard Leon Cortès (1882-1969) were offered. Flower Market at the Madeleine, a circa 1955 oil on canvas, sold above high estimate for $35,000.
Though ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Successful California and Western Paintings Sale
Woman Sewing by Guy Rose (1867-1925), 29" x 24", sold for $782,500 (est. $400,000/600,000) to Ray Redfern of Redfern Gallery, Laguna Beach, California, bidding for a client. It was the auction’s highest price.
Julian Onderdonk (1882-1922), Field of Bluebonnets at Sunset, 30" x 40", sold for $326,500 ($150,000/200,000).
Bonhams, San Francisco, California ... (Read More)
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(Auction)Mang Netsuke Collection Nets $1.6 Million
The scowling figure who is looking skyward represents a sennin, or immortal person, who is holding a mokugyo, a wooden percussion instrument used while reciting Buddhist texts. This relatively large (3 7/8") netsuke is carved from bone, and the mokugyo appears to contain a loose ball inside. It sold for ... (Read More)
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